News round-up: 5 stories you may have missed this week

Irish Water deadline ‘not drop dead date’ Everyone thought Monday was D-Day for registering with Irish Water. Until Minister Alan Kelly 'clarified' that February 2nd was 'not a drop dead date'. No such reprieve for ex-QPR boss Harry Redknapp when the January Transfer Window shut in his face on the same day without a single new signing.   Groundhog Day - Again America's favourite 'seasonal prognosticator' crept out of his groundhog burrow this week and saw his shadow. When the Mayor of Wisconsin leaned in to hear the forecast, Punxsutawney Phil bit him on the ear. In fairness, with six weeks of winter ahead, Phil probably just wanted to get back to his bed.   Lottery glitch The National Lottery made history this week, for all the wrong reasons. A major tech glitch shut down thousands of terminals across the country. For the first time in 28 years, a lottery draw had to be deferred. Red faces all round, but calm was restored and the €10.2 million jackpot was scooped in County Kildare.   Buncrana says no to ’50 Shades’ A church-run cinema in Buncrana had a ‘down with that sort of thing' moment after deciding not to screen 50 Shades of Grey. Amid claims that the film was banned on religious grounds, cinema operators revealed an issue with the screening rights. Distributors wanted the film shown four times a day, and operators didn't have the stamina - er, facilities - for that.   ‘Mockingbird’ sequel – 55 years later The literary world went wild this week with news of a sequel to the 1960 best-seller, To Kill a Mockingbird. Publishers for Harper Lee say Go Set a Watchman – due out in July – was actually written first. While 88-year-old Lee is said to be ‘happy as hell’, concerns have been raised that she was pressurised into the plan. [caption id="attachment_211774" align="alignnone" width="790"] Nelle Harper Lee, 1962[/caption]