WHAT’S THE STORY?

1. OH yeah, there’s an election (or three) on today. Voters can give their preferences to elect both councillors and MEPs for Ireland today. (Those is Longford-Westmeath and Dublin West are also voting for a new TD each.) We’ll be with you round the clock here with results this weekend – in the meantime, see what these canny children we met have to say about politics:

2. THE tunnel to house the controversial onshore section of the Corrib gas pipeline has been completed. Shell Ireland is happy; Shell to Sea, not so much.

Tunnel workers celebrating the end of the project today. The statue of St Barbara, patron saint of tunnelers, in case you didn't know. Henry Wills Henry Wills

3. THE UK Independence Party (UKIP), despite several recent controversies, has surged ahead in local council elections there. “The UKIP fox is in the Westminster hen house,” said UKIP leader Nigel Farage today.

4. THERE are serious concerns about Stewarts Care, a facility in Dublin for people with intellectual disabilities, where inspections have discovered children housed in adult accommodation and mixed gender dormitories, lack of suitable locks on toilet doors and other worrying elements.

door lock door lock

5. REALLY? Apparently, Irish people believe that now is a good time to buy a house (according to an Ipsos MRBI survey). Meanwhile, seven people are becoming homeless every day in Dublin, a group which works with homeless people says; just this week they came across a young woman who is three weeks from giving birth, sleeping rough on the streets.

homelessness homelessness

Catch up on the rest of today’s stories>