As city living goes, it’s hard to find fault with heritage home Wellington Road’s No 4 Wellesley Terrace — so, put up your Dukes, and throw in your bids.

Des O’Sullivan says that 2015 has been a year when records were broken for sales of art and sculpture.

Fine Irish furniture, an antique pierced steel helmet reputedly owned by Sir Thomas Wentworth, the harp owned by Derek Bell of The Chieftains, and a set of bagpipes used at Fenian gatherings in West Cork gives some idea of the range and breadth of the Guinness family collections to be sold in Naas today.

A magnificently conserved drawing of the Battle of Waterloo by Cork born artist Daniel Maclise (1809-1870) has just gone on display at the Royal Academy in London. The critically acclaimed cartoon — The Meeting of Wellington and Blucher after the Battle of Waterloo — is more than 13m wide and 3m high.

Frederick the Great is judged by many historians to have been an enlightened despot. Geoffrey Roberts on an  impressive, comprehensive new biography by Tim Blanning.

CONVENT SALE

And now for something completely different, we take a look at some of the lighter stories from the happenings of the European Union.

IN 10 days’ time, the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo will be marked. That great and brutal event was one of modern Europe’s defining moments and is still regarded in some countries’ military histories as one of the continent’s first concerted responses to tyranny.

Forget hyper-realistic, graphic war games. Forget high-spec computers.

There have been many conspiracy theories swirling around the imposition of water charges, but the strangest yet has emerged from a celebrity candidate in the British general election — the levy is the fulfilment of a Masonic lodge plot dating from the Battle of Waterloo.

They are two of the most controversial candidates in the British election and, by chance, they both tipped up in a run-down corner of Kent to canvass yesterday.

Ireland is to overthrow King James II, today - over 300 years after his death.

One hundred years ago this week chemical weapons were used for the first time, opening up a new chapter in conflict. Ann Cahill talks to some of the troops still cleaning them up    

A small village in mid-Cork is set to host the biggest model display of its kind in the world to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.

Get a taste of some of the interesting and quirky happenings in Europe from our Europe correspondent, Ann Cahill.

GERMANY: A court has ruled that a tenant who likes to pee standing up does not owe his landlord money for damages caused by splashing or missing his target altogether.

Archaeologists at a military camp in North Cork have discovered one of the largest and best preserved First World War underground bunker and trench systems ever built in Britain and Ireland.

VISITORS to modern day Waterloo may struggle to follow the topography of one of the most important military encounters in European history. In particular, an enormous earthwork, the Lion’s Mound, erected 1820, has significantly altered the perspective, writes Allan Prosser.

Waterloo, Blarney, Cork €395,000

From 1700 to the end of the First World War, almost 2m Irish men died fighting for British kings and queens, according to a new RTÉ documentary.

The stage is set, the tickets are all sold, and now, eight years after he was first due to perform there, Eminem will headline Slane Castle tomorrow.

Longueville House, Mallow, Co Cork; tel: 022 47156; longuevillehouse.ie; info@longuevillehouse.ie

Moving and shaking on a sticky issue

Indie rockers The Charlatans are to play a one-off gig on a tiny fort in the middle of the sea as a festival warm-up.

Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals, edited by Niall Ferguson. Penguin Books, £12.99.

ONE of the commonest birds in our cities and larger towns is the pigeon.

Ex-Baywatch star Pamela Anderson has sent a petition to England's queen – over the use of bear pelts in Footguards’ hats.

THE sounds of muskets crackling and sabers clashing echoed around a historic fort as colourful groups engaged in military re-enactments as part of National Heritage Week.

WHAT do Hitler, Einstein, WB Yeats and Eamon de Valera have in common? Autism, according to a Professor of Psychology at TCD.