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

Taoiseach Micheál Martin and the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, at Government Buildings today. Rolling News Rolling News

IRELAND

• Striking National Ambulance Service workers are “prepared for the long haul”, a paramedic on a Dublin picket line said.
• Irish military personnel are “frustrated” by a government refusal to pay them €3.7m in owed allowances, despite an agreement in negotiations.
• Four homes were damaged overnight in Ballymun in an incident which has been described by a local councillor as “shocking but not surprising”.
• President Catherine Connolly gave her first major speech on climate change and the environment, in which she criticised the degradation of Irish rivers.
• People Before Profit byelection candidate Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin submitted an ethics complaint to Dublin City Council about an alleged breach by councillor and lord mayor Ray McAdam.
• The organisation for pubs outside the greater Dublin area said rural pubs are facing an “existential threat to their survival” unless targeted government supports are introduced.
• The government was accused of normalising the fact that Ireland has the highest energy costs in the EU during a debate in the Dáil this evening.
• In other politics news, the government will have a free vote on the proposed abortion legislation due to be debated in the Dáil tomorrow.
• Chicken products sold in Aldi, Dunnes, Lidl, Centra, SuperValu and Tesco have been recalled due to the possible presence of salmonella. 

INTERNATIONAL

Keir Starmer pictured during a visit to during a visit to London South Bank Technical College today. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#STARMER: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is to meet one of his biggest leadership rivals as he seeks to face down a Labour revolt.

#SOCIAL MEDIA BAN: The European Union should explore limiting children’s access to social media, with possible new rules proposed as early as this summer, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said.

#EUORVISION: An investigation by the New York Times has found that the Israeli government spent at least $1 million (€850,000) on promotional campaigns linked to Eurovision voting efforts over the past two years.

#HANTAVIRUS: An Italian ⁠man with suspected hantavirus is being transferred to Rome’s Spallanzani infectious disease ‌hospital ⁠for testing, ANSA news agency has reported. 

PARTING SHOT

A sketch by her father's friend, the (late) artist and medallist, Tom Ryan. Caoilfhinn Gallagher Caoilfhinn Gallagher

“A fortnight ago, my father died.

“He was 80. Everybody has to die sometime, but I always believed an exception would be made in my father’s case.”

In a deeply personal essay, Caoilfhionn Gallagher reflects on the death of her father Colm, a man who repeatedly defied medical predictions throughout his life, surviving illness after illness through what she describes as “determination, a deep commitment to proving doctors wrong, and sheer bloody-mindedness”.

Gallagher writes about the strange shock of grief after decades spent anticipating loss, and how nothing could prepare her for the moment it finally came.

Read her full piece here.