SATURDAY/SUNDAY
IT was a depressing start to the week, dominated by worsening community relations in the North.
As meetings were planned between the Bogside Residents Group and the Apprentice Boys to resolve the dispute over the annual Apprentice Boys parade in Derry, there was evidence of a sinister fall out from recent events - Protestant businesses being boycotted by Catholics, and Catholic businesses boycotted by Protestants.
In Castlederg, Co Tyrone, an agricultural show due to be held on Wednesday as cancelled.
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, opened a carnival on the Falls Road in west Belfast.
The Irish Exporters Association called on the Government to reassess its strategy towards the British market, where many businesses were finding it hard to compete as the pound hovered around 104p against sterling.
Dr A.J.F. O'Reilly, chairman of the Independent Group, emerged as the top earner in the US, receiving 563 million (£39 million) from Heinz in 1995-96.
MONDAY
President Clinton began a two pronged attack on terrorism by signing a Bill aimed at penalising investment in Iran and Libya and introducing new security proposals. This drew criticism from the EU, which condemned the Bill as "an extreme case of extra territorial legislation".
There were calls for more stringent standards for equipment in fairgrounds following the death of one woman and injuries to her daughter at Borrisokane, Co Tipperary, on Sunday. The Fianna Fail spokesman on the environment, Mr Michael Smith TD, said that as tourism developed, greater emphasis must be placed on safety.
Efforts to reach an accommodation between the Apprentice Boys and Bogside Residents Group broke down.
TUESDAY
Michelle Smith, the swimmer who won three gold medals and a bronze at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, got a watery reception when she and the other athletes arrived at Dublin Airport.
Despite torrents of rain, however, the official reception, led by the President, Mrs Robinson, went ahead. In the evening, Michelle returned to her home in Rathcoole in Co Dublin, receiving a hero's welcome.
Evidence that primitive life existed on Mars emerged from examination of a meteorite from the planet, which was found on Earth in 1984, having crashed 12,000 or 13,000 years previously.
It revealed "exciting, even compelling but not conclusive evidence" of ancient, single cell life on Mars billions of years ago, according to the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It was speculated that subterranean pools, probably frozen, could have been the source of the primitive life forms on Mars.
WEDNESDAY
The British government ordered the closure of part of the walls of Derry in an effort to prevent serious disorder during this end's Apprentice Boys parade. Unionists reacted with outrage to the decision, announced by the Northern Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, who was advised by the RUC Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Annesley. Leading unionist and nationalist politicians, however, also appealed for calm and restraint.
The British tour operator, Thomson Holidays purchased the Irish managed company, Budget Travel in a deal thought to be worth between £9 and £10 million. Nine years ago a British conglomerate, Granada, acquired Budget from Ms Gillian Bowler and Mr Harry Snyder, who continued to manage the company.
The Kerrygold Horse Show opened at the RDS, Dublin. The Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Yates, told farmers that the days of producing "elephant sized" bullocks were over. "We are facing lower carcass weights for intervention this autumn and the message has to be got over."
THURSDAY
There were fears of trouble in Derry as hopes of agreement over parades collapsed.
There were fears, too, of a rising death toll in the Spanish Pyrenees as soldiers, firemen and police searched through the campsite devastated by a mudslide caused by a burst of heavy rain on Wednesday. The disaster struck outside the town of Biesca, 90 miles east of Pamplona.
A Department of Education report on the 1995 Leaving Certificate concluded that even bright students might be unable to write grammatically.
"Many students - even very good ones, judging from their ideas and familiarity with texts - can no longer write grammatically. Their writing is frequently illogical, muddled and at times incomprehensible. Yet they appear to think they are making sense," said the report.
An example relating to a Shakespeare text referred to Lady Macbeth inviting Duncan to a "sleepover" and said that without her malign influence Duncan could be alive today".