12/03/2017 Midlands Today

Good evening. stories on the BBC News Channel.

The Irish ambassador was one of the guests of honour

at the St Patrick's day parade in Birmingham today.

It was one of his last official functions before

Thousands turned out for the event, which this year was entirely paid

The sun was almost shinning, and the pipes were playing as 85,000

people took to the streets of Birmingham - to celebrate

Very proud to be Irish, very proud to be here.

It is brilliant this year, there is great craic going on, the

We are enjoying ourselves, aren't we girls?

And this year they were joined by a special guest -

He's taking up a new role in Washington later this year -

but chose to spend his last St Patrick's weekend in the UK

It's as good as anything I've seen around the world,

I have been around the place, I have seen St Patrick's events all

and I have enjoyed them all, this is

a very enjoyable occasion and fair play to the Irish in

Birmingham for putting on such a marvellous event.

and thousands and thousands of people have turned out

for what is one of the biggest St Patrick's Day Parades

In fact, the organisers reckon it's the third largest

after New York and Dublin - but having lost its funding

from the city council this year's event had to pay it's own way.

Really happy with the way it's gone,

private sponsors, pubs, all on board.

It's a big parade, more people here, running our own bars.

This is exactly what we wanted and it has

With bars and live music going on into the evening -

Birmingham's surely in for good craic.

Elizabeth Glinka, BBC Midlands Today in Digbeth.

An investigation's under way into reports that shots were fired

after problems at a birthday party in Smethwick.

Police were called to the CAP centre in Windmill Lane at around

A bullet and a shotgun casing were discovered -

but no one is reported to have been injured.

Officers are now looking through CCTV to find

Tributes have been paid to a teenager who died

after his bike was in collision with a car in Birmingham last month.

15-year-old Sean Purchase was injured in the crash

on Bandywood Road in Great Barr in February but died last week.

His family said he was the "strongest person

Campaigners are running out of time to raise almost half a million

pounds to keep one of the first vases Josiah Wedgwood

ever made at his factory in Etruria, in the Midlands.

The piece from 1769 was sold at Christies to a foreign buyer

and an export ban runs out on Tuesday.

So far ?79,000 has been pledged by the public to try

Gordon Banks was just one of the famous Stoke City players

helping recreate the team's famous league Cup victory

Most of the original team were there as part of a vintage

cavalcade which toured the area, including the winning goal-scorer

George Eastham who had flown in from South Africa

And hundreds of fans turned out to to remember the club's famous 2-1

I get a chance now and again to come from South Africa to see

the players, but this is a special occasion.

People turning out to congratulate us, it's lovely.

Finally Archaelogists at Gloucester Cathedral have

uncovered what they believe could be a strap for a person's false leg,

The metal pieces were found in the old lay cemetery.

Experts say traces of bone and wood, found with the band,

suggest it supported an artificial limb.

It's hoped the pieces will eventually be put on show.

It'd probably better be with the weather!

Here's Alex Hamilton with all the details.

We had rather a mixed bag of weather across

We have high pressure starting to build in

over the next couple of days so expect conditions to be more

It is set to be a mild night tonight, variable amounts of

cloud through to the early hours with lows of seven Celsius.

Tomorrow morning, we should start on a bright and sunny note.

That cloud builds in from the north-west but

when we get the sunny spells, we expect temperatures of around 15

Celsius so it will feel springlike as we start the new working week.

Midlands Today will be back at Breakfast tomorrow as usual,

But from all of us here, have a good night.

Good evening. For many places it was a fairly cloudy day on suspend but

there was sunshine for western areas during the afternoon, and here are

the clear skies at sunset in Northern Ireland. Thanks to weather

watcher Robin for this picture, those clear skies have been making

their