Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald met Prince Charles in Cork last night just hours after he spoke of how reconciliation and understanding can guide both countries on a path of shared prosperity and security.

Next to Frank Murphy, there are very few who have given as much service to the GAA as Joan Cooney.

Picture it: Prince William and Kate snuggled up on one sofa, Prince Harry on the other.

NEXT week will mark the departure from the world stage of one of its great entertainers. No, not Vincent Browne, whose sterling contribution to the gaiety of nations is marked on page nine in today’s Irish Examiner.

The Duke of Edinburgh's final public engagement before he retires at the age of 96 will take place on August 2, Buckingham Palace has said.

EVEN the most ardent British republican might find it in their heart to wish Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh well in his autumn retirement from public duties. 

Latest: The Duke of Edinburgh, who is 95, will no longer carry out public engagements from the autumn of this year, Buckingham Palace has announced.

Here's your lunchtime news bulletin.

TO combat my worsening clinomania — it’s like nymphomania, except instead of wanting sex all the time, you fast forward to the bit afterwards, where you just want to lie in bed all the time, propped up on squashy pillows, wrapped in furry blankets, staring dreamily into space — I wear a device on my wrist that tells me to move. It’s a fitness tracker. Maybe you have one, writes Suzanne Harrington.

He never fails to lift our spirits.

Ahead of today’s President’s Cup match in Cork, President Michael D Higgins sits down to talk football with Liam Mackey and the result is a conversation encompassing the League of Ireland, Fifa, Roy Keane, Jose Mourinho and Kofi Annan, as well as Seamus Coleman meeting the Duke of Edinburgh, that Jon Walters selfie and how he’d like to see Ireland play at Euro 2016.

Landmark was not something Elizabeth ‘had ever aspired to’.

Your guide to tonight's television.

Britain’s Duke of Edinburgh is courting controversy for apparently using some fruity language as he seemed to lose patience with a dithering photographer.

Australia’s gaffe-prone prime minister took back his second Nazi-related comment in a month after he compared the opposition party leader to German World War II-era propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.

The fight over conservative Australian prime minister Tony Abbott’s leadership broke out into the open today, with a member of his party triggering a potential challenge next week.

The Australian prime minister has defended his decision to honour the Duke of Edinburgh with a knighthood, despite a social media backlash in which many said they thought the news was a joke.

A Dublin man who threw rocks, glass bottles, and a bike at riot police and a riot van during Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Ireland has been spared jail after a judge suspended his prison sentence.

Benefits Street’s White Dee has managed to trick some of her Celebrity Big Brother housemates into believing she is British royalty.

The Queen has resisted the urge to interfere in a bloody power battle on her trip to the North.

Move over Cersei! There’s a new Queen coming to town.

It was a state visit that changed the state of relations between Ireland and Britain for good. Here are some things we noticed along the way.

A return to Ireland by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II is looking increasingly likely after the success of President Michael D Higgins’ visit to London.

Haunted by more than 900 years of often bloody history, Windsor Castle was a fitting place to try and lay to rest the ghosts of a troubled past.

SEWN together with as much care as this landmark State visit, it was joint admiration of a fan made from handcrafted Youghal lace which saw queen Elizabeth and President Higgins relax into laughter after the spectacle of the welcome to Windsor Castle.

HERE is a transcript of the Queen’s banquet speech for the state visit of President Michael D Higgins:

It’s official. Amy and Brian really are our Kate and Wills.

The goal of living together as neighbours and friends is now within reach, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II said a State banquet in honour of Irish President Michael D Higgins tonight.

President Michael D Higgins has begun his official state visit in Britain.

The award-winning and commercially successful show hits Dublin, reports Jo Kerrigan

Cork’s famous fishmonger Pat O’Connell has been invited to Buckingham Palace.

Queen Elizabeth II will meet Pope Francis for the first time when she visits Rome in April as a guest of the Italian president, Buckingham Palace said.

One of the Australian DJs who made a prank call to the hospital where the Kate Middleton was being treated during her pregnancy has resigned.

Two Dublin men who were part of a riot during Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Ireland in 2011 will be sentenced in March.

As Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane ride in as the FAI’s new sheriff and deputy, Dave Kenny looks at some other memorable good cop/bad cop pairings from the archives, or should that be ‘bad cop/bad bad cop’?

Malala Yousafzai was reduced to fits of laughter by Queen Elizabeth II’s husband Prince Philip as she met the royal couple at Buckingham Palace.

The Duke of York has said he is “grateful” for an apology from police after officers challenged him in the gardens of Buckingham Palace less than 48 hours after a break-in at the Queen’s home.

Are Prince Andrew and his former wife, Sarah Ferguson, considering remarrying, 17 years after their divorce.

Royal nannies have been important figures within the palaces over the decades, caring for and shaping the emotional well-being of future kings and queens.

The future king’s non-royal grandparents Michael and Carole Middleton will have a key role in shaping the life of the baby prince.

The birth of the prince of Cambridge was announced both on the easel at Buckingham Palace and on Twitter — and there were more than 25,300 royal baby tweets per minute just after the news broke.