LAST UPDATE | 5 Apr 2023
GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.
Ireland’s neutrality
1. In our main story this morning, Christina Finn reports that a national forum to discuss Ireland’s foreign policy, including neutrality, is set to be held in June.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin will bring forward proposals to Cabinet today on the consultative forum, which will be held in three locations across four days in Dublin, Galway and Cork.
Military abuse
2. Gardaí have found 26 cases in their records arising out of complaints of sexual abuse in the Irish Defence Forces.
Commissioner Drew Harris has confirmed that gardaí have a specialist operation in place and have begun investigating incidents.
Trump
3. In the US, Donald Trump offered a full-throated defence of his conduct in his first public remarks since being charged over hush money payments to a porn star, blasting the criminal prosecution as “an insult to our country”.
Hours after he pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts in a dramatic hearing in New York, Trump told an audience outside his Mar-a-Lago home: “The only crime that I’ve committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it … It’s an insult to our country.”
Fatal assault
4. Gardaí investigating the violent death of a woman in Limerick yesterday are looking to trace a man seen entering a shop with a bandaged hand before washing his hands in the store.
The woman’s body was discovered inside an apartment block on Dock Road, just off O’Curry Street, at around 1.30pm.
Jerusalem
5. Israeli police stormed into the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City early this morning, firing stun grenades at Palestinian youths who hurled stones and firecrackers at them in a burst of violence during a sensitive holiday season.
Gaza militants responded with rocket fire on southern Israel, prompting an Israeli airstrike.
Visit to Ireland
6. The Dáil may be recalled from its Easter recess if US President Joe Biden wishes to address the Houses of the Oireachtas next week, Tánaiste Micheál Martin has indicated.
Biden is expected to arrive in Belfast next Tuesday, 11 April and travel to locations around Ireland before departing on Saturday, 15 April.
Good Friday Agreement
7. Former US president Bill Clinton said he believes Brexit “aimed right at the heart” of peace in Northern Ireland, and that it is a “miracle” that the UK’s exit from the EU did not bring down the Good Friday Agreement.
In an interview with RTÉ’s Prime Time, Clinton said he was disappointed but “not surprised” that there were ongoing tensions between unionist and nationalist communities.
Douglas
8. Gardaí and Cork City Fire Brigade personnel attended the scene of a house fire in Cork City today in which a man in his late 50s lost his life.
Emergency service personnel arrived at the scene at Douglas Road West, Douglas yesterday afternoon, including three units from the fire brigade.
Eviction ban
9. Tánaiste Micheál Martin has refuted the suggestion that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar overruled the Housing Minister on the eviction ban, even as housing campaigner Father Peter McVerry stood by his claim.
Yesterday, both Darragh O’Brien and Varadkar continued to deny McVerry’s claim that O’Brien had sought to maintain the eviction ban, only to be overruled by Varadkar.
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