Five teenagers – Kamil Pustkowski (17) from Limerick; Jack Kennedy (17), from Athy, Co Kildare; Jeremy O’Brien (18) from Carlow; Joe “Joey” Carthy (15) from Athy, and Alex McCarthy (17) from Carlow – died in the collision on August 16th last.

Three women and a child who were in a car that the BMW the teenagers were travelling in hit head on were seriously injured.

“Gardaí who followed a vehicle before its involvement in a fatal head on collision on the M9 motorway in Co Kildare acted in accordance with the law as well as relevant Garda policies and procedures,” Fiosrú said.

“Gardaí had been following the car on the N78 in Athy for a short period before it joining the M9 motorway against the direction of traffic, where it later collided with an oncoming vehicle.”

Fiosrú said it examined evidence “related to the actions and decisions of gardaí during their interactions with the car”, including the nature and extent of contact before the crash.

“During the course of Fiosrú’s investigation, investigators obtained and reviewed CCTV and radio transmissions and received a briefing from the Forensic Collision Investigator,” it said.

“Fiosrú established that on the day of the fatal collision, gardaí had pursued a BMW car. Permission to continue the pursuit was granted by the Garda Control Room. After the BMW entered the M9 dual carriageway, the Garda vehicle terminated its pursuit and the Control Room confirmed that the pursuit should not continue.

“Other garda units attempted to place a stopping device at an appropriate location, however the BMW undertook a number of U-turns, before fatally colliding with an oncoming car.”

Fiosrú said the M9 incident was the sixth referral it had received between 2021 and this year relating to Garda interactions “with vehicles being driven the wrong way on motorways and national roads”.

“When someone dies in incidents involving contact with gardaí, it is mandatory that the matter is referred by gardaí to Fiosrú to investigate,” said Police Ombudsman Emily Logan.

“Fiosrú’s investigation was independent of gardaí and aimed to understand events leading up to the collision. It found that gardaí acted appropriately, within the law, and in line with relevant policies and procedures as determined by the Garda Commissioner.

“Every death on our roads brings untold grief to families and communities. My thoughts are with family and friends and all those affected by this devastating incident, including the gardaí who attended the scene.”

As the court registrar calls out the cases, the vast majority are met with the words of a Garda sergeant: “Affected by the action.”

Defendants are brought into the room to be told that their solicitor will be unable to act for them due to strike action. One after another, their cases are put back to late January.

Judge Paula Cullinane informs several of them that they will need to tell their solicitors of the new dates.

There are a small number of legal aid cases that are being taken on, however – one of them by Dublin solicitor Phelim O’Neill. Instead of January, this case is put back by just one a week. But it is very much in the minority on today’s court list.

And then something unusual happens.

Solicitor Joe Maguire stands up and tells the court he is resigning from the legal aid panel. After 44 years, the solicitor says, he can’t abide by the new legal aid fees scheme.

Moments later, his colleague Brendan Maloney does the exact same.

Speaking outside a short time later, Maguire says he made his mind up after reading a letter from Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan to the Law Society, the representative body for solicitors in the country, the day before.

He objects in particular to the Minister’s claim that more than 600 solicitors are still listed as available for criminal legal aid cases.

“I just thought he’s working with numbers and he’s trying to interpret the numbers in a way that suits him,” says Maguire.

“So he’s saying there’s still 600 people on the legal aid panel, but none of them are working or very few of them are working.

“There are some working in Wexford, there are some working in Cork and there are two working in Dublin and that’s it.

“I just wanted to have it recorded that I felt that the Minister was interpreting our passive behaviour as approving of his situation. So I have to resign from the panel to say: ‘No – it’s not the case, there are no people there’.”

Joining him outside is Maloney.

“I’ll be writing. I’ll do it formally and write to them between today and tomorrow. I will be coming off the panel,” he says.

It is the Minister’s “intransigence” in the dispute, says Maguire, that prompted his resignation from the panel.

“I took it as a personal insult after 38 years to be told I was gaming the system, when there’s a countless amount of cases and work – and unseen work – that you do that you never get paid for.”

The row has the potential to cause “chaos”, say the two solicitors. A backlog of cases is building each day.

Criminal legal aid payment among ‘very few levers’ to expedite justice, says O’Callaghan

On the other side, O’Callaghan believes his reforms are a vital part of making the courts more efficient and less costly.

He has been depicted as a sort of poacher-turned-gamekeeper, a senior counsel who knows the system inside out and who is determined to change it.

He has replaced the existing appearance-based fee model with a new flat-fee scheme.

It pays solicitors €520 to handle a case from beginning to end, compared with the old system of €240 for the first appearance and €60 for every subsequent one.

O’Callaghan argues that the old system incentivised adjournments and was being abused by some solicitors.

Lawyers have rejected this claim and say the new scheme means solicitors are expected to work for free on complex cases that require multiple court appearances.

As the row with his fellow members of the legal profession drags on, O’Callaghan claimed last week that more of them were coming around to the new system.

Dozens of solicitors around the country were reported to have taken on work since the end of the summer recess – and O’Callaghan claimed there had been no collapse in the number of criminal legal aid certificates issued.

On top of this, he said, there were signs that his changes were already effective in reducing the number of court appearances.

This account has been disputed by senior criminal defence solicitors. They argue that while accurate, the numbers on the legal aid panel are misleading – and among them are lawyers who have died and judges.

The prominent Dublin solicitor Michael Hennessy is highly critical of the arguments presented by O’Callaghan.

Last year he was publicly listed as one of the top recipients of legal aid payments, bringing in more than €972,000.

“In my experience, solicitors working in defence are not acquisitive people,” he says.

“However, to do the job properly we have staff and equipment and offices and all the concomitant overheads. I am a sole practitioner.

“Approximately 65 per cent of my practice is in the District Court where all incoming legal aid fees are split 50:50 with about 60 junior barristers throughout Dublin and the greater Leinster area.

“So about 100 suppliers are paid out of the annual published figures which include VAT and exclude income tax. These are the hidden costs.”

Confusion and delays at district court as criminal legal aid dispute drags on

Hennessy says “hidden work” has been carried out for more than 27 years and he personally deals with 150 cases a week.

“I run a free clinic each Wednesday. I visit, on average, 12 clients in prisons every weekend and I am on call every night of the week frequently beyond midnight,” he says.

Tony Collier, one of the country’s busiest criminal defence solicitors who was listed as earning €676,000 in criminal legal aid payments in 2025, says that there is no signs of slippage among solicitors in Dublin in their opposition against O’Callaghan’s scheme.

“I attended a meeting of Dublin solicitors this week and – save for two small law firms – there is unanimity among Dublin solicitors to continue the withdrawal of services,” he says.

Collier questions the narrative in the media over recent days of solicitors taking on legal aid cases again – and claims hundreds of upcoming trials could be jeopardised unless the Minister engages “in good faith” with the Law Society.

“It is imperative now that there is engagement between the parties to avoid disruption to these cases,” he says. “The disruption brought about not only affects clients but also complainants and the victims of crime”.

The two Dublin firms referenced by Collier belong to Phelim O’Neill and Andy Vallely.

O’Neill has publicly described the new system as “fair and generous” – and has claimed that some junior barristers have been warned they will be blacklisted if they accept instructions from firms that haven’t withdrawn their services.

At the time of publication, Vallely had not responded to a request for an interview.

Six other prominent solicitors, understood to have signed up to O’Callaghan’s new system, did not respond to requests for interviews from The Irish Times last week.

The stand-off appears to be a battle of time.

The longer the dispute continues, the more pressure that mounts on smaller solicitors to abandon their opposition and return to taking such cases.

Meanwhile, the outcome to a judicial review taken by Dublin solicitor John Quinn seeking to have the new scheme quashed is still expected next month.

In Bray, Brendan Maloney says he does not think the new system will achieve its stated aims.

Legal aid row pushing District Courts towards ‘Covid era backlogs’, solicitors warn

“There are simple remedies to this that will bring about efficiencies in respect of the system,” he says.

“But he [O’Callaghan] has to be willing to look at those instead of using us as a political football to appear as some kind of strong politician staring down the legal profession. But that’s fine. He can advance his political career and he’s entitled to do that.”

Joe Maguire predicts “chaos” in the months ahead.

“I’m coming to the end of my days, but I took the view that this is something that we have to do for the next generation,” he says.

“And I said that to the court. I said that if we don’t stand up against this, Bray Court as it is, will no longer exist. And that’s really it.”

Martin, the first world leader invited to Burnham’s new No 10 North operation, thanked Burnham for “standing up for the humanitarian needs and rights” of the Palestinian people.

In a “reset” of its policy towards Israel, the UK government last week sanctioned illegal settlements in the West Bank over violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinian residents.

Martin also commiserated with the Labour Party leader over the loss of his father Roy Burnham, who died on Monday.

In remarks in front the cameras before their one-to-one meeting, Burnham reiterated his commitment to the Belfast Agreement. He had angered Irish nationalists in recent weeks by saying a Border poll was “off the table”.

US president Donald Trump’s comments last weekend about favouring a united Ireland, as well as an agreement between the leaders of the Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru and Sinn Féin calling for independence for Scotland and Wales and the reunification of Ireland, have added fuel to the debate.

Burnham also thanked the Republic for the support it has shown to Ukraine since the Russian invasion almost five years ago.

“The relationship between the UK and Ireland matters so much on every single level,” said Burnham.

Burnham established No 10 North as one of his first acts in office in an attempt to rebalance power and control in Britain by moving some matters away from London.

This is the first meeting between the leaders since Burnham took office in July, though they met previously when he was mayor of Manchester.

The agenda for their meeting is also expected to include Irish-UK relations and the long-delayed EU-UK reset summit, which is due to take place before the end of Ireland’s presidency of the Council of the European Union.

One of Burnham’s first acts as prime minister was to establish an office in Manchester as a counterbalance to No 10 Downing Street in London.

Burnham said he wants to rebalance power and control in the country and having a prime ministerial office in Manchester is part of that change.

Friday’s meeting will be the first between the Taoiseach and UK prime minister since Burnham took office in July. They have met previously when Burnham was mayor of Manchester.

There will be a private tête-à-tête between the pair and then a wider bilateral with officials.

The agenda will include Irish-UK relations, Northern Ireland and the long-delayed EU-UK reset summit which is due to take place before the end of Ireland’s presidency of the EU.

Trump asked President Connolly if Irish unity would be ‘resolved’ during her lifetime

The meeting comes after US president Donald Trump’s comments last weekend that he was in favour of a united Ireland and also the agreement between the leaders of the Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru and Sinn Féin calling for independence for Scotland and Wales and the reunification of Ireland.

The Taoiseach has already said publicly that legacy is a priority. He has also called on the British government to set out the circumstances under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement in which a Border poll could be called.

The next UK-Ireland summit will take place in the UK next year.

Irish exports to Canada have quadrupled since EU trade deal, Taoiseach says

“This is the largest, it’s the best-educated generation of young people the world is ever likely to see,” the former minister for finance said as he delivered the annual Cambridge lecture in honour of Brian Lenihan, the late Irish finance minister.

“These are young people who have grown up connected, who have seen how others live, and their expectations are correspondingly high,” said Donohoe, who is managing director and chief knowledge officer of the Washington-based World Bank.

“Whether those expectations are met with opportunity and prosperity, or frustration instead will shape stability and politics within their countries. That is the challenge,” he said.

However, many such countries with burgeoning young populations face growing national debt pressures, with nearly 165 million young people living in countries now spending more than 50 per cent of their revenue servicing such debt.

Every country is facing challenges, but those facing poorer countries are even more stark because their difficulties have “been compounded by rising debt”, with half of them now experiencing debt distress, or at risk of doing so.

High debt levels, combined now with more costly financing, have pushed the cost of servicing that debt alone from an average of around 3 per cent of gross domestic product in 2012 to more than 7 per cent in 2024.

Such debt bills are “are now absorbing an increasing share of scarce public resources, affecting governments’ ability to invest in health and education and skills and infrastructure, the very investments that matter so much to the futures of societies”.

Change and challenges are now thrown at governments at unprecedented pace, said Donohoe, now in post for nearly a year: “At the height of the financial crisis, choices had to be made swiftly.

“They had to be made under extraordinary pressure with incomplete information and with consequences that would be felt for many years. But for many countries today, those conditions are no longer exceptional.

“Governments have been hit with one shock after another. In less than two decades, countries have confronted a global financial crisis, a pandemic that brought the world economy to a standstill, wars in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, supply chain disruptions of a historic level, and the highest inflation that many have experienced within a generation,” he said.

The central challenge of our time facing governments is how institutions can keep acting, keep adapting, and keep delivering while this pressure and level of challenge is present.

“This is not only because crises keep recurring, but also that the intervals between them are now getting shorter,” said Donohoe.

Resilience today can no longer just mean protection alone: “It is more than buffers. It’s more than safeguards or an emergency response. It has to mean something that is more demanding.”

Instead, states must have the ability to look forward while under sustained pressures today, to pursue reforms, anticipate technological change and make investments that could take decades to bear fruit.

Resilience is “no longer simply the capacity to withstand disruption. It’s the capacity to adapt, to reform while the disruption continues”, said the former Fine Gael deputy.

Trust in national governments is now an even more valuable political currency than ever before, he said: “Stamina depends on trust. Institutions that are trusted can move faster.

“They can support consent at those difficult moments, and they can maintain support for decisions in that space. But that trust cannot be claimed. It has to be earned through making a visible connection with people as they experience change,” he added.

Spencer’s book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, contains the claim that the comments were made by the now king during a heated argument over funeral arrangements.

The Daily Mail, which is serialising the book, said Spencer insisted that Diana would not have wanted her sons, William, then 15, and Harry, then 12, to walk in their mother’s funeral procession.

Spencer writes that the comments “unleashed” by Charles almost 30 years ago reflected “his pent-up contempt for Diana, and his horror that the world was so bowled over by her death” the Daily Mail reported.

In his book, Spencer writes that when one of queen Elizabeth’s most senior aides told him in the days before the funeral that William and Harry would take part in the procession, he responded: “That’s not going to happen,” the paper said.

But minutes later he received a phone call from Charles, who insisted it should. It was during the ensuing argument between the two men that Charles allegedly made the comment, with Spencer reportedly writing: “‘Rest assured,’ he hissed, ‘we’ll forget her soon enough.’”

Spencer wrote that he was stunned by the alleged remark and took a few seconds to reply, writing: “‘I can’t believe you just said that,’ I said flatly, before hanging up.”

Swan Song is due to be published worldwide next Tuesday – in the UK and Ireland by Penguin Michael Joseph, a division of Penguin Random House.

Four copies of the Dutch language edition were reportedly taken from a truck while it was en route from the Dutch publisher’s printers to their warehouse in the Netherlands.

Diana, who died aged 36 after a car crash in Paris in 1997, would have turned 65 on July 1st this year.

Spencer said that he had been inundated with interview requests in advance of the 30th anniversary of her death next year, and wanted to write down his own thoughts and memories rather than “having the discomfort of again reading the opinions of others”.

“The aim of this book is to tell the truth about Diana from her brother’s perspective, just as I attempted to do when speaking at her funeral,” he added, referring to the eulogy he gave in Westminster Abbey.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, his majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss.” – Guardian

Jude McGuigan was granted permission to take off the device while on bail charged with a series of offences against the same woman.

The 30-year-old, from Moira Court in Belfast, faces counts of stalking, harassment and breach of a non-molestation order.

McGuigan is currently banned from contacting the alleged victim or entering a designated exclusion zone.

He returned to court on Thursday seeking to vary another condition that requires him to wear the ankle tag.

Judge Gerry McAlinden was told the application centred on the defendant’s efforts to improve his mental health through physical exercise.

McGuigan’s attempts to resume mixed martial arts (MMA) training could be hindered by safety concerns about going on to the mats while wearing a monitoring tag, the court heard.

He also wants to attend football practice and a local gym which does not permit entry to those fitted with devices.

A defence barrister submitted: “He has a diagnosis of autism and ADHD [and] finds that exercise assists him.”

Opposing the application, prosecution counsel said the complainant is anxious at the thought of any bail conditions being lifted.

“At present she feels comfort from the tag and a curfew that ensures monitoring of the defendant,” she added.

However, the judge granted permission to remove the tag after McGuigan gave a personal pledge not to abuse the variation.

“If there is any messing about or breach of bail it will rebound very badly on him,” McAlinden warned.

“I am satisfied he realises the importance of remaining in strict compliance with his active bail conditions.”

Project Arts Centre

★★★★★

Dark, billowing fabric is draped down the centre of the Project Arts Centre stage, folding and swirling into some shadowy mound like a puddle at the foot of a tractor beam.

The scene is set for West Meath Gothic, a hallucinatory performance driven by the writer, actor and aerial dancer Kate Finegan. She plays Olwyn, supported in the main by the composer Brian Dillon and her counterweight aerialist, Darrell Elliott. Like so much of West Meath Gothic, their roles are difficult to fully describe.

An old-time radio operates as Finegan’s foil. When it’s not blurting out headlines, chansons and jarring clips from various decades of Irish media, the radio is voiced by the Druid co-founder Marie Mullen, who plays a grandmotherly character capable of kindness and obduracy in equal measure.

Mullen the radio tells us early on that this is a story about a house, and about a woman inside it, and the land around it. It is a story about many things beyond that, too: confinement, release, loneliness, patriarchy and the spectacle of performance, inside and outside the boundaries of a concealed home.

With all that context in mind, West Meath Gothic is primarily an enchanting aerial-dance show. Finegan is captivating in the air and a master of proportioning; she contorts and stretches her body to command the room from the rafters, then inches and creeps beneath the shadows with just as much presence.

Her performance is at its most captivating when Dillon’s pumping electronic score reaches its loudest din, fading then to a suitably claustrophobic ambience that colours the inescapable rural setting. With such attention to detail on sound, the cast adapts impressively to microphone difficulties that arise at points of the production.

This is everything a fringe show should be: an explosive artist shoving themselves somewhere strange and uncomfortable, exploring an ambitious variety of themes and disciplines, but pulling it back around to a satisfying emotional end.

Runs at Project Arts Centre, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, until Saturday, September 19th

Air traffic control is one of those careers most people never think about. Yet for those who discover it, it can become a profession unlike any other.

That was certainly the case for Orla Newell. Before joining AirNav Ireland, Newell studied radiation therapy and had worked in London. Air traffic control was not a career she had ever considered.

“I didn’t know much about air traffic control to start with,” she says. “Like most people, I didn’t really know what the job involved. But once I looked into it, I realised it was something completely different to anything else out there.”

Today, Newell is an air traffic controller with AirNav Ireland in their Shannon En-Route Centre, helping to guide aircraft safely through Irish airspace every day.

Her story highlights something many people don’t realise. There is no single route into the profession.

It is easy to take aviation for granted. Booking a flight, heading on a holiday, ordering goods online. It all feels seamless. But none of it works without the systems behind it.

As an island nation on the western edge of Europe, Ireland is a critical gateway between the European Union and North America. AirNav Ireland plays a central role in that connectivity, safely guiding aircraft to and from Dublin, Cork and Shannon while also managing the vast majority of transatlantic traffic crossing Irish-controlled airspace.

Every day thousands of aircraft travel through Irish-controlled airspace. They carry people on holidays, students travelling abroad, businesses trading globally and goods moving across continents.

In doing so, AirNav Ireland safeguards more than 160 million passengers every year – equivalent to more than 430,000 passengers per day – highlighting its vital role in supporting Ireland’s global connectivity, trade, tourism and economic activity.

“Our role is to ensure the safe, efficient and sustainable management of Irish airspace,” says Ger Caffrey, chief executive of AirNav Ireland. “What we do matters every single day because it underpins national connectivity and global travel.

“Every hour, AirNav are safeguarding over 18,000 passengers in Irish-controlled airspace – that’s the scale and responsibility of what our people deliver every day.”

He also highlights the wider importance of aviation to the Irish economy: “Aviation plays a critical role in Ireland’s economy. As an island nation, our connectivity is essential for business, tourism and trade, and the safe management of our airspace is a key part of making that possible.”

In simple terms: if aircraft aren’t moving, neither is the economy.

While Newell joined the profession after working in healthcare, many AirNav Ireland controllers begin their journey much earlier. The Student Controller Programme offers school leavers and graduates a direct pathway into the profession without the need for a university degree.

‘The job is challenging, but that is what keeps it interesting. You are always learning and no two days are the same’

Orla Newell, air traffic controller with AirNav Ireland

Applicants must be at least 19 years of age and have achieved a minimum of two H5s in their Leaving Certificate.

For many young people, this offers a direct alternative to the traditional university route. It is the chance to begin a highly skilled and respected career straight from school.

One of the biggest misconceptions about air traffic control is that there is only one route into the profession. In reality, AirNav Ireland’s controllers come from a wide range of backgrounds, including healthcare, retail, farming, architecture and public service.

What they share is the ability to stay focused, communicate clearly, solve problems and make decisions in a dynamic environment.

For Newell, some of the skills she developed as a radiation therapist proved valuable when she moved into aviation. “The job is challenging, but that is what keeps it interesting,” she says. “You are always learning and no two days are the same.”

Successful candidates undertake approximately 18 months of training, combining classroom learning with real-world operational experience. During training, participants receive a weekly training allowance of €515.

The programme is structured to help trainees build their knowledge and confidence step by step, while working towards a professional qualification in air traffic control.

One of the things that surprises many applicants is how modern the profession is. Air traffic controllers work with advanced technology, sophisticated radar systems and real-time information to support safe and efficient air travel.

The role also offers continuous learning, with no two days the same and ongoing skill development throughout a career.

Just as importantly, it is a team environment. Controllers, engineers and operational specialists work together to keep the aviation system running smoothly.

For many young people today, choosing a career is about more than simply finding a job. It is about finding something that keeps you engaged, challenges you and feels worthwhile.

Air traffic control offers the opportunity to build a long-term career while playing a direct role in how people travel, how businesses operate and how Ireland stays connected to the world.

Every aircraft that travels through Irish-controlled airspace represents people going on holiday, loved ones returning home, international trade moving across borders and businesses staying connected to global markets.

Looking back, Newell says she could never have predicted where the opportunity would lead. “If you had told me a few years ago that I would be working as an air traffic controller,” she says, “I probably would not have believed you. Now I cannot imagine doing anything else.”

Most people have never considered air traffic control as a career. That might be exactly why it is worth a second look.

Applications for the AirNav Ireland Student Controller Programme are now open at airnav.ie

Outbreaks of rain are to spread from the west during a cloudy morning and there will also be some mist and hill fog, the forecaster said. The rain will ease on Friday afternoon with drier spells developing, mostly in the evening, and highest temperatures of 16 or 17 degrees.

Saturday will be a breezy, mainly dry day, with some bright or sunny spells, the forecaster said.

Temperatures will reach highs of 16 to 18 degrees, while there will be “fresh and gusty” southwest-to-west winds. These will ease in the evening.

Overnight there will be a few scattered showers in northern parts while it will be cloudy in southwestern coastal parts with a few spots of drizzle, “otherwise it’ll be a dry night with clear spells”.

