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

IRELAND

President Michael D Higgins was in Liverpool for the last leg of his UK visit today Maxwells Maxwells

• The HSE revealed 78,000 slides are left in the CervicalCheck backlog.
• Two Clare boys drowned in a disused quarry despite “valiant” rescue efforts of friends, an inquest heard.
• Gardaí are to change how they manage repossessionsafter the Take Back the City incident.
• The High Court heard a HSE claim that a man allegedly set up a misleading My Options website.
• Premier League footballer Declan Rice has rejected Ireland and declared for the English national team.
• Three gardaí are facing possible disciplinary action over the death of Shane O’Farrell.
• 15 Dublin hotels received over €1 million each over accommodating homeless people in 2018.
• Bertie Ahern repeatedly told a UK Brexit committee that “Northern Ireland is not the same as the rest of the UK”, while Mary Lou McDonald accused the UK of playing a “game of chicken” with Irish interests on British morning TV.
• A woman in her 60s died after she was hit by a truck in Athy.

INTERNATIONAL

The anti-Brexit and pro-Brexit protesters are still at it outside Westminster. Kirsty O'Connor / PA Images Kirsty O'Connor / PA Images / PA Images

#OXY MORON: Nigel Farage declared himself a Brexit Party MEP.

#CONFLICT: Venezuela’s Guaido has vowed to bring in food next week, and said Maduro “will have no choice to leave”. 

#SUPERMAX: El Chapo is expected to go to the “prison of prisons” which has been described as a “high-tech version of hell”. 

PARTING SHOT

It was a bitterly disappointing announcement for Ireland football fans this evening, as Declan Rice said he was declaring for England.

This piece from our colleagues at The42.ie outlines why his decision is a reminder of what Ireland has been getting wrong for decades.