LAST UPDATE | 19 May 2023

GOOD MORNING.

Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.

Resisting eviction

1. In this morning’s top story, Jamie McCarron reports that some tenants are refusing to leave a property in Dublin city centre following an eviction attempt yesterday. 

Reynolds, Rosemary Jones and another tenant say they were woken up yesterday morning when security guards arrived to evict them from 21 Harrington Street, Portobello.

Northern Ireland election

2. Counting of votes gets underway in Northern Ireland today after the polls closed in the local elections last night. 

Ballots cast yesterday will elect 462 councillors across the 11 councils in Northern Ireland.

Asylum seekers

3. Junior Minister Joe O’Brien has told a delegation of locals who have been protesting outside a refugee accommodation centre in Co Clare that no more asylum seekers would be housed there for the next month. 

O’Brien made the surprise visit to Magowna House in Inch, Co Clare yesterday evening, where he met with asylum seekers staying in the hotel and held a meeting with delegation of locals who have been protesting outside the facility.

The visit was part of efforts to end the ongoing blockade of the hotel, which began on Monday evening.

Navan attack

4. Minister for Education Norma Foley has said that “all of the young people” involved in the attack of a young boy in Navan “do attend school” and that disciplinary procedures “will be matter for the Board of Management”.

A group of boys were involved in the attack on one of their peers. 

The victim of the assault was taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda on Monday afternoon to receive treatment for serious facial injuries. 

Job announcement

5. More than 400 new jobs are to be created by Boston Scientific in Clonmel, Co Tipperary over the coming years. 

It’s part of a €80 million investment to increase office space on the site and expand the medical device facility’s manufacturing and research and development work.

Stardust

6. The final pen portraits were heard at the Stardust inquests yesterday afternoon.

Over 15 days, the jury heard descriptions of all 48 people who died in the 1981 nightclub fire, read out by friends and family.

The testimony contained a significant amount of details on the lives of the deceased, the events of the night, and the impact of the fire on families. 

Discrimination case

7. Two members of the Roma community have been awarded a total of €6,000 compensation against Dunnes Stores after a judge ruled they had been discriminated against on the grounds of race and ethnicity.

Sanctions on Russia

8. The US and its G7 allies have rolled out new sanctions against Russia’s “war machine”, targeting Moscow’s lucrative diamond trade and more entities linked to the invasion of Ukraine.

Leaders from the Group of Seven wealthy democracies are meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, with Russia’s $4-5 billion annual trade in diamonds in the crosshairs.

Vatican crash

9. A man has been arrested after a car was driven through a Vatican gate and sped past Swiss Guards into a palace courtyard.

Vatican gendarmes fired a shot at the speeding car’s front tyres after it rushed the gate, but the vehicle managed to continue on its way, the Vatican press office said in a statement last night.

Once the car reached the San Damaso Courtyard of the Apostolic Palace, the driver got out and was immediately arrested by Vatican gendarmes.