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EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine stories you need to know as you kick off your day.
1. #JILL MEAGHER: The man accused of killing Irish woman Jill Meagher in Australia has pleaded not guilty to her murder. Adrian Bayley pleaded guilty to one charge of rape at a committal hearing at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court today but said he was not guilty of two other charges of rape. Jill’s husband Tom walked out of the courtroom after Bayley entered his pleas.
2. #NICOLA FURLONG: The mother and sister of Irish student Nicola Furlong have given statements at the trial of the man accused of her murder and spoken of their pain over the death of the 21-year-old. RTE reports that two jurors and one of the judges cried as the women gave their statements.
3. #IL PAPA: 115 cardinals from around the world will enter into conclave in the Sistine Chapel later today and begin the process of electing a new Pope. Here’s how the new leader of the Roman Catholic church will be chosen.
4. #PENALTY POINTS: Independent TD Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan is to address the Dáil today over claims that he had penalty points wiped from his record two years ago, despite having previously denied having points removed. Flanagan said on Twitter that he will reveal how he was contacted by Gardaí who asked if he wanted the points wiped.
5. #FALKLANDS: In the end, it was almost unanimous: 99.8 per cent of voters in the Falkland Islands have voted to remain a British overseas territory. Just three people voted no in the referendum.
6. #INTERNET: A secondary school in Limerick has suspended 28 students after they ‘liked’ a Facebook post which made reference to the personal lives of teachers in the school, the Irish Examiner reports. Noel Malone, the principal of Coláiste Chíaráin, said the incident was a “gross invasion of the personal lives of members of our school community”.
7. #WEATHER: Last night was one of the coldest nights of the year, with temperatures dropping as low as -7 degrees Celsius in the west of the country. There’s going to be a brief respite from the freezing cold for a brief spell this afternoon, but Met Éireann has warned that tonight is going to be another cold one with temperatures dropping as low as -3 degrees.
8. #KNOCK AIRPORT: Concerns have been raised about the future of Ireland West Airport at Knock in Mayo as a local group has called on the government to invest some €75 million in the airport over the next five years in a bid to secure the jobs of the 150 people who work there.
9. #TCD JAILBREAK: Two Trinity College Dublin students who made it as far as Argentina without spending a cent have received help from an unexpected source to get them home. Singer Chris de Burgh has apparently come to the aid of the two students who ended up stranded in South America with no way home after they won the TCD Jailbreak fundraising competition to get as far away from Trinity as possible.
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It’s by far the greatest act of public self-humiliation I’ve ever seen though
@Joe Phillips: Just read a new report our Aslyum seekers are piving in 3rd Wirld conditions . Yet we taje more in ?
@Paul Whelan: That is 3rd World spelling
@Paul Whelan: that’s great Paul
@Paul Whelan: Hahahahaha. That was priceless. Cheers Paul!
@Paul Whelan: thanks for clearing that misunderstanding up Paul
@Alan McDonald: you’ll often find people who speak like this are stupid and/or uneducated.
@Paul Whelan: dafuq
@Paul Whelan: “you know what aggrivateses me? Is those immigants. They want all the benefits of ireland. But won’t bother to learn themselves the language”
@seanfean: Yeah! Those are exactly my sentimonies!
Take back their territorial waters (they never lost them), their fishing stocks (most sold off by the U.K. government to foreign owners), save British steel (loss making industry for aeons) etc etc. This is all nationalistic hubris which wouldn’t enrich the U.K. one whit – the reverse in fact. The man is a pure snake oil salesman. What is shocking is that people fall for him. He is all about the glories of the last, current failures (the fault of foreigners, naturally) and has no real vision for the future. Fish and steel appears to be about it.
@John R: glories of the last ? What’s that then?
@John R: they lost the right to control who fishes in them… and in turn sell royalties to foreign vessels
It’s kind of funny that you accuse someone of being a snake oil salesman yet distort the facts/arguments yourself…
@John R: Yeah the Majority vited leave , also do you trust Leo ?
@Paul Whelan: On protecting Irish interests when it comes to Brexit, yes.
You can be damn sure Boris, Farage, Reese Mogg and Co have zero interest in protecting Irish interests.
The EU has done more for Ireland in the past 47 years than the British did in 800 years.
@Paul Whelan: did the majority vote for no deal? The overwhelming argument before the referendum was that a deal would be done. By rights they should put another vote to the people. Deal before leaving vs no deal
It’s funny how the pre-referendum narrative of: “we’ll get a great deal from the EU because we’re too important to them” has now changed to: “no deal is a good thing, and it’s what people wanted from the start.”
@Joe Bloggs: brilliant
Ah Nigel Farage, the man of the people, who also wants the UK to follow the American health system and make the NHS redundant in favour of insurance based healthcare.