Sunday is also set to be largely dry apart from a few isolated light showers in Ulster and cloudy conditions in the far southwest.

It will be dry for most of Sunday with some bright or sunny spells, according to Met Éireann.

Cloud will build from the southwest during the day with a “little patchy light rain and drizzle” in other parts of the southwest and west later, mainly in the evening.

Highest temperatures of 14 to 19 degrees are forecast.

Sunday night is set to be cloudy with some rain and drizzle spreading northeastwards, along with some hill and coastal mist and fog.

Winds will be mostly moderate southerly and will be “dragging up very mild and humid air over the country”, with temperatures not falling below 11 to 16 degrees.

Tailors’ Hall

★★★★★

Pretty Vacant explores gentrification and abandonment in the Liberties, dragging Dublin’s oldest neighbourhood in off the street and on to a spotlit catwalk for what constitutes a masterclass in site-specific theatre.

At the heart of this musical satire is dereliction, a theme emphasised by promotional barricade tape bearing the show’s name plastered over the facade of the abandoned premises opposite its venue. You don’t have to look hard to find derelict buildings in the Liberties, though if they’re outnumbered at all locally, it’s by sites of cultural and historical importance.

One of these is Tailors’ Hall, the city’s oldest surviving guildhall, tucked away on Back Lane within spitting distance of Christ Church. Here lies Pretty Vacant, a sham public consultation on the topic of “setting the Liberties free”, which means shipping out its landmarks and denizens in the name of hotels and high-priced apartments.

The Liberties musical Pretty Vacant: 'It's almost impossible to satirise what's going on'

The meeting is hosted by Carmilla (played by Ruth McGill), a Eurovision star turned snaking property developer, somewhere between Anna Wintour and President Alma Coin, from The Hunger Games. She has invited a series of speakers to talk (and sing) on the community’s behalf.

There is an indignant academic (Matthew Malone), a well-meaning but class-cosplaying politician (Emmet Kirwan) and a pampered “muralologist” (Camille Lucy Ross) who purports to comfort deprived locals with her art. Ross is particularly impressive in her delivery and control of the interactive space.

Alan Howley completes the main line-up, at one stage performing a tragicomic duet with Malone on the ineptitude of the local authority in the face of private industry. Musically, Pretty Vacant does not stick rigidly to Eurovision-anthem pop, though it is never too far away from it.

Finally, this Performance Corporation show affords space to Anthony Freeman O’Brien, an artist, community worker and tour guide whose family has spent generations in the Liberties, to address more earnestly the issues facing his home. It is an inclusion that dispels any fears of a disconnect between the stage and the surrounding area.

Runs at Tailors’ Hall, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, until Sunday, September 20th

Our photographers Nick Bradshaw, Alan Betson and Dara Mac Dónaill were there to capture the cráic and the colour in Screggan, Co Offaly before the event moves to Rathangan, Co Kildare for 2027.

At ‌a ‌two-day ​policy meeting that ended on ⁠Friday, ​the board decided by ​a 7-2 vote ‌to raise its ​policy rate from 1 per cent. ⁠Board member Toichiro ⁠Asada ​and Ayano Sato dissented to the decision.

More to follow

“Everyone has the right to protest,” said a young garda, unlikely to catch anything more untoward than pneumonia on a 12-hour shift. The geniality of his colleague from Castlebar was a legend by lunchtime. How fortunate is Ireland to have an unarmed police force, unlike Trump’s United States.

Two garda vans marked Public Order Unit pulled up, kept watch for a while and quickly departed when there was nothing to see. Just a bunch of non-aligned individuals from Moycullen to Mumbai and Michigan worried about Trump world and hoping Shane Lowry would win the trophy on the golf course.

The view from the dissenters’ side of the barrier jarred with some of the public narrative. Media reports of opposition to the protests were exaggerated. Numerous golf-goers being bussed to the Irish Open at the US president’s club waved and gave thumbs up as they passed by in a fleet of dusty, red double-deckers. Motorists in Clare-registered cars wound down their windows and called out “good on ye”. Some came around twice to ensure their support was registered.

There were objectors, but they were a tiny minority. A front-seat passenger flung open her car door and shouted: “We’re living here. You shouldn’t protest. He’s a great man. Go home.” The driver joined her for the chorus. “Go home, go home,” he yelled along, pressing the accelerator and leaving behind a cloud of petrol fumes and bewilderment, for the duo’s accents sounded distinctly Eastern European. Ice hung in their slipstream. That’s the Immigration and Customs Enforcement outfit that incarcerates, deports and has, occasionally, shot dead immigrants and their defenders in Trump’s US.

A man partly hidden in the back seat of one of the buses gave the middle finger. A child on the top deck of another was more generous. He gave two fingers.

That was when the ache reached this heart. The boy was about eight years old and wearing an Ireland football shirt. A little patriot. No doubt the 120 children obliterated by a US attack on their school in Iran on February 28th loved their country too. As would have many of the 64,000 children killed and injured in Gaza since October 2023 and the six more children killed in Lebanon on Monday alone. All mown down by an Israeli army supplied with weapons by Trump’s United States.

Forty-eight hours after returning to Washington from Shannon, Trump approved a new $2.8 billion (€2.4 billion) arms sale to Israel.

One of the wisest slogans in Doonbeg was emblazoned on a woman’s T-shirt. “Protesting against genocide is not a crime,” it said. She was wearing a cardigan, so if anything was written on the back of the T-shirt it was concealed, but it might have said: “Indifference to genocide is incomprehensible.”

Because indifference could be the death of us all someday.

When Trump dismisses experts’ predictions that AI could wipe out humankind as a “hoax”, indifference breathes accelerant. When he dismisses climate destruction as a hoax while hawking US oil and gas, more glaciers melt, more storms gather, more innocents die. Kevin McDonnell, a reader in Berrings, west Cork, who fished in Doonbeg’s river as a child, observed in The Irish Times letters page: “As I watched the news coverage of countless helicopters and motorcades descending on his Doonbeg golf course, I thought of the few fish left in the river Creegh, starved of oxygen from the latest summer drought.”

Donald Trump says attempts to limit artificial intelligence are part of ‘sick conspiracy’

Our species is facing multiple existential threats and still the Trumpian anti-science and anti-intelligence fomenting them receives a respectful audience. The view from behind the barriers was not encouraging as Eric Trump rebuked the Irish Government from his favourite Sunday newspaper pulpit over high inflation, which, if anyone needs reminding, is being caused by his father’s unprovoked war on Iran. Trump the Younger spent half an hour on RTÉ Radio spewing bilge about “eco-terrorists”, how “America is incredibly united” and that “half the people [behind the barriers] are paid to protest”. I suppose your thinking would be warped too if your father was bribing voters to keep his party in power. We don’t lick our principles off the stones.

That little boy giving two fingers on the bus has been a haunting memory all week. His shirt professed his allegiance to Ireland. His gesture professed his loyalty to Maga. Perhaps he heard Trump gush about how much he loves the Irish, the child being oblivious that the Irish Trump loves are “vicious bastards” in business, the beauty queens and opponents of women’s reproductive rights invited to behold him at the US ambassador’s residence, and the pair of non-tax resident billionaires he reportedly met privately, along with an unrepentant airline boss who calls his business rivals “rapists”. Maybe he mistakes us all for Conor McGregor.

Who are the adult role models who have turned this boy’s rosebud mouth into a sneer of derisive superiority? What divisive hatred is filling his ears? Perhaps, someday when he is older, he can go to secondary school at St Michael’s Community College in Kilmihil and develop a mind of his own.

On Drivetime, Brian O’Connell encountered some transition year students from there. Would he like to meet Trump? the reporter asked a boy.

“No, I’ll let him work away,” he replied with wily tact.

“What would you say to him if you met him?” O’Connell asked a girl.

“Ah, sure,” she said. “I wouldn’t think the best of him.”

Edmund Burke said: “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one ...” But the good need support and that support should start in childhood. Logical thinking, media literacy and principles of humanity are urgently needed in the national school curriculum.

Today’s children must learn to question, to separate truth from lies, to not be gullible. For tomorrow, their very survival could depend on it.

What does this mean for Ireland and for Irish households and do we need to be worried?

Why is it happening?

Interest rates are rising for two fundamental reasons. One is an expectation that inflation will now climb again mainly because of higher energy costs, with no end to the Gulf crisis in sight and worrying signs elsewhere, such as in European gas markets, and food costs.

News here is likely to ebb and flow – wholesale energy prices rose sharply over recent weeks on a string of bad news, though oil eased on Thursday on hopes of an opening of a key Saudi oil pipeline.

The second reason is competition for investor funds. Governments across the world have borrowed heavily over the past years and continue to look for cash to fund budget deficits and renewal of expiring debt.

Irish borrowing costs hit bailout-era highs as investors up bets on rate hikes

Meanwhile major tech companies are also borrowing billions to invest in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, hugely increasing the demand for cash from the private sector. They are competing with government for the cash investors have to allocate and this has pushed up interest rates.

“The so-called hyperscalers are out in the market raising funding, and so the competition for capital is real,” according to US Federal Reserve Board chair Kevin Warsh, speaking this week.

Morgan Stanley has estimated that AI-related borrowings could reach $570 billion (€496 billion) this year alone, with the five major “hyperscalers” – Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle – responsible for more than $250 billion of this. They are no longer able to fund spending through their cash flows and so have to borrow.

The resilience of the world economy to the many recent pressures has also affected the bond market – lower growth would have pointed to lower interest rates by cutting the demand for borrowings.

So this is all normal then?

No. Not at all. The scale of change has been notable and unusual. There has been a nasty reversal in government bond prices in recent weeks in markets across the world, led by the US, pushing interest rates – which move inversely to bond prices – higher.

The scale of this is not normal. And the move in the US 10-year interest rate – dubbed by the Financial Times as the world’s most important interest rate, as it is seen as a benchmark – is notable. It has risen from 4.7 per cent a month ago to about 5 per cent – having reached 5.041 per cent, its highest level since June 2007, on Tuesday.

Hawkish comments by Warsh after Wednesday’s interest rate increase is likely to keep bond markets on edge, particularly for short-term borrowings.

But this is a US thing, isn’t it?

Government borrowing markets worldwide have been hit, mainly for the same reasons – fears of higher inflation and competition for funds. Irish longer-term interest rates are at levels last seen in 2013, with the 10-year yield over 3.6 per cent on Thursday. You could take a glass-half-full or half-empty approach here.

Borrowing costs are at their highest levels for many years and this has implications in the longer term for the public finances – there is no going back to the super-low interest rates which applied from after the financial crash until after Covid-19.

So the cost of borrowing for Ireland will gradually rise as existing fixed-rate debt falls to be refinanced at higher costs. Frank O’Connor, chief executive of the National Treasury Management Agency has warned that the cost of making repayments for Ireland on the national debt could rise from about €3 billion this year to €6 billion by 2030.

The more optimistic view is that Irish borrowing costs remain low by international standards. German 10-year rates – the euro-zone benchmark – are at just over 3.5 per cent while French and Italian rates are in the 4.3 to 4.4 per cent range.

Bond sell-off accelerates globally as investors bet on interest rate hike

A key issue to watch in international bond markets in the weeks ahead is whether problems emerge for any country trying to raise funds, leading rates to spike higher.

But the equity market keeps rising?

So far, yes. Higher bond interest rates can put pressure on equities through a range of channels. For one thing, investors wanting to put money into US dollar assets can now make a safe bet by putting them into treasuries (as US government bonds are known) at a risk-free interest rate of more than 5 per cent. This raises the bar in terms of investing money in equities.

Higher interest rates can also slow economic growth, hitting company profitability – and can also make it more difficult to countries to support their economies through higher spending.

All that said, for now the hopes that major companies can benefit from AI – and that the technology can lead to a general rise in productivity across economies – continues to support equities. So does the reasonably positive growth story in many major economies, itself supported by massive AI investment.

And the recent US earnings season – in which companies reported second-quarter results – saw more than eight out of 10 beating market estimates and average profitability running more than 25 per cent ahead of expectations.

All this is supporting stock markets, despite high valuations and uncertainty about who will win the AI race and the wider economic and social implications of the technology.

But add in the uncertain geopolitical backdrop and it all points to a nervous and volatile time for investors. Analysts at JP Morgan said this week in a note to clients on oil prices: " For the first time since the start of the Iran conflict, we don’t have a baseline view. We simply don’t know how to model the endgame." They had expected that the needs of politics and the US economy would have led to some kind of deal on the Strait of Hormuz by now. But it hasn’t. So who knows?

What are the wider messages for the Irish economy and household finances?

The main point is the recent change in the expectations for interest rates and inflation, which is pushing short- and longer-term interest rates higher.

This threatens another twist to cost-of-living pressures via higher energy costs for households, general pressures on inflation in areas such as food and higher interest rates. We have already seen higher prices at the pumps and a big rise in wholesale gas prices now threatens higher home heating bills.

Expectations here have changed markedly in the space of a few weeks, partly due to the Gulf crisis. Before the last European Central Bank interest rate rise, analysts on balance did not expect another increase later this year. Now they believe another rise will come in December and quite likely more next year. US rates are also expected to increase again.

All this signals fears about higher inflation. And it means the main Irish banks are very likely to follow the latest ECB rise with moves of their own - beyond tracker mortgages, which adjust automatically - with more now likely to come in 2027. Even if the scale of this remains unclear, it is important for the mortgage and housing markets.

Little justification for ‘broad’ cost-of-living supports in budget, Central Bank warns

The wider implications in financial markets will take time to play out. Higher US interest rates may push up the US dollar, putting pressure on some other countries to follow.

The Bank of Japan is widely expected to push up its borrowing costs on Friday. An unstable situation threatens upheaval in financial markets, particularly if there is a trigger such as another swing higher in wholesale energy prices.

For households, pension funds which typically invest in a range of assets will have gained from higher equities but been hit in recent months by falling bond prices. With funds for those closer to retirement tending to be more invested in bonds, many will see lower valuations.

For the budget next month, the outbreak of higher inflation and the renewed threat to energy prices poses real problems. Unless this eases, the complications of delivering a package to address the cost-of-living pressures are really significant.

This year Wexford Festival Opera celebrates its 75th anniversary with 75 events over 17 days, from October 15th-31st.

Since its inception in 1951, the Wexford Festival Opera has flourished and gained worldwide recognition.

The Gambler will be performed in the National Opera House, Wexford on Sunday October 18th at 5pm. Explore the full festival programme here at wexfordopera.com.

Just a four-minute walk from the National Opera House, you will stay in the heart of Wexford Town at Whites of Wexford and enjoy breakfast and dinner, complimentary parking and a vibrant arts and crafts exhibition taking place within the hotel throughout the festival.

Whites of Wexford offers pre and post-theatre dining from October 15th-31st. Find out more at whitesofwexford.com.

Terms & Condition

1. The promotion is open to residents of Ireland aged 18 years or over except employees of the Promoter, their families, agents or anyone professionally connected with the promotion.
2. A valid entry consists of a correct answer entered in the form above, accompanied by the entrant’s name, email address and a phone number.
3. No applications from agents, third parties, organised groups or applications automatically generated by computer will be accepted. No incomplete, illegible, or corrupted entries will be accepted. No entries not in accordance with the entry instructions will be accepted.
4. The Promotion will run from 18/09/2026 to midday on 02/09/2026 inclusive.
5. All entries must be received by the Promotor by no later than midnight on the Closing Date. All competition entries received after the Closing Date are automatically disqualified.
6. Promotion limited to one entry per person. No entrant will win more than one prize.
7. By submitting an entry to the Promotor, you are agreeing to be bound by these terms and conditions.
8. It is the responsibility of You, the entrant, to provide correct, up-to-date details when entering the promotion and on acceptance of the prize. The Promoter cannot be held responsible for winners failing to supply accurate information which affects prize acceptance or delivery of their prize
9. Responsibility will not be accepted for entries lost, damaged, delayed or prevented as a result of any event beyond the Promoter’s control including, but not limited to, user error and any network, computer, hardware or software failures of any kind.. Proof of sending is not proof of receipt. Entries will become the property of the Promoter.
10. The prize is tickets to The Gambler by Prokofiev and an overnight stay with breakfast and dinner for two at the 4* Whites of Wexford on Sunday October 18th. There will be one winner.
11. All prizes will be subject to any additional terms and conditions of the supplier of the prize to the Promoter. This prize can be used on Sunday October 18th 2026 only and cannot be refunded or redeemed for cash.
12. The Promoter shall not be liable for any loss, including, without limitation, indirect, special or consequential loss, or loss of profits, damage or consequential damage of any nature in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise caused by the acceptance of the terms and conditions or in connection with the prize, save for any liability which cannot be excluded by law.
13. In the event of unforeseen circumstances the Promoter reserves the right to substitute the prize for an alternative of equal or greater value.
14. The winners will be notified by email. The winner must claim the prize within 30 days of the notification. If the prize is unclaimed after this time, it will lapse and the Promoter reserves the right to offer the unclaimed prize to a substitute winner selected in accordance with the Promotion rules.
15. Where a winner has successfully claimed the prize, the Promoter shall dispatch, or arrange to dispatch, the prize to the winner at the earliest opportunity. Nothing in these Terms and Conditions shall be interpreted as placing an obligation on the Promoter to dispatch, or arrange to dispatch, the prize within a specified period of time.
16. The Promoters’ decision is final and binding in all matters and no correspondence will be entered into.
17. The winners’ details (name and county) will be made available on The Irish Times website.
18. The winner may be required to participate in unpaid publicity arising from this promotion.
19. The Promotor will only process your personal information as set out in https://www.irishtimes.com/policy-and-terms/privacy-policy and as set out in these terms and conditions.
20. Prizes are non transferrable and cannot be exchanged for cash.
21. These terms and conditions shall be governed by Irish law and the Courts of the Republic of Ireland shall have exclusive jurisdiction.
22. Promoter and Data Controller: The Irish Times DAC, The Irish Times Building, P.O. Box 74, 24 - 28 Tara Street, Dublin 2.
23. The Promoter reserves the right to hold void, suspend, cancel or amend the Promotion where it becomes necessary to do so.

Experience the Grand Life, by staying two nights in a luxurious room with a beautiful sea view, enjoy dinner in Coast Restaurant on an evening of choice and breakfast both mornings.

Relax in the South Bank Bar & Bistro and Marksman Bar then take time to explore the stylish boutiques and artisan shops in the village of Malahide.

Guests also have complimentary access to the award-winning Arena Health and Fitness Club with its swimming pool, jacuzzi, sauna and gym.

Sunshine, sea breeze and a grand escape await. Love the Grand Life - visit thegrand.ie

Terms & Condition

1. The promotion is open to residents of Ireland aged 18 years or over except employees of the Promoter, their families, agents or anyone professionally connected with the promotion.
2. A valid entry consists of a correct answer entered in the form above, accompanied by the entrant’s name, email address and a phone number.
3. No applications from agents, third parties, organised groups or applications automatically generated by computer will be accepted. No incomplete, illegible, or corrupted entries will be accepted. No entries not in accordance with the entry instructions will be accepted.
4. The Promotion will run from 18/09/2026 to midnight on 02/10/2026 inclusive.
5. All entries must be received by the Promotor by no later than midnight on the Closing Date. All competition entries received after the Closing Date are automatically disqualified.
6. Promotion limited to one entry per person. No entrant will win more than one prize.
7. By submitting an entry to the Promotor, you are agreeing to be bound by these terms and conditions.
8. It is the responsibility of You, the entrant, to provide correct, up-to-date details when entering the promotion and on acceptance of the prize. The Promoter cannot be held responsible for winners failing to supply accurate information which affects prize acceptance or delivery of their prize
9. Responsibility will not be accepted for entries lost, damaged, delayed or prevented as a result of any event beyond the Promoter’s control including, but not limited to, user error and any network, computer, hardware or software failures of any kind.. Proof of sending is not proof of receipt. Entries will become the property of the Promoter.
10. The prize is two nights stay for two people with breakfast each morning and a three-course dinner on one evening of choice in The Coast restaurant. There will be one winner.
11. All prizes will be subject to any additional terms and conditions of the supplier of the prize to the Promoter. Prize is as stated and any additional costs incurred will be at the winner’s expense. The prize is non-transferable, and no cash alternative is offered. The prize is valid for 12 months from date of issue, otherwise forfeited. All prize elements are subject to advance booking and availability.
12. The Promoter shall not be liable for any loss, including, without limitation, indirect, special or consequential loss, or loss of profits, damage or consequential damage of any nature in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise caused by the acceptance of the terms and conditions or in connection with the prize, save for any liability which cannot be excluded by law.
13. In the event of unforeseen circumstances the Promoter reserves the right to substitute the prize for an alternative of equal or greater value.
14. The winners will be notified by email. The winner must claim the prize within 30 days of the notification. If the prize is unclaimed after this time, it will lapse and the Promoter reserves the right to offer the unclaimed prize to a substitute winner selected in accordance with the Promotion rules.
15. Where a winner has successfully claimed the prize, the Promoter shall dispatch, or arrange to dispatch, the prize to the winner at the earliest opportunity. Nothing in these Terms and Conditions shall be interpreted as placing an obligation on the Promoter to dispatch, or arrange to dispatch, the prize within a specified period of time.
16. The Promoters’ decision is final and binding in all matters and no correspondence will be entered into.
17. The winners’ details (name and county) will be made available on The Irish Times website.
18. The winner may be required to participate in unpaid publicity arising from this promotion.
19. The Promotor will only process your personal information as set out in https://www.irishtimes.com/policy-and-terms/privacy-policy and as set out in these terms and conditions.
20. Prizes are non transferrable and cannot be exchanged for cash.
21. These terms and conditions shall be governed by Irish law and the Courts of the Republic of Ireland shall have exclusive jurisdiction.
22. Promoter and Data Controller: The Irish Times DAC, The Irish Times Building, P.O. Box 74, 24 - 28 Tara Street, Dublin 2.
23. The Promoter reserves the right to hold void, suspend, cancel or amend the Promotion where it becomes necessary to do so.

Peacock stage, Abbey Theatre

★★★★☆

Saoirse, a new Irish-language musical (ceoldráma nua) written and composed by Shauna Carrick, doesn’t waste time before it tackles the most terrifying ordeal of any modern Gaeltacht summer course: the ceremonial handing over of phones.

This does nothing to ease the anxiety of our wide-eyed title heroine, winsomely played by Ciara Cox, though the giant smartphone prop suspended from the ceiling is a signal to the audience that phones are destined to become an integral element of this story anyway.

Cox’s Saoirse has a right to be worried. She’s being bossed about by Róisín (Evanne Kilgallon), who is that other frightening Gaeltacht phenomenon: the person who can’t stop talking about what happened at the coláiste last summer.

Róisín is all teenage sass. She says “cad-ever” (whatever) and shortens “buíochas le Dia” to “buí le D”. But we soon learn that her mean behaviour masks a secret loneliness, which only becomes more acute when Saoirse strikes up a friendship with Aoife (Síofra Ní Éilí) that later blossoms into romance.

