In today's news, there's another flurry of Brexit on the front pages, alongside reports about events in Strokestown, Co Roscommon over the weekend.

The Irish Times reports that trade unions are seeking an urgent meeting with the Minister for Education to raise “grave concerns” over plans to give big business a greater say in where hundreds of millions of euro in university investment will be spent.

On Saturday (15th), RTE reported that nurses were victims in almost 70% of total assaults on hospital staff over the last ten years, according to HSE figures.

Elsewhere, it's widely reported that the Government is beginning a three-month public consultation on ideas to improve the current electoral roll system, with plans to slash the number of forms and introduce an online system where citizens could register using their PPS number.

Your moment of Zen this morning reflects a last-minute change of heart. In a nod to the impending season (and because we put up the decorations in our house yesterday) I was going to use Slade's classic Merry Christmas Everybody. No other song transports me back to my childhood Christmas (specifically 1973, I got an Action Man, best Christmas ever) so quickly or completely.

And then I stumbled across this clip of Saoirse Ronan and Jimmy Fallon having a go at that other venerated Christmas classic, the Pogues' Fairytale Of New York. The song itself has been the subject of some fevered debate recently, and I'd hate to see those differences of opinion cause any controversy on my watch. Conveniently, this isn't a full length version of the song.

There's so much that could go wrong here, and while there's an extra slice of cheesiness in Fallon's set up, Ronan's affection for the song is very clear, and is probably the only compelling reason to watch this clip.

Have a good week.