Harney says plant closure was never on the agenda

Saturday/Sunday

The President, Mrs McAleese, broke new ecumenical ground when she took Communion during the Eucharist at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin. It was an unexpected move, which the Church of Ireland believes may be the first for an Irish President from the Roman Catholic tradition. Senior Catholic Church sources said: "It is not permissible for a Roman Catholic to receive Communion in churches of the Protestant tradition."

Six people died in four separate road accidents over the weekend in Galway, Mayo, Wexford and Dublin.

Monday

A Galway man, Patrick Gillane (35), faces up to 10 years' imprisonment after being found guilty of soliciting two men to murder his wife. The body of Mrs Philomena Gillane, who was seven months pregnant, was found in the boot of her car at Athlone railway station in May 1994. She had been shot and stabbed.

A Dublin baby became the youngest-ever transplant patient when she received a liver transplant when she was just five days old. Baebhen Schuttke, who is now aged five months, was born in Dublin in July with neonatal haemochromatosis, a disease which killed her two older brothers, Lucas and Reuben.

Surgeons from King's College Hospital in London performed the operation using the liver of a 10year-old boy who had died in an accident.

The rift between the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, was healed after Mr Ahern visited the Stormont talks. Relations were soured after the UUP objected to remarks by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, about the powers of cross-Border institutions. He had said they would be not unlike those of a government.

During his Northern trip the Taoiseach visited West Belfast where he was greeted by the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams. He also visited Belfast City Hall, the first such visit by a sitting Taoiseach, where he was greeted by the SDLP Lord Mayor, Mr Alban Maginness.

Tuesday

The row over legal fees which has delayed an inquiry into alleged planning abuses has been settled in a deal which gives lawyers at the tribunal up to £1,450 a day for sitting days. They will be paid £1,350 for non-sitting days, £150 a day more than the Minister for Finance was willing to give.

Mr Gearoid O Caireallain, the president of the Gaelic League, said the promotion of Irish among Protestants in Northern Ireland was a "disease". Writing in Irish in the weekly newspaper La, he said "this disease is contagious" and "widespread". La is a staunchly nationalist newspaper.

O Caireallain also suggested that anyone attempting to make

Wednesday

The Government faced the biggest single industrial setback of recent years after the announcement that the Seagate Technology plant in Clonmel is to close with the loss of 1,400 jobs.

The US company blamed "downward price pressure, intense competition and increasing market fragmentation" for the closure. The Clonmel director of the company, Mr Peter Knight, said it was "rather unfortunate" that workers learned about the closure on radio or TV before the formal company announcement.

He said the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, and the IDA were aware three months ago that Clonmel was part of its international review. However, Ms Harney insisted that closure was "never on the agenda" in the discussions she had with the multinational. Seagate will repay in full £11.3 million in IDA grants. The company is to provide about £4 million in a severance package for the 1,100 full-time workers in Clonmel.

An overwhelming majority of voters, 77 per cent, believe that abortion should be permitted in the Republic in limited circumstances, according to an Irish Times/MRBI poll. Just 18 per cent of voters believe that abortion should not be permitted in any circumstances. Less than a quarter of voters, 23 per cent, think the Oireachtas should legislate in line with the court decisions in the X and C cases.

Thursday

It was a "good moment in history" the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, declared after emerging from his hour-long meeting at 10 Downing Street with the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair. The meeting marked the first talks between a British prime minister and republican leaders in Downing Street for 76 years.

Both sides agreed they had "engaged" on the central issues but maintained their central positions; Mr Blair on the principle of consent, Mr Adams on the goal of a united Ireland. Unionists were bitter about the meeting and the Ulster Unionist party rejected Mr Martin McGuinness's suggestion that the "next important development" should be a meeting between Mr Adams and Mr David Trimble.

It emerged that the proposed Seagate computer plant in Cork which was to provide 1,000 jobs in Ringaskiddy is unlikely to go ahead next year.