NEED TO CATCH up? TheJournal.ie brings you a round up of today’s news.

IRELAND

A protest balloon against Leo Varadkar in Limerick. PA Wire / PA Images PA Wire / PA Images / PA Images

• Voting for this year’s general election will not go ahead in Tipperary on Saturday following the death of independent candidate Marese Skehan. 
• RTÉ has reversed its stance on tomorrow’s Prime Time debate and has announced that Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald will be invited to take part.
• Micheál Martin has once again ruled out a coalition with Sinn Féin after the general election, adding that the election is about issues and not opinion polls.
• Postgraduate researchers are increasingly vulnerable to bullying, abuse and harassment in Ireland’s third-level institutions, a student graduate officer has said. 
• Independent Tipperary candidates are “seeking legal advice” to discern whether it is necessary to postpone the election in the county. 
• A potential crannóg site has been located in Co Galway, according to an archaeologist. 
• A 37-year-old man was found guilty of conspiring with Kinahan cartel murder plotters to gun down Dublin man Gary Hanley.
• Richard Boyd Barrett, Peadar Tóibín and Catherine Murphy answered your election questions earlier today. 
• Looking to see what each candidate wants to do for your constituency? We updated our general election candidate database earlier today with the answers to three key questions.

INTERNATIONAL 

Cheetah Saba with Damian Aspinall, one of two cheetahs, Saba and Nairo at Howletts Wild Animal Park, near Canterbury. PA Wire / PA Images PA Wire / PA Images / PA Images

#HOSPITAL: The first patients arrived at a 1,000-bed hospital built in 10 days as part of China’s efforts to fight the coronavirus. 

#EMERGENCY: An Air Canada Boeing 767 flight made a safe landing following problems with one of its engines and a ruptured tyre during take-off. 

#US: Two people were killed and a third was injured in a shooting at a university in Texas. 

PARTING SHOT 

After the news of the sudden passing of Independent candidate Marese Skehan broke this evening, you may have wondered whether this situation had happened before. 

From our research, it seems the last instance of a candidate passing away during the general election campaign was Fine Gael’s Eamonn Coogan who died during the 1948 election campaign.

Some candidates have died during local election campaigns in the past, but none it appears in the general election since 1948. 

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