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

Retired local fisherman Michael Doran offers Sammy the dog the leftovers of his prawn lunch at the Dublin Bay Prawn Festival in Howth today. Brian Lawless / PA Wire/Press Association Images Brian Lawless / PA Wire/Press Association Images / PA Wire/Press Association Images

IRELAND

• Defending the plan for free care for under 6s, junior minister Alex White told doctors that a decision to see a GP should “never be a financial dilemma“.
• Gardaí are looking for the car from which a man fell out of - and died – in Limerick.
• A search also continued for two men missing from Coolock.
• A surprising political poll puts Sinn Féin as the favourites to win seats in Europe.
• Credit Unions will soon offer its members online car insurance. 
• A woman in Dublin is refusing to leave her rental property – until she can find an affordable alternative.
• Staff were threatened with an iron bar during a robbery at Clare Hall Shopping Centre.
• Inspectors found dirty mattresses and soiled flooring at Waterford Regional Hospital.
• Twenty cases of counterfeit vodka hidden in an air conditioning unit in a large vehicle were seized by customs.
• Tom Meagher recalled the horror of losing his beautiful wife Jill.

INTERNATIONAL

PA Wire / Press Association Images PA Wire / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

#TITANIC A letter written by a Titanic passenger on the day it sank has sold for £119,000 at an auction in London.

#UKRAINE: The Pope has joined calls from Russia and the US for more efforts to be made to de-escalate the crisis in the Ukraine.

#WAR Five NATO soldiers perished in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

INNOVATION

• Modern farming is now very different to traditional agricultural methods. Here’s the proof, in stunning pictures. 
• A construction crew has started a major dig at a New Mexico landfill in search of an Atari cartridges and hardware…Here’s why that is such a big deal. [IGN]

PARTING SHOT

Kevin Breen captured this beautiful view from the Wellington Monument by using a DJI Phantom 2 Quadcopter with a GoPro Hero 3 camera.

“Whittled it down from 14 mins of footage, edited it at half-speed, added suitably beautiful baroque music and hey presto,” he told TheJournal.ie.

See the final product here.