The musical, which features superb vocals by Cox, Kilgallon and Ní Éilí, has 10 performers in total, among them its co-composer Aidan Byrne, with several cast members also playing instruments live on stage. Callum Maxwell’s Séamus adds to the comedy value as the boy who doesn’t want to see a potato that isn’t a chip, while Lesley Conroy is allowed a poignant moment as the widowed bean an tí.

English subtitles are available via the Sibwrd app; I tried it in the second half and swiftly found it a distracting crutch. In reality, the Irish comprehension skills required to enjoy Saoirse are not especially high, and it may be a young and Gaeilge-curious audience that gets the most out of the musical, which is directed by Muireann Kelly and produced by An Taibhdhearc, the National Irish Language Theatre. (It previously ran at Galway International Arts Festival in July.)

Saoirse’s sweet coming-of-age tale ends up competing for attention a little too much with a plot focusing on a financial threat looming over the coláiste, which sparks heartfelt musings about what we will lose if we lose the Gaeltacht. The production is probably preaching to the converted on this score, but it still possesses an abundance of energy and charm, with even a threatened lesson on the modh coinníollach turning out to be a clever device.

Runs at the Abbey Theatre, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, until Saturday, September 19th

Five deployable Thales long-range radar systems will be delivered as part of the agreement, starting next year, with the full capability to be in place by the end of 2028. The system is expected to cost €500 million.

Minister for Defence Helen McEntee previously said the system would strengthen Ireland’s ability to police its skies.

The agreement with the French ministry for the armed gorces was first approved in July.

The Commission on the Defence Forces had identified the development of a primary radar capability as an immediate priority to ensure Ireland could maintain a complete “recognised air picture” – meaning the military can see all aircraft over the State, including those with transponders switched off.

“I am committed to providing our Defence Forces with the equipment they need to ensure the safety and security of our State,” McEntee said in a statement. “Today is a further significant milestone in terms of delivery of the military radar programme which was a key recommendation made by the Commission on the Defence Forces.”

The Minister said being able to form a “complete recognised air picture of Irish airspace” would “very significantly enhance Ireland’s ability to protect our skies”.

Concerns about Ireland’s ability to defend its airspace have been regularly raised in the past few years.

A drone sighting was recently reported off the Co Wicklow coast around the time European foreign affairs ministers gathered at the Druid’s Glen resort for an event as part of Ireland’s presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin later downplayed concerns over security with the report coming in advance of the high-profile visit by US president Donald Trump.

However, he added: “There is more to do offshore, and that work is under way.”

Drones were spotted flying near Dublin last December during a visit by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. After the incident, European Council president António Costa expressed his “full confidence” in Ireland’s ability to deal with security threats.

“What happened last week here in Dublin is another example of the hybrid attacks from Russia, and the hybrid threats from Russia to the European territory,” he said.

After Russian ambassador to Ireland Yury Filatov denied Russia was involved in the incident, the Taoiseach said: “I don’t share his views.”

At the time, Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan insisted additional security measures for drones would be in place for Ireland’s EU presidency.

More of them are talking about a united Ireland than ever before “and they’re not the ones you’d expect either”, says the Fermanagh and Omagh councillor.

Today, hundreds of SDLP members gather in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in south Belfast, with most either quietly or loudly critical of Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s attitudes towards unity.

They are not alone.

Martin’s caution – marked by his recent declaration that he “goes bananas” at talk of a Border poll – frustrates both the SDLP and Sinn Féin, but also the broader nationalist community, including people who are not politically active.

His credentials on Northern Ireland are accepted even by those who do not agree with him, especially his long-held piloting of the multibillion-euro Shared Ireland fund, the Government’s investment programme that has been financing all-island projects since 2021.

However, Gannon and others reject his argument that unity planning now by Dublin would spur unionists to pull away from co-operating with Shared Island, or edge loyalist paramilitaries into violence.

“The days of violence are over,” says the Enniskillen-based councillor, though he accepts that 66-year-old Martin’s experience of The Troubles leaves him cautious “because he’s seen how things can go wrong”.

However, the days of the past are over, says Gannon (32).

Martin going ‘bananas’ over Border poll makes party members go nuts

“I don’t think he’s right to be cautious; I think we’re past violence and all of that as a society,” he says.

Not wanting to spar with Martin, SDLP leader Claire Hanna has called for Dublin “to step up a gear”, saying that northern nationalists can no longer be told “to wait and be patient”.

Influential Sinn Féin back-room figure Jim Gibney is blunter.

“I’m very angry; he’s using his office to block any serious effort to move. Shared Island is very good, but he’s using it to block constitutional progress,” says the Belfast man.

Few south of the border understand the current thinking of Northern nationalists, argues Gibney, a significant figure within Sinn Féin for more than 30 years. “[Northern] nationalists of all hues are united on this.”

Although loud in his applause for Shared Island, former SDLP leader Mark Durkan agrees.

“Northern nationalists are a bit frustrated with his attitude and a bit confused,” the Derry former MP says.

The idea that there must be “some advance on unionist consent, or unspecified state of reconciliation” reached before a referendum is “well intentioned, but I don’t think it’s well considered,” he says.

Few in 1998 – the year the Belfast Agreement was signed, underpinning the Northern Ireland peace process – believed unity was close, he says.

“Unionists wouldn’t have accepted the new version of article three if they’d thought it was language committing the machinery of the Irish state to promoting and pursuing unity,” he says, referring to the article of the Irish Constitution that states Irish unity can only be agreed by democratic consent, North and South.

“Equally, few people in the South saw the agreement as a statement towards unity, even if many in the North did,” says Durkan, one of those centrally involved in the peace talks almost 30 years ago.

Equally too, few realise that political instability in Westminster could dictate the pace, says Durkan.

Apathy and ignorance south of the Border remain significant blocks to Irish unity

“It could be called by people in London with no interest in the North, for their own reasons.”.

Niall Murphy of the Ireland’s Future campaign group, which advocates for a Border poll and a united Ireland, is sharper in his criticisms of Martin, accusing him of “a resolute failure” to plan for an eventuality that Murphy believes is just a few years away.

“That’s no longer tolerable. It’s an abuse of the integrity of the Good Friday Agreement. It’s an insult to the sensibilities of northern nationalists, and all united Irelanders around the world,” he says.

The 1998 agreement lays down that the UK’s Secretary of State for Northern Ireland “shall” call a referendum “if at any time it appears likely to him that a majority of those voting” would support unification of the island.

Despite Sinn Féin’s repeated calls for action, that threshold has not been met, or even come close, with opinion poll after opinion poll putting support for unity north of the Border at or around 40 per cent.

However, for Belfast-based Murphy, such numbers fail to tell the full picture. Unionism once had a permanent majority, but no longer.

Matthew O'Toole: What would a radical alternative look like for this island?

“Nationalism is the larger political bloc,” he says.

For Laura Devlin and Becca Harper, who will be two of the people at the SDLP conference in the Crowne Plaza today, the future is not one about flag, emblems or anthems, but about where their children will grow up.

“I’ve got two kids – one’s seven and one’s 10. Do I want a situation in probably 10, 15 years time where my eldest son Tom, says: ‘Do you know what, Mummy? I’m away to Australia. There’s nothing here for me’,” says Devlin.

Raised in a Protestant community in east Belfast, mother of two Becca Harper made the unusual journey to joining the SDLP following her dealings with the party after she had launched a campaign for better childcare.

“I’m 36. I’m one of those peace babies they talk about,” she says.

“I am very privileged to grow up in Northern Ireland. I’m very proud to be from Belfast. I love Northern Ireland. I just want to see a better Northern Ireland, a new Ireland.”

Harper, who now works on the SDLP’s headquarters staff, says: “We need to make this place work.

“Before I know it, my kids will be thinking about leaving Northern Ireland if things stay the way they are and I don’t want them to face that.”

Given Trump’s support for anti-establishment nationalist parties across Europe, his united Ireland démarche may well have been a deliberate strategy. It has certainly emboldened Sinn Féin while putting the Taoiseach’s carefully calibrated approach to a shared island on the back foot for the moment.

Successive US presidents have had a direct impact on Ireland over the past half century or more, but not always in the expected way. The election of John F Kennedy as the first Irish-American Catholic president in 1960 prompted high hopes that he would weigh in and back the Irish government’s anti-partition campaign.

The then minister for external affairs Frank Aiken urged the ambassador to Washington Thomas J Kiernan to raise the partition issue with the president and persuade him to put public pressure on the British in advance of his visit to Ireland in 1963.

However, reporting back after meeting Kennedy on St Patrick’s Day, Kiernan ruefully recorded that the president had no intention of adopting the Irish government line.

“He is by education British-inclined and in the present international conjuncture he makes no secret of his firm attachment to Britain ... He would therefore regard our suggestion as embarrassing to the British,” Kiernan explained to his superiors in Dublin. At a later meeting in June 1963, just before he made his historic visit to Ireland, Kennedy “looked as if another headache had struck him” when the ambassador, on instructions, raised partition again.

By contrast with Kennedy’s refusal to get involved, president Jimmy Carter, a southern Baptist, broke with the US diplomatic precedent of treating events in Northern Ireland as a purely internal British matter and made a wide-ranging public statement on the issue in August 1977.

Influenced by the speaker of the House of Representatives Tip O’Neill and senator Ted Kennedy, who were working closely with John Hume of the SDLP and Michael Lillis from the Irish embassy in Washington, he took the view that the US had a special relationship with Ireland, as well as Britain, and should make a determined effort to help resolve the conflict.

In the so-called Carter initiative, he called for the establishment in Northern Ireland of a government which would win acceptance from both traditions, alongside an overall solution which would have the support of the Irish government. In the event of such a settlement, the US would be prepared to see how job-creating investment could be encouraged, to the benefit of all the people of Northern Ireland.

His successor, Ronald Reagan – whose visit to Ireland in 1984 prompted much bigger protests than those that greeted Trump last weekend – followed up on the Carter initiative and discussed Northern Ireland with British prime minister Margaret Thatcher at every opportunity.

Garret FitzGerald in his autobiography recalled how he had appealed for Reagan’s help at a crucial stage in the negotiations leading to the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985. Reagan responded by putting pressure on Thatcher and the difficulties in the way of the agreement were smoothed out.

When the Agreement was signed, Reagan honoured the Carter promise by setting up and funding – with the EU, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – the International Fund for Ireland. Former Irish ambassador Seán Donlon has written that the resources committed to the fund amounted to almost $1 billion , supporting more than 6,000 projects in Northern Ireland and Border areas.

The role of Bill Clinton as US president in the development of the peace process during the 1990s, culminating in the Belfast Agreement, has been well documented. The involvement of his administration in detailed work at every stage of the process was critical to its success.

Donald Trump’s comments on unity crossed a line. Unionists feel let down

More recently, Joe Biden’s support for the Irish Government’s position on the Northern Ireland protocol that formed part of the UK’s Brexit agreement with the EU helped to bring the wrangling over its implementation to a conclusion.

In light of the serious commitment of successive US presidents to an even-handed approach to Ireland, the casual announcement by president Trump of his support for a united Ireland is probably about as serious as his ambition to take over Canada, but it has emboldened Sinn Féin to beat the Border poll drum even louder.

The Taoiseach was right to dismiss the attempt to pressurise the British government into an early referendum on unity as “ráiméis”. But the noise generated by the Trump intervention has made Martin’s task of building consensus about a shared future on this island that bit more difficult.

Nestled on the tranquil shores of Lough Eske and framed by the Bluestack Mountains, Harvey’s Point offers the kind of escape that feels removed from everyday life without ever feeling out of reach. It’s peaceful, elegant and unmistakably Irish.

Just moments from the dramatic landscapes of the Wild Atlantic Way, guests can spend their days exploring golden beaches, rugged coastal scenery and some of Donegal’s best attractions.

For more information on stays or to see all of their seasonal offers, visit harveyspoint.com.

The Prize

We’re giving away a Romantic Gourmet Package for Two, offering the perfect opportunity to relax, reconnect and enjoy everything Donegal has to offer.

Your stay includes:

• Overnight stay for you and a guest
• Breakfast with lakeside views
• Dinner in the newly renovated Lakeside Restaurant
• Plush robes and slippers for extra comfort
• Homemade cookies and fresh milk in your suite on arrival
• Complimentary cookery demonstration and wine tasting session

Terms & Condition

1. The promotion is open to residents of Ireland aged 18 years or over except employees of the Promoter, their families, agents or anyone professionally connected with the promotion.
2. A valid entry consists of a correct answer entered in the form above, accompanied by the entrant’s name, email address and a phone number.
3. No applications from agents, third parties, organised groups or applications automatically generated by computer will be accepted. No incomplete, illegible, or corrupted entries will be accepted. No entries not in accordance with the entry instructions will be accepted.
4. The Promotion will run from 18/09/2026 to midday on 02/10/2026 inclusive.
5. All entries must be received by the Promotor by no later than midnight on the Closing Date. All competition entries received after the Closing Date are automatically disqualified.
6. Promotion limited to one entry per person. No entrant will win more than one prize.
7. By submitting an entry to the Promotor, you are agreeing to be bound by these terms and conditions.
8. It is the responsibility of You, the entrant, to provide correct, up-to-date details when entering the promotion and on acceptance of the prize. The Promoter cannot be held responsible for winners failing to supply accurate information which affects prize acceptance or delivery of their prize
9. Responsibility will not be accepted for entries lost, damaged, delayed or prevented as a result of any event beyond the Promoter’s control including, but not limited to, user error and any network, computer, hardware or software failures of any kind.. Proof of sending is not proof of receipt. Entries will become the property of the Promoter.
10. The prize is an overnight stay for two in Harvey’s Point with dinner and breakfast, plus homemade cookies on arrival and complimentary wine tasting and cookery class. There will be one winner.
11. All prizes will be subject to any additional terms and conditions of the supplier of the prize to the Promoter. This prize cannot be refunded or redeemed for cash.
12. The Promoter shall not be liable for any loss, including, without limitation, indirect, special or consequential loss, or loss of profits, damage or consequential damage of any nature in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise caused by the acceptance of the terms and conditions or in connection with the prize, save for any liability which cannot be excluded by law.
13. In the event of unforeseen circumstances the Promoter reserves the right to substitute the prize for an alternative of equal or greater value.
14. The winners will be notified by email. The winner must claim the prize within 30 days of the notification. If the prize is unclaimed after this time, it will lapse and the Promoter reserves the right to offer the unclaimed prize to a substitute winner selected in accordance with the Promotion rules.
15. Where a winner has successfully claimed the prize, the Promoter shall dispatch, or arrange to dispatch, the prize to the winner at the earliest opportunity. Nothing in these Terms and Conditions shall be interpreted as placing an obligation on the Promoter to dispatch, or arrange to dispatch, the prize within a specified period of time.
16. The Promoters’ decision is final and binding in all matters and no correspondence will be entered into.
17. The winners’ details (name and county) will be made available on The Irish Times website.
18. The winner may be required to participate in unpaid publicity arising from this promotion.
19. The Promotor will only process your personal information as set out in https://www.irishtimes.com/policy-and-terms/privacy-policy and as set out in these terms and conditions.
20. Prizes are non transferrable and cannot be exchanged for cash.
21. These terms and conditions shall be governed by Irish law and the Courts of the Republic of Ireland shall have exclusive jurisdiction.
22. Promoter and Data Controller: The Irish Times DAC, The Irish Times Building, P.O. Box 74, 24 - 28 Tara Street, Dublin 2.
23. The Promoter reserves the right to hold void, suspend, cancel or amend the Promotion where it becomes necessary to do so.

Coley McManus, from Dublin, is one of 23 people who attended the workshops over several weeks spanning art, illustration, poetry, songwriting and story-writing. These were run by We-Consent, an initiative of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) and creative organisation Fighting Words.

McManus said she initially did not know which area to choose, but the songwriting workshop “spoke to” her because of her musical background.

The series of workshop will culminate in an exhibition and live performance at the Hen’s Teeth venue in Dublin 8, where McManus will perform her song Deep Breath and sing on Thread Of Hope, which was co-written by participants during the songwriting workshops.

She thought the workshops would be a “safe space for creativity” where she could say things “that you would be scared to say plainly and kind of cloak them in ... metaphorical language and song lyrics”.

“The power of creativity is so important for healing,” she said.

“We’ve all been through things and we don’t have to share, but it’s like informed by the whole situation and I just think it’s so lovely to be in the space where we all get it.”

McManus said she was feeling some nerves in advance of the public performance, but was “really, really proud” of the songs.

“I think we’ve done something really incredible here.”

The workshops marked the first time she “properly got a chance” to speak about her experience.

“It’s been a really lovely, safe space, especially with the kind of mixes of age groups and the mixes of backgrounds and stuff, to be able to share all that.”

Edie Cunningham of the DRCC said the initiative was born from the realisation that “so many people will never call our helpline and so many people will never even tell someone in their life that they might have experienced sexual violence”.

DRCC’s online platform WeSpeak.ie offers survivors of sexual violence an opportunity to tell their own stories, in their own time and words.

“We wanted to make sure they had an alternative outlet where they could anonymously, safely and securely share their story.”

She said the workshop series was called WeSpeak.ie Live because it brings those stories to life.

The workshops were a “really beautiful way” to bring a diverse group of people together to celebrate their creativity, she said, noting she had seen participants grow in confidence and empowerment and “really take ownership of their own voice”.

One woman who attended the workshop, Philomena, said she used writing “as a form of therapy” while coming out of addiction. She saw an advertisement for the initiative on Facebook.

Writing has been a passion for Philomena since she was a teenager, and she decided she wanted to do something with her writing over the last year “because I have a story and I can share it with others to help others”.

She said the workshop series “generates amazing awareness because a lot of women, especially in addiction, don’t feel like they have been raped because once we’ve taken substances, we don’t feel like consent is our right”.

It was “important to showcase” that “the body, the anatomy, is still ours and consent is still valid if you are drunk or you’re not”.

Philomena has since moved on to writing plays and hopes it is just a beginning. “It’s been an amazing journey,” she says.

Deanna Alexandria, another participant in the songwriting workshop, said the initiative sounded like something that would be “close to my heart”.

She has written her own song, co-wrote another with a fellow participant and contributed to Thread of Hope with the wider group.

Colm Quearney, outreach co-ordinator of Fighting Words, said he observed breakthroughs, growth and support during the workshops, recalling participants choosing to read or sing their own pieces rather than have it read on their behalf.

“It was quite therapeutic for the participants and it was a lovely, safe feeling in the room.”

The exhibition can be viewed at Hen’s Teeth from 1pm on Friday with the sold-out performance taking place from 7pm to 9.30pm. DRCC can be contacted on a national 24-hour helpline on 1800 77 88 88 and via its website.

Andy Moran’s Sam Maguire winners will face Jack O’Connor’s Kerry in a repeat of July’s All-Ireland decider when the sides meet at the StoneX Stadium – home of rugby side Saracens – on Saturday, November 28^th.

The off-season game required a special dispensation by Croke Park to go ahead.

Statements were released by both counties on Thursday night. Mayo GAA said: “Mayo GAA and Kerry GAA are delighted to announce that approval has been granted by GAA Central Council for the 2026 All-Ireland champions to face Kerry in a special exhibition game.

“The JRL Group Presents the Mayo Kerry Global Series at StoneX Stadium in London on Saturday, November 28th, 2026.

“The eagerly anticipated fixture will see Mayo return to action for the first time following their historic All-Ireland final victory where they will once again face Kerry in what promises to be a special occasion for supporters in London and beyond.

“Further details regarding ticketing and match arrangements will be confirmed in the coming weeks.”

The issue dominates press questions to the government, fishermen have blockaded ports in protest, and hanging over the country is the prospect of the return of the “gilets jaunes”.

The grassroots “yellow vests” movement paralysed France with protests between 2018 and 2020, beginning with a call for lower fuel taxes before spiralling into a broader expression of discontent.

As diesel prices neared a record high over the last two weeks, calls for protests in cities across France on October 17th went viral online.

By Wednesday, president Emmanuel Macron was telling government ministers he wanted “total mobilisation” to drive down prices and ensure supply.

Amid it all, international bond markets are watching closely: this time last year, opposition to a budget that aimed to address France’s large debt pile brought down the government, and the political turmoil rattled bond markets.

French minister wants Ireland to share its technology tax billions

French minister have to square the public demands for fuel price subsidies, pressure from the international markets to cut debt, and fierce opposition in parliament to cuts – with the government desperate to avoid collapsing once again before the election in April.

Yet all is calm for now in the office of the man in the hot seat, finance and economy minister Roland Lescure, who looks out over a panoramic view of the Seine from the imposing office blocks of his ministry, known for short as “Bercy”.

The first details of the proposed budget are set to be announced in the event.

“I think we’ve balanced it rightly,” Lescure tells The Irish Times. He insists that the subsidies are “targeted” and “transitory”.

“We have been helping the people at the front of the crisis: fishermen, farmers, lorry drivers and people who use their car to work ... without doing blanket-wide measures that would help everyone, including people who don’t necessarily need it.”

“They’re very costly. They’re not efficient. To be fair, we did that during the Ukraine crisis. It cost us an arm and a leg then, and I’m not sure it was very helpful, including politically.”

That suddenly familiar turn of phrase – “to be fair” – speaks to Lescure’s backstory. His wife is Dublin native Susie O’Reilly. The two met in Brussels, when Lescure was a trainee at the European Commission working on the creation of the EU single market.

They went through three years of a long-distance relationship before marrying in O’Reilly’s ancestral Donegal in the summer heatwave of 1995.

“The French loved it, and they all enjoyed the beautiful view on Horn Head. We had a great wedding,” Lescure remembers. On the honeymoon, he followed in the steps of Charles de Gaulle to Connemara’s Cashel House Hotel.

After a career as a civil servant and in the finance industry in France and Canada, politics in Paris beckoned.

“I decided to jump in the pool of political life when Emmanuel Macron called for people from the civil society to join him,” Lescure recalls. O’Reilly works as a yoga teacher in the city, and the family returns to Ireland often.

“Susie comes from a family of nine, so the family gatherings at Christmas you can imagine imply a lot of people,” Lescure says. Their son, a teacher in London, has Irish citizenship.

Irish people don’t give themselves enough credit, he believes.

“I think Irish people should be aware ... of what has been achieved in the last 35 years. I’ve seen it first hand,” Lescure says.

“I’ve seen a quiet revolution occur in Ireland. Obviously economically, from one of the poorest countries in Europe to one of the richest now, but also socially.”

Starting gun fires on Europe’s make-or-break election in France

“I saw the referendum on divorce, I saw the citizen convention on abortion, I’ve seen same-sex marriage being adopted by referendum as well. I have been impressed by the ability of the Irish people to address complex issues, to debate them without too much drama,” he says.

France, in contrast, “sometimes loves the drama, and doesn’t like compromise”.

Is there a risk of a return to the jittery autumn of 2025, when bond markets focused on France and there began to be whispers of a return of the euro zone debt crisis?

“Obviously, we’re faced with a difficult international environment. The Strait of Hormuz, the war in Ukraine, global interest rates on the rise because of global indebtedness, public and private,” Lescure says.

