Saturday/Sunday
Euphoric Galway supporters celebrated the county's first All-Ireland senior football final win in 32 years when they beat Kildare by 1-14 to 1-10 in a thrilling match at Croke Park. They last played an All-Ireland final 15 years ago. In front of 65,886 customers they beat Kildare who last won a final in 1928.
Orangemen in Portadown began stepping up their protest campaign over the Drumcree parade, despite calls from church and business leaders and the RUC Chief Constable for the campaign to end. Up to 2,000 Orangemen marched through the town on Saturday afternoon, and there were disturbances after the parade ended when supporters of the Orangemen clashed with police. Two men were charged with disorderly behaviour and one of them also faced four charges of assault.
Monday
The North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, and his deputy, Mr Seamus Mallon, held their first meeting since differences emerged between them over the proper interpretation of the Belfast Agreement and the decommissioning issue. The meeting was described as "useful and businesslike" but Mr Mallon was said to be still vehemently contradicting Mr Trimble's assertion that the agreement demanded prior IRA decommissioning before an executive could be formed.
A Revenue Commission official pleaded guilty at Ennis Circuit Court to conspiring to defraud the Commissioners of £3.8 million between January and June last year through a false VAT return. Brendan Murphy, of Fielbrook, Parteen, Co Clare, a principal officer with the Commissioners, was described as the main person behind the attempted fraud.
A telecommunications fault led to traffic chaos in Dublin when lights at 140 critical junctions were affected by the malfunction. Lights at the affected junctions were on auto-pilot, operating to a predetermined sequence that took no account of volumes.
Tuesday
Up to 8,000 people including young lone parents should be excluded from Community Employment schemes, according to a report presented to the Cabinet by the Tanaiste, Ms Harney. The report, by Deloitte and Touche, also proposed taking some people categorised as disabled out of the schemes. Savings to the Exchequer of £44 million to £58 million could be achieved by taking up to 8,000 people out of the scheme, which involves 41,000 people.
Farmers and publicans accounted for just under half of the 35 people and companies who made settlements totalling £1,084,323 between April 1st and June 30th. Amounts paid varied between £13,000 and £90,000.
A reduction in Irish interest rates of up to .75 per cent was believed to be imminent as the Central Bank came under intense pressure after its US equivalent announced its first rate reduction in three years.
Wednesday
The British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, came under mounting pressure to force the pace of political developments in the North after being warned at the Labour Party's annual conference in Blackpool by Mr Seamus Mallon and Mr Gerry Adams that the decommissioning issue had the capacity to wreck the Belfast Agreement.
Mr Mallon said there was a need to find a way around decommissioning while Mr Adams insisted that decommissioning of weaponry was not in Sinn Fein's gift to deliver. Mr Trimble and Mr Mallon, as First Minister and deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, appeared with cabinet ministers on the platform at the conference.
A major row over staff promotions between the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, and the Secretary-General of his Department, Mr Padraig MacKernan, became public when it emerged that Mr Andrews had issued three written directions to promote his preferred candidates to counsellor and assistant secretary posts. It was the first time in living memory that a minister had issued such directives, breaking long-established practice, and it has caused deep upset in the diplomatic service.
Almost £100 million in overtime was paid to public servants last year, with the highest individual overtime payment of £38,378 paid to a prison officer, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General's annual report. Of the £97.9 million paid in overtime £44.2 million went to gardai, £28.8 million to Prison Service staff and £7.6 million to Department of Agriculture staff.
Thursday
The Minister for Foreign Affairs made attempts to remove Mr MacKernan from the post of Secretary-General of the Department, The Irish Times confirmed. Mr Andrews offered him early retirement at the height of the controversies over promotions and transfers earlier this year. Other inducements, such as ambassadorial posts, were also suggested to him to get him to leave.
In a further twist to the controversy the Minister told the Dail that the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, "knew one of the individuals promoted by ministerial direction". A spokesman for Ms Harney later confirmed this. Mr Andrews also refused to deny a suggestion by the former minister for foreign affairs, Mr Dick Spring, that he (Mr Andrews) had threatened to resign since his appointment. The Minister and Mr MacKernan had not spoken directly to each other since mid-July.
More than £1 billion was wiped off the stock market value of Irish banks and £1.5 billion off the value of the overall Irish market.
