Conor Murphy, 12, from Monkstown takes a splash at the Forty Foot in Sandycove, Dún Laoghaire. That looks like a Leisure Dive to us… (Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)

THINGS WE LEARNED:

#BOND MARKETS: Ireland has raised almost €4.2 billion by selling government bonds – the first time in almost two years that we’ve done so, and the first since entering the EU-IMF bailout. The money comes with fairly steep interest rates, however.

#GOAL: John O’Shea is to step down as CEO of GOAL, the charity he founded 35 years ago. The High Court was today told that the dispute between O’Shea and the charity’s directors – who had been seeking to remove him from his position – had been settled.

#SUPERSPUDS?: The Environmental Protection Agency has granted a licence for a field trial of genetically modified potatoes which could be immune to potato blight. Teagasc will undertake the trial in Carlow, amid opposition from the likes of An Taisce.

#PUBLIC TRANSPORT: CIE is seeking to increase fares for Iarnród Éireann, Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann for 2013, it has confirmed today. The struggling transport operator is thought to be seeking a 6 per cent rise in fares across all services.

#LONDON 2012: European amateur boxing champion Joe Ward has failed in his last-ditch bid to secure a spot in the Olympic Games. The Court of Arbitration for Sport has dismissed his appeal against AIBA’s decision not to grant him a wild-card entry.

THINGS WE LOVED:

• The fact that the New York Times managed to wrangle three full pages out of the fact that Ann Romney, wife of Mitt, part-owns a horse taking part in the Olympics.
• The fact that some people care – like, really care – about Kristen Stewart cheating on her boyfriend and Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson.
• The fact that the comments on this story – about a house in Bearsville, New York, which has managed to be attacked by… bears – have devolved into a discussion about whether this counts as ‘irony’ or not.

Many hands join in to help as an anaconda snake at the Oklahoma City Zoo has dental floss taped to its head and along its body as it is measured. The floss and tape are necessary because it would be nearly impossible to stretch out the snake. The anaconda weighed 152 lbs – that’s almost 11 stone – and measured 16 feet. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

THINGS WE SHARED:

• The Onion is always brilliant, but it’s really been excelling itself this week. Today’s offering: God has told the president of the International Olympic Committee to build an ark and take two Olympians from each sport. (Disclosure: it’s satire.)
• This heartbreaking conclusion from Channel 4′s newsreading demi-God, Jon Snow. Scroll 41 seconds into this clip to hear Sir Snow quip that the Anglo Irish Bank bailout makes the £24 billion London Olympics look cheap.
• So far, so hit-and-miss: here’s the third trailer for Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis’s political comedy ‘The Campaign’.

• (trailers/Youtube)