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

IRELAND

A mallard duck landing on the water in St Stephen's Green this afternoon. Sam Boal Sam Boal

• 34 further deaths across a period of at least five months and 473 cases of Covid-19 were reported in Ireland.
• Leaders of the Stormont Executive met with UK Secretary Brandon Lewis following further violence in NI. 
• A woman who is currently quarantining in a Dublin Hotel after her arrival into the state has asked the High Court for an inquiry into what she claims amounts to unlawful detention.
• The HSE announced the locations of five new walk-in Covid-19 test centres opening tomorrow.
• The personal details of more than one-third of TDs have been implicated in a data leak that has affected over a million Irish Facebook users.
• Workers made redundant from 11 Debenhams stores around Ireland are still protesting their treatment a full year since the company announced its closure. 
• Warm tributes were paid at the funeral of a woman who lost both her sons and husband in a murder suicide.
• The trial of two Dublin women accused of refusing to go to a mandatory quarantine hotel after returning from a “boob job” trip to Dubai was delayed pending a constitutional challenge.

WORLD

File image of Prince Philip. PA PA

#UK: Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, died aged 99.

#DMX: US rapper DMX died aged 50 after nearly a week on life-support following a heart attack.

#J&J: The European Union’s drug regulator launched a review of possible links between the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine and blood clots after reports of four cases, one of them fatal. 

PARTING SHOT

Northern Ireland has been in the headlines over the past week following violent scenes on the streets of west Belfast.

Writing for The Journal, Emma DeSouza, a citizens rights campaigner for the Good Friday Agreement and Vice-Chair & NI spokesperson for VotingRights.ie, said the unrest is not a failure of peace but a failure of leadership.

Here is an excerpt from her piece: 

Amid these acts of violence, we cannot lose sight of the progress over the past 23 years. Despite the dysfunction of our political structures, the people of Northern Ireland have fostered for themselves the meaning of true reconciliation.

I look to the NI bus drivers who protested at Belfast City Hall on Thursday as a reminder of the resilience of the people in this region – “Enough is enough, we are not going back to the dark days” were the words of defiance spoken, and they echo across Northern Ireland.

This is not a return to the dark days, violence has not won out, the not-so-silent majority will not be deterred from the path of reconciliation and peace by a violent minority.

There will always be challenges in peacebuilding, it’s how we respond to these challenges that matter.

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