UL expansion, Stoic thinking, Snowden and Joyce

More than 300 staff jobs to be created at UL: More than 300 staff jobs are to be created at University of Limerick (UL) as part of an ambitious five-year investment worth hundreds of millions of euro. Read more here.

Who hasn't pushed their family to the mental limits with one visit? Ireland's Fittest Family (RTÉ1, Sunday) begins with 15 families of exactly four members each striding confidently into the future as though animated by the spirit of de Valera himself. Read more here.

'The craic was mighty' says 82-year-old who has just graduated: Among the 2,457 graduates at Waterford Institute of Technology this week, 82-year-old Tom Boyle was the proudest of the lot. Read more here.

Oireachtas na Gaeilge ag filleadh ar Bhaile Átha Cliath: Cé go bhfuil gach uile sheans ann gur ócáid eile den scoth a bheidh san Oireachtas i mbliana, ní fada riamh ó intinn chomhluadar na nGael ceist an mhaoinithe. Read more here.

How to deal with life's setbacks? Think like a Stoic: Hardcore atheists like to say there's as much evidence for God as there is for Santa Clause or the Easter Bunny. Read more here.

Plan for James Joyce 'House of the Dead' is an act of cultural vandalism: The recent proposal from Dublin City councillors Dermot Lacey and Paddy McCartan to transfer the remains of James and Nora Joyce from Zurich to Dublin as a way to celebrate Joyce as we approach the centenary of the publication of Ulysses (2022) looks set to die a quick death. Read more here.

Ireland's banshee: A delusion of peasants or a spirit with a mournful wail? A letter to the Weekly Irish Times on April 8th 1893, titled "Where has the Banshee gone?" answered its own question. It hadn't gone anywhere. Read more here.

Edward Snowden reveals how your phone keeps tabs on you: Comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan is for his mix of libertarian and conservative views combined with enthusiasm for subjects like UFOs and Bigfoot. Read more here.

Van Morrison: Is this the most excruciating interview he's ever done? There is a song on Van Morrison's 1991 album Hymns to the Silence called Why Must I Always Explain? in which the Northern Irish singer-songwriter appears to rail against the endlessly tiresome process of giving interviews. Read more here.