Limerick man Ger Hogan brings people through the water at St Mary’s Park in Limerick. (Image: Sean Curtin)

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

IRELAND

• The weather was so bad some people had to be evacuated from their homes.
• A human skull washed up on a Galway beach.
• An inquiry has been called for into the deaths of babies at the Midlands Regional Hospital Portlaoise.
• It was revealed that an entire town’s sewage is being piped into a conservation area.
• Another former Labour Party councillor joined Sinn Féin.
• After being bombarded with online sectarian abuse, a Catholic teacher left her job at a Protestant school.
• A protest march was held outside Mount Carmel Hospital.
• SIPTU’s president Jack O’Connor has called for a wage increase. [RTÉ]

WORLD

Villagers and a journalist prepare to flee as Mount Sinabung releases pyroclastic flows during an eruption in Namantaran, North Sumatra (Image: AP).

#INDONESIA: 14 people, including a number of schoolchildren, were killed when a volcano eruptedon the Indonesian island of Sumatra. [BBC]

#CASTAWAY: A Mexican man has claimed he survived 16 months adrift in the Pacific before washing up on a reef on Thursday.

#KNOX: The ex-boyfriend of Amanda Knox said he was not fleeing Italy when he drove to Austria while an appeals court deliberated his fate in the death of British student Meredith Kercher.

INNOVATION

• Are you forever exceeding your mobile data limit? Here are some tips on how to keep it under control.
• This impressive 3D brain scan shows every neuron connection in the brain in a colourful display. [Gizmodo]

PARTING SHOT

If the high winds and floods across the country were bringing you down today, this might lift your mood. If only Thomas the Tank Engine really was in Galway – he’d know exactly what to do.