NEED TO CATCH UP? TheJournal.ie brings you a round up of today’s news.

IRELAND

Waltons has closed down its iconic George’s Street premises, almost a century after it opened its first branch in Dublin city centre. The George’s Street branch was opened in the early 1990s but was closed last week. Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

• Leo Varadkar and Tánasite Simon Coveney met with Sinn Féin leadership this evening to discuss the ongoing impasse in Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin said direct rule of the North by Westminster was “off the table”.
• A woman who pleaded guilty to having a gun at Connolly train station in Dublin walked free after being sentenced today by the Special Criminal Court.
• A small Galway village erected three billboards in honour of the filmmaker Martin McDonagh.
• A garda who suffered PTSD after being attacked by four men was awarded €15,000 in compensation.
• Convicted killer Graham Dwyer‘s challenge against the Garda Commissioner and the State over the use of mobile phone records during his trial is due to commence tomorrow.
• Power outages in Dublin city affected thousands of people this afternoon.
• Central Bank governor Philip Lane was withdrawn as a candidate for the role as vice-president of the European Central Bank.
• The parents of a five-year-old boy who drowned near Ballymena, Co Antrim appealed for information.
• The Regency Hotel shooting trial was further adjourned this morning after the Special Criminal Court heard that material in the case has presented some “unprecedented conundrums”.
• Taxi drivers threatened to protest over the impact a proposed new plaza in the city centre would have on their business.
• Fianna Fáil were poised to block the sale of loans by Permanent TSB, saying that it should not go ahead.
• A new Irish study found that most deepwater fish have ingested microplastics.

WORLD

Jason Dunford (left) and Chris Unsworth outside Liverpool Crown Court ahead of the sentencing of serial paedophile football coach Barry Bennell for hundreds of historical sexual assaults committed on young boys in his care. Peter Byrne Peter Byrne

#FLORIDA: The Florida mass shooting suspect appeared in court today, with his lawyers seeking to avoid him being sent to death.

#SENTENCED: A British paedophile who admitted 137 criminal offences involving online abuse, including encouraging the rape of a four-year-old boy, was sentenced to 32 years in prison.

#UNITED STATES: The White House said that Donald Trump supported a bipartisan effort to improve a national system of background checks for gun purchases in the wake of the Florida school shooting.

#BENNELL: Disgraced former football coach Barry Bennell was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

#OXFAM: An Oxfam internal report found that it ‘cannot rule out’ the possibility that Haiti officials hired underage sex workers.

PARTING SHOT

Three billboards have been erected outside Lettermullen, Co Galway to honour Irish director and filmmaker Martin McDonagh.

McDonagh spent a lot of time in his father’s home of the small Gaeltacht village when he was growing up.

Róisín Nic Leoid Róisín Nic Leoid