LAST UPDATE | 16 May 2025

EVERY WEEKDAY EVENING, The Journal brings you five of the biggest stories of the day.

1. #RIP: Garda Kevin Flatley, who was killed during a routine speed enforcement last week, has been described as a great garda, a family man and someone who “left no stone unturned” at his funeral mass in Dublin this afternoon.

2.#COURTS: A new date has been set for the trial of former DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and his wife, Lady Eleanor Donaldson, on charges relating to alleged historical sexual offences.

3. #ISTANBUL: In the first direct talks between Ukraine and Russia since 2022, the two sides have agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war and indicated there may be future negotiations between presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin.

4. #STOP: Taoiseach Micheál Martin has called for Israel to refrain from any further military operations in Gaza in a joint statement alongside the political leaders of Malta, Slovenia, Spain, Luxembourg, Iceland and Norway.

5. #MOUNTBATTEN: A new book claims that boys were taken from a notorious Belfast children’s home to Lord Louis Mountbatten’s home in Co Sligo, where he then sexually abused them.