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GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news you need to know as you start your day.
Matthew Healy
1. Tributes have been paid to the young boy who died in tragic circumstances in Waterford, who has been named locally as Matthew Healy.
Six-year-old Matthew’s body was discovered near a seaside cove in the area of Rathmoylan near Dunmore East shortly after midnight on Friday.
A woman in her 30s was arrested following the discovery. It is understood that gardaí were called to the Ballymacaw seaside area where they found the boy and the woman.
Birth information
2. More than 2,800 applications to Tusla’s tracing service are still waiting to be allocated to a social worker.
Thousands of people have signed up to the service in a bid to trace their relatives. Many of these people were adopted or spent time in a mother and baby home or similar institution.
In other cases relatives are seeking to find a person who was adopted, boarded out or sent to an industrial school.
Referendums
3. The Journal is inviting readers to submit questions they have about the referendums taking place on 8 March.
Gary Gannon
4. Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon has shared that he has recently been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and opened up about his struggles with his mental health.
In an interview with The Journal, Gannon revealed that he was diagnosed with ADHD before Christmas this year at the age of 36 and explained what led him to seek a diagnosis as an adult.
“I’ve always been hyper-focused on a goal, but then I would fall into fits of a depression or poor mental health once that’s achieved, and I used to think is that just a reflection of me?”
Converting land
5. The Central Bank has said it will take another seven years for it to vacate the old Mint site in Sandyford which has been earmarked for up to 750 homes.
Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien received government approval this week to transfer nine additional sites, including the Currency Centre Mint site, to the Land Development Agency (LDA).
The Currency Centre, which is under permanent security and surveillance, is a storage and distribution facility for cash services, though it’s understood that banknotes are no longer printed on site.
Trump
6. Former US President Donald Trump has said at a campaign rally that he would “encourage” Russia to attack members of Nato who had not met their financial obligations.
As US lawmakers debate new aid for Ukraine nearly two years after Russia’s invasion began, Trump has repeatedly said it was unfair to commit the United States to defending Nato’s 30 other member nations.
Speaking at a campaign rally in South Carolina Saturday, Trump described a conversation with a fellow head of state at an unspecified Nato meeting.
John Bruton
7. The funeral of former Taoiseach John Bruton took place yesterday in Co Meath.
The 76-year-old Fine Gael politician died peacefully in the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin in the early hours of Tuesday morning following a long illness.
Many politicians were in attendance, including Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and President Michael D. Higgins as well as Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill.
Zero emissions buildings
8. Plant-based insulation technology to recover the heat from shower waste waster, and 3D-printed homes are some of the innovations being explored as the EU moves to tackle emissions in its buildings.
A conference being held in Dublin later this month – the Zero Emissions Buildings (ZEB) Summit – aims to discuss and explore the ways to make old and new buildings in Ireland more environmentally sustainable.
According to estimates, over a third of all of the EU’s planet-warming greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come from buildings, many of which are old, poorly insulated and heated and powered by fossil fuels.
Oppenheimer
9. Christopher Nolan has won a top directing accolade at the Directors Guild of America awards for his film Oppenheimer.
Hollywood directors named Nolan the winner of the ‘Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film’ category for Oppenheimer, which stars Irish actor Cillian Murphy.
Nolan had been previously nominated four times for Memento, The Dark Knight, Inception and Dunkirk but last night was his first win.
Apparently this guy had been watched 24/7 since 2016. They spent all this time, money and resources on a guy who wasn’t even a New Zealander and this still happens. Why wasn’t he just deported?
@Colleen: Because you can’t arrest people for crimes they are yet to commit.
@Niamh Hayes: you can if you can prove conspiracy
@Michael Burke: They obviously couldn’t prove conspiracy then.
@Colleen: he would face “torture and violence” if he was deported, his lawyers said
@Niamh Hayes: yes you can.. I saw it on a documentary called “minority report”
@Niamh Hayes: look up the difference between deported and arrested.
@Colleen: NZ has a varefullg-crafted superiority complex to consider.
@Niamh Hayes:
You’re right but he was arrested previously for planning an attack but it was ruled by a judge that planning an attack is not illegal. Maybe it should be.
@Paul O Connor: that’s outrageous if true. Planning mass murder isn’t a crime?
@Niamh Hayes: crazy law
If he was known to be a violent extremist since 2016 why wasn’t he deported.
@Philip Kedney: because they are too soft. Now they are paying the price.
@Philip Kedney: because of barbaric principles like “innocent until proven guilty”?
Its only a matter of time before something like this happens in Dublin, plenty of extremists here under investigation; Sure didn’t one of the attackers in England have an Irish ID card a few years back and a Dublin address
@David Lee: got married in Ireland ya. Was staying out in Santry for a bit too, you are correct. Ireland, albeit an enemy to the Islamic State, is less likely to be attacked due to our strategic benefit to IS. Our security is incredibly lax and we share an unmanned border with the UK who would be a much bigger target in their eyes. They use Ireland as a gateway and therefore would not like to draw attention or give cause for increased security and scrutiny to their activities in Ireland by launching an attack here. Of course that is a large co-ordinated attack. We would very much be at risk from the lone wolf nut-jobs alright who are inspired by IS twisted ideology.
in ireland he would have got a good slap on the hand and a strongly worded letter
Was wondering how far down the page we’d make it before the obligatory inane ‘comparison’ comment.
Terrible thing to happen. Please God, all the victims will make a full recovery.
Great to see we have so many security and anti-terrorism experts, all putting their skills to their best use writing comments on thejournal.ie.
So they lied when they originally said it was “random”? Or are they just that incompetent?
@Thomas Smyth: It’s sounding as if he was copying IS attacks but not in a cell of terrorists conspiring to plan an attack? It’s that odd difference again between a gang with a religious or political motive and a wanna be serial killer, I suppose.
Unclear at this point whether or not suspect was NZ citizen / if he was might help explain why he wasn’t deported.
What was a Sri Lankan doing in NZ for 10 years? Was he legally resident,with status? Why wasnt he deported for his known extremist views?
‘Under surveillance’ resulting what the authorities suspected would happen is laughable. Same with the London Bridge attack…..’under surveillance’ before the guy had even left prison.
Going after New Zealand no country is safe from terrorism.
@andrew: no country is safe from a lunatic. ‘Terrorism’ is a handy tag.
@Alan McArdle: Some countries are more susceptible than others particularly in the era were living in.
have your say