He hopes that the budget will show that “despite the political uncertainties of France eight months before an election” the government is “consolidating public finance, reducing public deficit, but also favouring growth”.

“We’re going to be very adamant about keeping the fiscal environment for companies stable, and to make sure that France keeps on growing while stabilising and reducing the public deficit next year,” he adds.

People in Ireland sometimes admire France for the high standards that the public demand from their government, and their willingness to protest when they are unhappy, I tell the minister.

“Well, I’ll tell you one thing,” he replies, letting slip another Hibernicism. “The grass is not always greener on the other side ... the grass is very green in Ireland. Keep it that way.”

Roland Lescure was speaking in advance of a visit to Dublin for talks with the 26 other EU finance ministers on Friday and Saturday under the Irish presidency of the Council of the European Union.

“At the moment, for obvious reasons, Ireland is getting a big share of the global taxation because most of the digital global companies have got their headquarters in Ireland,” Lescure said in an interview with The Irish Times.

“I think the redistribution of the taxes and the receipts that come out of the digital services that are making their income on the whole of Europe has to be fairly distributed,” he continued.

He said there was a need to “make sure that everyone gets their fair share of a cake, that’s a European cake, not an Irish cake”.

His comments were made as it emerged that confidential figures prepared by the Department of Finance suggest 2026 corporation tax returns will exceed already elevated forecasts.

Confidential figures prepared for meetings this week between Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris suggest receipts from the tax on business profits would surpass the department’s €35.3 billion April forecast by a wide margin.

The improving outlook may yet increase scope for new spending and tax measures for Budget 2027 next month.

Meanwhile, Lescure also rejected calls for a slowdown on the development of artificial intelligence (AI), saying Europe needed to be allowed to catch up first, after several US tech leaders called for caution due to potential dangers posed by the technology.

“We’re behind, but we can catch up. If the call for a slowdown means we freeze the [AI] leadership situation where they are now, it’s not working,” Lescure said.

The EU has to catch up with the US and China on AI or risk losing “prosperity and sovereignty” as it is forced to follow “other players’ regulations, other players’ rules”, he said.

Finance ministers are due to discuss AI at the meeting at Dublin Castle. The Irish presidency is also brokering negotiations on the EU’s 2027 budget, a topic of deep division among the 27 member states.

Lescure pushed back against calls to pare down the proposed budget by hundreds of billions of euro by a group of so-called “frugal” countries headed by Germany.

“We need an ambitious budget,” Lescure said. “We need to make sure we spend on things that are important.”

The budget should ensure the EU is able to operate independently in four crucial areas, Lescure said: “sovereignty on defence, sovereignty on digital services, sovereignty on food, sovereignty on energy”.

Interview: French minister with a soft spot for Donegal faces his toughest test yet

This may need to be funded by new taxes levied directly in Brussels, he added, such as the levy on high-carbon imports from countries with lower environmental standards, the carbon border adjustment mechanism.

Lescure also spoke about the need for centralised supervision of EU financial markets by the Paris-based European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), to avoid complexity for companies and a “race to the bottom in terms of regulation” if national authorities kept their powers.

The issue is the subject of negotiations under the Irish presidency, as the Government seeks to broker a long-delayed deal on the capital markets union, which proponents believe is necessary for Europe to reach its full economic potential.

The reform would harmonise rules to encourage companies to become listed on stock exchanges in Europe and to develop a culture of ordinary people investing in European companies akin to that of the United States.

“This is one of the main challenges to me of the Irish presidency. We need to move forward on this front. We’ve been speaking about it for way too long, for decades,” Lescure said.

“We want the ESMA to be in charge of the big players. The big American banks are making more business in Europe than the big European banks. This has to change.”

By the end of the year, it means 25 openings will have taken place in 2026 at the south Dublin shopping centre, which Hammerson co-owns with insurer Allianz, with 10 already completed in the first nine months.

Among other brands to arrive at Dundrum over the coming weeks will be Spanish fashion brand Stradivarius, which will open a new 1,020sq m (11,000sq ft) store. British lifestyle brand Oliver Bonas will also open a new 230sq m (2,500sq ft) unit, as will fellow UK-based fashion brand White Stuff.

Recent upgrades include Zara’s 3,530sq m (38,000sq ft) flagship store, which opened earlier this month, and Bershka’s refurbished 790sq m (8,500sq ft) unit. Tommy Hilfiger also unveiled a newly upgraded store earlier this month.

US fast food brand Popeyes also recently opened at the shopping centre.

These openings have supported a 7 per cent increase in footfall this year, Hammerson said.

In its half-year results, the London-listed landlord said in July that like-for-like rental income across its Irish portfolio jumped by 13.7 per cent in the first half of the year compared with the same period last year.

It said that all three of its Irish assets – Dundrum, the Ilac Shopping Centre and the Pavilions Shopping Centre in Swords, which is a joint venture with Irish Life – achieved like-for-like rental growth of at least 5 per cent over the period.

The Irish portfolio was valued at £651 million (€757 million) at the end of June by Hammerson, up from £617 million at the end of last year.

“Dundrum Town is riding high, and the scale of investment we are seeing from both existing and new brands demonstrates continued confidence in us and the strength of the Irish retail market,” said Claire Macken, country director at Hammerson.

“From major flagship brand investments to the arrival of exciting new names and home-grown formats, we are continually enhancing the experience for our visitors. This latest programme will deliver even greater choice across fashion, beauty, home, dining and lifestyle while reinforcing Dundrum Town’s position as Ireland’s leading retail destination.”

Hammerson said occupancy levels across its Irish assets are now at 97 per cent.

The Dáil’s Committee of Public Accounts was told on Thursday that, in addition, a further 96 licence applications had been rejected by the authority.

The Comptroller and Auditor (C&AG) General Seamus McCarthy told the meeting that “there may have been an organised fraud”.

He said he understood that the matter had been referred to gardaí.

A note in the annual accounts of the Private Security Authority (PSA) for 2025 states that it became aware of a weakness in control involving the use of fraudulent training results forms by applicants applying to it for a security guard licence.

“Training result forms are issued by training providers. They are accepted by the PSA as proof of completion of the relevant training course ... The fraudulent documents, uncovered by one of our training providers, purported to show that an applicant had completed requisite training as a security guard when they had not.”

The accounts say that in response, the authority implemented new procedures to ensure that new licences were issued only when training had been confirmed with the relevant provider and reviewed those already issued to identify fraudulent documents.

“The PSA strengthened verification procedures ... including more robust audit mechanisms.”

The accounts say 21,094 licences were examined and, of these, 355 were revoked. In addition, 96 applications were refused.”

Fine Gael TD James Geoghegan said there seemed to have been “a very serious attempt to perpetrate wide-scale fraud on behalf of people who purported to have the requisite training to be a private security guard”.

“Correct,” replied the C&AG.

Geoghegan asked whether there was some external agency making money from the people who submitted the applications.

The C&AG said it may have been an organised fraud.

Joe Neville of Fine Gael asked whether there was a risk that people with criminal records were applying and able to get work as security guards.

The C&AG said there was a vetting aspect to the granting of licences, but there was also a training requirement in areas such as restraint and legal issues.

Paul McAuliffe of Fianna Fáil said the committee should seek greater detail from the authority.

Committee chairman John Brady of Sinn Féin said he had many concerns as “anyone who gets a licence like this is dealing with members of the public. We know the importance of having people properly trained in terms of restraint and there have been examples of restraint gone wrong. There are some very serious questions we need to ask the PSA.”

The C&AG said he believed a licence was valid for two years and individuals had to reapply subsequently.

Separately, the committee was told by the Health Service Executive at the end of last year it was owed €200 million from health insurers in respect of subscribers who had been treated as private patients in its facilities. It said €54 million of this sum related to claims that were awaiting completion and sign-off by hospital consultants.

Nik Storonsky told French newspaper Les Echos on Thursday that the fintech firm prefers the US for a potential initial public offering (IPO).

However, he added that the Canary Wharf-based company is still looking at a dual listing on the London Stock Exchange and New York’s Nasdaq index.

A London listing would be a major boon for the city’s stock market, following a dearth of recent listings, with many firms opting against going public or floating in other markets such as New York.

A listing would be expected to make the company, which was most recently valued at 115 billion US dollars (£86 billion) in a share sale, one of the UK’s largest public companies and potentially surpass rival banks including Barclays and NatWest Group.

The boss suggested in April that a float could happen in “two years’ time” depending on “how good the market is”.

The company also indicated that it is targeting further growth in the US ahead of an IPO in order to help bolster its position with potential investors in New York.

He told Les Echos: “It’s a larger market. It includes institutional investors, hedge funds, fund managers and a considerable number of individual investors.

“So we have the choice between selling in a small market with few buyers, or in a gigantic market with a huge number of buyers who will compete fiercely for our shares. Therefore, yes, we prefer the United States.”

It is the first time the Russian-born entrepreneur has pointed to a potential dual listing, having said in 2024 that the London stock market “can’t compete” with the US.

What began with an alarming declaration by former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon – “The Anonymous Obscure Math Geek Who Quit Anthropic and Became the Face of AI Safety” explained the Wall Street Journal in a headline doing a lot of heavy lifting – culminated in Thursday’s announcement that OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and other tech figureheads would attend next week’s state dinner in the White House when president Donald Trump hosts China’s leader, Xi Yinping.

It was not a revelation that inspired any confidence that the key political and technology titans of the world would put in motion the kind of guardrails and safety framework to ward off the existential dangers that Altman and the other AI titans – Dario Amodei of Anthropic, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta – were quick to acknowledge following Coxon’s act of public service and conscience.

China and the United States remain locked in a furious, lightning-paced battle to become the definitive leaders of the AI age. OpenAI, valued at anything between $1 trillion-$1.5 trillion dollars, has delayed its initial public offering (IPO) until next year, after Altman cited safety concerns. Anthropic, which positions itself as a more ethically responsible alternative, may engage in an IPO before the end of the year.

Coxon’s warning tweet was posted on September 8th and it had a spectacular trigger effect. Four days later, Amodei published one of his long, earnest essays on the subject of AI, warning that the industry must “pace the frontier” to enable human oversight to keep check on the limitless expansion of artificial intelligence. Elon Musk chipped in by issuing a response in the blase nature of a man agreeing on sports trivia- that LeBron is past his prime or that the Kansas City Chiefs might win it all this season. “Dario is right,” he wrote on his social media app, X.

Suddenly, debate over AI was everywhere and produced strange alliances, not least in the appearance at a conference this week of Vermont left-wing independent senator Bernie Sanders and Maga conspiracist Steve Bannon, who share a visceral loathing for and distrust of technology oligarchs.

“They will impact the lives of every man, woman and child in our country,” Sanders predicted of the fun years ahead.

“AI experts have told us that within a few years, AI may be able to do anything that we can do better than we can do it. The economic impact of that is that AI has the potential to eliminate tens of millions of jobs, wiping out entire professions and making it harder for young people to enter the work force. But it’s not just the economy that AI is impacting. Psychologists have warned us about the increased isolation and mental health challenges that young people are experiencing as they become more and more dependent on an AI chatbot for their emotional support. Educators are worried about the decline of reading, writing and cognitive capabilities as AI is used more and more in our schools. Civil libertarians warn us that AI is in the process of eviscerating our privacy rights by making it easier to analyse and collect every email we send, every text, every website visited and every trip in our car resulting in the creation of a mass surveillance state. Political scientists warn it could threaten the integrity of our elections and institutions. The leaders themselves are saying you know what, we are losing control over a dangerous technology.”

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Bannon, meanwhile, delivered a battle-cry that contained echoes of Biden.

“This is a hinge in history. To handle it correctly: number one is we can never trust what an oligarch says because they are disingenuous, and they lie. They want you to be dumb about it, they want you to be afraid. We are not going to be afraid. We are going to take this on.”

Up on Capitol Hill, a host of senators and House members gave drive-by press conferences and wore furrowed brows as they agreed that yes, today’s friendly chatbot helping you locate that suitcase lost at Denver airport is tomorrow’s destroyer of planet Earth. Congress has been a source of derision for years over its inability to get anything done, dismissed as a de facto care home for politicians decades past their sell-by date and dullard careerists. Surely this was the moment to rouse both chambers from their slumbers and partisan squabbling to draft emergency legislation that would save the day?

Not quite. Instead, House speaker Mike Johnson ended the session on Wednesday, sending lawmakers home a day early in advance of the midterm elections. And not all politicians were convinced it was their place to interfere in the progress of AI anyhow.

“No. A lot of ‘em can’t even spell it,” said retiring North Carolina senator Thom Tillis when asked whether he felt his colleagues could collectively grapple with the concept of AI. Rich McCormick of Georgia was of the same view, pointing out that many senators struggled to use a mobile phone.

Leading administration figures were equally dismissive. Todd Blanche, Trump’s handpicked attorney general, declared that the Democrats’ sudden panic about AI was just another example of their politicking. “To talk about the timing of this as being nothing but an effort to influence the midterms – I shouldn’t have to say that out loud. Of course that’s what it is.”

Vice-president JD Vance advised the AI overlords that if they felt they’d built the 21st-century version of Frankenstein, then they should stop.

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Maybe Vance has yet to read the gothic classic, or see the latest film version, but the inability to stop the monster is the point of the story. But as with everything, the vice-president is tethered to the view of his superior, and Trump was typically blunt in dismissing all the AI alarmism as nothing but conchie talk in the must-win AI arms race against China.

“The only control or guardrails that AI needed is STRONG AND SMART (High IQ) PRESIDENT and the USA has that, in spades.” Trump wrote.

“The Trump Administration has stopped AI ‘people’ from doing bad, or potentially bad, ‘things.’”

Panic over! There is every chance Trump did not run his message through AI before posting it. But he followed up with a live phone call to Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia who was hosting a session at the All-In public conference in Los Angeles on Monday. Huang and the president agreed – as the Nvidia boss held his microphone to his phone while Trump groused away on loudspeaker – that there should be no slowdown. The makeshift amplification made for a touchingly Luddite tableau given the topic of conversation.

The debate soon made its way on to the broadcast news chatshows, with Fox News anchor Jesse Watters cheerfully contemptuous of the apocalyptic powers of AI as he portrayed it as nothing more than the equivalent as an all-singing, all-spelling kettle.

“We’re the ones who turn ‘em on and off. We’re the ones who use ‘em, talk to ‘em. It’s not like they want to steal our land or take our women. All they need is electricity. And guess who creates that? We do. Why would they bite the hand that feeds them? These are just a bunch of computer geeks boasting about a programme that they built that might be smarter that they are. Woh-woh! Remember, these are guys who spent their lives inside behind screens and it finally paid off – and now it has to be dangerous. It has to be deadly. Sounds a little like revenge of the nerds. Mad scientists created a monster they can’t control? Yeah. Tell Frankenstein. These guys watch too many movies – and now they want to be movie stars. This is their moment!”

Clearly, there is to be no rest for Mary Shelley in this debate. Watters’ rant was useful in several ways. Firstly, it was a perfect example of the curiously infantile language that virtually everyone – including Amodei and the other tech masters of the universe – are reduced to when tasked with explaining what AI might do in one, five or 10 years. Second, he at least succeeded in presenting a visual, explicable solution digestible to his audience just in the door from work. Unplugging the AI beast is not a million miles away from one temporary answer under discussion as Chinese and US researchers continue on their sprint to achieve dominance: a “kill switch” as an emergency override.

“A kill switch probably would work on a lot of AIs for now,” Coxon, the whistleblower said in a recent interview.

“Although I think it’s important to remember, it’d be quite a lot of switches ... Our data centres are pretty big. It’s not the easiest thing in the world, but definitely doable while it’s constrained to one sort of physical location. Like Dario said, very soon there’s the possibility that the kill switch just wouldn’t work because a swarm might have gone on an internet-wide hacking run.”

The problem with AI swarms running amok in cyberspace is it’s too abstract a nightmare to cause immediate alarm among a US general public still bamboozled by fuel and food prices. It lacks the visual immediacy of some lantern-jawed network anchor breaking into the Monday night football show to announce that a meteorite is on a collision course with Earth and that the world’s leaders have suspended all hostilities to save humanity.

‘They’ll use AI for new drugs’: Ireland’s arms race with organised crime

Instead, the warnings are being issued by these remote, oddball billionaires who set up the companies behind the AI revolution – as Watters sneered, the “guys who spent their lives inside, behind screens”.

Poll after poll shows that the vast majority of Americans distrust AI. Only 10 per cent expect it to help their careers. A CNBC/Generations Lab poll for August found more than 70 per cent of Americans under 30 do not trust Altman, or Amodei, or Musk, or Zuckerberg, or Peter Theil of Palantir, or Heung. The billionaires have each discovered the sad truth that all the money in the world can’t buy retrospective popularity in the schoolyard.

Nearly half of Irish workers say AI is making them consider new careers, survey finds

After all, Musk wasn’t banished from Trump land solely because he made a hames of his despicable and inestimably damaging Doge project. He was also beginning to get on Trump’s wick. He was needy, arrogant, demanding and, worst of all, he wasn’t funny. Musk learned the hard way that Trump never wanted Elon for Elon; he wanted him for his money.

The Irish Times view on Artificial Intelligence: time for a pause

But as with the war on Iran, the president is ignoring public sentiment regarding artificial intelligence. Trump had decided even before he won the last election that he was all-in on AI and clearly revelled in the procession of tech overlords paying homage in the Oval Office. He is not going to be deterred by the mounting public hostility to both the volatility of the technology and the data centres required to power it.

The bigger question, running beneath this week’s madcap debate, is why and how a handful of tech eccentrics have been permitted to foist a technological advance upon society that nobody particularly wants – and one they themselves say they feel unable to control. Money, proximity to power, the corruptive nature of political donations and the usual dismal human traits of greed, ambition, hubris and cowardice provide the immediate answers. It’s not that the technology can’t be trusted: it’s that the people can’t.

“I don’t think we can stop the AI bus,” Amodei said in a recent interview.

“There are six or seven companies in the US working in this area. Even if all six stopped, then China would beat us. We can’t stop the bus, but we do have an opportunity to steer it. We need to get Congress leaders, legislators, the public to think about this now.”

In an interview on Thursday, Connor Leahy, an AI researcher and director of the Control AI group, offered a darker motoring analogy. He quoted Amodei as saying that even the leading figures in the industry understood “about 3 per cent of what goes on in the neural networks through which AI self-generates”.

“These [neural networks] are absolutely doing things sometimes directly against the instructions of humans and we don’t know why or how to stop it,” Leahy said.

“It’s kind of like we are driving down a foggy highway at 120 miles an hour and we know there’s a cliff, but we don’t know where.”

The proposed package announced on Thursday by the US state department could include up to four dozen of the world’s most advanced fighter aircraft, plus 49 Pratt & Whitney engines and other parts.

The deal with Riyadh comes as the kingdom fights an escalating conflict with the Houthis, who launched a lightning offensive in Yemen last week and have targeted Saudi assets and threatened shipping through the Red Sea.

“The proposed sale will improve Saudi Arabia’s capability to deter current and future threats by strengthening its homeland defence, and improving interoperability with US forces and other regional and Nato forces,” the state department said.

Saudi warplanes attack Yemen as Houthis solidify gains

But the F-35 sale is likely to face opposition in Congress and from special-interest groups that have helped to derail earlier US attempts to sell the advanced fighter jets to Middle East governments.

Even if finalised, a US production backlog could push back delivery by years.

The Iranian-backed Houthis have sharply escalated the Middle East conflict this month and have responsibility for hitting Saudi tankers in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a vital oil-export route.

The group’s advance in Yemen, coupled with the US-Iran conflict in the Strait of Hormuz, has helped drive oil prices above $100 a barrel.

US president Donald Trump has shrugged off the threat posed by the Houthis and downplayed the chances of the US defending Saudi Arabia. “They don’t want to fight with us,” Trump said of the group during a trip to Ireland last weekend.

Saudi authorities on Thursday announced the first civilian death since the Houthis resumed their attacks on the country, after debris from an intercepted drone killed one person and injured two others.

Raja Krishnamoorthi, a top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, warned on Thursday that the sale, if allowed to proceed, would pose a threat to US national security.

US intelligence officials have frequently warned against transferring the country’s most advanced fighter jets abroad, citing the risk that China could gain access to the critical technology.

“Beijing has spent decades stealing American intellectual property and technology to close the gap with the United States, and we must not help them do it,” Krishnamoorthi said in a statement.

Over the summer, the US approved the sale of $7bn in precision-guided missile systems and bombs to the kingdom.

The US has also approved billions of dollars in potential sales to other Gulf allies since the start of the war in Iran.

Saudi Arabia’s oil exports have fallen steeply in recent months due to the increased regional attacks triggered by Trump’s war in Iran.

Oil prices rose last week after Riyadh shut a critical east-west export pipeline — which allows the kingdom to bypass the Strait of Hormuz — following attacks it said emanated from Iraq.

- Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026

The improving outlook may yet increase scope for new spending and tax measures for Budget 2027 next month. But there is concern within the Coalition about the potential for the new figures to stir political pressure to increase the €8.5 billion budget package.

Increasing corporation tax revenues have strengthened the public finances but they have led to a cascade of warnings that the State’s reliance on money from a small number of large companies is very risky.

Receipts from the tax have more than doubled since 2020, with three companies – Apple, Eli Lilly and Microsoft – accounting for almost half the total return in 2025.

Confidential figures prepared for meetings this week between Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris suggest 2026 receipts from the tax on business profits will exceed the Department’s €35.3 billion April forecast by a wide margin.

The eventual 2026 return will be baked into the 2027 forecast, prompting signals that the projected €37.4 billion return next year will also be eclipsed.

The new figures have been described as “highly sensitive” because of ongoing budget discussions within the Cabinet. Still, two people with knowledge of the talks said the likely return from the tax has improved appreciably.

The €8.5 billion package under discussion for weeks embraces €7 billion in additional spending and €1.5 billion in tax cuts.

The expectation of an increased corporation tax return is based on an early assessment of payments into the exchequer since the start of September and an appraisal of returns in the first eight months of the year.

The Department of Finance declined to comment. Official forecasts from the department have not been updated since its “annual progress report” in April, which projected a €2.3 billion or 7.1 per cent increase in corporation tax receipts in 2026.

Corporation tax returns to the end of August were already up by 8.3 per cent on 2025, climbing €1.4 billion to reach €17.8 billion. The return in the first eight months of the year includes €1.2 billion from the new 15 per cent “top-up tax” for large companies, with further increases expected in coming months.

A new forecast from the department will not be unveiled until budget day – October 6th – but Government officials are working on the basis that corporation tax projections for 2026 and 2027 will be revised upwards.

“Strong corporation tax receipts in September are likely the result of final top-up payments for companies with a 31st December 2025 year-end,” said Peter Vale, head of Republic of Ireland tax at accountants Grant Thornton.

“However, they could also signal positive projections for companies with year-ends in early 2027. The latter would be an early positive indicator for 2027 corporation tax receipts.”

The department’s April forecast was based on projections of increased corporate profitability and the expected impact of the 15 per cent rate, which was assumed then to generate an additional €3 billion in corporation tax this year.

