Slieve Donard was in sunshine as I drove from Belfast down to Newcastle for the Irish Open on Thursday morning. I had not walked to the far end of the Royal Co Down course until I followed Rory McIlroy on his first round. As today's third round gets under way, he is two shots off the lead. Johnny Morton here pays tribute to the venue and the player. The other big sports story is that the UK government will not fund the Casement GAA stadium for the Euros 2028. This is being interpreted as a counter balance to the decision to fund a public inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane, but with it now set to cost £400 million there was little prospect of getting the go ahead. The barrister Austen Morgan explains here why he thinks the Finucane decision was such a bad one. Our editorial says that Hilary Benn's reasoning for investing tens of millions more in this one Troubles killing was misleading, and we note that Doug Beattie hopes the Finucanes will get the information they want - so does he think Lord Trimble was wrong to say any inquiry should also look into claims against Pat Finucane? Last evening I was at a concert in St Anne's Cathedral to celebrate 100 years of the BBC in Northern Ireland. Broadcasting in the 1920s all seems so primitive now that it is easy to ignore how thrilling and cutting-edge it was then. A sculptor has expressed "shock and horror" at the new statutes of the late Queen and Duke of Edinburgh in Antrim. Enjoy your Saturday and your reading, Ben |