A glance at the week that was
The numbers
9 The number of pilot whales refloated in Dingle after they came too close to shore
€100,000 Price of three-bedroom houses in Cavan being sold as part of a liquidation sale
34 The number of people who went to hospital after a woman squirted strong perfume in a Dallas bank
We now know
Over a quarter of penalty pointshanded out in the first half of the year have yet to be applied to the licences of the drivers in question
Michael Schumacher is to return to Formula One as a replacement for the injured Felipe Massa of Ferrari
Mary Robinson will be given the United States's highest civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Sound and fury
You may have heard – literally, if you live within five miles of Croke Park – that U2 were in town.
But despite rave reviews, the band failed to win over some local residents who carried out a protest at the stadiumas the stage was being dismantled.
Annoyed by the intrusion, they held up work aimed at keeping the show on the road and getting the grass back on the pitch. Their blockade made global headlines, briefly eclipsing even Bono’s pronouncements.
Way off track
A Swedish couple became the planet's most famous tourists– but only because they wandered very, very far off the beaten track.
Local officials say that an unnamed pair drove into the town square of Carpi, an industrial town in northern Italy, and asked for the Blue Grotto – an attraction that belongs to the more famous island of Capri, 650km south of it.
It turned out that they had put the wrong spelling into their car’s GPS.
“They did not even wonder why they didn’t cross any bridge or take any boat,” said a tourism official.
Quote
"Any time you lose a match by a point it torments you for life" - Galway hurlingmanager John McIntyre after a narrow defeat to Waterford