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

IRELAND

Rugby star James Lowe who became an Irish citizen at a ceremony in the convention Centre Dublin Maxwell's Maxwell's

• The sister of Danielle McLaughlin, an Irish woman killed in India in 2017, has said that their family “can now start grieving her immeasurable loss” following the conviction of a man for her murder.
• Teachers in a Dublin-based secondary school have asked for plans by the Department of Education to convert the school to a Gaelcholáiste to be put on hold.
• A review has been launched after a man died by suicide the same day he presented himself to the emergency department at University Hospital Galway.
• An 82-year-old man who raped his daughter from the age of 12 until she was in her early twenties has been jailed for fifteen years for putting her through a “sustained campaign of sexual abuse” and “degradation.”
• Water supply is returning to thousands of people who were earlier affected by a significant water outage in north Dublin today.
• The annual State spend in accommodating International Protection applicants last year topped €1 billion for the first time.
• The cast for the TV adaptation of Marian Keyes’ best-selling novels has been revealed.

INTERNATIONAL

Palestinians perform Friday prayers at the Great Omari Mosque, which was damaged by Israel Alamy Alamy

#BIG GUNS US Vice President JD Vance has said Europe should “step up” on defence at a security conference in Munich where the new dynamic between the US and EU is casting a large shadow.

#CAR RAMMING The Afghan man suspected of driving a car into a group of people in Munich may have had Islamist extremist motives, police say.

#VATICAN Pope Francis has been admitted to hospital in Rome today for tests and treatment for bronchitis, the Vatican said, the latest in a series of health problems for the 88-year-old pontiff.

PARTING SHOT

Photo shows Hazel Behan (White Hat), survivor of sexual violence RollingNews.ie RollingNews.ie

Feminists dressed in black and held a red rose on Valentine’s Day at the Molly Malone statue to demonstrate against gender violence.

Inspired by the ‘Dark Valentine’ protests against femicide that took place in Kenya last year, ROSA Socialist Feminist Movement is seeking to pressure the government to take violence against women & LGBTQIA+ people seriously, and to make the call for massive mobilisations on the streets against femicide on 8 March, International Women’s Day 2025.