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

IRELAND

Fatouma Hammami with Cork Firefighter Adam Brennan raising funds for the Irish Cancer Society on Daffodil Day. Darragh Kane Darragh Kane

• The number of people living in emergency accommodation increased last month to a record 15,378 people.
• The Government pledged €633 million towards improvement works on existing national roads.
• Migrants in Ireland are more likely to be in work than Irish-born residents, but they also spend a lot more on housing.
• A Garda Superintendent appeared in court accused of attacking a woman during an alleged incident in Dublin.
• Ireland is the “most exposed and most at-risk” country in the EU in the face of reportedly up to 20% tariffs from the Trump administration on exports coming from Europe, public expenditure minister Jack Chambers said.
• The chair of the Board of Uisce Éireann said Dublin’s drinking water supply is going to be “very tight” over the next few years due to delays with major projects.
• A trial in which two teenagers are charged with raping a girl in a car at Limerick Racecourse over the Christmas period in 2022 was only a matter of minutes in to evidence today when one of the accused collapsed in the dock.
• More than €13m has been spent on the design and consultation of a controversial flood defence project in Cork in the past eight years.
• Gardaí made a fresh appeal for information after a cyclist was killed in a serious crash near Knock Airport Friday, 28 February.
• RTÉ presenter Darragh McCullough, his wife and his baby born via surrogacy were turned away from the EU border while trying to return home from North Cyprus.
• Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien said Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy has the “full support” of the government.
• The trial of a former paratrooper accused of the murder of two men on Bloody Sunday is to start on September 15.
• The five headline acts performing at this year’s Electric Picnic in Stradbally Estate in Co Laois were revealed.

INTERNATIONAL

Image provided by the Myanmar military of a damaged road caused by the earthquake Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#EARTHQUAKE: Rescue workers said there may be “hundreds dead” after a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit central Myanmar this morning.
#GREENLAND: US vice president JD Vance visited an American military base in Greenland, with the vice president claiming that a US take over “makes sense”. 
#UKRAINE: Russian president Vladimir Putin today called for a “transitional administration” to be put in place in Ukraine and vowed his army would “finish off” Ukrainian troops.
#LEBANON: Israel bombed a building in a Beirut suburb and launched extensive strikes against targets across southern Lebanon in response to rocket fire early this morning.
#SENSITIVE INFO: Britain’s defence ministry launched an urgent probe after a football fan found piles of sensitive military papers strewn across a street in northern England.
#OSCARS: A statement by the Academy Awards on the alleged attack on an Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker by Israeli settlers has been lambasted by the Israeli co-director of the documentary.

PARTING SHOT

It's certainly for an acquired taste Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

A Labour MP has recalled being nearly kicked out of an Irish pub for ordering blackcurrant cordial with a Guinness.

“It was like a cardinal sin,” Dawn Butler said during a debate on St Patrick’s Day and Northern Irish affairs.

While many consider Guinness a drink best left unmixed, the combination of stout and blackcurrant cordial has been doing the rounds for years and is even listed as a cocktail on the Guinness website.

So in today’s poll we wanted to know: Is blackcurrant in Guinness acceptable?

Take part in the poll here or see how others have been voting.