1. Sterling rises as poll shows surge in support for Remain
Optimism about the prospects of Britain voting to remain in the EU on Thursday has pushed sterling into its biggest gain against the dollar in eight years as polls show support for Brexit in decline. The FTSE 100 closed up 3 per cent at the end of a day which saw big gains for shares in banking and construction, both sectors perceived as likely to suffer if Britain leaves the EU. An ORB poll for the Daily Telegraph on Monday night showed a surge in support for Remain, with 53 per cent of those certain to vote saying they will back remaining in the EU, compared to 46 per cent backing Brexit. The same poll a week ago gave Leave a one-point lead and the shift in support towards Remain reflects a trend seen in other recent polls. Chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne warned on Monday night that there would be immediate capital flight from Britain if it voted to leave.
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2. Last year of Leaving Cert students using existing points scale
Farewell to the As, Bs and Cs – and hello to 1, 2 and 3. This is the last year Leaving Cert students will use the existing points scale for entry into third-level courses. The new grading system due to be in place next year will reduce the number of grades from the current 14 to eight; there is also a revised CAO points scale for entry into higher education. It replaces traditional A, B and C grades with a series of 10 per cent bands – seven of which are at higher and six at ordinary level – which will secure CAO points. The critical difference between the new grading system and the old one is that students securing 30-40 per cent at higher level from 2017 onwards will be deemed to have passed. This mark would secure 37 CAO points, equivalent to a 70-80 per cent score on an ordinary-level paper.
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3. Rhianna Pratchett reboots Lara Croft, the girl who kicks gamer ass
Waiting outside the station in London's leafy Highbury to meet Rhianna Pratchett, I get a text: "I'm wearing a black T-shirt with Lara Croft's climbing axe on it" – a suitable choice of garment for the games writer who helped reinvent the world-famous Tomb Raider heroine in 2013. Pratchett (40) arrives, dressed in black from head to toe, and suggests we find somewhere to talk in the nearest park. Stopping at an ice cream van, she orders what the seven-year-old kid in front of her is having: an electric blue scoop of bubblegum ice cream, dipped in sprinkles, with chocolate sauce. Two minutes later, sitting on a park bench, Pratchett tips the entire thing on to herself. "It looks like I killed a Smurf," she says, trying to mop up the mess. You may not have heard of Rhianna Pratchett, and you may not have a clue what a "games writer" does. But you've probably heard of her work (such as the aforementioned Tomb Raider) and you have definitely heard of her dad, the much-loved novelist Sir Terry Pratchett, who died last year.
4. Visual Art: Anxious, formidable work at graduate shows
The fine arts degree and MFA shows at NCAD are always worth seeing, and this year you get two rolled into one. That's because the conclusion of the final four-year degree course coincides with the conclusion of the first three-year degree course. Make no mistake: this means the exhibition is a marathon, necessitating more than one break along the way, and it could quickly become tedious – if it wasn't so good. It's seriously good. Of course there are hiccups and misfires along the way, but overall, the levels of sheer hard work, conceptual rigour and technical ability are very impressive. A few highlights: completing an MFA scholarship, Jane Rainey's series of paintings, A Solo Voyage to Vast Horizons, takes the idea of landscape as a starting point for some dazzling pictorial inventions. Bold Writing, Berni Masterson's collaborative video and publication with poet Máighréad Medbh, takes as its starting point a writing primer in widespread use in 1916 (they came upon a copy in Mountjoy in the 1990s), and is a critique of the colonial process by which a subject population is conditioned to servile freedom.
5. Get back up, start swinging – Keane
It is, Roy Keane seems to discover, almost unwittingly, easier to make a case for Italy than Ireland in Lille tomorrow night, but the Corkman has certainly put it up the players to turn in the performance of their lives with the formerManchester United star insisting there will be no shame in defeat as long as they have played with courage and "balls". Keane admits that the performance on Saturday just wasn't good enough but insists there is little point in dwelling on it. "We haven't even got time to overanalyse the last game," he says. "Let's get ready, put all our energy and efforts into the next game and believe we can get a result." And when he says "all our energy" he means just that, with the 44 year-old suggesting management's message to the players will be: "You run and you run and you run . . . you keep going, keep going until the game is over and after the game don't worry if you're shattered, we'll carry you off the pitch."
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Misc:
Rubbish: Whatever happened to competition of bin collectors?
Tech: Are Apple and Amazon about to start up their own major music labels?
World U20 Championship: Ireland far too hot for Argentina as they make final
Euro 2016: Marco Tardelli questions footballing intellect of Ireland players
