EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you all the news you need to know as you start the day.

1. #POLL: Fine Gael has seen its support drop by two points to 30%, but it remains the most popular political party in Ireland, according to the latest Business Post/Red C poll. Fianna Fáil is the second most popular party with 24% of support. 

2. #MIGRANTS: Up to 11 of the 16 Kurdish migrants found inside a freight container last Wednesday allegedly left their accommodation in Dublin on Friday, according to reports in the Sunday Times, the Irish Mail on Sunday and the Sunday World. Gardaí allegedly believe the group may be trying to reach Britain. 

3. #IRISH UNITY: The majority of people in the Republic of Ireland would like to see an Irish unity referendum in the next five years, according to the latest Amárach/Claire Byrne Live poll for TheJournal.ie. 

4. #DEMOCRACY: Hong Kong citizens turned out in their droves today to cast ballots in local council elections that the city’s pro-democracy movement hopes will add pressure on the Beijing-backed government to heed their demands. Nearly one-third of voters cast their ballot within five hours. 

5. #KEVIN LUNNEY: Two directors of Quinn Industrial Holdings (QIH), including Kevin Lunney, advised and encouraged a protest campaign group that sought to prevent the sale of companies once owned by business tycoon Seán Quinn in 2011, The Sunday Times reports. Lunney was abducted from his home in Fermanagh and tortured in September. 

6. #HATE SPEECH: Facebook’s counterterrorism chief Dr Erin Marie Saltman said governments need to work with tech companies to curb hate speech and regulate harmful content on platforms. 

7. #POSTERS: A man in his 40s has been arrested after being caught tampering with election posters in Balbriggan in north Dublin. 

8. #UK ELECTION: The UK’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was confronted by an angry mother at a local hustings event as she questioned him about Conservative plans to raise the threshold for paying National Insurance. 

9. #EXPLAINER: Dublin councillors are currently in a row over the annual budget of the council. TheJournal.ie examines how this row could see the councillors replaced by a ‘city commissioner’ if a budget fails to pass and how this came to be. 

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