Here's What Happened Today: Sunday

16 Aug 2026, 19:00 by Ottoline Spearman, https://www.thejournal.ie/author/ottoline-spearman/ · TheJournal.ie

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

IRELAND

Scene of the crash on the M9 at Junction 3 where a car travelling the wrong way hit another car. Rollingnews.ieRollingnews.ie

Five people have been killed in a road traffic collision on the M9 near Moone, Co Kildare after a car driving the wrong way hit another car head-on. The five people in the suspected stolen BMW were killed, while the four people in the car that was hit were taken to hospital. One of them was a 7-year-old girl.
A teenager has drowned at the Ballinamore family festival in Co Leitrim, and has been named locally as Alan Creamer.
The public complained to Met Éireann about wildly differing temperature forecasts during the summer’s first heatwave, including one that gave a 10-degree difference for the same town.
Ireland’s Mona McSharry has secured a bronze medal at the European Aquatics Championships.
A stolen vehicle rammed a garda car in Co Dublin in the early hours of this morning. Gardaí said they responded to reports of dangerous driving on the M50 at Leopardstown, Dublin 18, around 2am.
Many children are about to begin the new school year but cannot get a place on the school bus because the school they are attending is too far away from home.
Djamel White spoke to The Journal about his first novel, All Them Dogs, which has made the Booker Prize long list.
St Patrick’s Athletic have stunned Shamrock Rovers with dramatic comeback in the FAI cup.

INTERNATIONAL

What is believed to be Europe’s tallest statue of the Virgin Mary has been inaugurated in the small Polish village of Konotopie. The statue is 182ft and towers over the village which is home fewer than 150 people. Claudia Ciobanu / APClaudia Ciobanu / AP / AP

#BOUNTY Iran’s military has announced that it is offering a bounty equivalent to $30,000 (€26,000) for killing or capturing US soldiers, with the reward doubled if carried out by a woman.

#HUNGARY A passenger bus travelling on a major road in Hungary crashed into a ditch and overturned, killing 12 and injuring others. It was likely that the driver fell asleep, causing the accident, police said.

#WILDFIRES Two people have died and hundreds evacuated after two fires broke out on the Greek island of Salamis near Athens.

PARTING SHOT

The San Gregorio Polyptych. Alamy / PAAlamy / PA / PA

You’re looking at a work by Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina, which was stolen last night in Messina in Sicily, Italy.

The thieves bypassed alarm and security systems and made off with three of the five surviving panels of the San Gregorio Polyptych, dated to 1473.

They also stole the double-sided panel depicting the Virgin Mary and the dead Christ in Pieta.

Lynda Albertson, an art crime analyst, said the works are instantly recognisable, impeding any effort to sell them through reputable channels.

Reporting by PA