12/03/2017 BBC Newsline

The Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, says the Irish Government will hold

a referendum to allow Irish citizens living outside the state -

including in Northern Ireland - the right to vote in Irish

In a speech in Philadelphia, he said the decision,

taken at a cabinet meeting last week, was a clear recognition

of the importance that Ireland attached to her citizens

The move was recommended by a Constitutional Convention in 2013.

A man's been charged with manslaughter in connection

with the death of a man in Lurgan last Thursday.

29-year-old Paul Gerard Curran was found dead inside

Another man and a woman who were arrested have been released.

The Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, David Davis,

has promised that ensuring a frictionless Irish border is one

of his top priorities in reaching a deal with the European Union.

It's thought that Prime Minister Theresa May could trigger Article 50

Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show on BBC One, David Davies said

the Government was working to maintain an invisible border.

We have talked to the Irish government about it.

The first foreign trip I made was to Dublin.

Indeed Michel Barnier had a part in the peace process.

They are determined in their mind that this will not go wrong.

That's the combination of determination that exists here.

However, the Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams insists there will be

a hard border without action by the Government.

He said his party would continue to push for special status

With Brexit we are going to see a hard economic border,

the frontier between the European state and British state

is going to be on the end of Ireland and that is why we have argued

for a special designated status for the north that doesn't impinge

upon the constitutional position but does guarantee we will not

have the type of misery that's going to be inflicted

on our farming, on our dairy farmers, on our agri-food industry

Arlene Foster says she has never thought about resigning

as DUP leader following the Assembly election.

Since the election, Mrs Foster has declined to be

interviewed by the BBC, and speaking to Sky News

she insisted the result had not been disastrous for her party.

She acknowledged it had been a wake up call for unionism but said that

Sinn Fein can not dictate who the DUP should nominate

into the territory where we are telling each other who to select,

we want to of course say to Sinn Fein we think

you should select X, Y and Z instead of A,

They can't tell us who to select as our nominees and likewise

The Secretary of State, James Brokenshire, has cancelled

a trip to Washington for St Patrick's Day

in order to concentrate on the talks at Stormont.

Mr Brokenshire was due to fly out on Wednesday

But there are now just two weeks to a deadline to get agreement

A barman is in a serious condition in hospital after he was assaulted

The man, who was working in the Royal Oak bar

in Green Street, suffered serious head injuries after he was attacked

by a number of people just after half past nine.

Three men aged 36, 52 and 50 have been arrested.

Police are appealing for information.

Must have been shocking and my thoughts are with the individual who

was assaulted because police described it as Britain and there

were serious head injuries and it is very telling from a member of staff

and the family. Sport, and Jonathan Rea remains

on course for a third World Superbike championship winning

both races at the latest The Northern Ireland rider

won the opening race And despite starting race two

on the third row of the grid, Rea steered his Kawasaki

through to take the chequered flag. He has now registered four

consecutive wins in the first two rounds of the championship

which he leads by 30 points. In gaelic football, Tyrone have

beaten Cavan to go top of Division One in

the Allianz League. The match ended Tyrone 19 points,

Cavan a goal and 9 points. Rugby, and Ulster moved into fourth

place and a play-off spot in the Pro12, after a 68 points

to 21 win over bottom The home side notched up ten

tries, two of them scored It was Ulster's biggest ever

points total in a match, Now just time for a look

at the weather prospects. Yesterday was the warmest day of the

year so far, 16 degrees at the Giants Causeway and I know it wasn't

like that every especially across Belfast but today has been recently

mailed especially out of the breeze. It will stay fine and clear at this

side of midnight but could get quite chilly over parts of County Durham

temptress talking to two or three degrees and cloud increases to bring

some drizzle from the west but a lot will have gone by the end of the

night. Early Douglas tomorrow will disappear quite quickly, much of

Monday will be dry and mild and you should get away without needing an

umbrella because it will brighten up quite nicely through the morning

with some sunshine at times is not as breezy as today. Quite queasy

across the north of Scotland with some showers but otherwise many

parts of the UK and Ireland will have a fine start to the working

week and in the sun quite nice especially over southern Britain and

the south of Ireland with temperatures in the mid-teens and we

will see that in some parts of Northern Ireland as well and a

couple of showers moving and later in the day especially across the

west. Looking at the rest of the week it will be fairly mild with not

too much rain to come especially on Tuesday and Wednesday but Thursday

onwards we see a drop in temperature and towards the end of the week it

looks like it could be quite unsettled by St Patrick's Day. We

need to pen the detail down so stay tuned to the forecast on BBC

newsline that this area of low pressure can bring wet and windy

weather at least for a time on Friday suburbanites are nice for the

bank holiday. If you showers and Tuesday, breezy and blustery but it

would be too much rain and brightness at times and when today

continues fairly mild, no breeze but nothing too chilly temperatures up

to 12 or 13 degrees. Some rain at times on Thursday but a lot of dry

weather although it will start to feel cooler.

Our next BBC Newsline bulletin is at 10.15 this evening.

Until then you can keep up to date with local news on BBC Radio Ulster

From everyone on the BBC Newsline team, goodbye.