NEED TO CATCH up? TheJournal.ie brings you a round up of today’s news.

IRISH

Sam Boal / Photocall Ireland Sam Boal / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

• Former Fine Gael junior minister Lucinda Creighton (above) announced plans for a new political party – after a year of speculation. 
• Valerie Greaney was laid to rest in Cobh.
• Pearse McCauley is facing a further two weeks in prison after appearing in court today. He is facing four charges including threatening to kill or cause serious harm to his wife, according to the Irish Times.
• It emerged that there were just 63 organ donations in the whole of 2014.
• NAMA generated €8.6 billion in the last twelve months.
• Property prices rose by 16.3% last year, and they’re still on the up.
• Dublin City Council appealed to people not to engage in illegal dumping or littering.
• A Waterford councillor has hit out at the lack of Garda resources after it was revealed a family had to make seven phone calls before gardaí responded to a petrol bomb attack.
• Speaking of gardaí, they’ll soon be able to test driver’s saliva for the presence of drugs in their system at the roadside.
• Channel 4 defended commissioning a script for a sitcom about the Famine.
• Here’s how people reacted to UTV Ireland‘s first night of broadcasting. 

WORLD

Indonesia soldiers carry coffins containing bodies of the victims of AirAsia Flight 8501. Tatan Syuflana Tatan Syuflana

#UK Buckingham Palace denied underage sex allegations made against Prince Andrew.

#THE INTERVIEW THE US imposed financial sanctions on North Korea in retaliation for a cyber attack on Sony Pictures.

#INDONESIA 21 more bodies were recovered in search efforts following the AirAsia Flight 8501 crash.

#ITALY The Italian coastguard took control of a crewless merchant ship that had 450 migrants on board.

#AMERICA A US clothing firm was forced to confirm it was not connected to the IRA.

#DISLIKE A man in Kenya was jailed after insulting the country’s president on Facebook.

INNOVATION

• Here’s a run-down of the Guardian’s top technology and innovation stories from 2014.
• Russia has been training military robots, in the hope they will be deployed before 2020.

PARTING SHOT

There was a lot of bad news in 2014, but plenty of good stories too. Here, Time presents the ‘most uplifting’ photos of the year.

Originally published: 21.00