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

IRELAND

Gráinne Uí Mhaitiú. YouTube YouTube

• Former Bosco presenter Gráinne Uí Mhaitiú has died at the age of 72. Many viewers have shared fond memories in the wake of her death. 
• The Taoiseach has said Ireland should “consider seriously” the use ofnuclearenergy.
• A young boy was arrested yesterday evening after a garda was struck by an e-bike in a park in west Dublin.
• Two Irish passengers are among the 149 people on a cruise ship where a case of hantavirus has been confirmed.
• An Irish asylum seekers rights group has “strongly condemned” comments made by Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch in which he called for people he described as “illegal immigrants” to be “interned“. 

INTERNATIONAL

Donald Trump at the White House yesterday with his son, Donald Trump Jr.

#THE UAE says that Iran has resumed attacks, as the US has today moved to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. 

#FATALITIES have been reported after a car rammed a crowd of people in the German city of Leipzig. 

#MARK CARNEY, prime minister of Canada, told a meeting of European leaders in Armenia today that Europe isn’t destined to “submit” to a more “brutal world” as the US Neighbour State and the EU are forming closer ties against the backdrop of Trump’s tariffs and the imapct of his war on Iran.

PARTING SHOT

I joined the ‘Council of Andrews’, the global club where everyone has the same name

MixCollage-01-May-2026-03-33-PM-9212Clockwise from the top famous Andrews Porter, Garfield, Hozier-Byrne aka Hozier, and Scott (none of whom are on the Council of Andrews yet, as far as we know).

IT MIGHT NOT be the most exclusive club in the world, but it does have one very strict entry requirement: you have to be called Andrew.

That’s the premise behind the “Council of Andrews”, an online group that has quietly amassed thousands of members across the world, all united by nothing more than a shared first name.

The idea was recently brought to wider attention in a feature by The Guardian, which traced the origins of the group from a half-joking Facebook experiment into a global community of Andrews, Andys, Drews and Andreas.

In an era where right-wing ‘manosphere’ figure Andrew Tate and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, a former prince, have dominated Andrew-related headlines, the name has garnered some less-than-flattering associations.

The name Andrew is even being removed from street signs.

As an Andrew myself, it felt only right to investigate the Council of Andrews, and talk to some of its founding – and Irish – members.

Read about more about what our reporter Andrew Walsh found out in his report here.