Damien Dempsey is from Donaghmede in Dublin, and his musical influences include traditional sean-nós, as well as his heroes, Bob Marley and Elvis Presley. Upcoming gigs include Cork Opera House, next Friday, April 1; and the National Opera House, Wexford, on April 2.

It’s been a big year for NASA what with finding water on Mars, new images of Pluto and the announcement of a manned mission to Mars.

Good afternoon. Here’s all the news you need to know this lunchtime.

The first image of Pluto’s moon, Kerberos, has been revealed.

Upcoming science fiction movie The Martian has a lot going for it, with a massive budget, director Ridley Scott, and a cast including Matt Damon, Jeff Daniels, Sean Bean and more.

Do you know what vanity capital is? It’s an industry based on selling us things that we don’t need, but which make us feel better — and its worth €3.4 trillion says Suzanne Harrington

Are you an astronomy buff? If so, you should do well on this quick quiz.

New Horizons, the fastest spacecraft ever flown, made history yesterday as it shot past Pluto at more than 48,280kph, taking pictures and collecting scientific data.

The eurozone summit has reached a unanimous agreement on the Greek bailout; A Co Laois community is grief-stricken after three friends died in a horror crash over the weekend; Minister Alex White has defended the new national postcode system as accurate, despite a number of complaints. Just some of the latest and most read stories on irishexaminer.com

Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft is closing fast on an unexpectedly spotted Pluto, the most distant planetary body ever explored.

A look at the quirkier side of life as we bring you the most viewed content from the ExamViral section of irishexaminer.com.

Here’s the best photo of the planet - sorry, dwarf planet Pluto ever taken by mankind.

What’s in store for you this year? Quite a lot, says Margaret Neylon, so if things aren’t working out, then it’s time to find the pattern you’ve been following and change it for the better

Voyager 1 has crossed a new frontier, becoming the first spacecraft ever to leave the solar system, Nasa says.

Voyager 1 has crossed a new frontier, becoming the first spacecraft ever to leave the solar system, Nasa said today.

Those lazybones at the SETI Institute are calling on Joe Public to save them.

Pluto may have been kicked out of the planet club, but it has gained yet another companion.

As our country celebrates its birthday today, astrologer Margaret Neylonsees hope on the horizon — maybe even a Euro 2012 win

On Feb 6 it all seemed so clear. Mitt Romney had won landslides in Florida and Nevada and looked set to soon lock up the Republican presidential nomination to take on Barack Obama in November.

December 21, 2012 is cited as doomsday in the Mayan calendar, but should be seen as a new beginning, not the end, says Margaret Neylon

ON July 20, 1969, thousands of people across Ireland sat watching grainy black and white images of men taking their first steps on the moon.

Russia has laid out its ambition to gain an edge in the space race by building a nuclear-powered spaceship.

I WAS sitting in the living room eating, as best I recall, a grilled cheese sandwich, and watching a space adventure on ‘the set’ when my mother came into the room.

Scientists have discovered the universe’s largest known planet, a giant ball made of mostly hydrogen that is 20 times larger than Earth and circling a star 1,400 light years away.

Demoted from planethood a year ago into a new category of dwarf planet, it now turns out that it is not even the biggest one of those.

THE universe just got smaller. Yesterday morning there were nine planets in the solar system — by 2.30pm there were just eight.

Leading astronomers approved historic new planet guidelines at a meeting in the Czech Republic today, downsizing Earth’s neighbourhood from nine principal heavenly bodies to eight by demoting distant and dinky Pluto.

An unmanned NASA spacecraft the size and shape of a concert piano hurtled yesterday toward Pluto on a three-billion-mile journey to the solar system’s last unexplored planet – a voyage so long that some of the scientists who will be celebrating its arrival are just taking their first physics class.

A PIANO-SIZED spacecraft tonight blasted off on a 3-billion mile journey to study Pluto, the solar system’s last unexplored planet.

A piano-sized spacecraft tonight blasted off on a 3-billion mile journey to study Pluto, the solar system’s last unexplored planet.

Nasa scientists hope the third time is the charm for its $700m (€578.7m) unmanned mission to Pluto.

Nasa scrubbed its launch of an unmanned spacecraft on a nine-year voyage to Pluto for the second day in a row today, but this time weather in Maryland was to blame.

Bad weather forced Nasa to cancel the launch of an unmanned spacecraft on a nine-year, 3-billion-mile voyage to Pluto, the solar system’s last unexplored planet.

An unmanned spacecraft the size of a piano is due to lift off tomorrow on a nine-year journey to the Pluto – the last unexplored planet in the Solar System.

Pluto has three moons, not one, new images from the Hubble Space Telescope suggest.

AMERICAN scientists have discovered what they are excitedly claiming - but others dispute - should be recognised as the 10th planet in orbit around our sun.

Astronomers say they have discovered a new planet larger than Pluto in orbit around the sun, renewing debate over what exactly is a planet and whether Pluto should keep its status.