Lunney abduction trial
Three men have been found guilty of the false imprisonment and assault of Quinn Industrial Holdings (QIH) director, Kevin Lunney, while one other man has been acquitted.
A 40-year-old man who cannot be named, known as YZ, Alan O'Brien (40) of Shelmalier Road, East Wall, Dublin 3, and Darren Redmond (27) of Caledon Road, East Wall, Dublin 3 were each found guilty of the charges.
However, Luke O'Reilly (68) of Mullahoran Lower, Kilcogy, Co Cavan was found not guilty as Mr Justice Tony Hunt said a reasonable doubt arises as to whether Mr O'Reilly knew what was to happen to Mr Lunney.
US flights
The United States is allowing fully-vaccinated Irish travellers to enter the country once again from today for the first time since the pandemic began.
The US travel restrictions, first imposed in early 2020 to address the spread of Covid-19, had barred access to non-US citizens who within the last 14 days had been in Ireland, Britain, the 26 Schengen countries in Europe without border controls, China, India, South Africa, Iran and Brazil.
Hutch challenge
Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch has been given permission to bring a High Court challenge against the jurisdiction of the non-jury Special Criminal Court to hear his trial for the murder of David Byrne.
Mr Hutch claims the decision to try him before the Special Criminal Court amounts to "a significant curtailment of his rights".
Mr Hutch is charged in connection Mr Byrne's murder at the Regency Hotel in Whitehall, Dublin 9 on February 5th, 2016. The trial has been fixed for October 2022.
Equal Pay Day
Equal Pay Day has been marked with the release of research which found almost three quarters of people feel closing the gender pay gap should be a priority for the Government and employers. However, that figure falls to 63 per cent among men.
The day represents the point at which women effectively work for free for the remainder of the year due to the 14.4 per cent gender pay gap which exists between them and their male colleagues.
The WorkEqual survey found 85 per cent of women believe the matter to be of great importance, while older men were found to be more likely to agree with the statement than their younger counterparts.
Article 16
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said it is not inevitable that the UK government will trigger Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Speaking earlier today, Mr Martin urged Britain to consider the damage such a move would cause to its relationships with the EU and Ireland.
Negotiations between London and Brussels over the protocol remain deadlocked and there is mounting speculation that the UK government is poised to trigger Article 16 later this month.
The UK has repeatedly warned it will move to unilaterally suspend elements of the protocol if an agreed outcome is not reached.
