| It rained much of Thursday in Belfast and yesterday morning, but I was outside just after it stopped and it is immediately after rain that you particularly notice how beautifully lush it is in Ulster at this time of year. It is two years since my dad died (and indeed mum months earlier) and while I always recall marking Mother's Day I don't recall the same for dad on Father's Day. I hope people who still have fathers are savouring the day, and I can imagine the pleasure Prince William gets from this picture that he has shared of being a child alongside his own dad, the king. The Princess of Wales's return to public life yesterday at Trooping the Colour will inspire other cancer patients, charities say. The arson damage to these extraordinary mummies, including an 800 year 'crusader', in St Michan's church in Dublin is atrocious. I find it upsetting even to think of the desecration and the historical loss. The education minister Paul Givan wrote for us this week about the changes he sees coming in education, and the educational academic Dr William Kitchen hopes that he sees within that essay an intention to end what he describes as the "dumbing down" in schools. Wallace Thompson was among the contributors at an all-Ireland event in Belfast yesterday. That a former Taoiseach was there, Leo Varadkar, and an Alliance politician too, I stand by my previous challenge to Wallace, that far too much weight is given to his ex unionist view (we had his tiny minority view within unionism given prominence again on the BBC the View recently when Davy Adams in effect agreed with him), and he is just giving succour to the dubious idea that the end of the UK is near. In other politics, I write that the TUV took a risk getting involved with a man such as Nigel Farage. In biking, Kyle White reports on how Korie McGreevy stole the show at Kirkistown while in golf, Rory McIlroy says he is really looking forward to later today, the last day of the US Open. Finally, Linda McAuley leaves her Radio Ulster consumer programme this week and she speaks to the News Letter here. Her wonderful voice is so distinctive, I remember it clearly from the 1980s and hope we will keep hearing it - somewhere. Enjoy your reading and Father's Day, I am heading out for a lunch now to honour a father (of a family I know well). Ben | 