5 things you need to know today

1. Purple reign comes to an end as Prince dies aged 57

It would be hard to assemble a greater bunch of brilliant contradictions than are embodied in the singular life and person of Prince, who has died at 57 in his Paisley Park home in Minneapolis, US. A genius of ghetto music who came from the white-bread Midwest; a restless experimenter who could write the sweetest, simplest, most perfect pop tune imaginable. The star was found unresponsive in an elevator at his Paisley Park Studios compound, which included his home, in the Minneapolis suburb of Chanhassen, according to a Carver County Sheriff's Office statement. Emergency workers tried to revive him and he was pronounced dead a short time later.  Cork in 1990; Dublin in 2002; and again in 2011, after that no-show in 2008, Prince showed his live game was every note as sharp and groundbreaking as his studio work.  DJ Sally Cinnamon bitterly remembers missing Prince in Malahide but a secret show in Dublin restored her faith

 2. Kenny and Martin expected to sign off on duration of deal

Acting Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin are expected to personally decide within days whether any agreement between their two parties will last for two or three years. Agreement is expected to be reached over the weekend on how Fianna Fáil will facilitate a Fine Gael-led minority government. There is a better way to form a Government than 50 days of chaos, argues Peter Emerson, as the power-sharing model associated with post-conflict resolution can provide an alternative. Meanwhile, it seems some Government departments will be permitted to breach their spending ceilings this year despite previous insistence by ministers that no supplementary budgets would be allowed. While in some senses, memories of the election fade, the Seanad campaign is nearing its end. There are thirty candidates in the race for the Seanad's NUI seats with no woman elected to the panel since 1981 when Senator Gemma Hussey was voted in.The Seanad will be Enda Kenny's next problem, according to columnist Noel Whelan. Mr Kenny's efforts to form a government need to come to a head next week because we will soon enter dodgy constitutional terrain, he writes.

3. Dublin Bikes subscription fee set to increase by 50%

Dublin Bikes subscriptions are set to be increased by 50 per cent, and a new funding strategy that could see advertising panels at the College Green plaza is to be developed, under a €100 million expansion plan for the scheme. While it is currently funded though subscription charges and sponsorship, Dublin City Council is subventing the scheme and paid €376,211 towards it in 2015.  Since it was set up in 2009, 13.5m trips have been made using the scheme. While some improvements have been seen here at home, the Danes have created a cycling mecca, and the car lobby has conceded defeat. Question is, can Dublin do the same? Of course, drivers and cyclists tend to give each other a hard time and certainly both groups regularly grumble and moan about each other's behaviour.

 4. Four centuries later, William Shakespeare remains a mystery

Is the Bard, who died 400 years ago this weekend, on April 23rd, 1616, really the greatest playwright to have lived – or have we been blinded by 'bardolatry'?  Through no particular fault of his own, William Shakespeare came into this world and departed it on the same day of the year – it falls this weekend: April 23rd – making any calendar-based consideration of the man an automatic meditation on birth, death and the sound and fury in between. Conveniently, this is also the preoccupation of his works. A more heretical question is whether he really deserves such attention. To ask such a thing in a classroom, lecture theatre or theatre foyer is to risk foolishness. The genius of Shakespeare, who died 400 years ago, in 1616, is apparently inarguable, his poetry and philosophy unsurpassable, and the proof is in his undiminished popularity: endlessly restaged, forever prescribed, Shakespeare is always with us. There are two competing ideas about Shakespeare's language that most of us will encounter. The first is that it is too hard to fully understand. The second is that it is so magnificent and meaningful that it has shaped the way we speak and even think.

5. Take your pick…

Natrium sets sights on Apple Store in Clerys building: No deal agreed, but developer pursuing tech giant

Limerick woman takes action against Bishop Eamon Casey:  Civil proceedings are part of four cases regarding members of clergy in the diocese

Brexit: Flanagan appears to contradict Villiers over Border: Taoiseach says Ireland must be 'realistic' concerning bilateral negotiations with UK

Oxford models TCD's access programme to recruit disadvantaged students: UK university's Irish-born vice-chancellor plans to tackle elitism through new scheme:

A mini rebellion at the GPO: 'Don't laugh. You're being shot at':  As the 100th anniversary of the Rising approaches, 5ft rebels storm the GPO with wooden rifles and funny moustaches.