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

The queue in Brown Thomas Dublin on Grafton Street this morning to celebrate the launch of Bláthnaid Bunny, the newest character from luxury soft toy brand Jellycat. Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

IRELAND

• Independent TD Michael Lowry has said the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has decided not to pursue any prosecution against him over the findings of the Moriarty Tribunal – the payments to politicians inquiry.
• The Garda Commissioner has been given three weeks to file opposition papers over a detective’s claim that after he loaned an unclaimed bicycle to a vulnerable elderly neighbour during Covid a flawed investigation into the incident caused him mental and physical illness, amounting to an injury while on duty.
• A Status Yellow wind warning has been issued for all of Ireland as Met Éireann forecasts possible snow later in the week.
• Detectives in Fermanagh have been given another 24 hours to question a man on suspicion of murder following the discovery of a woman’s body at an address in Enniskillen. 
• A man in his twenties has been arrested as part of an ongoing investigation into an alleged assault and suspicious approaches to children in the Dublin 3 area.
• The knock-on effects of the conflict in the Middle East has to be a “wake up call” for the EU on its dependency on fossil fuels, Tánaiste Simon Harris said.
• Lossiemouth swept aside all rivals to claim a brilliant victory in the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

INTERNATIONAL

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Tuesday, 10 March. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#IRAN: US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that today will see the “most intense” airstrikes on Iran, a day after President Donald Trump said the war was essentially over. 

#MADRID: The Taoiseach met with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez today – a vocal critic of the US and Israel’s attack on Iran.

#HIGH COURT: A man injured in the London Docklands bombing has said he believes Gerry Adams played a “major part” in the IRA.

#MINAB SCHOOL: Evidence analysed by international media and independent investigators indicates that fragments found at the site of a deadly strike on a primary school in southern Iran are consistent with a US-made Tomahawk cruise missile, contradicting claims by US President Donald Trump that Iran may have been responsible.

#HMP FRANKLAND: An inmate has been charged with the prison murder of Soham killer Ian Huntley, police have said.

PARTING SHOT

It’s been 11 years since Ireland legalised ecstasy and other drugs for 24 hours and made global headlines.

The Dáil sat to pass emergency legislation in order to reclassify certain drugs, including ecstasy and magic mushrooms, as illegal following a court ruling on 10 March 2015 which temporarily made them legal.

A ruling in the Court of Appeal on the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 effectively meant that the possession of certain drugs, which had been illegal, were legal.

The court ruling found that the 1977 Act was being added to via ministerial order without recourse to the Oireachtas, in violation of article 15 of the Constitution.

At the time, Ministerial orders had been used nine times since the Act’s inception to outlaw the possession of drugs like ecstasy, ketamine, magic mushrooms, benzos and other drugs.

. @campaignforleo statement on the temporary legalisation of ecstasy (among other drugs) pic.twitter.com/tO84E7H8Xf

— TheJournal Politics (@TJ_Politics) March 10, 2015