Ireland

Ross Whitaker’s documentary using 1990s TV footage and interviews tells of Stefan Klincewicz and his crew of chancers – and an Ireland very different from nowHarking back to a simpler, more innocent, less gambling-saturated era, this Irish documentary tells the story of how a syndicate of entrepreneurs and semi-professional gamblers tried to game the […]

Newly restored material from vast archive destroyed in civil war takes in Anglo-Norman conquest and 1798 rebellionSeven centuries of lost historical records covering espionage, political corruption and the lives of ordinary people in Ireland have been recovered and released.A pioneering project to fill gaps in Irish history is making 175,000 more records […]

Achill Island gathering comes amid surge of interest in Grace O’Malley, the legendary seafarer who took on English forces 500 years agoThe Atlantic foamed, the wind gusted and the pirate queen swung from the rigging. She was ruler again, at least in spirit, of this corner of the west of Ireland.Five centuries after Grace O’Malley defied convention, and […]

Goal of reconciliation has become ‘undisguised unionist veto’, some argue amid dwindling momentum for voteIn Northern Ireland, it used to be the one goal that everyone could agree on: reconciliation. Whether the region stayed in the UK or united with Ireland, all sides acknowledged the need to heal wounds from the Troubles and to bridge differences […]

Paul McGilchrist reflects on the fraternity between Caribbean and Irish nurses and Veronica Edwards recalls how West Indian women saved the dayDiane Abbott’s reflections on the experiences of the Windrush generation are poignant, in that they testify to a sense of solidarity among immigrant populations that tends to receive too little consideration (The […]

'They don’t know what the fuck they’re doing,' Donald Trump said after a ceasefire between Israel and Iran was breached on Tuesday. But the US president is not the first politician to swear on camera. From George Bush caught on a hot mic to profanity as protest, we look back at how the world's political leaders have resorted to swearing to express […]

English-born David Evans, 63, is conferred with ‘long overdue’ Irish citizenshipAfter decades of finely balanced procrastination, the U2 guitarist The Edge has officially become Irish.The British-born 63-year-old was conferred with Irish citizenship on Monday, 62 years after moving to Ireland, in a step he said was “long overdue”. Continue reading...

The Kneecap rapper Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who is facing a terrorism charge, has been released on unconditional bail after his lawyers challenged the validity of the case. Ó hAnnaidh, 27, from Belfast, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, is accused of displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah, a proscribed organisation, and chanting 'Up Hamas, up […]

Cheering crowds greet Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh outside London court after lawyers challenge validity of caseKneecap rapper Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who is facing a terrorism charge, has been released on unconditional bail after his lawyers challenged the validity of the case.Ó hAnnaidh, 27, from Belfast, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, is accused of […]

While parliament was moving towards more liberal abortion laws more women were being arrested or investigatedMPs vote to decriminalise abortion in step forward for reproductive rightsCalls for decriminalisation of abortions have been growing louder in recent years – in line with a growing number of women being prosecuted for terminating their […]

Online sales to end and two distribution centres to close after chain’s sale to Gordon Brothers for £1Business live – latest updatesPoundland is to shut 68 shops and two distribution centres and aims to close at least 80 more stores, putting more than 2,000 jobs at risk.The British company, which was sold last week to the US investment group Gordon […]

Producer-director Frank Mannion follows his cordial guide to champagne with a cheerful celebration of beloved tipples of Irish originThe always likable figure of Irish producer and film-maker Frank Mannion has, in the past, given us a cordial guide to champagne, a slightly more chaotic essay on Britishness, and its counterpart on Irishness. Now, in his […]

Excavation crews begin sealing off site in Tuam, Co Galway, before full-scale dig starts on 14 JulyPreliminary work aimed at identifying the remains of nearly 800 infants is starting on the site in Tuam, Co Galway, as Ireland continues to wrestle with the traumatic legacy of its mother and baby homes scandal.Catherine Corless, a local historian who first […]

Abbey theatre, DublinTommy Tiernan and Aaron Monaghan are given comedic free rein as a pair of hapless, homeless siblings in Kevin Barry’s Beckettian take on rural dysfunctionThe hapless McRae brothers, Archie (Tommy Tiernan) and Bopper (Aaron Monaghan), are the kind of comically shifty characters who might have made a four-line appearance in one of Kevin […]

Bord na Móna, which was once a peat extraction company, has now committed to one of the largest peatland restoration projects ever undertaken, targeting 33,000 hectares in over 80 bogs with the hope of reducing carbon emissions and increasing biodiversity. But many households still continue to cut turf, relying on it for heating as have previous […]

In James Joyce’s Ulysses, the city’s most famous fictional resident was as frustrated by its transport links in 1904 as many of us are todayIreland’s planning body, An Bord Pleanála, will determine later this year the fate of an ambitious proposal to build the country’s first underground railway. Residents of the Irish capital won’t be holding […]

High court in London rules companies can recover losses from insurers for aircraft stuck since invasion of UkraineAircraft leasing companies have won a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against insurers in relation to planes stranded in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.The high court in London ruled in favour of six leasing firms including […]

Campaign pushes to change law that could lead to survivors living in UK being disqualified from means-tested benefitsSurvivors of Ireland’s mother and baby homes are being “retraumatised” by the prospect of losing benefits in the UK if they accept compensation from the Irish state, Westminster has been told.The warning comes amid a campaign backed by […]

Foreign correspondent who went on to become a hugely successful thriller writer best known for The Day of the JackalFrederick Forsyth always claimed that when, in early 1970, as an unemployed foreign correspondent, he sat down at a portable typewriter and “bashed out” The Day of the Jackal, he “never had the slightest intention of becoming a […]

Playing stadiums and causing dance crazes, the Irish singer-songwriter is going supernova – and whether opining on trans rights, body shaming or capitalism, she’s more forthright than everCiara Mary-Alice Thompson, or CMAT as she’s professionally known, says she can clearly remember writing the song that changed her life. She was 22 and having moved […]