Niamh O’Riordan of Ballincollig, with her calf Brideland Eli, pictured before the competition at this year’s Cork Summer Show 2013, at Curraheen in Cork City. Photo: Clare Keogh.

HERE ARE THE things we learned, loved and shared today as we round off the day in three easy steps.

THINGS WE LEARNED:

#ABORTION: Health minister James Reilly has acknowledged that the government’s proposals on abortion will result in more children being born having ‘suffered damage’ – but that the alternative is for those children never to be born at all. The health minister says it is inevitable that inducing labour in some women, where a foetus has not reached full maturity, will mean risks for the child.

Meanwhile, RTÉ reports that Enda Kenny was heckled by anti-abortion protesters as he unveiled a statue of General Seán Mac Eoin in Co Longford.

#MINIMUM WAGE: ISME has called on jobs minister Richard Bruton to put social protection minister Joan Burton “back in her box” after the minister floated proposals to raise the minimum wage. The group’s chief executive Mark Fielding says ‘flying kites’ like extra pay for workers could scare small firms away from hiring new workers.

#STABBING: A man has been hospitalised after a stabbing incident at a settled halting site in Terenure. The men became involved in an altercation at around noon, when one of them was injured in the neck with a sharp metal object.

#HOSPITALS: A group representing Ireland’s independent hospitals has claimed that the government’s plans to change the health system could leave private hospitals struggling to stay open. The group says charging private patients €1,122 a night to stay in a public hospital will send up health premiums – meaning fewer customers for private hospitals, and increasing the burden on the public system.

#G8: Preparations for the G8 conference in Co Fermanagh are continuing. Northern Ireland’s finance minister Sammy Wilson has called for a clampdown on tax avoidance, accusing the Republic of “stealing” British tax funds – and calling on London to demand changes in Irish tax codes in exchange for the bailout loans.

Traffic and security restrictions have been in place all day, but Ulster GAA authorities have expressed their satisfaction that almost 10,000 fans were able to make it to Brewster Park for an Ulster Championship quarter-final today.

#KOREA: North Korea has issued a surprise invitation to the United States to enter bilateral talks – but only if the US sets no preconditions. Pyongyang also says it will only honour US calls to abandon its nuclear arms if the US does likewise. No hope there, then.

Former billionaire Seán Quinn – the brother of former GAA president Peter Quinn – watches in Brewster Park as Fermanagh take on their neighbours Cavan in Enniskillen. (INPHO/Morgan Treacy)

THINGS WE LOVED:

• The genuinely over-the-moon reaction of golfer Shawn Stefani to his hole-in-one at the US Masters today. Often golfers try to act solemn and professional after shooting an ace… but not Stefani.
• Married with Children, and the myriad ways in which Al Bundy could insult somebody.
• The obliviousness of the subject of this photograph to the watery doom that awaits her.

THINGS WE SHARED:

• Here’s an interesting plan from Google. The search giant is pulling together a giant database of child pornography images – so it can share it with other firms, and help to eradicate them from the internet entirely.
• This photograph has prompted quite the discussion on Reddit. It shows a street in central Liverpool at its industrial heyday four decades ago, and how it looks today – thanks to a policy of demolishing urban slums.
• Poor Dean Cain. The former Superman actor never got the memo that there was a new Superman movie out…

(YouTube/JimmyKimmelLive)