Ireland’s underlying budget deficit on course to hit €20bn by 2030, Central Bank warns

The likelihood of the 15 per cent rate delivering a bigger return is said to be one the main factors behind the new projections but not the only one.

“Looking further down the line, Ireland will continue to collect additional tax receipts from the 15 per cent global minimum tax regime,” Vale said.

“The expiry of intellectual property-related tax allowances will also boost receipts in future years, on the assumption that there is no significant migration of intellectual property from Ireland.”

Vladimir Putin’s United Russia is expected to extend the grip it has held on parliament for 23 years, alongside a handful of nominal opposition parties that reliably vote with the Kremlin on the issues that matter.

The three-day vote begins on Friday, with results expected after polls close on Sunday.

For all the predictability of the outcome, the first Duma election since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 is taking place against the backdrop of a war that, once distant for many Russians, is increasingly intruding into everyday life.

Swarms of Ukrainian drones have struck oil refineries, factories and logistics hubs across Russia over the summer, while polling has pointed to growing anxiety about the course of the fighting and what may still lie ahead.

Against that backdrop, the Kremlin has tightened its grip further. Last month, the authorities barred Yabloko, the liberal anti-war party, from the ballot, removing the only political force remaining in Russia that was openly challenging the invasion of Ukraine.

That leaves a handful of other parties, from the Communists to the far-right Liberal Democrats, which together form what is known in Russia as the “systemic opposition”: groups permitted to criticise the authorities at the margins, but which fall into line with United Russia on issues that matter to the Kremlin.

Russia election candidate runs risky campaign opposing Ukraine war

For years, they have served as a political safety valve, giving voters somewhere to register discontent without posing a serious threat to the ruling party’s dominance. But even by the diminished standards of Russian politics, these parliamentary campaigns have been strikingly lifeless.

“In most elections, candidates compete for attention. In Russia this year, many are doing the opposite,” said Farida Rustamova, a political analyst and founder of the independent Vlast newsletter. “No one wants to come into the spotlight or discuss anything sensitive.”

Most candidates have barely campaigned at all, she noted.

Televised debates have at times taken place in half-empty studios because politicians failed to turn up, producing awkward clips that quickly became memes online.

United Russia’s campaign videos have leant heavily on low-budget AI, with few memorable slogans or promises. None of the parties has dared to address the growing questions surrounding the continuing war that increasingly dominate private conversations.

“The Kremlin is deliberately keeping the election low-key, as greater interest would not benefit them. They don’t want to discuss difficult issues and just [want to] get it over with,” said a person close to the Kremlin, speaking on condition of anonymity.

By keeping the election subdued, Moscow hoped to depress turnout among disaffected and independent-minded voters while ensuring its own supporters made it to the polls, said Rustamova.

Yabloko’s exclusion followed the same logic. Several observers believe that officials had initially expected the party to receive a negligible result, demonstrating how little support remained for an explicitly anti-war platform. But when polling suggested growing support for the party, the authorities removed it from the ballot rather than risk an unscripted result.

Vladimir Gelman, a professor of Russian politics at the University of Helsinki, said another purpose of the elections was to provide the Kremlin with a continuing source of legitimacy and reinforce the impression that there was broad public consent behind the political system and the war.

“Even though these elections are neither free nor fair, they are still the only source of legitimacy,” he said.

In a televised address before the vote this week, Putin explicitly linked participation in the election to the war in Ukraine, presenting voting as a demonstration of unity in the face of outside pressure.

“Your choice and your will once again demonstrate that millions of people stand behind our soldiers, that we are a united people bound together by shared values, historical memory and love for our homeland,” he said.

Putin himself secured another six-year term in the 2024 presidential election, with genuine opposition barred from the ballot, extending his rule until at least 2030.

For many Russians, however, the election’s greater significance lies not in the result, but in what follows.

With Moscow’s troops making little progress at high cost in Ukraine, rumours of another large-scale mobilisation have spread across the country. The fear is that once the election is safely out of the way and a compliant new Duma is installed, the Kremlin will have greater freedom to pursue unpopular measures it has so far avoided.

The anxiety has already prompted some young men to leave the country, hoping to wait out any new mobilisation – scenes that carry echoes of September 2022, when hundreds of thousands of Russians fled after Putin announced the first wartime draft.

Putin has sought to calm those fears. In recent weeks, he has twice dismissed suggestions that a new mobilisation is imminent.

But those reassurances have not been enough for some men, including Dmitry, who flew to Yerevan, Armenia last week.

“I’ll just wait a few weeks after the elections,” he said, adding that he felt the risk of a new mobilisation was too high to ignore. “Let’s see if anything changes after the vote.” – Guardian

This is new territory but the nature of the assignment is not: at Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil they’re reviewing last night’s television.

They are specifically reviewing the findings of the RTÉ Investigates programme about the treatment of Garda whistleblowers – most damningly about the treatment of the whistleblowers from their own former whistleblowers’ unit.

There’s extra excitement because one of the off-screen characters of that programme is here (like better-known unseen TV characters such as Wilson from Home Improvement): former minister for justice Helen McEntee, now Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade.

McEntee is in the leader’s hot seat today; perhaps because the Taoiseach is still busy with the real people of Ireland at the Ploughing Championships – or perhaps because he has a dark sense of humour. (The Taoiseach was actually meeting the president of the European Council at Farmleigh.)

The mood is grim, not least because of the assault on Kerry Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae the day before (“he’s very shaken,” a TD says) but also because of the seriousness of the allegations.

Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty gets stuck in with a question about when, as minister for justice, she knew about the issue of defective gardaí gun holsters, about RTÉ’s claims that the warnings of whistleblowers were ignored and about the claims made in the programme that the defective holsters led to the serious injury of one garda and the death of another.

McEntee maintains the Protected Disclosures Act of 2014 not only protects whistleblowers but it also protects ministers from commenting about anything related to protected disclosures.

When Doherty quibbles with this, she says: “I won’t be lectured to by a party whose history when it comes to protecting gardaí is less than standard.”

This causes dark muttering from the Sinn Féin benches. (The love language of Irish TDs, it turns out, includes a) disapproving head shaking, b) head-cocked confusion and c) dark muttering.)

Doherty does his best. He says: “That’s just nonsense!” and “It’s ridiculous!” but it gets him nowhere.

Gary Gannon from the Social Democrats also wonders what she knew and when.

“Confidentiality protects the whistleblower,” he says. “It does not protect the Government and senior Garda management from accountability for its failings.”

The Minister again stresses her inability to comment (at length), increasingly sounding more Helen GPT than Helen McEntee.

Labour’s Alan Kelly lands the hardest blow.

“It doesn’t bring me any pleasure to be standing up today to say what I have to say,” he says, with the demeanour of a man who is more disappointed than angry. (“It brings him some pleasure,” says someone in the press gallery.)

He speaks of the suffering of whistleblowers and their families. He holds up a defective gun holster. (You can bring props into the Dáil chamber?)

Kelly asserts McEntee’s partial culpability, recounting how she passed Det Supt Brian O’Reilly’s protected disclosure about the defective holsters to the Office of the Protected Disclosures Commissioner (OPDC), who, in turn, directed that it be investigated by her own secretary general.

“You, as minister for justice, directed that the investigation be removed from your secretary general and redirected to An Garda Síochána, thereby usurping the OPDC’s statutory direction,” he says.

“Thereby, you, as minister for justice, revealed Brian O’Reilly’s identity. By doing so you deprived him of the legal protections he was entitled to, and exposing the nature of his allegations. In doing so, you acted without legal authority and directly interfered with a serious and significant protective disclosure.”

He ends with: “Perhaps it was just incompetence or a mistake.”

McEntee is appalled and strongly rejects the suggestion of incompetence or illegality but the mood is dark.

The next question is about the shortcomings of Irish Water. Things move very fast around here.

The co-founder and former chief executive of Paddy Power bookmakers has called on the Minister for Finance Simon Harris to levy a 40 per cent tax on online gaming and casino businesses, which he said posed a “significant danger”, particularly to young men, and served “no public good whatsoever”. Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports.

Irish Rail recently took a €50 million write down on its plan for a new train control system and fired the company it was using to deliver the project. In our big read, Martin Wall details the background to collapse of this project, and its scramble to replace it to ensure the Irish train network doesn’t hit the buffers.

Our Interview of the Week is Peter Broome, the head of Outsurance’s Irish arm. The Aussie tells Paul Colgan about the South African insurer’s growth plans here, how it won’t use AI to replace humans in the business, the growing impact of severe weather events on its business model.

Digicel, in which Denis O’Brien continues to own a 10 per cent stake after a significant debt restructuring in 2024, has agreed to sell its El Salvador business to sharpen its focus on its core markets in the Caribbean. Joe Brennan reports on the deal.

Dundrum Town Centre co-owner Hammerson said it expects a flurry of store openings, upgrades and refurbishments to be completed at the site throughout autumn and winter as part of a wave of investment at the south Dublin retail hub. Ian Curran has the details.

With the budget less than three weeks away, our columnist Eoin Burke-Kennedy details how Simon Harris and Jack Chambers are performing a good cop, bad cop routine with electorate ahead of the October 6th announcement.

Stripe, the Dublin-headquartered payments giant, has unveiled a new partnership with Brown Thomas Arnotts, becoming the Irish retailer’s official online payments processor across its various digital platforms. Ian Curran reports.

In our Work feature, Margaret E Ward explains why women’s struggle to get on the “boss-man’s ladder” has got harder.

In Smart Money, Cliff Taylor notes that global bond yields are signalling danger. Here’s what it means for Irish households

If you’d like to read more about the issues that affect your finances try signing up to On the Money, the weekly newsletter from our personal finance team, which will be issued every Friday to Irish Times subscribers.

But it was the terrible news of her brother Finbar’s death on a battlefield in Ukraine in April 2023 that ultimately compelled her return home.

A graduate of the University of Galway and the London School of Economics, Cafferkey was at a crossroads in her life when, aged 32 in 2017, she set off on a solo trek along the Appalachian Trail.

On her third day hiking, on top of a mountain in Georgia she met Brendan Sedlak, a surgical assistant from Cleveland.

The pair completed the 2,200-mile trek together and within months were married and settled in a leafy suburb of the Ohio city where Sedlak had been raised.

In time their two boys were born. Finbar is now eight and Luan is six.

With Achill’s deep historical connections to Cleveland – more than 80 per cent of the Ohioan city’s Irish population can trace their origins to the Co Mayo island and its environs – it could be argued that Cafferkey was living in a home away from home.

“On the kitchen table late at night, I would make lists, pros and cons, for and against, comparative costs of living, but the numbers on that notepad never added up in Achill’s favour,” she says.

“We were living in a great place to raise our two young children. But I couldn’t help it and I dared to want for more.”

Everything changed on April 19th, 2023, when she received a phone call from home. Her much-loved oldest brother Finbar was missing in action in Ukraine, presumed dead.

A lifelong activist for various causes, he was fighting alongside two other international volunteers with a Ukrainian unit in an attempt to keep a vital route to the city of Bakhmut open as Russians troops prevailed.

“When Finbar was killed we were told first his body was in a field. We were given a Google map pinpoint. During that time there was nothing,” she says.

“I wanted to do more than to go to that field and be with him, I would zoom in to that pinpoint and in my dreams I would tend to his strong, beautiful and now vulnerable body, close his eyes, take off his boots.

“Then after a month, we were told that his body had been moved to a morgue. DNA samples and dental records were sent. We waited six months for formal identification. Then we were told that actually his body was never found,” she says.

Finbar Cafferkey: The life and death of an Irish fighter ‘who put his money where his mouth is’ in Ukraine

“To this day, nobody seems to know where his remains are.”

This tragedy made Cafferkey yearn for home even more.

“I was so fortunate that Brendan felt it too and totting up figures and balancing the pros and cons on a kitchen notepad didn’t seem to matter any more,” she says.

Having grown up as Gaeilge, often doing her homework on the bar of the pub her parents, Tom and Celine ran, she wanted her children to experience “the spontaneity, poetry and wildness” of the Co Mayo island.

While they were already being brought up bilingually and brought home as regularly as was feasible, Cafferkey wanted her two boys to experience “that time-travel feeling when you disembark on to an offshore island”.

“I wanted them to be out picking sméara dubha in September and to see duilisc drying on a flat sheet laid out on the summer grass,” she says.

Most importantly, Cafferkey wanted her two boys to have “a firm grip of the Irish language”.

“With that, they will always be connected to the place and have a sense of belonging. Having the language is a homecoming in itself,” she says.

Beyond dealing with the trauma of the death of Finbar, the logistics of the transition home were relatively seamless.

“We were fortunate to find a home in the village of Ascaill, a couple of miles from where I grew up, as a relative was downsizing,” says Cafferkey.

“The boys attend Scoil Naomh Pádraig in nearby Sáile and I am lucky that my job, which is in fiscal compliance for the Government, allows me to work remotely for 80 per cent of the time.”

Brendan has changed tack completely with more time to co-parent while enjoying woodworking, gardening, learning Irish and playing guitar with four other locals in a band, The Pisreogs.

“The move home has been a great one, and we are feeling very settled here,” she says.

Cafferkey believes there are some issues that she feels the Government should address.

While she praises the fact that the only secondary school on the island, Coláiste Pobail Acla is very proactive about programming events and activities through Irish, it does not have an all-Irish stream.

“I feel that it should be a constitutional right that every child in the country, not least in the Gaeltacht, should have the opportunity to be educated entirely through Irish,” she says.

“We moved home to live in the Gaeltacht but there is no all-Irish secondary school option for them.”

But that is an issue for down the road.

Now, she loves nothing more than seeing her two young boys experience rambling adventures past the crumpled piles of stones where their great-grandparents once lived.

Presenting Wednesday’s edition of Today with David McCullagh (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) from the annual agricultural jamboree in Screggan, Co Offaly, the host is as wry and inquisitive as ever. But from the off McCullagh also seems somewhat unsettled by his alien surroundings, finding himself on the back foot when talking to the Independent Ireland TD Michael Fitzmaurice about State support for the farming sector.

Asked by the host for his take on the situation, Fitzmaurice praises those working in agriculture as “the salt of the earth” before decrying the “farmer-bashing” aimed at the sector. “Where do you see farmer bashing?” McCullagh asks sharply. “You’re pretty good at it yourselves in the media,” Fitzmaurice replies jauntily, to cheers from the spectators in attendance.

Stung by the politician’s (all-too-predictable) riposte, the host responds slightly tetchily – “You’ve got the hometown audience with you there” – only to walk into another palpable hit by his guest: “Yeah, I rented a crowd.”

Populist that he is, Fitzmaurice certainly knows how to work this one, what with the subject and the setting.

This one-sided sparring contest eventually settles into a more even-handed and factually grounded discussion, but after his initial bruising McCullagh doesn’t really sound comfortable.

It’s an uncharacteristically astringent moment, however. Otherwise, the host is in tune with the good-natured festival atmosphere of the ploughing, though he still betrays his ingenu status at times. During his conversation with Michael and Aoife Ruddock, father and daughter contestants in the senior and junior brown-bread competitions, a more relaxed McCullagh samples the baked goods with relish: “It tastes fantastic!”

Even this triumph is fleeting, however. McCullagh then compliments Aoife for wearing an Offaly jersey, only to be corrected that it’s actually the Leitrim strip. Cue much ribbing from the audience. “I’m going to have to apologise after that,” the host sheepishly admits.

At other times McCullagh seems to revel in being the confirmed Dubliner in the rural environment. Talking to the RTÉ reporter Brian O’Connell, the host is upfront about his lack of familiarity with the vast enterprise: “Thanks for filling us in on what is really happening at the ploughing, because it’s a mystery to me.”

Not all his on-air mishaps arise from urbanite blind spots, though. His interview with the chairwoman of the Road Safety Authority, Anne Graham, is prefaced by a clip of the host being strapped into a rollover simulator, to his evident discomfort.

“I’m beginning to regret having that full Irish this morning,” he splutters while enduring the sensation of a car flipping over. Afterwards, he drily wonders why he was subjected to such buffeting: “That was mainly done for the entertainment of my production team.”

Maybe so, but it adds to the gaiety of listeners too. And, for all his scrapes, McCullagh actually emerges with his credentials enhanced: his Screggan expedition makes for great radio.

It’s in keeping with a good week for the presenter. Having been light on meaty political interviews of late, McCullagh hosts not one but two heavyweight encounters on Monday’s show.

He first speaks with Mary Lou McDonald, the Sinn Féin leader, focusing on Donald Trump’s bombshell endorsement of a united Ireland, a development she guardedly welcomes while decrying Taoiseach Micheál Martin for discouraging a Border poll.

Irish unity rather than protests the focus of US coverage of Trump visit

McCullagh also interviews the Taoiseach himself, who for his part prizes constitutional caution over rushed unification referendums, while excoriating Sinn Féin for its IRA past.

For all their spiky talk, it’s fairly rote stuff from both Martin and McDonald, but their presence adds topical ballast to McCullagh’s programme.

Not everything is as absorbing, however. Tuesday’s chat with the EU agriculture commissioner, Christophe Hansen, is as exhilarating as one would expect from a Eurocrat outlining official policy in intricate detail, with the host rarely intervening.

He may have had the odd sticky moment at the ploughing, but McCullagh is better when he gets stuck in.

Even as rural life is exuberantly celebrated elsewhere, over on Newstalk Breakfast (weekdays), Anton Savage hears how the differences between city and country are narrowing, in some respects anyway. On Tuesday he speaks to the journalist Jacqueline Hogge, who describes how cocaine use is commonplace among younger farmers: “It’s becoming a norm now for young people in the farming community.”

While this might come as a shock to some – “There’s still a perception in parts of rural Ireland that drugs is an urban issue,” Hogge says – it doesn’t surprise Savage, who notes the ubiquity of cocaine throughout the country.

Even so, the countryside coke trade comes with a uniquely unwelcome twist, with Hogge reporting suspicions among agricultural contractors that new operators are using drug money to fund their business.

Savage’s item gives an unexpected, if dispiriting, glimpse into the changing nature of rural society in Ireland. Even so, with his knowing mien and smooth delivery, the presenter is emphatically not a horny-handed son of the soil; the closest he gets to the ploughing is a phone interview with (the on-site) Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon.

Not that it matters. With its brief items and zippy style, Savage’s show is tailor-made for the studio, allowing him to pivot seamlessly from ministerial encounters to health advice, as when he speaks to the dentist Caroline Robins about bruxism, aka teeth grinding. Robins, a self-confessed “clencher”, attributes the condition to everything from stress and sleep to drink or dementia, while suggesting the most effective treatment for nocturnal gnashing is a mouthguard.

Savage is dubious about the idea of wearing such a device overnight. “My only experience of gumshields is looking forward to half-time, so I could briefly take them out,” he remarks.

Flippant though this comment seems, it’s also strangely apposite. The host’s item on bruxism is, in its own way, incisive; for all his sly irreverence, Savage’s approach is far from toothless.

Moment of the week

Sartorial questions prevail on The Hard Shoulder (Newstalk, weekdays) when Shane Coleman asks the public-relations guru Terry Prone (aka Savage’s mother) if people have lost the art of dressing up, particularly in work settings.

Prone is firmly of the first-impressions-last school – “Whether we like it or not, clothes and fashion are semiotics” – and bemoans the decline of formality in the workplace, albeit in slightly convoluted form: “The suit and tie is now pretty much dead, but we make a big mistake if we think it’s a permanent deadness,” Prone says, conjuring up images of besuited zombies.

But a bigger jolt comes when Coleman wonders whether his guest is driven mad when she sees TV presenters in casual clothing. “You’re asking the wrong person, Shane, because I don’t watch television,” Prone coolly replies.

Even in the digital era, for a legendary PR figure to admit she ignores the telly sends out an odd signal.

East, who refers to herself as a “lapsed insider”, now lives in Berlin. More than three decades on, she looks back at the city she knew well, whether walking or cycling around, and switches her focus to the present by talking to strangers. Once you know where to look, she writes, evidence of the city’s watery past is everywhere. The intangible changes, she decides, are a great deal more positive, “not least the long-overdue pivot away from a civil discourse and moral code dictated by the Catholic Church in lockstep with the Irish State”.

The text is accompanied by striking colour photographs reflecting the reshaped skyline filled with cranes, as well as gatherings at ukulele and trad sessions, Smithfield Horse Fair and Moore Street market. Portraits include Alice Leahy, who set up a trust in the Liberties, tour guide Emma Moohan, the former senator and scholar David Norris and actor Ronan Wilmot.

One of the main Dublin arteries, the Navan Road – initially part of the townland of Greater Cabragh – is the subject of an in-depth exploration that includes not just its built heritage and boundaries but numerous other subjects. Navan Road: An Illustrated History 1700-1960 (Eastwood, €25) by Enda Finnan, comprehensively traces the social and economic history of the suburb, which reflects Ireland’s wider journey.

When turnpike trusts were set up, they were financed by charges, and in 1729 the first toll was established for the Dublin to Navan road, although at this point the modern Navan Road had yet to be built.

During the 19th and 20th centuries the development of the road was vital to the cattle trade. The Prussia Street cattle market – a mile to the east – which ran from 1863 to 1973, was central to the economy. This was reflected in a description by a former cattle-market sales master, Joe Barry, who referred to Ireland in that era as being “little more than one large cattle ranch”.

The path of transformation of the Greater Cabragh townland into the suburban parish of Navan Road took place during the middle decades of the 20th century.

The process began in 1935, when new roads were laid out with a St Patrick-themed run of streets, a customary practice in post-independence Ireland. The book ends in 1960, at which point transport connections, residential housing and local amenities were well developed. The suburb was booming, and although it still retained an enduring rural element, prices for a “Superior House” at Kinvara Avenue started from £1,680.

In The Greens of Medieval Dublin: A History of the Rights of Commons (Liffey Press, €24.95), Michael Cregan delves into the story of five principal medieval greens that have received little attention from historians. They are: St Stephen’s Green, Hoggen (College) Green, The Steine, Abbey Green and Oxmantown Green, as well as Fair Green adjoining Dublin Castle and Kilmainham.

Their primary use was for grazing draft animals, but they were also places of recreation, celebration and military training. Population growth and changes in agricultural practices led to their demise by the beginning of the 19th century, and the loss of greens meant the city was seriously lacking in open spaces. Today there is an awareness that carefully planned public areas contribute to the attractiveness of cities, and the author suggests that the city’s greens may have been ahead of the times by offering a variety of overlapping functions.

Dublin’s Latin Quarter: A History and Guidebook (Mountjoy Publishing, €25) by Brendan Lynch researches the cultural history, geography and stories of those who lived and worked in this south Georgian enclave. The area runs along an axis from Pembroke Road and Upper Baggot Street to St Stephen’s Green, and west along the Grand Canal to Leeson Street Bridge.

Eighty brief biographies include, among others, the writers Samuel Beckett and Elizabeth Bowen, artists Francis Bacon, Roderic O’Conor and Mainie Jellett, and composers Charles Villiers Stanford and Michael Larchet. The guide pays overdue tribute to the intrepid women artists who left to study in Paris in the early 1900s.

