LAST UPDATE | 17 May 2023

GOOD MORNING.

Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.

Air Policing 

1. Two senior civil servants were involved in the last update to a deal that allows RAF aircraft access to Irish airspace but there was no ministerial input, The Journal has learned.

Sources with a knowledge of the memorandum of understanding said that the last renewal of the deal was in 2016 when a senior official from the Department of Defence and another from the Irish Aviation Authority signed the document.

Justin Flannery 

2. THE BODY OF a 26-year-old Irish tourist has been found in Switzerland after he was reported missing over the weekend.

Justin Flannery, from Co Sligo, was last seen on 12 May in Lauterbrunnen, a village in the Swiss Alps around 66 kilometres south of Bern.

Restorative justice

3. The number of referrals to restorative justice services – a process that facilitates dialogue between victims and offenders – declined last year despite Government commitment to increase capacity.

New research based out of Maynooth University has found that the use of restorative justice was far lower in 2022 compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, falling from 721 referrals to 413.

Rory Gallagher

4. Rory Gallagher has stepped down as the manager of the Derry senior footballers.

Domestic abuse allegations were made against Gallagher by his estranged wife, Nicola Gallagher, in a post on social media last week.

Bank fraud

5. New research on fraudulent online activity has shown that phishing and hacking incidences are on the rise in Ireland, and occurring more often here than in most other countries.

The number of those surveyed by polling company Red C who say they have experienced phishing has risen from 43% in 2019 to 59% in 2022, the highest level seen globally.

Hostel fire in New Zealand

6. A Hostel blaze that killed at least six people in New Zealand’s capital is being treated as arson, police said Wednesday as they launched a homicide investigation.

Flames and smoke engulfed the four-storey Loafers Lodge in Wellington in the early hours of Tuesday, forcing dozens of residents to flee for their lives.

Asylum seekers in Co Clare 

7. Politicians from Co Clare are due to have a meeting with Minister for Equality and Integration Roderic O’Gorman this morning, focusing on the opposition by local people to asylum seekers being housed at a hotel in Inch.

Anniversary of Dublin-Monaghan bombings

8. A wreath-laying ceremony is taking place today to mark the 49th anniversary of the Dublin-Monaghan bombings.

More than 30 people were killed by three no-warning bombs in Dublin city centre and a fourth in Monaghan town on 17 May 1974.

Elizabeth Holmes 

9. Disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes looks set for prison after an appeals court rejected her bid to remain free, as she tries to overturn her conviction in a blood-testing hoax that brought her fleeting fame and fortune.

In another ruling issued late last night, US district judge Edward Davila ordered Holmes to pay $452 million in restitution to the victims of her crimes.