LAST UPDATE | 19 Apr 2023

GOOD MORNING.

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

Eviction

1. A surgical doctor living in Galway has spoken out about a terrifying incident where his landlord lunged at him with a circular saw during an attempt to break in the front door of his rented apartment. 

The incident, which Dr Muhammed Raheel – who is from Pakistan – caught on video, occurred at 1.30pm yesterday. 

Belfast

2. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is set to meet with British prime minister Rishi Sunak at an event in Belfast later today marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

Varadkar is due to deliver a keynote speech as part of the closing session of the ‘Agreement 25’ conference in Queen’s University Belfast. 

Fraud

3. Gardaí have sought information on a fraud campaign targeting hardware stores and co-ops across 14 counties since December. 

In an appeal made last night, gardaí said they are currently investigating a range of reports of people “calling to retail premises and providing fraudulent credit card details” in order to purchase building and agricultural material. 

Homelessness

4. Housing charity threshold supported over 1,200 households in first quarter of this year.

That’s the highest number the charity has recorded since it started publishing its quarterly impact reports in quarter two of 2021. 

Fontaines D.C. 

5. Irish band Fontaines D.C. have been nominated for an Ivor Novello award, which recognise merit in songwriting and composing in Ireland and the UK.

The Dublin band is nominated in the Best Album category for their third studio album Skinty Fia, which was released last year. 

Beijing fire

6. The death toll of a fire that ripped through a hospital in China’s capital Beijing has risen to 29, a city official said today.

The fire at the Beijing Changfeng Hospital in the Fengtai District broke out at around 1 pm (05:00am GMT) on Tuesday and was extinguished about half an hour later.

America

7. A man has been charged with murder after four people were shot dead in a Maine home and three others were shot and wounded on a highway 25 miles (40 kilometres) away, police said.

Joseph Eaton, 34, of Bowdoin, was charged with four counts of murder yesterday, but police declined to discuss a possible motive. Eaton was expected to appear in court this week. 

Nursing

8. Nurses working for the HSE are unable to move their families to Ireland due to the housing crisis.

One nurse from India told The Journal that seven months on from her arrival, after a three-month delay to her starting work in a new community nursing unit in Cork city, the mother-of-two hasn’t been able to find a house to rent so her family can join her. 

Craig Breen

9. Irish rally driver Craig Breen was laid to rest yesterday in Waterford.  

The 33-year-old died last Thursday during the pre-event test ahead of Rally Croatia later this month.