Dublin’s Latin Quarter may not have had the same illustrious and bohemian pedigree as its Parisian namesake, but it was unquestionably a vibrant place brimming with artistic energy and creative inspiration.

The final resting place for many prominent Dublin citizens is the focus of Mount Jerome: Dublin’s Victorian Cemetery (The Old Dublin Press, €24.95) by Maurice Curtis. Eleven chapters consider the cemetery’s early history and walks within the grounds. The cemetery, at Harold’s Cross, is divided into old and new parts. The old part, surrounding a Gothic-style Victorian Chapel, is lined with rows of impressively decorated tombstones, temples, monuments and mausoleums, a hallmark of the affluent and influential Anglo-Irish gentry, as well as the merchant classes.

Notable burials include the novelist William Carleton, Sir Richard John Griffith, author of Griffith’s Valuation, the brewer and philanthropist Benjamin Lee Guinness, journalist and poet Susan Mitchell, writer and activist Charlotte Stoker, and the renowned former Irish Times editor R M “Bertie” Smyllie.

Killester: From medieval manor to garden suburb (Four Courts, €17.95) by Joseph Brady and Ruth McManus describes the development of the northside suburb. Its history stretches from the early days as Killester Demesne – with a watercolour of the mansion house by Harold Leask – through its 20th-century evolution as a garden suburb for ex-servicemen up to the emergence of today’s community.

On the other side of the city, Dalkey: An Illustrated History (Eastwood, €20) by John Martin explores the area from the earliest settlement about 5,000 BC to the present. Urban development during the 19th and 20th centuries considers housing, transport and services with charts, maps, engravings and photographs.

Pen pictures in two final chapters appraise people who helped shape the development of Dalkey, while the other focuses on notable residents. These include Maeve Binchy, Hugh Leonard, Lennox Robinson and Frank O’Flanagan, the self-styled “Recorder of Dalkey” who lived on Sorrento Road and whose passion was the promotion of the town and preservation of its heritage.

Tallaght: A History of its Nobility and Gentry (Tallaght Free Press, €15) by Éamonn Maloney delves into the lives of landowners in the Parish of Tallaght throughout the centuries. Profiles are presented of those who gained ownership through a variety of ways such as Grierson, Lentaigne, Luttrell and Wharton.

Dr Evory Kennedy was one of the most eminent medical men in 19th-century Ireland and established his Co Dublin residence at Belgard Castle in 1853. He presided at the coroner inquest in Tallaght Courthouse into the death of Stephen O’Donohoe, who was killed at the Battle of Tallaght in 1867. On leaving the courthouse, Dr Kennedy gave O’Donohoe’s widow a financial contribution towards her husband’s funeral. Poems and songs were written in memory of O’Donohoe, including Song of Tallaght.

Ghosts of Old Dún Laoghaire (Eblana Forum, €20) by Breasal Ó Caollai focuses on the 200-year-old history of the Eblana Lodge, alongside aspects of local life. The Eblana Club, a place where people of all religions and none socialised together, is today the centre of local community activities. Stories of important historic events are included, such as the sinking of the Holyhead mailboat Leinster in October 1918 at the end of the first World War.

In July 1898 the first wireless radio broadcast of a sporting event was made from Dún Laoghaire. The Italian radio engineer Guglielmo Marconi sent telegraphed reports from the Kingstown Regatta. His invention also improved sea safety and rescue. One of the town’s most famous sons was Ronnie Drew of the Dubliners, who died in 2008. Locals have campaigned for a lasting memorial to him but the author states that their efforts have been “constantly ignored”.

Milltown: A History (Eastwood Books, €45) by David Costello is a large-scale study of the suburb, although the author states frankly that not everyone knows where Milltown is. He helpfully pins it down as straddling the river Dodder in the modern postal districts of Dublin 6 and Dublin 14, falling under the jurisdiction of Dublin City Council and Dún-Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.

The book spans 4,000 years of social, economic, political and military history. The impact of the Famine, the Fenian Rising, the first World War and the War of Independence is analysed. The book also recovers the stories of an old village community. The volume is lavishly illustrated with maps, plates and photographs and is particularly strong on the history of Milltown House, a mid-18th century villa of high-quality craftsmanship.

Under the Rainbow: Observations and recollections of Skerries and other places (Monument Media, €15.95) by Hugh Fitzgerald Ryan brings together more than 100 short pieces drawing on eight decades of the author’s memories of growing up, getting married and raising a family in Skerries. There are recollections of wider events and news stories as well as opinions on books and films. The full text is available at the author’s blog: hfryan.wordpress.com.

The Great Liberties Whiskey Fire (Eastwood Books, €12.99) by Las Fallon is a detailed account of a fire in 1875 that broke out in a whiskey warehouse in the Liberties. The blaze quickly escalated as barrels of whiskey ignited, sending rivers of burning alcohol through the streets and posing a serious challenge to firefighters. The author is a veteran of the Dublin Fire Brigade and has researched this story, bringing to life a little-known historical event and combining it with an understanding of the legacy.

In A Little History of Neary’s (The Little Museum of Dublin, €9.99) Daryl Hendley Rooney uncovers the remarkable story of one of the city’s best-known pubs. Since 1887 Neary’s on Chatham Street has been a mainstay of cultural and convivial social life. Its diverse clientele has included balladeers, thespians, writers, office workers, street traders and tourists.

The bar’s facade is inspired by architectural design elements ranging from Romanesque to red brick. At the front door two elegantly crafted iron lamp brackets are designed as a pair of human arms grasping glazed lanterns emblazoned with the pub’s name – beacons of light that, according to the author, “have guided generations of visitors to a place of warmth and hospitality”.

Dublin’s Industrial Heritage: From Sandymount Strand to Crumlin Road (Wordwell, €17.99) by Rob Goodbody is the first in a three-volume series of illustrated books. This one covers a specific geographical area of southeast Dublin, exploring the transformed south Docklands and sites along the Dodder, the Poddle and Grand Canal, as well as locations in the south city centre. Among the topics discussed are mines and quarries, land reclamation, watermills and windmills, light and heavy industry, transport, communication, military installations and utilities. The next two volumes will consider southwest Dublin and north Dublin city and suburbs.

The following day Canadian prime minister Mark Carney spoke to the same group of MEPs about wanting to be closer to the bloc during the “ferocious” storm that had ruptured alliances underpinning the previous world order.

Carney sketched out the possible parameters of a new “alliance”, but what does “associate” membership mean? Is it all about trade?

And what might the implications be for Ireland?

Jack Power, Irish Times Brussels-based Europe correspondent explains.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey.

Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney has described the proposal of welcoming Canada as an “associate member” of the European Union as a “positive move”.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) is facing fresh questions over hospital productivity, after new analysis found inpatient activity rose by just 2 per cent over the past six years, despite a 52 per cent increase in real spending.

Eleanor Donaldson is to appeal the decision of her trial of the facts, which found she aided and abetted her husband, convicted paedophile Jeffrey Donaldson, on child sex abuse offences.

A data centre which was granted planning permission from Mayo County Council last year has had it overturned.

Perhaps it’s because I grew up in an era where women’s naked bodies were used to advertise men’s shoes, men’s shirts, men’s socks, car oil and cars among others; images that were as common as they were inappropriate. In those days, however, the women in the advertisements didn’t have a stake in the businesses doing the advertising, which seems to be part of the reason why some people feel that Sweeney’s participation is in some way feminist and empowering.

It was not empowering to walk into a wholesale suppliers in the 1970s and be confronted with pictures of naked women cavorting with power tools. It was not empowering in the 1980s to sit in a client’s office and see a calendar with a naked woman on the wall behind his head. It was not empowering in the 1990s to walk into a garage and see the Pirelli calendar proudly displayed in multiple locations. (The Pirelli calendar continues to be promoted as empowering because it uses famous photographers and “top” models. It eased back on the naked models for a while but in 2025 announced it wanted to return to “sexy classic”.)

Regardless of how advertising people want to spin it, I can assure you it was definitely not empowering to work in a financial institution in which it was perfectly normal for my male colleagues to have screensavers of semi-naked women on their computers, while they referred to the “men’s magazines” they left on their desks as “research”.

Finn McRedmond is wrong to think that just because a woman is a willing participant and has a financial stake in the company involved in an advertisement that objectifies her body that the advertisement is, in itself, harmless and playful.

Sweeney’s ad objectifies women in sport who work hard to be acknowledged for what they have achieved. Research has shown that objectifying women normalises harassment.

The fact that sexist advertisements provoke comment today is because in those years of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s women worked hard to show how inappropriate they are. Reviving them in the name of humour simply isn’t funny. – Yours, etc,

SHEILA O’FLANAGAN,

Clontarf,

Dublin.

Sir, – I disagree with Finn McRedmond’s article. Having seen the ads for the online betting company Novig, it is reasonable to assume the purpose is to target young people (males in particular) whilst distracted by the virtually naked body of Sydney Sweeney.

The perils of online gambling have been well flagged, so there’s nothing humorous there or about the use of an attractive woman’s body to encourage people to part with their money. – Yours, etc,

ROSARY COX,

Mount Merrion,

Co Dublin.

A spokesman for Martin Heydon said there could be no conflict of interest between being a farmer and minister for agriculture, citing the example of a teacher being a minister for education. It is a hard to believe that eyebrows would not be raised, however, if a minister for education was running a grind school on the side.

I believe we should follow the lead of the Danes and abolish the minister for agriculture and instead appoint a minister for nature and animal welfare, someone who would advocate for animals and the environment, and the benefits would be felt by all of us. – Yours, etc,

JOAN BURGESS,

Annmount,

Cork.

Sir, – I think most farmers would agree there is no conflict of interest between Martin Heydon, the Minister for Agriculture, receiving Cap payments and being part of the negotiations for the EU budget 2028-2034. He will receive future Cap payments according to a clear, transparent and formulated system along with 120,000 other farmers in Ireland.

However, I think most farmers would welcome the Minister delivering more support to the sector, given national and international issues of the last year.

His response to a drought in half the country this summer has been to promote a national fodder survey and a promise of earlier Cap payments. Most farmers are well aware of how many round bales are in their yard. A targeted plan to get more bales in the affected areas or imported into the country is instead required. Similarly, earlier Cap payments will only help cash flow, they will not reduce costs or find the required fodder.

His response to record fertiliser prices, now double what farmers were paying five years ago, has been nonexistent, even though the annual window for spreading fertiliser has now closed for this year.

The consumer is suffering and will continue to suffer with ongoing food inflation. Hopefully the Minister will negotiate, secure and distribute sufficient funding to ensure food security and low inflation. – Yours, etc,

RICHARD FOX,

Kilcoole,

Co Wicklow.

He could have said he wanted to reward those who worked hard and no one would have batted an eyelid. The “get up in the morning” bit presupposes those who don’t, high welfare spending and the tax burden on middle-income earners.

It’s a neat bit of politicking that he can conveniently step back from if he gets accused of dog-whistling to the right.

Harris is in good-cop mode ahead the budget, promising an income tax package that will have a “significant impact”.

But the numbers just don’t add up. When you break it down it could be worth as little as €120 a year to the average worker.

According to his own department’s Tax Strategy Group, inflation-proofing or indexing the budget against a 4 per cent rise in wages (the current rate of growth) costs €1.16 billion.

That means most his €1.5 billion package will merely help workers stand still in real terms.

If the tax bands and credits which determine how much you pay are not adjusted for wage inflation each year, then you pay a small bit more proportionately to the exchequer.

As people rise up the income ladder, they start paying tax for the first time or pay more of their income at a higher rate.

Removing the cost of indexation leaves just €340 million for meaningful tax cuts.

Spread across all 2.84 million workers in the Republic, that’s the equivalent of just €120 each, €10 a month.

A veritable crumb when you consider the average domestic energy bill for a typical Irish household has climbed from about €2,000 a year in 2021 to closer to €3,500 a year now.

Little justification for ‘broad’ cost-of-living supports in budget, Central Bank warns

Nonetheless Harris is persisting with his oversell while Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers, in the role of bad cop, is pouring cold water on expectations of a big tax giveaway.

Chambers says the cuts will be “modest”, benefiting most people by only a few hundred euro a year.

Governments often adopt this good cop/bad cop routine ahead of budgets.

The leaks, the late-night briefings, the winners-and-losers narrative that go with Irish budgets are acts of political stagecraft that we need to move on from.

When journalists struggle to find a theme or Opposition parties appear neutralised in their criticism, that’s probably a good thing.

When budgets grow faster than the economy, they tend to cause inflation but, worse than that, they tie future administrations into high spending patterns. Hence the worry over corporation tax and whether a big bang in that area could leave us in a fiscal mess

If you think of the dramatic budgets of the past – Charlie McCreevy’s decentralisation fiasco of 2003, Brian Cowen’s unsustainable giveaway in 2007, Brian Lenihan’s €6 billion clawback in 2011 – they either preceded a crisis or took place in the middle of one.

Lenihan was forced into two budgets in 2009 as he attempted to halt the slide in the public finances.

Adopting indexation on a permanent basis would make it easier for households to forecast and budget, but the Government insists on doing it in an ad hoc fashion so it can generate political capital.

The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (Ifac) and others have called for a legally enshrined budgetary rule to keep a check on current spending and to protect public investment which tends to get slashed during financial crises.

Budget 2027: From income tax to childcare – here’s what we know so far

Speaking at the Oireachtas Committee on Budgetary Oversight this week, Ifac chairman Seamus Coffey noted that Sweden has a parliamentary committee (with an opposition majority) which sets the fiscal parameters for three to five years which the government is then effectively tied into.

“You might think with an opposition dominating the committee, that they would set those fiscal parameters as low as possible to try and squeeze the current government, to make life difficult for them,” Coffey said.

“But if they do so, then in four or five years’ time after the next election they’ll be sitting on different sides of the room ... the shadow of the future has an impact,” he said.

The problem in Ireland is that budgetary policy tends to fly with the wind. Governments spend too lavishly during the booms only to be forced into swingeing cutbacks when the cycle turns.

So rather than smoothing the natural ups and downs of the economic cycle we tend to amplify them by pursuing what economists refer to as procyclical policies.

Record corporation tax receipts have weakened the Government’s spending discipline. Public spending has risen by more than 50 per cent since 2020, a trend that isn’t mirrored anywhere else in Europe.

When budgets grow faster than the economy, they tend to cause inflation but, worse than that, they tie future administrations into high spending patterns. Hence the worry over corporation tax and whether a big bang in that area could leave us in a fiscal mess.

The Government’s underlying budget deficit, which excludes windfall corporate tax receipts, is on track to hit €20 billion by 2030.

National Cathedral of Saint Patrick, Dublin THE SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY – 09.15 EUCHARIST – said in the Lady Chapel. 11.15 CHORAL EUCHARIST – sung by the Cathedral Choir- Jackson in G,Caesar: O for a closer walk with God, Bairstow: Let all mortal flesh keep silence,Preacher:The Revd S.T.R.Gamble, B.A., M.Th., Ph.D. Prebendary of Maynooth. 15.15 CHORAL EVENSONG – Commemoration of the Battle of Britain- sung by the Cathedral Choir - Responses: Leighton, Walton: Chichester Service, Psalm: 104 vv 24-36,Caesar: Requests, Preacher:The Revd S.T.R.Gamble, B.A., M.Th., Ph.D. Prebendary of Maynooth. SUNG MATINS at 09.00 Monday to Friday. CHORAL EVENSONG at 17.30 Monday to Friday. EUCHARIST at 11.05 Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. For further information visit www.stpatrickscathedral.ie/worship.

METHODIST

About the Methodist Church: The Methodist Church in Ireland is a community of people drawn together by Gods love, who seek to live wholeheartedly as followers of Jesus for the transformation of the world. With 212 churches spread across the island of Ireland from North to South, and East to West. To find a church near you visithttps://irishmethodist.org

Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin The Methodist Church, Northumberland Avenue, Dún Laoghaire. Sunday Service 11am. Our services are available at www.dlmc.orgRELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Quaker Meetings in Ireland Have you wondered what a Quaker Meeting for Worship is like? You are most welcome to try a Meeting for Worship at any of our Meeting Houses around the country. You will be warmly welcomed and there will be an opportunity to ask any questions you might have. You will find a list of Meetings on our website: https://quakers-in-ireland.ie/map-of-quaker-meetings-worship-groups/

I met people living in poverty and material hardship that most of us in Ireland can scarcely imagine. Today, those same communities are experiencing some of the most devastating consequences of a crisis they did almost nothing to create. Nepal’s contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions has been negligible, yet its people face melting glaciers, catastrophic floods, landslides, destroyed homes and livelihoods, and the loss of lives.

This is climate injustice in its starkest form. The countries and communities that have benefited least from fossil-fuelled economic growth are often paying the highest price, while wealthier, high-emitting nations continue to delay meaningful action.

Climate change is not only an environmental or economic issue; it is a moral one. Reducing our own emissions is essential, but it is not enough. Countries such as Ireland must also support vulnerable nations with finance for adaptation, resilient infrastructure and recovery from climate-related loss and damage.

The people of Nepal should not be left to carry the consequences of choices made elsewhere. Collective climate action must mean collective responsibility, with those who contributed most doing their fair share to protect those who have contributed least. – Yours, etc,

RAQUEL NOBOA,

Liscannor,

Co Clare.

McQuaid was a staunch critic of all communist regimes but particularly Tito’s, owing to the imprisonment of Croatian cardinal Aloysius Stepinac. He had every priest in the country declare from their pulpit that attendance at the match would be a mortal sin, but the FAI went ahead anyway, with Ireland losing 4-1.

Shaw and McDougall’s book illustrates how some of the media grappled with their coverage of the game, and Radio Éireann did not broadcast live commentary because commentator Philip Greene told his employers he did not wish to cover it (his boycott led to a memorable headline in Dublin Opinion that read “Reds Turn Greene Yellow”).

Seventy-one years on, RTÉ and the rest of the Irish sports media are again wrestling with how to cover an Irish international. RTÉ is set to strip back its coverage of both Israel games to its barest essentials, allowing it to fulfil its obligations as rights holder while involving as few RTÉ employees as possible. It is not going to have any studio coverage around the match, and the commentary will be provided not by a familiar Irish voice but by the Uefa-appointed commentators on the generic world feed. Tony O’Donoghue will be at the games to cover them as a news story.

Newstalk’s Off the Ball holds the live radio rights for the games, but it is choosing not to do live commentary of either Israel game. Like RTÉ, it is sending a reporter to both games for news purposes, and does not intend to provide on-air updates during the match.

Some of the writers among the press pack, meanwhile, are choosing to boycott the Israel fixtures entirely, and they set out their reasons for doing so in a letter to Soccer Writers Ireland. Their respective outlets’ plans to cover the games are unclear. While the fact of their boycott is likely to emerge closer to the games, we won’t name them here, as they have the right to explain their stance on their own terms if they wish to do so. Their reasoning for boycotting is principled, earnest, deserving of respect and difficult to disagree with on a personal level. But this is ultimately a professional question, and is therefore not something with which this column or newspaper agrees, which is why we are travelling to Hungary and Serbia to cover both games. They will not be covered as normal football matches, but they will be covered.

We are doing our best not to sound pious or mighty here, but it is the media’s job to bear witness and report accurately and fairly, and it is not possible to do this from home. The story here is not simply football, and all you’ll see on TV is simply football. Some Irish fans, for instance, are planning to attend the Israel game held in Debrecen, for which tickets are being sold to the public. Should they stage a protest, you won’t be shown it on TV, given the chief principle of Uefa’s broadcast direction is to avoid anything remotely controversial or non-sporting. This is a small instance of why news gathering must happen in person, and these games are guaranteed to throw up additional, unexpected news stories.

Plus, media outlets cannot refuse to cover events or stories with which their journalists personally disagree. The facts of the news are often morally unconscionable and sports departments should not hold themselves to a different standard. Boycotting events with which media outlets don’t agree also leaves them open to the accusation that they are therefore endorsing whatever they attend. If you boycott this, do you approve of Donald Trump by covering the LA Olympics? Do you give the thumbs-up to the Saudis by attending the 2034 World Cup?

Séamus Coleman out while Liam Kitching earns call-up to Ireland squad for matches including Israel double header

These Israel games should not be happening. The Israeli FA is in clear breach of Fifa and Uefa statutes by organising matches on occupied territory in the West Bank, and Fifa has ruled that the Israeli FA has repeatedly failed to adequately punish incidents of racism and anti-Arab discrimination. These are clear grounds to suspend Israel from competition, but the game’s governing bodies have failed to implement their own rules.

The inaction of Uefa and Fifa has placed the FAI in a deeply invidious position. Nonetheless, the FAI’s warnings as to the financial costs of boycotting the games are based on opaque figures and its concerns around the sporting ramifications are at best vague and at worst dubious, given Ireland are co-hosting Euro 2028 and can finish bottom of this group and still avoid relegation via a new play-off. The FAI doesn’t know the full cost of a potential boycott, but it sure as hell doesn’t want to find out the answer to that question.

Israel’s participation in these games is a more significant win than anything they will achieve on the field against Ireland, as it sends a message that global organisations of the importance and visibility of Uefa and Fifa will continue to tolerate all that is done in the country’s name, which in this instance is, in the opinion of an independent UN panel, a genocide in Gaza.

The staging of these games is wrong but there is nothing additional to be gained by the media refusing to cover them. It is the media’s obligation to remind everyone that sport and politics mix all of the time, and that this is a particularly wretched example.

During 30 years at the Ballydoyle helm, O’Brien snr has redrafted the boundaries of flat racing success around the world. At home he has been champion trainer in Ireland for all of this century. No one else has ever got close. The power of the Coolmore operation and the material it supplies makes that all but impossible.

But it’s his oldest son, Joseph, runner-up for the last eight seasons, who is his father’s biggest rival. After last weekend’s Irish Champions Festival, father leads son by €5.4 million in prize money to €4.2 million. Only two other trainers, Jessica Harrington and Ger Lyons, have reached seven figures.

Joseph O’Brien’s 1-2 in last Saturday’s Doncaster St Leger was a landmark moment thanks to Saffie Osborne riding Highwayman to success, the first woman to ride an English classic winner. But it was 24 hours later at the Curragh that underscored just how firm a grip the O’Brien family has on the sport.

No O’Brien had a runner in the opening handicap. But after it, no non-O’Brien got a look-in for six straight races. “AP” won a pair of Group Ones including a 1-2-3 in the St Leger. “JP” had a hat-trick including a 1-2 in the Group One National Stakes and for good measure his brother “DA” succeeded at the top level with Comanche Brave in the Flying Five.

It was a remarkable family achievement that has ignited portentous grumbling, much of it revolving around a supposed threat to competition and a single dominant family not being good for the overall health of the sport; nothing personal and all that, although something needs to be done by somebody, somewhere, to let everyone else have a chance.

Specific solutions are in short supply although some contradictory champions of competition seem to think some kind of protectionism is in order. But it isn’t so much of a competition issue as a cosmetic one.

