The weather in Northern Ireland was perfect yesterday - warm, with sunshine from morning until sunset after 9pm. Today might be even better. On Tuesday, I drove from Fermanagh to Belfast at dawn in similarly fine conditions, one of the most enjoyable drives I have done. Then on Thursday night the sun didn't quite break through at the Bruce Springsteen concert, but the crowd had a great night. This short video that I took has had 13,000 hits. I am not a big fan of Springsteen, unlike these die-hard followers, yet I found the atmosphere. The skies across NI were bathed in colour in a display of the northern lights, which are expected to be visible again tonight. Here is our biking expert Kyle White on the NW 200. And this is a remarkable story with video about a biker sent flying into the air after a crash but who, mercifully, emerged without serious injury. The Great Victoria Station that closed forever last night is not the grand old rail station of the 1800s, but even so I remember well its reopening as a more modest station at that location in the 1990s, so it is sad to hear of its closure. The controversial strippers, the Pleasure Boys, will put on a toned down act in Banbridge tonight - but they face religious protests even so. And the Eurovision is tonight, with Ireland's Israel-critical entrant 'Bambie Thug' up against Israel itself for the prize. An NI Jewish leader has contrasted the ‘Free Palestine’ activism of self-described “queer witch” Bambie Thug with the religious conservatism of Palestine itself Jim Allister has responded to what he calls last week's audacious letter from five Ulster Unionists, saying it called on unionists to vote for the DUP-UUP rollover on the Irish Sea border. Once again - once again - Wallace Thompson is getting publicity for his claims that a united Ireland is inevitable. I challenge his remarks in my column. Enjoy your reading and your Saturday, Ben |