NEED TO CATCH up? The Journal brings you a round-up of today’s news.

IRELAND

Supporters and family members of the 48 deceased gathered in the Garden of Remembrance today © RollingNews.ie © RollingNews.ie

•  The jury in the Stardust inquests today delivered verdicts of unlawful killing in the case of all 48 victims who died.
• Taoiseach Simon Harris has said An Garda Síochána will consider the outcome of the today’s Stardust inquests verdicts.
• Former Stardust manager Eamon Butterly went to the High Court in the final days of the Stardust inquests in a last-ditch attempt to prevent the jury from being able to consider a verdict of unlawful killing, it can be revealed.
• A man has been charged with the murder of Tristan Sherry, who was killed after fatally shooting another man in a Dublin restaurant on Christmas Eve.
• A man has been found guilty of dangerous driving causing the death of GAA commentator Paudie Palmer who worked for C103FM and 103FM.
• The Taoiseach has said he hopes to get rid of the triple lock for Irish military involvement in operations abroad “in the lifetime of this government”. 
• Three more measles cases have been confirmed in Ireland, bringing the total number of cases so far this year to 16.
• Reforms to the Civil Registration System will give families the option of recording stillbirths on a public register for the first time.
• The death has occurred of Alf McCarthy who spent over 35 years working as a producer, director and presenter on RTÉ radio and television.

INTERNATIONAL

Former US president Donald Trump returns from a break at Manhattan criminal court in New York Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#SNP: The husband of former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been arrested for the second time in connection with the police investigation into the Scottish National Party’s finances.

#GERMANY: A far-right German politician has gone on trial today for using a banned Nazi slogan. 

#FRANCE: An assailant wounded two girls aged six and 11 in a knife attack close to their school in the east of France, according to local officials.

PARTING SHOT

One of the things that made the Stardust inquests different to other inquests was the pen portraits. 

From the day it began sitting last April, the court heard over the course of several weeks from the families of each of the 48 people who died in the fire. 

The family members would describe the person that they had lost; their likes, their dislikes, what they meant to their family, and what life had been like without them. 

The decision to have pen portraits at the Stardust inquests came from the coroner, Dr Myra Cullinane, who had said that it would be a way to publicly commemorate those who had died, as well as to help the jury to picture the victims as they were at the time of the fire. 

It would remind the jury that the victims “are at the heart of this inquest,” she said. 

The results were alternately moving, heartbreaking and poignant.

• Click here to read the pen portraits in the order they were read about each of the 48 people who died in the Stardust disco on the night of 13 February 1981.