It’s perfectly logical to acclaim the O’Briens’ superb professional accomplishments and point out that it isn’t a great look sometimes. It makes for a samey narrative. For those charged with selling the sport – and media covering it – there’s only so many angles to take before it becomes repetitive. But that’s hardly the O’Brien’s fault.

Neither is how the siblings are operating in a scenario utterly unimaginable for most everyone else.

Joseph is 33 and has officially held a licence for a decade. He walked into a Piltown operation that he’s expanded to become the biggest in the country. Like his brother, Donnacha (28) was twice champion jockey and started training six years ago. He’s applying a more “boutique” model and with a notable strike-rate.

Charges of nepo-baby are as inevitable as an inability to change their fortunate circumstances. What they can’t be charged with is obliviousness of the sort that once saw Ted Kennedy objecting to young men getting ahead based on a famous family name. Donnacha’s line about his best asset as a rider “being Aidan O’Brien’s son” remains an oasis of perspective.

Competition fears regarding consolidation of resources into so few hands are more valid, albeit largely past their sell-by date. Like the fate of corner shops in the age of online supermarkets, that ship has long since sailed. Such concentration is far from ideal, but it’s just as pronounced in the National Hunt sphere. It’s just that the dominant figures there – Mullins, Elliott and De Bromhead – aren’t related.

Nevertheless, there’s nothing to suggest anything but proper on-track competition between the various O’Briens, no evidence to prompt fears of some uniform strategy that’s an unspoken undercurrent to some of this.

It is correct that in a media landscape driven by personality clashes it makes for a hard sell. An ideal sporting scenario is some Mourinho-Wenger-Ferguson type triumvirate at the top where they relish winding each other up in headline friendly fashion. But racing has never specialised in that.

Ciarán Murphy: Trump in Doonbeg was a walk in the park compared to weeks ahead for the Republic of Ireland

Joseph is very like his father in projecting an ultra-measured public face. However, Donnacha’s capacity for a snappy line, and a readiness to crack it, was pounced upon at the weekend in relation to his “brutal” verdict on Shane Foley’s Champion Stakes winning ride.

Comparisons with other dynastic sporting families are difficult. Racing is a very distinctive sporting beast, and betting has always cast a peculiar hue on popular perception of it. By its nature it has form when it comes to producing remarkable family tales. The expanse of the Mullins family’s racing accomplishments continues to be vast.

The fact that O’Brien snr is still only 56 and gives no sign of stopping, or that his sons are so young and ambitious, seems to provoke unease in those anxious for more diversity. But racing’s reality is that variety at elite level is always scarce – no matter what the surname – although this version promises to be unique.

Something for the Weekend

Starlust (1.02) returns to action in Newbury’s opening Group Three tomorrow six days after running two lengths behind Comanche Brave in the Flying Five. It was a fine run and this company should be easier to deal with. The former Group One winner who has returned to racing this season after a short-lived stallion career continues to step up his game.

English trainer Harry Derham has got Finny Maguire to go to Newmarket for tomorrow’s Amateur Cambridgeshire where he teams up with Sudbury Hill (5.30). Expertise in the saddle could be crucial on this straight course test and the horse is back on a much suitable quick surface compared to his last start.

One possibility is that we are looking at the map the wrong way. If Canada were to develop an associate status or deeper institutional relationship with the EU, Ireland’s position would be transformed.

For decades we have viewed ourselves as the union’s western edge, sometimes closer to Boston than Berlin. After Brexit that perception became even stronger.

A more Atlantic-focused Europe would place Ireland at the centre of a corridor linking North America and Europe. Rather than being distant from Brussels, we would sit at the natural junction between the EU and one of its closest democratic and economic partners. Ireland already enjoys strong cultural, educational and business links with Canada.

Closer EU-Canada integration could strengthen our role in trade, research, aviation, digital infrastructure and investment. Just as previous enlargements shifted Europe’s centre of gravity eastwards, a deeper transatlantic partnership could shift it westwards.

Ireland should therefore see a closer EU-Canada relationship not as a curiosity, nor as something to be feared, but as an opportunity: one in which Ireland would no longer stand on Europe’s fringe, but at its heart. – Yours, etc,

OWEN HENNELLY,

Shrule,

Co Mayo.

Moreover, the International Court of Justice held in July 2024 that Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful and must end as soon as possible. The authoritative judicial finding by the world’s highest court was given overwhelming political endorsement by the United Nations General Assembly two months later. - Yours, etc,

Prof SHANE DARCY,

Irish Centre for Human Rights,

School of Law,

University of Galway.

The establishment of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (Ifac) after the economic crash was designed to formalise the need to learn the lessons. In 2022, its own review of its first 10 years identified too many “worrying echoes of the past” and failure to address long-term pressures and over-reliance on corporate tax windfalls.

Ifac’s report last month not only advised that the Government’s proposed budgetary package for this year is too large, but that “spending overruns have become routine and have repeatedly pushed spending above budget-day plans”. Total spending last year was €4 billion more than allowed for in the original budget for the year. In relation to the public service pay deal agreed in 2024, to cover two-and-a-half years, Ifac has also observed that Budget 2024 and the Revised Estimates of Public Services 2024 “allocated only €0.7 billion towards the potential cost of a new pay deal for 2024. However, the cost of the subsequently agreed pay deal amounted to €1.1 billion, more than 50 per cent higher than allocated, resulting in substantial overruns”. Ifac has also concluded that “if a [new] public service pay deal were to be agreed, matching economywide wage growth, that would mean additional costs in 2027 of €1.1 billion”.

The current deal expired on June 30th with nothing in its place. Public service trade unions have been balloting their members and the response so far has been militant. In May, Taoiseach Micheál Martin addressed the largest of the public service unions, Fórsa, with almost 90,000 members, and said, “One of Ireland’s real strengths in navigating change is our tradition of social dialogue and partnership”. Earlier this month, however, Fórsa announced the result of its ballot for action on public sector pay, up to and including all out strike, and 96.6 per cent of voters endorsed this strategy. Siptu’s public sector members approved action by a similar amount. Other ballots are continuing.

This might be seen as predictable sabre-rattling in advance of negotiations. But these votes carry more of an edge. Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers has said reaching a new agreement “is around looking at the wider inflation environment, looking at the sustainability of what’s available in the context of the next number of years ... Any additional increase in public sector pay has to be accommodated within the fiscal parameters that we’ve set.”

The assertions about “fiscal parameters” will be taken with a pinch of salt given their usual looseness. The real issue is what “the wider inflation environment” means for workers seeking pay rises, and there is no way that €1.1 billion next year will be acceptable to public service unions, partly because of previous Government decisions that mean it will be hoisted by its own petard. Irish Congress of Trade Unions general secretary Owen Reidy has rubbished talk of fiscal constraints, because “if the Government can find €1.25 billion that easily” for the fuel package and VAT cuts in hospitality “they can definitely afford a bespoke cost-of-living package for workers along with private-sector employers”.

The Government will now face the overall strain on “fiscal parameters”, the absence of a public service pay deal and inevitable wider dissatisfaction due to any tax concessions being devoured by continued cost-of-living increases. Over promising and mixed messaging have not helped; we are told tax cuts will be “meaningful” or “modest”, depending on who is spinning on a particular day. Likewise, on one day, the Government maintains it is not possible to “fully absorb” cost-of-living increases, but on another day, there are promises of relief for users of home-heating oil. All surrounded by the lazy, divisive rhetoric of championing those “who get up early in the morning”.

If you think public sector workers have it better, that’s because we do

And in the background, the heft of historic mistakes remains stubbornly in place. Can it be shifted? Social partnership – inaugurated in 1987 in an attempt to create stability, affordable tax cuts and modest wage growth – died with the economic crash, replaced by sector-specific bargaining. The partnership was no magic wand, but initially at least, it provided a necessary bedrock. Is some new form of social partnership worth trying? Jack Chambers has dismissed the prospect; Micheál Martin hints at openness to it. More mixed messaging, but what is clear is that the current path is a doomed one; decent leadership involves creating a new departure instead of the constant use of sticking plasters that ignore the need for stitches.

The collaboration, which Brown Thomas Arnotts said is part of an ongoing investment in “digital experiences” for luxury shoppers, will offer customers access to Apple Pay as well as buy-now, pay-later shopping through the Klarna platform.

It means Stripe, which was valued at $159 billion (€139 billion) earlier this year, will process all online payments made through the retailer’s website and mobile apps.

Stripe said its authorisation boost feature will also deliver a “measurable lift” in card authorisation rates to help recover revenue lost to failed transactions, “which in certain segments were as high as 30 per cent”.

It will also “simplify reconciliation across storefronts and order management systems”, the company said.

“Stripe’s technology and pace of innovation have enabled Brown Thomas Arnotts to continually innovate and deliver the effortless, elevated experience our customers expect, wherever and however they choose to shop,” said Sara Esler, head of digital product at Brown Thomas Arnotts.

“Brown Thomas Arnotts have built their reputations on exceptional retail experiences, and that standard has to carry through online,” said Conor McNamara, chief revenue officer at Stripe for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.

He said the platform’s features have “helped thousands of businesses across Europe recover revenue from card declines, and we expect the same for BTA as they migrate their entire online payments volume to Stripe”.

The teenager was absent from the Arsenal Under-21 squad that played Chelsea last weekend and against Leyton Orient on Tuesday, having been recalled to Michael O’Neill’s Northern Ireland squad for the upcoming Nations League games against Georgia, Hungary and Ukraine.

As the Derry native was capped in friendlies against Guinea and France last summer, O’Neill would have to request a transfer from Fifa to play for the Republic.

“He was selected for the North now, so if he is playing for the North probably that is finished,” said Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrímsson when asked about O’Neill’s potential swap. “I can’t say I’ve seen him play. I wish him the best, he is still a young kid.”

O’Neill is permitted to make one official transfer but if he lines out for Northern Ireland in a competitive match this month it would trigger a three-year waiting period. A fourth cap would tie him to Northern Ireland for good.

“He’s had an approach from another association, which happens,” said Michael O’Neill earlier this week. “He doesn’t have a bloodline to there, but the rules permit them to make that approach.”

If available, O’Neill could have been named in Jim Crawford’s Republic of Ireland Under-21 squad for upcoming European Championship qualifiers against Slovakia, Kazakhstan and Lee Carsley’s England at Turner’s Cross on October 6th.

Rory Finneran drops down from the senior squad, having made his debut against Grenada in May, to potentially feature for the Under-21s alongside former Bohemians player Jamie Mullins.

Crawford also selected Michael Noonan before his expected move from Shamrock Rovers to Nottingham Forest on a free transfer in January.

Republic of Ireland Men’s Under-21 Squad

Goalkeepers: Noah Jauny (Royal Francs Borains), Marcus Gill (Celtic), Owen Mason (Bromley). Defenders: Sam Curtis (Cambridge United, on loan from Sheffield United), Seán Grehan (Doncaster Rovers), Cathal McCarthy (Kilmarnock, on loan from Hull City), Conor McManus (Gillingham), Alex Murphy (1. FC Kaiserslautern, on loan from Newcastle United), David Okagbue (Peterborough United). Midfielders: Romeo Akachukwu (Southampton), Adam Brennan (Shamrock Rovers), Jacob Devaney (Hibernian, on loan from Manchester United), Rory Finneran (Notts County, on loan from Newcastle United), Darius Lipsiuc (Notts County), Oísin Gallagher (Barnet, on loan from Lincoln City), Grady McDonnell (Nottingham Forest), Jamie Mullins (Wycombe Wanderers). Forwards: Leon Ayinde (Doncaster Rovers), Trent Kone-Doherty (Molde FK), Tommy Lonergan (Waterford), Kian McMahon Brown (Shrewsbury Town, on loan from Burnley), Michael Noonan (Shamrock Rovers).

Uefa Under-21 European Championship Qualifiers

Friday, September 25th: Slovakia v Ireland, Košická Futbalová Aréna, Košice, Slovakia, 5pm (Irish time)/6pm local time

Tuesday, September 29th: Ireland v Kazakhstan, Turner’s Cross, Cork, 7pm

Tuesday, October 6th: Ireland v England, Turner’s Cross, Cork, 6pm

I am a rural-dwelling commuter and I see many drivers slowing down considerably, apparently because oncoming traffic is dazzling them, which leads to impatience and poor driver behaviour among those in their wake.

The recent trend for SUV-type vehicles exacerbates this problem as they are higher and therefore their lights are more likely to shine down into the cabins of smaller cars. When SUVs approach up slopes or across bumps on country roads this can be momentarily blinding, even when their lights are dipped, and a genuine hazard.

A related concern is that some modern cars use automatic dipping systems that cannot anticipate oncoming vehicles on country roads, as an alert driver would. These cars dip their headlights only after they come into view of another vehicle. This is inadequate. Dazzling the other driver before dipping your lights is not polite, safe or acceptable.

Stricter rules are needed. - Yours, etc,

TOM JORDAN,

Dunmanway,

Co Cork.

A chara, - There is a simple idea that might help with dazzling headlights. We could adopt what was French practice for more than 50 years, the famous yellow tinted headlights. Unique and considered a cultural oddity, they did reduce dazzle. They were the law here in France until 1993, sacrificed on the altar of EU harmonisation.

Time to bring back the yellow headlight ?

From the country that gave us the Enlightenment. A glaringly obvious idea, perhaps? – Yours, etc,

CIARÁN MAC GUILL,

Clichy,

An Fhrainc.

They can choose to partake in all four of the upcoming Nations League games, including the two against Israel. There will probably be no impact on them for doing so. Some may go on to have storied careers in the green jersey of Ireland or be remembered as greats of the game.

Or they could choose to make themselves unavailable for selection in the two matches against the Israeli team. What might be the impact of that decision? Their future selection for Ireland may be jeopardised (although the FAI has indicated this will not be the case). How club owners might view such a stance is unknown. However, they will probably find they become known in the same way as the Dunnes Stores workers, for their actions in not handling goods from apartheid South Africa. Or like Irish rugby players Donal Spring, Hugo MacNeill, Tony Ward and Moss Keane who refused to tour apartheid South Africa in 1981.

Any player who refuses to play can be assured of this: their names and actions will be recognised because they chose to remember the Palestinian people and to highlight the plight brought upon them. They will be recognised because they chose humanity over silence to a genocide. – Yours, etc,

PHILIP BRADY,

Donnycarney,

Dublin 9.

The Republic of Ireland manager subsequently admitted that he is “not clear what the sanction would be” from Uefa for boycotting the games at neutral venues in Hungary on September 27th and Serbia on October 4th.

Uefa regulations state that forfeiture of Nations League fixtures can lead to further disciplinary measures where “deemed appropriate” with any loss of payments “depending on the gravity of the circumstances”.

“I think it is dangerous not to play,” Hallgrímsson said. “We are hosting a Euros here in 2028. What if Israel is in our group in the Euros?”

Some of the players “feel really uncomfortable” about having to fulfil the games, he said, while standing over his previous assertion that Israel should be banned for the same reason Russia are suspended by Fifa and Uefa.

Hallgrímsson has decided to omit Séamus Coleman and Robbie Brady, at least until the veteran fullbacks find new clubs, but the Icelander made it clear that Coleman will eventually become a coach and that he intends to bring the 37-year-old into the November camp.

“Séamus will be with us in the future, hopefully as a player,” said Hallgrímsson. “His intention is to play, he is keeping fit but he hasn’t been training with a club or with a team.

“We felt, together, it was more his decision that it was appropriate he would sit out this one.”

Hallgrímsson may regret that decision as Coleman’s ability to cogently communicate with his team-mates and the media would have been helpful as Ireland travel from the Kosovo tie in Pristina to Hungary, back to the Aviva Stadium to face Austria on October 1st, and finally the second Israel tie in Serbia on October 4th.

Ipswich skipper Dara O’Shea will replace the injured Nathan Collins (calf) as captain having filled the role against Grenada last summer.

The FAI have not disclosed if they have had talks with the Israel FA around match protocols, with Uefa yet to receive any special requests.

“We haven’t had that discussion,” Hallgrímsson said. “When we come in [on Monday] we need to focus on the Kosovo match just because of the limited time we have.

“The details around shaking hands and that stuff will come down to the players.”

Liam Kitching is the latest English-born, Irish-qualified player to be selected while Owen Elding, the former Sligo Rovers attacker, is set to win his first cap. Bosun Lawal is named as a midfielder, rather than in defence, alongside Harvey Vale and Jayson Molumby as Josh Cullen inches back from knee surgery.

“I hope so,” said Hallgrímsson when asked if Lawal can establish himself in midfield. “But he is injured. We rate him so highly that we feel it is necessary that we have him around the squad.”

Sydney Sweeney’s charmless gambling ad a grim reminder of the Page Three days

Sammie Szmodics is overlooked but Rocco Vata returns to the set-up after an injury lay-off.

The Israel squad, named by head coach Ran Ben-Shimon, includes the Arab-Israeli wing back Anan Khalaili, who has started the season well at Crystal Palace, where he works alongside Ireland assistant coach Paddy McCarthy.

“We are all different, we all come from different places,” Hallgrímsson said. “I feel a little uncomfortable talking about Israel as my background is not the same [as Irish people]. I don’t have the depth about how you process it.

“I am really happy that John Martin and David Courell are speaking to the media about all these things so I am not the only one speaking on behalf of the FAI.

“Hopefully I can focus on the football side. The less the noise for me and the players the better they are likely to perform on the pitch.”

There are continuing and very public problems in the Kosovo camp ahead of their opening match against Ireland in Pristina next Thursday as a number of top players have pulled out of the squad in solidarity with Napoli’s Amir Rrahmani.

“After 10 years, seven as captain,” said Rrahmani, “I will not be part of the Kosovo squad as long as the FKK is led by its current individuals.”

Republic of Ireland squad

Goalkeepers: Caoimhín Kelleher (Brentford), Max O’Leary (West Bromwich Albion), Gavin Bazunu (Bolton Wanderers)

Defenders: James Abankwah (Udinese), Joel Bagan (Cardiff City), Jimmy Dunne (Queens Park Rangers), John Egan (Hull City), Liam Kitching (Sheffield United), Ryan Manning (Southampton), Jake O’Brien (Everton), Dara O’Shea (Ipswich Town), Liam Scales (Celtic)

Midfielders: Finn Azaz (Southampton), Conor Coventry (Charlton Athletic), Jason Knight (Bristol City), Jamie McGrath (Hibernian), Jayson Molumby (West Bromwich Albion), Harvey Vale (Queens Park Rangers), Bosun Lawal (Stoke City)

Forwards: Owen Elding (Hibernian), Adam Idah (Swansea City), Jack Moylan (Cardiff City), Chiedozie Ogbene (Lincoln City), Troy Parrott (Real Betis), Rocco Vata (Watford), Tom Cannon (Sheffield United)

Ireland’s Nations League fixtures

Thursday, September 24th

Kosovo v Republic of Ireland, Pristina, 7.45pm

Sunday, September 27th

Israel v Republic of Ireland, Debrecen, Hungary, 7.45pm

Thursday, October 1st

Republic of Ireland v Austria, Aviva Stadium, 7.45pm

Sunday, October 4th

Republic of Ireland v Israel, Bačka Topola, Serbia, 7.45pm

By his own admittance, his demanding on-field nature and critiques of team-mates only served to frustrate and distract him.

“So before last season, I had a real deep dive into why I’m like that,” he freely admits. “I’m quite self-aware and when I get on the pitch, I’m like one person, and when I’m off the pitch, I’m like another person. And when I’m off the pitch, I’m like, ‘why am I such a prick?’

“I looked a bit deeper than just what I was doing and looked at why I was doing it. Figuring that out helped me last year, and I think just continuing to grow that so I can completely iron that out, and the influence it has on the people around you is huge.”

Being calmer and more encouraging provokes better responses, especially in a relatively young team.

“You’ve got to be able to adapt and change how you deal with people. I think it paid dividends. I felt like last year was probably one of my best seasons I’ve had as a professional. I guess that’s the reward you get for focusing on these things.”

Munster’s Player of the Season and the Supporters Player of the Season for 2025-26, Nankivell was then in the Barbarians’ team that played the Springboks in Cape Town and Wales in Cardiff last June.

He describes the experience as “unreal”, “amazing” and “just so cool”, playing with a rich variety of global stars, some of whom he knew, most of whom he hadn’t met before but grew to know, such as Castres’ Uruguayan scrumhalf Santiago Arata.

“I guess the Barbarians brand is the purity of rugby you used to play when you’re a young fellah. It wasn’t too much thinking. It was just a lot of action.”

Defeats by 80-31 to the Boks and 33-31 to Wales confirms there were just “a few principles around defence” admits Nankivell, adding: “The poor forwards only had a week to figure out how to defend the maul and then the same with the scrum.”

He also partnered the brilliant Virimi Vakatawa. “It was a bit of a pinch-me moment playing with someone that I’d watched on TV. I was so impressed with how he played the game and what he could do and the impact he could have on his team-mates and putting them into space and making them look good.”

Summer holidays featured “a real balanced trip” to Ibiza and “trips to west Cork and Crookhaven” before returning to preseason refreshed.

The collective disappointments of last season will, he says, fuel this season.

“It’s not just about the team that goes out: it’s about this whole province, and we understand that. And we’ve got the best supporters in the world, so we want to do it for all of us, not just us an immediate rugby team.”

The last three of Nankivell’s seven seasons with the Chiefs overlapped with Clayton McMillan’s time as head coach. Interestingly, he felt McMillan wasn’t of a mind to “just completely change everything” last season.

“But you can kind of see him layer stuff last year and it’s definitely become more of an emphasis. Say, for example, our basic standards around the building. This year, we’ve made a conscious habit to make sure that those are high and they’re consistently high. How we behave as players and as a group at Munster, because we believe those small things will then translate on to our habits on the field.

‘I want to win trophies’: Munster newcomer Marnus van der Merwe raring to prove his worth

“You can see him starting to implement a few things over the preseason that I knew he would have liked to do probably a bit earlier, but the coaches coming in like Jimmy [Duffy] and JP [Jared Payne], have been an awesome addition, and the guys that have stayed on, Leams [Denis Leamy] and Mossy [Lawlor], they’ve all just rowed in behind each other.”

“There’ll be a few differences, particularly in the attack,” adds Nankivell. “It’s refreshing as well to be playing a little bit differently from how we have in the past. That challenges the players to learn new detail or new structure and get a new understanding for a different shape.”

He admits to “being a little bit in awe” of the two academy outhalves, Tom Wood and Charlie O’Shea. A number 10 in his formative years, Nankivell reckons he kicked the ball three times last season and wants to rekindle some of his own kicking game, as well as improving his communications skills.

“I wish, when I was that age, I had the confidence of Tom and Charlie because if I did I probably would have still used it [kicking] throughout my career.”

Munster’s Clayton McMillan: ‘There were a few things that I would have had a strong opinion on’

Entering his fourth season with Munster, were he to sign another extension that would make him Irish qualified in a year’s time.

He prefers to think “in the present” but admits international rugby is the pinnacle.

“I’ve had dreams to play for the All Blacks, and when I came over I didn’t think the opportunity would present itself to become Irish-qualified.

