EACH WEEKDAY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you five things we think you should know before you head out the door…
1. #RACE FOR THE ÁRAS: The seven candidates on the presidential ballot took part in their first round-table discussion, after nominations finally closed at midday today. TheJournal.ie covered all the action as it happened – and you’ve been voting in your thousands in our latest presidential poll.
- Meanwhile, presidential candidate David Norris has said he won’t be releasing more letters he wrote seeking clemency for his former partner, Ezra Nawi, as they are protected by confidentiality rules. He said the letters were “substantially the same” as others released, which were written as Nawi faced sentencing for the statutory rape of a 15-year-old boy.
2. #SEIZURE: Customs officers have seized a shipment of crystal methamphetamine – also known as ‘ice’ – worth around a quarter of a million euro at Dublin Airport. The drug was discovered concealed in the framework of two suitcases carried by a passenger arriving from Lesotho in Africa.
3. #STATE OF THE UNION: In a landmark speech at the European Parliament, EC head José Manuel Barroso has urged EU nations to unite in the face of the debt crisis. He warned that the financial problems would be a “baptism of fire” for the Eurozone, which risked “fragmentation” if it did not take decisive action.
4. #TRUTH COMMISSION: Chelsea striker Didier Drogba is expected to be sworn in to an historic 11-member Truth, Reconciliation and Dialogue Commission set up in his native Ivory Coast. The commission will examine acts committed during the violence that racked the country earlier this year in the wake of an election, leaving 3,000 people dead.
5. #TREASURE: A hoard of silver worth an estimated €173 million has been discovered in a WWII-era wreck lying on the bottom of the Atlantic off the west coast of Ireland. Only one man survived the sinking of the SS Gairsoppa, which occurred after it was attacked by a German U-boat while carrying 7 million ounces of the precious metal in 1941 – and we’ve got footage of the wreck as it looks today.
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