EACH WEEKDAY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you five things you should know before you head out the door.

1. #LOWRY: The controversial independent TD Michael Lowry has refused to comment on whether a recording of a conversation with property scout Kevin Phelan, where a previously undisclosed sum of as much as IRL£250,000 was discussed, is genuine or not. In an interview with Tipp FM today, the Tipperary North TD  also lashed out at sections of the media for whom “the ‘topple Lowry’ campaign has become an absolute obsession”.

2. #NICOLA FURLONG: As the man accused of murdering Wexford student Nicola Furlong gave evidence in his trial in Tokyo today, the father of the 21-year-old said that listening to the evidence of Richard Hinds had been “very, very hard”. Nicola’s mum and sister are due to give victim impact statements to the court tomorrow.

3. #GROOMING: A man who had sex with a 13-year-old girl he met on the social networking site Bebo has been jailed for two years. Graham Doyle, 25, admitted using a false name, photo and saying he was 19 to befriend the girl who he met in 2011. He later had sex with the girl twice at his family home, telling his father he was giving her guitar lessons. Doyle paid his victim €5,000 as an expression of remorse, RTÉ reports.

4. #DUBLIN: It is 416 years since an explosion in Dublin city killed 126 people or 1 per cent of the capital’s entire population at the time. Known as the Dublin Gunpowder Disaster it saw some 140 barrels of gunpowder explode in a shipping accident on 11 March 1597. Read more about it here.

5. #SNOW JOKE: The snow has been falling across the country today as you the readers have been documenting. It has caused havoc at Dublin Airport but we’ve been asking the important question: Does the prospect of snow excite or fill you with dread?