LAST UPDATE | 22 May

GOOD MORNING.

Here’s all the news you need to start the day.

Byelections

1. Polls have opened for the Galway West and Dublin Central byelections.

Vatican

2. Taoiseach Micheál Martin will today meet with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, for what will be the first meeting between a pontiff and a Taoiseach since 2018.

Epstein files

3. Detectives investigating Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor will consider allegations of sexual misconduct in their inquiry into potential misconduct in public office.

Brussels

4. Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Helen McEntee will attend a high-level meeting in Brussels today where EU members will discuss the impact of conflicts in the Middle East on trade and supply chains.

Yves Sakila

5. The solicitor representing the family of Yves Sakila, the man who died after being restrained by security on Henry Street last Friday, has said that they are yet to be informed of the initial results of a postmortem examination that has been carried out. 

Last Late Show

6. Late Show host Stephen Colbert presented his final episode of the 33-year-old show last night – but the Pope, who the devout Catholic presenter has long said is his dream guest, couldn’t make it.

Scott Medal

7. A garda who died in the course of an attack by the Anti-Treaty IRA in the 1920s is set to be recognised for bravery more than a century on at an event in Dublin later today.

RIP

8. Founder of Sneem Storytelling Festival, Batt Burns, has died.

Global Sumud Flotilla

9. The first of the Gaza flotilla activists deported from Israel have arrived in Istanbul.