LAST UPDATE | 9 Jan 2023
GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.
1. In our lead story this morning, Niall O’Connor reports that Gardaí in Cork are monitoring a Real IRA gang that has established a lucrative fundraising method by forcing drug dealers in the city to pay protection money.
The small dissident group is led by a man based on the northside of the city and backed up by long-time Republican activists.
The gang, The Journal has learned, has established an extortion racket to force criminals they have identified to give money in return for an agreement that they can operate.
2. At least 300 people have been arrested in Brazil after thousands of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and presidential palace then trashed the nation’s highest seats of power.
Authorities, including the federal district’s civil police which tweeted the arrest numbers, were investigating following scenes of chaos and destruction reminiscent of the 6 January 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol.
The protesters were seeking military intervention to either restore the far-right Bolsonaro to power or oust the newly inaugurated leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
3. A pilot project to alleviate “inhumane” overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick gets underway today.
Midwest will be able to bring patients directly to Ennis Hospital instead of them waiting on a trolley at University Hospital Limerick as part of plans to ease record breaking overcrowding at UHL’s emergency department.
Hospital Group management outlined in a note to staff last week that “patients can be transported directly to the Medical Assessment Unit in Ennis Hospital” from Monday.
4. Ukrainian officials have said that nobody died in missile attacks Russia claims killed 600 troops.
The Russian defence ministry said missiles hit two temporary bases housing 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers in Kramatorsk in the easter Donetsk region.
5. Prince Harry has given the first two of four television interviews about his controversial autobiography Spare which has garnered a huge amount of attention and controversy in Britain in the lead up to its release.
The book, which is due to be released tomorrow, includes references to Harry using cocaine at the age of 17 and killing 25 people while fighting in Afghanistan.
6. Sailors and fishermen have been warned to stay out of an area of water to the south-west of Cork and Kerry for several hours tonight, in case rocket debris falls from the sky.
An alert issued by the Department of Transport relates to a mid-air launch of a satellite carrying a rocket by Virgin Orbit from the UK’s Spaceport Cornwall at approximately 10pm tonight.
7. Iran has sentenced to death three people accused of killing three members of the security forces during the protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, the judiciary said today.
The Islamic republic has been rocked by civil unrest since the 16 September death of Kurdish Iranian Amini, 22, following her arrest for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women.
8. The family of Bruna Fonseca, a 28-year-old Brazilian woman who was killed in a Cork city apartment in the early hours of New Years Day, expressed their deep gratitude to the hundreds who turned out to remember her yesterday.
Her cousin Marcela Fonseca thanked everyone who turned up at the Lough amenity in Cork City today, and who attended a mass hosted by Cork Penny Dinners in memory of Bruna.
9. A man who was injured in an alleged hit-and-run during Christmas week has passed away in hospital.
Sports broadcaster Paudie Palmer, aged in his 60s, was left in a critical condition after the two-vehicle collision at Dunkereen Cross in Innishannon, near Bandon, Co Cork on December 30.
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