Fórsa has written to Simon Coveney to seek a meeting to discuss the Colombian peace process, as unions there held a general strike over harmful economic reforms and public service cuts yesterday.

The union also published its latest set of ebulletins this week. You can get them here: Civil service, education, health & welfare, local authorities and services & enterprises.

Meanwhile, Siptu has backed a Labour bill that would oblige employers to engage with the JLC system (which sets pay and conditions in certain low-paid sectors) or face imposed pay rates. Sinn Féin and others are supporting the legislation. The Government won't.

In Blightly, the "most radical Labour manifesto for decades" promises a 5% public service pay rise in 2020, £80 billion in new taxes on corporations and the rich, 150,000 more council houses and free broadband for all. Needless to say, that hasn't been universally welcomed in the UK press.

Here, the last three victims of the 1920 Bloody Sunday massacre have finally had headstones erected on their graves (thanks to the GAA) while plans to repatriate James Joyces' bones have been scrapped.

As 16 asylum seekers are found in a lorry container bound for Ireland, the Times reports that direct provision centres are planned for an additional 5,500 refugees.

Elsewhere, the latest femicide study finds that 230 women have died violently since Women's Aid started counting in 1996, and the woman who oversees the charity sector says her organisation needs more cash to regulate it properly.

Finally, there's good news for those of you who, like me, feared that our beloved mouse-deer was forever lost. Last week I learned that one of these cuties (aka the silver-backed Chevrotain) has been sighted and filmed in Vietnam. Perfect Zen for the weekend.

Mind the buses.

Bernard