LAST UPDATE | 14 May 2023

GOOD MORNING. HERE are the top stories as the weekend gets underway.

Eurovision

1. Sweden have won the Eurovision song contest, making the frontwoman of their act, Loreen’s Tattoo, the first woman to win twice in history. 

Turkey

2. Turkey has started voting in a momentous election that could extend President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s 21-year grip on power or put the mostly Muslim nation on a more secular course.

Ireland Women

3. Ireland Women have clinched qualification for the 2024 Paris Olympics with a nerve-wracking 10-5 win over Fiji at the Toulouse Sevens.

Ukraine

4. As Ukraine’s Eurovision act Tvorchi delivered a thumping bass under strobing yellow and blue lights in Liverpool last night, air raid sirens back in their hometown Ternopil were signalling the latest Russian assault.

Holly Cairns 

5. Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns agrees that it would be a good day from a feminist standpoint if Mary Lou McDonald were to become Taoiseach. 

Speaking to TheJournal in a wide-ranging interview, Cairns said her party would hold discussions with Sinn Féin about going into government together after the next general election. 

GPs fear ransomware attacks

6. GPS have spoken of their fear of being targeted by hackers in ransomware attacks, after learning that at least one practice falls victim on a monthly basis. 

At a talk on data protection today, one GP asked his colleagues, “Is anyone here terrified?”

Rory Gallagher 

7. Rory Gallagher will not be on the sidelines of today’s Ulster football final after he stepped back from his role as Derry senior football manager, following domestic abuse allegations being made against him by his estranged wife Nicola Gallagher.

New medical card holders ‘won’t get appointments’

8. GPs have said that the workforce is not in place to ensure that the 500,000 additional people who are to get free GP care will be able to get appointments. 

Fatal collision

9. A motorcyclist has died in a fatal collision in Co Longford. The man in his 40s was pronounced dead at the scene.