@Devilsavocado: you dont half talk some rot – whether he does or not , most of his vote is solid working class – I’ve met em, tho then they voted UKIP.
Your average actual UKIP/b.party voter isnt as well off as your average labour professional middle class voter ,or your hedge fund owning , own house owning tory of the shire voter .
A ukip brexit voter is probably upper working class /skilled working class type , who may well have voted for Thatcher in essex sometime in the 80s – say what you will about thatcher , but she never attempted to abolish the NHS- she could see that would finish the tory party off….ditto farage .
@jackbello: can you not post comments like that please,unless youre vehemently pro Europe and anti brexit people round here cant handle the fact that its not the “unemployed layabouts” and idiots who vote for the like of Farage but ordinary working people
@Thomas Maher: more like poorly informed and easily led. The fact that the Sun is the most widely circulated daily paper in the UK tells you alot about the countries population.
@jackbello: After being involved in multiple online discussions with ardent Brexiteers they all have several things in common (A) They understand very little about the EU and how it works, (B) They don’t fully comprehend the damage Brexit will do to the UK economy in the Short to Medium term, (C) they have little or zero knowledge about the problems a hard border will cause, (D) they think the US is going to treat them as equals in trade.
And no matter what facts, evidence or reports even from their own Government they simply refuse to accept them.
So many of them are so wrapped up in the Flag that they are calling any UK citizen that disagrees with them Traitors.
@jackbello: really Jack,, ok so if you wouldn’t mind explaining this then, It’s kind of hard to deny it when you hear the words coming right out of his own mouth.
https://youtu.be/TUx0slUceNY
@Thomas Maher: ordinary working people who believed a blusterer and a flim-flam man. The same people who will eventually become ordinary unemployed people because they believed him.
“We take back what is righrfully ours”, oh the irony..
Ah, the truth at last! It is not, nor was it ever about we nasty paddies with our backstop (how very selfish of us to want to honour tge agreement that ended 30 years of suffering). No, it is, and always was, about the British getting everything their own way and putting Johnny Foreigner in their rightful place
Never mind the party name, if they get into power they might as well rename the place U-kip
We tried to tell you before the referendum Nige, but you were too busy stroking your own ego and lieing to the gullible plebs who followed you off the cliff, ah well, you made your bed.
If one looks at many of the leading Brexiteers who have business’s, they don’t seem to have any faith in the UK economy after Brexit. Take Reese-Mogg for example, he is a partner in a company called “Somerset Holdings”. This company relocated lock stock and barrel to Dublin last year so it could remain in the EU after Brexit. Dyson has buggered off to Singapore who just happen to have a Trade Agreement with the EU, and the list goes on.
Now a question needs to be asked. Why are these guys pushing to hard for Brexit yet knowing it it will cripple many firms in the UK? Would it be that after the inevitable crash they can buy up distressed companies for a fraction of their pre Brexit worth while they themselves are insulated from the crash?
All mouth, no actions and no policies and a German passport waiting for him through his wife. He won’t be struggling when he runs off
Farage calls things a bad idea if he doesn’t personally profit. Idiots will still listen to him though, thinking he’s “just like them” when in reality he just knows how to use them for personal gain.
@Ailbhe: just like Trump
Sick of hearing about it. Let the pieces fall where they may. It’s not the end of the world
@Spud Murphy: for many, it might very well be. Businesses will fail and people will lose their jobs. Ex pats living modest lives on modest pensions in Spain are suffering from the losses in sterling. The bigger businesses transferring departments to Ireland and the EU who wont put those jobs back in the UK now even if Brexit was stopped tomorrow, the ferry routes and land bridge businesses that may never see a return to current volume when people are forced to find other options (see swansea). It might not be the end of the world for you…
Why are people falling for this no deal s**ite. They will have to do some kind of deal with EU at some stage. They export to Ireland twice as much as we do to them so it will effect them too. EU is 50%of their exports. Why do UK establishment think we would ever again want to align ourselves to their narrow-mindedness. We have more emigrants per capita than UK, have a more liberal society. We need UK as a corridor to drive THROUGH their countryside so the quicker they realize they are a hub not a destination the better for all
The Withdrawal Agreement is not Brexit, the Withdrawal Agreement is a betrayal of what 17.4 million people voted for, and if Mr Johnson you insist on the Withdrawal Agreement we will fight you in every single seat up and down the length and breadth of the United Kingdom!
Having watched Michael Collins the other night I can see another treaty Vs non treaty civil war coming
@Gert McNulty: Troll
I recommend Nigel Farage’s 5-day-a-week show on LBC radio to get his direct opinions:
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