LAST UPDATE | 11 Jan 2023

GOOD MORNING. 

Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.

Golden Globes

1. The Banshees of Inisherin has come away with three of the top awards from the Golden Globes.  

Colin Farrell took home best actor in a motion picture musical or comedy, director Martin McDonagh was recognised for best screenplay and the film won in the best motion picture, musical or comedy category.

Farrell paid tribute to his co-star Brendan Gleeson in his acceptance speech, also thanking the entire cast and crew and his other screen partner, Jenny the Donkey.

Paris knife attack

2. Seven people have been wounded in a knife attack at the busy railway station in Paris.

Details are still emerging but police sources have said the man was arrested by police at the station, which serves as a hub for trains to London and northern Europe, after they opened fire and wounded him. 

Andrew Tate

3. The impact of the influencer on young men is a cause for “deep concern” according to teachers and youth workers who have spoken to The Journal.

He and his brother Tristan were detained in Romania last month as part of a human trafficking and rape investigation. 

Asylum seekers

4. Integration Minister Roderic O’Gorman is expected to brief his Cabinet colleagues later today about the challenges around accommodating international protection applicants and people fleeing Ukraine.

While it is expected that he will outline his view that Ireland has done remarkably well to date, he is also due to warn them that sourcing accommodation is becoming increasingly difficult as it is expected that many hotels currently under contract for this purpose will soon revert to the tourist trade. 

Tax breaks for landlords

5. A tax break for smaller landlords is “not off the table”, according to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

At a summit with housing stakeholders held yesterday in Government Buildings, a number of proposals are understood to have been put forward to benefit landlords, from lowering the 52% tax rate on rental income, to deductions and reliefs on expenses and changes to capital gains tax.

Stormont 

6. The SDLP is to propose a change to the process of appointing a Speaker in Stormont in an attempt to move the assembly beyond the impasse that has prevented it from fully functioning for more than half a year.

The Democratic Unionist Party had held the first minister position for well over a decade, but Sinn Féin’s electoral success last year saw it move into the dominant position.

Eating disorders

7. The slow rollout of specialist eating disorder teams is “destroying lives”, according to those awaiting the recruitment of the professionals.

Noteworthy reports on how just three of the planned specialist eating disorder teams are operating, with recruitment issues cited by the HSE for the delay.

Death of Cardinal Pell

8. Cardinal George Pell, who was the most senior Catholic cleric to be convicted of child sex abuse before his convictions were later overturned, has died in Rome at the age of 81.

Vatican news agency EWTN reported that his death yesterday was due to complications from hip replacement surgery. 

John Lydon’s Eurovision entry

9. Former Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Lydon has said that the song he wrote in a bid to represent Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest is about his wife Nora, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, and who he is now caring for full time.

“I cried my eyes out writing it and recording it and for them to have appreciated it and put it forward, my wife is just going to melt,” the singer told RTÉ Radio 1.

Lydon, who was born to parents from Galway and Cork, is now one of the six final acts who will perform on a special Late Late Show on Friday, 3 February, where the winner who will go on to compete in Eurovision in Liverpool.