Kehlan Kirwan looks at the Web Summit, at Ireland’s self-deprecation, and why we are losing much more than just an event on the calendar.

It has been a long, painful goodbye but the Web Summit has finally packed its bags and flown the nest, a whole lot bigger and bolder than when it started.

Elon Musk’s futuristic rail pipe dream has taken a step closer to be reality, with one of the companies working on a prototype to bring the project to fruition securing $26m (€23.9m) in funding.

What started out as a nerdy technology conference took on more of a rock concert status yesterday as Disney and Pixar’s president Ed Catmull and multimillion-selling author Dan Brown took to the Web Summit stage.

Good morning. Here’s everything you need to know before you start your day.

It was inevitable: a GAA-specific social media platform.

Jobs Minister Richard Bruton said there is no tension between the Web Summit organisers and the Government.

Good morning. Here’s everything you need to know before you start your day.

Landmark Dublin pub Doheny & Nesbitt saw profits grow by €178,749 last year, new accounts show.

The 2015 Web Summit kicked off today in Dublin’s RDS arena with over 40,000 people descending on the capital for the event.

Dublin City Council has defended its role in attempting to keep the Web Summit in the capital, saying it continues to offer every possible support to organisers for this year’s event.

While the debate rages over whether the Government dropped the ball in letting the Web Summit leave, or if the event’s founders were over-demanding in their requests, what is not in doubt is the embarrassment which elements of the correspondences released this week will cause the cabinet, writes Joe Leogue

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today.

The Government, Dublin City Council, the RDS, and the body representing the hotel industry have all responsed to claims outlined in correspondences between the Web Summit founder and the Taoiseach’s office.

After water and wifi issues at the last two events it’s a wave goodbye that’s set to dominate this year’s Web Summit after its founder signalled his intent to move the event to Lisbon from 2016.

The decision to relocate the Web Summit to Lisbon from next year onwards will cost the Irish economy tens of millions of euro and should act as a wake-up call to the need for improved infrastructure here, business bodies have warned.

Web Summit just grows and grows - with the 2015 event set to welcome at least 30,000 people to Ireland in November.

One post-Web Summit chancer is selling a half empty packet of Tayto that may or may not have passed through Eva Longoria’s hands.

The RDS is open to relinquishing control over the provision of wifi at next year’s Web Summit but cannot guarantee that the event will remain in Ireland, according to the venue’s chief executive, Michael Duffy.

“A Tayto Crisp is what they call it”

Bono will close this year's Web Summit in Dublin.

AIB has shown Web Summit attendees how one small action can impact the bigger picture.

A round up of some of the events that occurred during Day 2 of the Web Summit.

In front of a packed RDS and flanked by Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave, Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s plea to the diaspora chimed loud and clear before the ceremonial ringing of the Nasdaq Bell: "Hear the clarion call and be ready at least to return."

SORRY for being a Luddite. Clearly this shouldn’t be a letter from the Web Summit: There shouldn’t be anything so old-fashioned as a pen and parchment missive emerging from this event to tell you what’s going on here.

Dublin's Web Summit is still suffering from wifi difficulties several hours into the first day of the event.

The head of the Web Summit has apologised to its 22,000 delegates after a it suffered a massive wifi outage this morning.

Europe’s largest annual technology event, the Web Summit gets underway in Dublin from today.

In addition to the tens of thousands of attendees, thousands of start-ups, and hundreds of investors, this year’s Web Summit will bring more than €100m in revenue to the Dublin economy over the next three days.

Two starkly contrasting faces of Ireland — one impressively hi-tech and the other depressingly reminiscent of a third-world country — were highlighted as Enda Kenny rang a bell in Dublin to open yesterday’s trading session on the New York-based Nasdaq stock exchange.