5 things you need to know today

1. Bankers to be sentenced over Anglo

A sentencing hearing will be held next month for three former senior banking executives after the longest criminal trial in Irish legal history ended yesterday. Denis Casey (56), the former group chief executive of Irish Life and Permanent (ILP), was declared guilty yesterday afternoon by the jury which on Wednesday of last week found former Anglo Irish Bank executives Willie McAteer (65) and John Bowe (52) guilty of the same offence. All three were found guilty of conspiring together and with others to mislead investors by setting up a €7.2 billion circular transaction scheme between March 1st and September 30th, 2008, to bolster the balance sheet of Anglo Irish Bank.

Analysis: Lengthy Anglo Irish Bank trial shows white-collar crime complexity

Anglo trial: White-collar cases are costly, time-consuming and essential

2. ‘My hand was going dead after three hours’

I wrote like a maniac for three hours and 20 minutes. There were times when I had to stop because my hand was going dead. I'm going to have to ice it up later at this rate. It all felt like a bit of a blur on the first day. I had been dreading putting pen to paper and answering that first question. But this was the day it felt like it was all really happening. English paper two is one of those really high-stakes exams: you hope and pray that the poets you've prepared for come up, or that the questions on the book you've studied to death will suit you. Despite all that, I felt strangely relaxed going into the exam. I'd done the work and covered all my bases. There wasn't more I could do at that stage.

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3. Abortion laws under fire from UN body

International pressure on Ireland's abortion laws has been ratcheted up another notch with this latest opinion from the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations. The UN body has form in this area, having previously carpeted Irish ministers and officials over our abortion laws, and many other issues, at sessions devoted to scrutinising Ireland's human rights record at its headquarters in Geneva. The most recent of these took place last year, when Minister for JusticeFrances Fitzgerald and her staff appeared for the committee's fifth periodic review of Ireland's compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Reaction: Amanda Mellet welcomes committee findings on abortion ban

Political reaction: Bruton cannot say how Government will react to UN abortion finding

Opinion:

Referendum required as UN move confirms abortion law is unsustainable

4. Judge gives farmer time to find ‘nice woman’

A bachelor farmer from an isolated part of Co Kerry will not be put off the road for drink driving until December so he can get his affairs in order, a court has ruled. In the meantime, John O'Shea (60) is to try find "a nice woman" at theLisdoonvarna matchmaking festival to drive him around, the court heard. O'Shea, of Derrinadin, Mastergeeha, had previously pleaded guilty to drink driving at Tarmons, Waterville, on July 25th, 2014. John O'Dwyer, solicitor for O'Shea, told Cahersiveen District Court that football had been his client's "downfall on the day". He went to Waterville for cow feed and ended up talking about Kerry's performance in beating Cork in the Munster Football Final, drinking too much and hitting a ditch while driving home.

5. France carry weight of a nation as Euros kick-off

Eighteen years to the day after the World Cup they won on home soil kicked off in St Denis, France will be there themselves this evening to get the ball rolling on Euro 2016. There is excitement around the country's capital but a sense of uncertainty too. In 1998, the team's success brought together a nation struggling to cope with its political, economic and racial divisions but the sad fact is that new found sense of unity didn't last. France right now, it seems, is in at least as much need of a sporting diversion as France at the turn of the century. At the very least, it needs to get through the coming month without the sort of incident that would deepen those divisions.

Team news: Jon Walters struggling to be fit in time for Sweden clash

Ireland fans hope to raise thousands in France in memory of Carl O'Malley: YBIG group to play charity game in La Rochelle the day before Ireland face Belgium

Euro 2016: Wall to wall football on telly and punditry in spades