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GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news you need to know as you start your day.
Children’s Hospital
1. The independent expert who flagged “major generic faults” with the ventilation systems installed in half of the new Children Hospital’s operating theatres is no longer involved in the project and a new firm is to be contracted to sign-off on the systems, The Journal understands.
Malcolm Thomas from STS Consultancy and his colleagues were contracted by the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) to act as the validator for ventilation systems in the hospital when the project commenced, meaning they were monitoring progress in order to later sign off on the systems and deem the operating rooms fit for use.
STS repeatedly flagged design “faults” in the theatre’s ventilation which the firm believed could possibly pose a risk to patients down the line.
John Bruton
2. Former Taoiseach John Bruton was described as “a visionary” and “a great statesman” at a removal mass in Co Meath last night.
The 76-year-old Fine Gael politician died peacefully in the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin, surrounded by his family, in the early hours of Tuesday morning following a long illness.
His funeral will be held today.
John Caldwell
3. A man has been charged with the attempted murder of PSNI Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell.
DCI Caldwell was shot multiple times on 22 February 2023 at a sports complex on the Killyclogher Road in Omagh while he was off-duty.
A 44-year-old, who was arrested on Thursday, has been charged with attempted murder, directing terrorism and preparation of terrorist acts.
Gaza
4. Israeili Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered troops to “prepare to operate” in Rafah, the southern border city where thousands and thousands of displaced Palestinians have fled.
Israel has intensified air raids and witnesses reported new strikes on Rafah early this morning as Palestinians fear a ground invasion in the border city.
Netanyahu told military officials to submit to the government Cabinet a “combined plan for evacuating the population and destroying the battalions” in Rafah.
Turkey
5. One year after Turkey’s devastating earthquakes, Syrian refugees are still trying to recover from losing everything for a second time.
Winter Lights
6. Dublin City Council paid more than €100,000 to extend the annual Winter Lights festival until the end of January this year, figures released to The Journal show.
The festival sees numerous locations around the city lit up with colourful projections and lighting displays, including the Spire, prominent buildings like the GPO, city streets and some of the city’s bridges.
Figures show that the total cost for this year’s festival, which began in December, was €1.4 million – including €130,000 spent on extending the displays by four weeks.
London
7. Alkali attack suspect Abdul Ezedi is most likely to have died and his body may never be found, according to the Metropolitan Police.
The police force said its main working hypothesis was the 35-year-old had “gone into” the River Thames after being seen leaning over the railings of Chelsea Bridge in west London on the night of the incident.
In a briefing at Scotland Yard, Commander Jon Savell said: “We have spent the last 24 hours meticulously following the CCTV, and it’s our main working hypothesis that he’s now gone into the water.”
Ryanair row
8. Transport Minister Eamon Ryan hit back at an open letter from Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary calling on him to resign as transport minister.
In his letter, O’Leary today said Ryan either has “no idea what your own government’s National Aviation Policy is, or you are determined to frustrate this policy”.
Ryan penned a response and said he “fundamentally” disagreed with O’Leary. He said that the letters O’Leary has written during his time as transport minister have been “highly personalised, inaccurate and inflammatory”.
Pancake price
9. The Central Statistics Office published research showing the cost of making a basic pancake has risen by 3% in the year to December 2023.
The average cost of 2 kilograms of white, self-raising flour has gone up by 10% over the last 12 months, while the price of a half-dozen large eggs has increased by 3%.
The only basic pancake ingredient that has fallen over the past year is a two litre carton of full fat milk, which is down 3%.
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Some serious questions to be answered here.
He looks as if he has the mother of all hangovers.
Think he has cystic fibrosis. I remember around his trial the were saying he had severe health issues
@Brown Cows the Journal appears as pro-Nationalist because the media in this country are so blatantly biased against the Nationalist agenda/community in general.
That’s British justice for you!!!
This quote from his solicitor in court today seems to have been left out
from this article.
“Mr Shivers has been through a terrible ordeal whereby he has been repeatedly assaulted /abused whilst in prison and in hospital where he is continuously under armed guard.”
Fair play Sean
How are those allegations newsworthy on their own merit?
Cliff.
This article is not a complete guide to the trial. It is only one page long.
I have no doubt that if this happened in an English court that people there would be forced to resign. The North is still a bit of a Justice jungle.
A real miscarriage of justice was adverted here.
So your last (now deleted) comment was based on nothing.
Let me get this right, the defence didn’t argue that their client is actually innocent and didn’t burn out the car used by the killers but that the judge said something he shouldn’t have and the prosecution should not have prosecuted it as a ‘joint enterprise’ case but instead a ‘secondary party’ case? Does anybody every get off because they are actually innocent or is it all technicalities? No where in the artical did I read that the defence said their client didn’t do it
It is an article, not a legal brief.
Throughout the case they argued that he was innocent, and that their was no credible evidence to suggest otherwise, there still isn’t. There would have been a stronger case linking him to the shooting of JFK.
Typical Nationalist responses so far but no surprise which normally follows on from such articles. Have the Journal given up today with their ‘Fleg’ articles? Haven’t seen any so far!
I’m presuming you missed this article today: http://www.thejournal.ie/belfast-violence-arrests-flag-754696-Jan2013/
How Now Brown Cow in Cold Home Troll Hole.?
My comment was deleted yet again and this one had three likes, so it wasn’t an error which proved my point which you read before deleting it. Shaping the news my backside, setting your own agenda Journal
What’s ‘typical nationalist responses’?
shut up, browns cows
Id disagree with ‘typical nationalist responses’ my comments have been pulled,i cant comment on certain articles and the SF/CNN thread is full of anti SF westbrit comments.
Should the title not say “Shivers wins right to appeal”, only saying. It’s a bit misleading at a quick glance .
as far as im aware from reading the article on bbc his conviction has been quashed and hes in custody pending a decision on whether the DPP seeks a retrial. So hes on remand at the minute
Cheers
no prob!
Why would he get compensation? It was a procedural error on the part of the judge, not a conspiracy to imprison an innocent man.
There was many questions over the evidence gathered and its reliability throughout the case as well. If there was even the slightest piece of credible evidence that Shivers had anything to do with this, then the need for technical mishaps would never arisen. There wasn’t any evidence of any kind. That is the point here.
The Prosecution had to know that this case was not going to stand. Countless legal precedents and standards of evidence had to be ignored to stop the case from collapsing the first time.
It is no different than them building a case against you Cliff for these attacks.
Of course the defence would attack the evidence, that’s their job. The jury decided the evidence was credible.
The problem was purely procedural. Read the article again.
Brown Cow isnt that bad!
have your say