EVERY DAY, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you should know with your morning cup of coffee.
1. #BERTIE: Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has defended his reputation and accused the media of preferring that he constantly be “under threat” in an interview with the Irish Sun on Sunday. Ahern tells the paper that he has always got on well with the Irish people.
2. #1916: Taoiseach Enda Kenny and President Michael D Higgins will attend ceremonies marking the 96th anniversary of the Easter Rising in Dublin today. Ceremonies will take place today with the main event outside the GPO on O’Connell Street at noon. Members of the Irish Defences Forces and the Irish Air Corp will also take part.
3. #CORRUPTION: Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte has bemoaned the “interminable delay” in investigating matters of corruption that have arisen out of the tribunals of inquiry. Speaking to the Sunday Independent, Rabbitte also questioned why no banker had yet been brought to account for the “destruction of the country”.
4. #EASTER: On this Easter Sunday, the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said that the country’s Catholics should have “no fear or timidity” in spreading their beliefs. Meanwhile, we’ve been looking at what buns, bonnets, eggs, chocolate and bunnies have got to do with this day.
5. #SYRIA: As the deadline for UN-brokered ceasefire approaches, Syrian government forces have again hit opposition strongholds with Reuters reporting that as many as 100 have died in the latest attacks. They come just two days before forces loyal to President Bashar Assad are due to begin pulling back from towns which have been heavily bombarded in recent months.
6. #OKLAHOMA: Police in the US state of Oklahoma are hunting a gunman after a series of shootings in the city of Tulsa left three dead and two others injured. BBC News reports that the victims are black with police searching for a white male in connection with the attacks that have left local community leaders fearing further shootings.
7. #O’BRIEN: The editor of the Sunday Independent has hit back at criticism of her paper’s coverage of businessman Denis O’Brien. O’Brien’s spokesman accused the paper of “pernicious journalism at its worst” in its coverage of the telecoms tycoon last weekend. But Anne Harris writes today that her paper has attempted to interview O’Brien on a number of occasions only for him to decline.
8. #US MASTERS: As we head into the final day of the US Masters in Augusta, the hopes of the Irish rest with Pádraig Harrington who is on 4 under. He trails Sweden’s Peter Hanson who shot a 7-under 65 to take a one shot lead over Phil Mickelson. Rory McIlroy was further down the field and out of contention having finished 1 over on the third day of play.
9. #BOAT RACE: More details about the protester who interrupted yesterday’s Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge on the River Thames in London have emerged. Trenton Oldfield is an Australian living in London who was protesting against elitism. In a 2,000 word manifesto entitled Elitism Leads to Tyranny, the 35-year-old claims that he has been inspired by the suffragette movement and calls for campaign of civil disobedience.
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