grow world-class research capabilities. 1 July – President Mary McAleese and leading representatives of all political parties in Ireland, north and south, marked the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme at the Irish National War Memorial Gardens, Dublin. 7 July – Dublin Airport was evacuated for the second time in a week when an abandoned suspect package was found. 19 July – The warmest temperature since 1976, 32.3 °C (90.14 °F), was recorded at Elphin, County Roscommon. Ireland was one of many countries affected by the 2006 European heat wave. July 2006 was the warmest, on average, since records began in both the Republic and Northern Ireland. 19 July – Preliminary 2006 census findings indicated that the population was 4,234,925 million, an increase of 8.6% since 2002 and at its highest since the 1861 census. The total population for the island now stands at just under 6 million (estimates). 7 September – Mary Harney resigned as leader of the Progressive Democrats. She led the party since October 1993. 11 September – Michael McDowell became leader of the Progressive Democrats by consensus. 18 October – Northern Ireland overtook the Republic of Ireland in the FIFA rankings for the first time. 24 November – Loyalist Michael Stone, attempted to bomb the Northern Ireland Assembly on the day nominations for first and deputy first minister were due to be made. 14 December – Zappone v. Revenue Commissioners decided in the High Court: a same-sex marriage in British Columbia was not recognised as a same-sex marriage in Ireland. 20 December – Dublin Port Tunnel officially opened. Arts and literature 5 January – The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, a young people's novel by John Boyne, was published. 2 March – Ireland: Awakening, a historical novel by Edward Rutherfurd, was published. June – Ciaran Creagh's play Last Call, based loosely on the hanging of murderer Michael Manning in 1954 as witnessed by the playwright's father, was staged in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, where it is set. 13 June – Colm Tóibín's novel The Master (2004) won the International Dublin Literary Award. He was the first Irish writer to win. His short story collection Mothers and Sons was published this year. 26 July – 150th anniversary of the birth of George Bernard Shaw. Autumn – Irish language teen drama series Aifric debuted on TG4 television. John Banville published his first crime novel under the pen