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

IRELAND

Members of the Garda Public Order Unit and the Mounted Horse Unit at the GPO as the protest passes by. © RollingNews.ie © RollingNews.ie

• Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Simon Harris, and President Micheal D Higgins were among those attending the funeral of the late Pope Francis in Rome today.
• An anti-immigration protest and a counter-protest took place on the streets of Dublin city centre.
• A sparkly cap was placed at the front of the coffin of the late dancer, choreographer and talent agent, Julian Benson, as his gift for genuine friendship and the “colour, love, joy and hope” he brought to so many people was remembered at his requiem mass this morning.
• British developer Summix is to lodge plans in the coming days for a nine storey student accommodation block on the former site of the Independent Newspapers HQ on Middle Abbey Street in Dublin.
• An alleged burglar arrested during a garda investigation into the theft of €50,000 worth of jewellery from a high-end Dublin jeweller was remanded in custody.

INTERNATIONAL

The coffin of Pope Francis is carried at the end of his funeral in St Peter's Square at the Vatican. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#THE VATICAN: Over 200,000 people attended the funeral of Pope Francis today – with 50,000 people packed into St Peter’s Square and others watching on screens set up in nearby squares and streets.

#VIRGINIA GIUFFRE: Virginia Giuffre, an outspoken sex trafficking survivor who settled a sexual assault lawsuit against the UK’s Prince Andrew, died aged 41.

#GAZA: Gaza’s Civil Defence agency has said Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed at least 49 people in the past 24 hours, with more people trapped under the rubble after a family home was hit.

#WAR IN UKRAINE: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he had a “good meeting” with US President Donald Trump this morning, which has the potential “to become historic”. 

#IRAN: Five people have died and more than 700 have been injured after a massive explosion and fire at a port in southern Iran, authorities said.

PARTING SHOT

Like so many, Marie Heraughty was over for originally for the Canonisation of Carlos Acutis. She said he even came through for her group today, when a prayer to him fixed the big screen that was in the blink at St Peter’s. @thejournal_ie pic.twitter.com/8KQCGJsotJ

— Diarmuid Pepper (@Diarmuid_9) April 26, 2025

LIKE SO MANY, Marie Heraughty was originally planning on travelling to Rome for the Canonisation of Carlos Acutis, when the event was postponed as a result of Pope Francis’s death.

“When [Pope Francis] was ill last week, we were still hoping that he’d be well enough to do the canonisation, so it was a shock on Monday morning,” she told The Journal. “But we were determined we were going to come anyway.”

She said that despite Carlos Acutis’s delay in being canonised, she and the group she travelled with have “already asked Carlos Acutis for a lot of things” and got “a favour from him this morning” when a prayer to him from their group fixed the big screen that was on the blink in St Peter’s.