LISBON VOTE - The Lisbon Treaty will again be put to vote in Ireland on October 2nd. The other 26 European Union (EU) countries have already ratified the Treaty but Irish voters rejected it last year and it cannot become law unless ratified by all 27 EU member states. After receiving EU guarantees concerning military neutrality, taxation, family matters, education and the retention of an Irish Commissioner, all of the major Dáil (Irish Parliamentary) parties now support this referendum.
 
LOYALIST DECOMMISSIONING - Four years after the IRA decommissioned, Northern Ireland's three main loyalist paramilitary groups - the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), the Red Hand Commando (RHC) and the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) - have decommissioned their arms in a process overseen by the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning. From the 1960s to 1998, the UVF killed 550 people, the UDA 431 people, and the RHC 19 people, and most of the groups' victims were innocent Catholic civilians.
 

JOYCEAN DUBLIN - Another piece of Joycean Dublin has disappeared with the closing of Sweny's Chemist, immortalized in James Joyce's Ulysses when Leopold Bloom purchased lemon soap there. Dating from 1853, the shop's fittings were the same on the day it closed as they were on the day when Leopold Bloom's fictional visit supposedly took place, June 16, 1904.
 
SMOOTH SAILING - Pre-clearance facilities for passengers flying to the US from Shannon Airport start operating July 29. All US customs, immigration and agriculture clearance will now be completed at Shannon before passengers leave Ireland, and similar pre-clearance facilities will be in effect at Dublin airport by November 2010.
 
TIDY TOWNS - Newcastle, Co Down, is Ireland's Best Kept Town while Ennis, Co Clare, is Ireland's Best Kept Large Urban Center. Other winners in the annual All-Ireland contest were Loughgall, Co Armagh, and Glenties, Co Donegal.
 
WACKY WEATHER - It was the sunniest month of June in more than 50 years in Ireland and yet June 6 was the coldest June 6 in Dublin in more than a century. A tornado was reported near Castlerea, Co Roscommon, on June 12th. 
 
PARTHENOGENESIS - A Kilkenny reptile zoo has reported the world's first birth to a female Nile Monitor lizard which had never been in contact with a male. There have been two cases of parthenogenesis recorded in Komodo Dragons but never in Nile Monitor species from Africa.
 
BAN GARDAÍ - 2009 is the 50th anniversary of the first "Ban Gardaí" (Women Police) in Ireland. On July 9th, 1959, 12 female trainees began their training at the Phoenix Park depot. Today there are about 3,000 female Gardaí making up about 22% of the force.
 
IRISH MARRIAGES - The proportion of civil marriages in Ireland has increased dramatically from just 6% of marriages in 1996 to 23% in 2006. Roman Catholic marriages accounted for 73% of all marriages in 2006.
 
O'DONOVAN ROSSA - 94 years ago, on August 1, 1915, Pádraig Pearse spoke at the funeral of Fenian leader Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa at Dublin's Glasnevin Cemetery, and his graveside oration's climactic closing words were "Ireland unfree shall never be at peace". The oration roused Irish republican feeling and was a significant factor in the lead-up to the Easter Rising of 1916.
 
JACKSON MEMORIES - Michael Jackson was remembered in Ireland as one the greatest entertainers that ever lived, but also as someone who made many friends when he lived in Ireland in 2006. That year, he spent 5 months at Grouse Lodge, a Georgian Estate in Rosemount, Co. Westmeath, and several weeks at Blackwater Castle in Co Cork where one of his neighbors was Michael Flatley.
 
DWARF GAMES - The fifth World Dwarf Games are in Belfast starting July 27 with competitors of restricted growth from 15 countries participating.
 
DOCUMENTARY FILM - Shore to Shore is a documentary film on Irish immigrant musicians and their offspring, showing how Irish traditional music was a powerful vehicle for the transmission of ethnic identity from one generation to another in the US. Contemporary US-born Irish artists like Eileen Ivers, Jean Butler of Riverdance, and Joannie Madden of Cherish the Ladies can be seen in some segments. Made in 1993, the 57 minute film can now be viewed online. 
 
SPEAK IRISH - The Focal an Lae (Irish Word a Day) blog helps you learn to speak Irish one word at a time. Each day, a new Irish word, sentence, flashcard, and audio is posted, and audio can be downloaded to your PC or iPod for practice offline.
 
MOVIE MAGIC - The latest Harry Potter movie features scenes from various Irish locations, sometimes involving magic. In one scene, Lemon Rock, located off the Kerry coast near the Skelligs, appears in the movie in front of the 700ft-high Cliffs of Moher in Co. Clare.
 
WATER DIVINING - A Co. Clare water diviner, using a twisted wire coat hanger, recently located three underground water springs that have become the sole source of Clare Spring Water Ltd's hourly output of 6,000 bottles.
 
MODEL FARM - A Co. Offaly beef farm has been chosen as one of McDonald's "flagship farm" suppliers in Europe due to the farm's high standards in animal welfare and environmental performance. The Coolderry farm has rubber flooring in its cattle pens, and fertilizer-free eco-habitats for birds and other wildlife.
 
UNHYGIENIC ATTRACTIONS - In an unscientific survey to determine the world's most unhygienic tourist attractions, the Blarney Stone  in Cork was named the worst, while Seattle's Wall of Gum in Post Alley was second, and Irishman Oscar Wilde's tomb in Paris was 3rd. Up to 400,000 people kiss the Blarney Stone each year.