“I would love to stay here at Munster. That’s the ultimate. Then the international stuff is the cherry on top because staying at Munster means I’ll qualify to play Ireland, and playing international is the dream. So, it kind of works in tandem, really.”

The small increase relates specifically to inpatient activity including people treated in emergency departments and those with acute illnesses.

It means there was little improvement in the pace at which the Health Service Executive (HSE) was delivering acute hospital care, including in emergency departments where demand has continued to rise sharply.

Productivity analysis of the HSE, compiled for Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, has now questioned if hospitals were converting increased resources and staffing into more inpatient activity, the most resource-intensive form of hospital care.

Separately, Carroll MacNeill has criticised a number of hospitals unable to explain “consistently” poor trolley figures.

The HSE has pointed to Ireland’s growing and ageing population as the reason for increased demand in hospital services, and said the volume of attendances at emergency departments has reached record levels.

According to an analysis by the Department of Health, seen by The Irish Times, the HSE hospital workforce has increased by 33 per cent since 2019 with real spending up by more than 50 per cent in the same period. That has resulted in hospitals delivering more care, with overall activity up 14 per cent in the last six years.

However, the same report noted inpatient activity increased by only 2.2 per cent. The Department of Health has questioned whether HSE hospitals were turning increased staff and investment into increases in the most expensive and high-demand forms of hospital care.

Demand has increased sharply in Ireland in the last year, especially in emergency departments. The number of presentations increased by 7.2 per cent between August 2025 and August 2026, to about one million by the end of this summer. The number of emergency department patients aged over 75 also increased by 10 per cent in the same period.

Minister for Health defends Saturday hospital unit that treated five patients in 12 weeks

Carroll MacNeill told The Irish Times the HSE’s “challenging budgetary situation” this year was “a credibility challenge for everybody.”

“And I think going into the winter, when I see the very significant increases in emergency departments around the country of well over 7 per cent everywhere, I don’t see inpatient hospital activity increasing,” she said.

The Minister said while there were some increases in outpatient and day-case appointments it was “nothing like the level of investments that’s gone into the hospitals.” She said the HSE had improved its trolley numbers from 2024, “but it’s not as good as where we were in 2025, we’ve lost some of the grip on that”.

She said part of the reason was a rise in emergency department presentations but also that “while some regions and some hospitals have very much gotten on top of it, a cohort have not”.

“There are a cohort of hospitals that do not have consistently good performance and do not have good explanations for those. And those are very simply St Vincent’s in Dublin, CUH – which is up and down; Mayo, Letterkenny, Sligo and Limerick – but there are different reasons in Limerick. It’s partly capacity and partly the sheer scale of presentation.”

Looking to an ageing population, the HSE said a “significant number” of people attending emergency departments “are being admitted for ongoing care, with increasingly complex needs”.

In a statement, it said that “actions are ongoing at site, regional and national level to minimise the number of older and more vulnerable patients who are cared for on trolleys, particularly those who are on trolleys in excess of 24 hours”.

“A number of individual sites have delivered significant reductions in the numbers of patients over 75 years on trolleys for over 24 hours, these include Our Lady of Lourdes, Wexford, University Hospital Limerick and Galway University Hospital.”

They’re the measurements, but how does it measure up? Lineout throwing and kicking would be two performance aspects directly impacted, so who better to offer an appraisal than Ireland hooker Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald.

“It’s not in the domestic game, so when you come in [to the international side], you’ve got quite a short window to get used to it,” she says.

“I’m not sure about the ball quality. I know the balls that we play with for Six Nations and other competitions, there’s quite a lot of research and technology put into the development of those balls, because they’re the same as the ones that are used for Men’s Six Nations etc. They’re very high quality.

“These [new] ones, for hookers, it is difficult. You don’t play with them in the domestic window and they are slightly lighter. I guess in windy or rainy conditions, the flight doesn’t hold as true.

“A lot of people have mentioned that your technique needs to be quite on point, otherwise it will be difficult to throw it. It’s confusing for me because World Rugby seem to want to speed up that lineout process and if there’s a ‘no compete’ in the area, they let the not-straights [throws] go, but this ball is going to make that probably more difficult.

“I think maybe 12 years ago it would have been a good idea, but for me it’s not. The game has gone beyond that now.”

And she says it’s not just hookers taking issue with the new ball. “I’ve heard some interesting feedback from kickers,” Moloney-MacDonald says. “I don’t think it holds its flight as long in that plane either, it is susceptible to windy conditions. I don’t think the benefit is going to outweigh the problematic changes.

“And even if it is something that’s going to stay in the game, how much is it going to cost? How much is it going to cost domestic clubs to fund this, because they share use of balls and equipment and stuff like that with men’s clubs. I don’t know, it might potentially make women’s rugby more inaccessible, which is not what we want.

“It’s probably an unnecessary addition, but it is what it is. It’s in for this window and we just have to get on with it.”

Moloney-MacDonald got access to the new balls when her wife, England international wing Claudia, brought a few home, but for most of the Ireland team they first got a chance to give them a go in late August.

After the balls were trialled in the Under-21 international series, Moloney-MacDonald says she hopes World Rugby will take feedback from players on board.

“If the feedback is listened to, then that’s how democracy works, hopefully. It will be based on the stats and the performances, but also player feedback, so that’s all we can really hope for.”

Meanwhile, the IRFU is touting for places in England’s Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR) league, a move that Moloney-MacDonald believes would have huge positives for Irish players. While the calibre of players in the league represents a significant draw, she says it would also see Irish players lining out each weekend and dealing with the implications of home and away fixtures.

Of more immediate importance is Sunday’s Test match against the US, which the 33-year-old anticipates will be a tough outing. “They’re quite physical. They’ve had a change in coaches relatively recently,” she says, referring to Skerries-born Jack Hanratty.

Spare me the fury about Sydney Sweeney. What I see here is a sense of humour

“They also have Lou Meadows, who’s gone across from the English set-up. They played against South Africa in the summer, and things will probably look even more different from then, because they’ve had a bit more chance to develop their playing style.

“They’ve got some players from a Sevens background in their back line, a multi-threat team with offloading skills and a variety of kicking styles. For the forwards, it’s the physical challenge that we’re prepping for most.”

The game will not be broadcast on free-to-air television, instead being streamed live on TG4’s YouTube channel, but Moloney-MacDonald has opted to take a pragmatic approach.

“This kind of window is a bit of a strange time for traditional rugby supporters or viewership anyway,” she says, adding “it’s happening everywhere” – using the example of England’s recent Test against Australia, which was only available to watch on the RFU’s YouTube channel.

“It is a bit of a challenge across the board. I don’t know what the solution is. Going forward, we would hope that it would be on mainstream TV. That’s always the best-case scenario.”

The Ireland team to face the USA will be announced at midday on Friday.

Correspondence released under Freedom of Information legislation shows management at Gaelcholáiste Synge in Dublin 8, which opened this month, told department officials it “requires” the additional building to meet its obligations.

The former monastery, for sale through agents Bannon for €3.75 million, went sale agreed in recent weeks. The agent would not comment on who bought it or the price achieved.

Gaelcholáiste Synge enrolled its first cohort of students into a building on the same campus as CBS Synge Street.

As the latter winds down and the Gaelcholáiste grows, by 2032 the school will be “lán Gaeilge”, said the Edmund Rice Schools Trust, which runs both schools. The organisation is the lay body which acts as trustee of former Christian Brothers schools. It anticipates Gaelcholáiste Synge will have a final student body of about 400.

Campaigners, including TDs, have called on the department to buy the former monastery to show it was “serious” about nurturing Irish-medium education.

They said the building was needed to ensure the new school, which has six feeder bunscoileanna in its catchment area, could thrive.

To date, the trust has not commented on the campaign.

However, the newly released correspondence shows the school lobbying for the building to be purchased.

Christian Brothers seeking €3.75m for Synge Street monastery

Deputy-principal Medb Ní Fhearghail, in an email to senior department officials in February, said: “At the moment, our school is not wheelchair accessible. The monastery would have ground floor access and we could facilitate students in wheelchairs.”

As it emerged the monastery building would be put on the market, she said: “We do not have an AEN [additional educational needs] unit at the minute. In order for us to open an AEN unit, we will require more space. The monastery also has a garden, which would be very good for students with AEN.”

She noted the school “does not have practical rooms at present. We do not have the space in our current building to lose more classrooms and will, therefore, require the monastery to be able to offer a broad curriculum to our students”.

The “current building” has just 13 classrooms, she said.

“As the Dept of Ed would like Gaelcholáistí to have approx 400 students, we will need more classrooms than we have at present.”

An internal email, from the department’s school property management unit to its residential institutions redress unit, said: “It may be useful to know from a redress point of view. It relates to Synge St CBS in Dublin, which is beside the monastery. The Christian Brothers are intending to sell it in March.”

Bannon, before the 1863 Gothic Revival-style building went sale agreed, said the proceeds would contribute towards the congregation’s “charitable and legal obligations”.

Designed by architect John Bourke, it was originally a monastery and school. From 2022 until earlier this year, it was used as an International Protection Accommodation Services centre.

The building extends to 2,188sq m (23,551sq ft) and includes a former education centre, 22 bedrooms and several large multifunctional rooms.

The department and trust have been contacted for comment.

The Irish Council for Psychotherapy and the European Association for Psychotherapy have told Coru, in detail and at great length, that training without a specified minimum duration, without mandatory personal therapy, and without continuous clinical supervision falls short of what the profession requires. Coru’s response has been to restate its position rather than meaningfully engage.

Coru will point to its public consultation but will omit that most responses favoured maintaining core standards, and that some respondents – training providers whose courses would not otherwise meet current core standards – have an obvious interest in seeing them lowered. It will also omit that, as per documents obtained under Freedom of Information, it rejected its own Counsellor and Psychotherapist Registration Board’s advice to retain mandatory personal therapy.

When Coru speaks of making training more “accessible” by removing personal therapy in training it means “cheaper” – a faster route to shortening waiting lists on paper, not to training the professionals those lists actually need.

Vulnerable individuals will bear the cost, those seeking help for trauma they can barely articulate, repeating a familiar pattern where the State promises protection for the vulnerable and fails to deliver it.

Coru would do well to ask why the psychotherapists and professionals with the most direct knowledge of what public protection requires are the ones it has chosen not to hear – and if they are willing to live with the damage it will most certainly do. – Yours etc,

JACKY GRAINGER, MIAHIP

Board director, Irish Council for Psychotherapy,

Board Chair IAHIP,

Dublin 12.

“Immediately I could feel my mind being different,” she says about the months leading to the birth of her daughter, Lana, who’s now almost five. “The album I was working on, it was focused on technology. It just seemed ridiculous and irrelevant.”

Obel’s experience of pregnancy during the pandemic was both uplifting and eerie, qualities she infuses into her beautifully uncanny new LP, The Meaning of Flowers.

“I could feel I was changing, and I actually felt it was something I had to almost document with music,” says Obel, who grew up in Denmark and now lives in Berlin with her husband, the German artist and animator Alex Brüel Flagstad. “I just immediately started working in my studio, and it became The Meaning of Flowers.”

Pregnancy can be a dramatic experience in the best of circumstances – and a pandemic was not the best of circumstances. In Germany they have a term for infants born during lockdown, according to the singer: corona babies.

“That was weird,” Obel says, although she adds that, as someone who does her best work in the womb-like solitude of her home studio, on the outskirts of Berlin, being on her own was not a challenge. “The actual isolation thing was not very difficult for me, to be honest. I’ve trained for that my whole life.”

There were obvious changes to her body, but she was just as struck by how pregnancy rewired her grey matter. “I could feel my brain changing,” she says.

Agnes Obel: Architect of eerie, otherworldy music

Looking into it, she came upon a theory that pregnancy reorients the neural networks. But reading about it merely confirmed something she could already feel happening inside her head.

“It is a stage where the brain becomes as plastic as in teenage times. There are theories that you can learn stuff very easily again. I was trying to improve my guitar playing.

“The main thing was I felt consciousness was different. I feel like the brain is this thing that is filtering consciousness. And when you feel this filter is changing ... I find that super interesting, and I wanted to document it from the inside.”

The songwriter emerged blinking in the daylight with an album that unfolds like a body-horror film in reverse, where her remoulded physical form is ushering her towards a joyful new stage in life.

As befits the subject matter, the tone is both disorienting and comforting: on the title track a bleeping rhythm mimics the fragile flutter of an infant’s heartbeat. On the single Laymelli, Obel’s voice is filtered through a pitch effect, so that it morphs and warps, mimicking the evolving nature of life in the natural world.

The instinct to chronicle what’s happening beneath the surface is nothing new for Obel. A desire to push aside the veil and behold things as they really are has long been the defining quality of this ethereal songwriter’s work, which her label, Deutsche Grammophon, has likened to the “beautifully unsettling” dark fairy tales of Angela Carter.

That unique perspective makes her a perfect artist to capture in musical form the experience of pregnancy during the screaming silence of lockdown. All those visits to empty hospitals, the Covid protocols. And then, when the baby arrived, the challenge of being a new family unit in complete isolation.

But if an aura of the fantastical has hung around her evocative chamber pop since Philharmonics, her debut, from 2010, the music also ripples and twitches with darkness.

That was particularly true of Citizen of Glass, from 2016, which she wrote after the death of her father. He died while she was on tour, having lived for years with depression and experiencing abiding regret about giving up his early career as a jazz musician to support his family.

Agnes Obel: ‘My songwriting really started when Pro Tools arrived’

Obel has also experienced depression, which she describes as “my family curse for many generations”. “This is just something that’s part of me,” she says. “That’s always going to be there.”

She says this in a matter-of-fact tone of voice, as if recalling yesterday’s weather. “In my experience, and knowing also from my dad, the worst you can do is just put your – in Danish you would say ‘your head in a hole’ – and pretend it’s not there. It’s more like you have to get to know this thing in you. It’s part of you. And then finding ways to face it and work around it.”

Did she worry about postpartum depression, which is estimated to affect 10- 15 per cent of mothers? “Actually not, because I was so elated with the whole pregnancy,” she says. “I was reading these stories, and I understand these are very strong things that can happen, but I did not have that fear.”

Obel had plenty of other fears, she adds. “I watched a Louis Theroux documentary about kids with autism,” she says, referring to Louis Theroux: Extreme Love – Autism, from 2012. “So I was maybe worried a little bit about that. I feel like my depressive side had been expressed at its strongest in my 20s. It picks its head up, but it’s actually been better since I had my daughter.”

One thing that helps, she says, is to be in constant motion – touring, writing songs or simply getting out into the world.

“I’m such a heady, spacey person. I have a body, and actually just moving my body, and being in nature, and also having connection with people, that sort of genuine connection is better than antidepressants, for me. And it’s something I’ve learned through many years. And also just facing it head on instead of trying to be in denial about it.”

As a working parent, she wants her daughter to be part of her life, but she has found the music industry isn’t always accepting of mothers who want to bring their children on the road. She says she’s considering starting a support group in Berlin for parents in the music industry.

“For parents who are touring – it shouldn’t just be mums, but anybody who has this responsibility – it’s super complicated to make it work,” Obel says.

“The thing that I’m surprised at is how few are bringing their kids on tour. I remember I was touring with my daughter in 2022, when she was one. There were venues in continental Europe where they wouldn’t allow us in with the kids because of insurance and stuff like that. And then I realised they’d never had a child in the venue before.”

Obel is the sort of cult artist whose music deserves the listener’s undivided attention. As with her previous records, The Meaning of Flowers is an album you have to sit with: it is cool and mysterious, a puzzle to be unlocked, a poem to be absorbed, and the very opposite of playlist fodder. “Record-label people tell me I have very good [streaming] numbers, but I don’t know where to compare it to,” she says.

At home, away from the tour bus, she prefers to listen to vinyl; she says it has been a pleasure to introduce the medium to her daughter, who listens to old crackling recordings of audiobooks. She has in a sense come full circle, having started with a “ridiculous and irrelevant” project about technology and ending up with a new record that argues for the meditative pleasures of analogue music. In a world menaced by artificial intelligence, she hopes her new album can function as an antidote, as a light in the gloom.

“There’s something very strange when you think about how perfect this vinyl thing is. There’s something about when you put a vinyl on – it’s totally magic. I have a lot of hope for this medium. The dopamine in the brain, it’s much better with the vinyl and the sound waves. Now, with all this AI, people would naturally gravitate towards this more acoustic experience, and stuff that’s imperfect. I’m feeling quite hopeful.”

The Meaning of Flowers, by Agnes Obel, is released by Deutsche Grammophon

The company did not disclose financial details of the deal, which would see General International Telecom El Salvador, one of four mobile phone companies in the Central American country, take over the business, subject to clearance from competition authorities.

El Salvador, with a population of about 6.4 million, had been one of Digicel’s weaker markets in recent times. The sale would reduce Digicel’s scale to 25 markets.

Market sources familiar with Digicel told The Irish Times earlier this year that El Salvador and some of the company’s French West Indies markets were ripe for consolidation because they have four mobile players. They highlighted that there was obvious potential for Digicel to exit some of these or engage in asset swaps.

“Over the past year, we have been executing a clear strategy to build a stronger Digicel and position the company for long-term growth,” said Marcelo Cataldo, Digicel’s chief executive, in a statement.

“This transaction is another step in that strategy, allowing us to sharpen our focus on the Caribbean and concentrate our resources and investment behind markets where we have strong positions and see significant opportunities for growth.”

Digicel’s net debt stood at $2.75 billion (€2.39 billion) at the end of December, sources familiar with the company’s financial position previously said. Digicel’s debt peaked at $7 billion six years ago before it carried out three restructurings, culminating in a group of bondholders – led by PGIM, Contrarian Capital Management, and GoldenTree Asset Management – taking control in January 2024.

O’Brien retained a 10 per cent stake. However, the sources said in March that he is on track to double his stake to 20 per cent, on the back of ongoing improvements in its finances and a pickup in industry valuations.

Digicel said that its stronger financial foundation is allowing it to focus on investing in the networks, products, technology, and customer experience “that will drive its next phase of growth across the Caribbean, including continued investment in subsea connectivity, fibre expansion, and network capacity”.

Fitch, one of the world’s leading debt ratings agencies, upgraded its stance on Digicel’s creditworthiness in late July, citing “consistent financial improvement and ongoing deleveraging” since its 2024 restructuring. The one-step upgrade brought its rating to B+, which remains in so-called junk status territory.

“While its credit metrics are consistent with a higher rating than B+, the [rating] is constrained by weak operating environments in Haiti and El Salvador, currency depreciation risks, and still-expected low interest coverage ratios,” Fitch said. “Digicel’s liquidity is strong, with no significant debt maturity until 2032.”

“Tina is a police officer,” it reads, “She walk into a mystyrieyos world with treasure she meets a citizen and doesn’t know what direction to go, so she asks the citizin something but the people there only awnser only to strangers once (tina is a stranger)”.

There’s a lot to take in. For one thing, I feel there may, some day, be an inspiring four-part Netflix documentary about his attempt to spell the word “mysterious”.

“So, Tina is asking for directions?” I ask, dubiously, “for the treasure?”

“Yes,” he says.

“Well, can’t she just say, ‘Which way is the treasure?’”

“No,” he tells me, astounded at my ignorance, “she can only say one thing to them, but they can’t say anything to a stranger.” “Hmm,” I say, before quietly adding that this was not clear from the riddle as originally worded.

In ancient times, I would have undertaken this process at the lip of a mossy cave on the Grecian coast. A farmer, perhaps, wondering why my harvest had collapsed. A king seeking advice on how to rule. There, my oracle would have rummaged through a bird carcass before delivering their cryptic message. My son merely stares at me intently across the kitchen table, sucking on a tube of liquid yoghurt.

‘Would you rather have no stomach or no bum?’ my son asks

I provide various other answers, each of which he bats away, citing ancillary rules – at least five of which are not present in the original wording, but who’s counting? – until finally I give up.

“She has to say, ‘Hello! I’m Tina’,” he tells me, “and then she’s not a stranger any more!”

Like all of his riddles, there is the nugget of something clever here, albeit shielded behind layers of opacity. This is because he sees these riddles on YouTube and, in his haste to transcribe them, misremembers key details, or else omits them so as to stand a better chance of stumping me. And stumping me is the true prize, sending him on the delighted jig – a literal merry dance – he is now performing around the kitchen

Soon, it’s my turn and I motion toward the hits. “A boy is rushed to the hospital with a broken leg,” I say. “The doctor takes one look at him and says “I can’t operate on this boy, he’s my son”. But the doctor is not the boy’s father. How is this possible?”

He adopts the face of someone who’s just been asked to calculate the square root of a garden gnome. He asks me to repeat the words again. And again.

Sometimes in parenting, you get an illicit thrill from seeing your child grapple with a well-worn phenomenon for the first time. When he was a baby, nothing thrilled me more than seeing him experience his first lick of ice cream. Not least since, two minutes later, I got to see its opposite when he experienced the nerve-shredding horror of his very first brain freeze. A few years later, I had a similar sense of vertiginous delight when he came up to me at a Christmas party and said “Daddy, I love this song!!” in response to me playing that little-known cult classic Jingle Bells.

And here he was, agonising over the oldest riddle – and most salutary lesson in entrenched sexism – in the book.

“He’s adopted!” he tries.

“It’s a robot boy that just looks like his son!”

“His son doesn’t have any legs so the doctor is an impostor!”

“No”, I say, with the calming voice of a Galilean carpenter, as if these words were my own invention, “the doctor ... is his mother!”

My son very nearly swoons with delight, as realisation of his ignorance – and some latent presumptions about the roles of women in the workforce – washes over him. He’s been stumped, but it feels good. So good, he immediately sets to writing another riddle down to beat me in turn, almost certainly leaving out enough details that it will become his own in the telling. A riddle that’s grand, a riddle that confounds. A riddle more mystyrieyos than I could ever dream.

This was not a normal squad announcement, but this is not a normal international window.

Irish manager squad announcements are usually banal enterprises, wherein the media pepper questions about the players who have been included with queries about some who have been left out. They are the primary theatres in which the press champion some excluded player as our latest wrongly exiled star. If they are overshadowed by anything, it is usually the convulsions of dysfunction into which they FAI regularly lapse.

It was evident from the moment Hallgrímsson walked into the press room on Thursday that this announcement would be very different. He took his usual seat before the TV cameras and assembled journalists, but in a break with protocol, the advertising board that bears the logos of the FAI’s many sponsors was not standing behind him. This is part of the FAI’s minimalist approach to these games, with their social media activity also set to be vastly curtailed. They want to draw as little attention to those involved in the games as possible.

Hallgrímsson began with a monologue that stuck solely to football. He reflected on the success of the summer friendlies and ran through his squad selection, heading off some of our questions regarding absent players. He also highlighted why it is worth doing well in the forthcoming Nations League games, as finishing in the top two in the group will mean being in the second pot for the Euro 2028 qualifier draw later this year. These introductory remarks are a standard practice for Hallgrímsson, so it’s not the case he felt it was suddenly appropriate this week.

The Israel talk began with the questions, and Hallgrímsson revealed he had spoken to each of his players individually about their feelings on playing the games. “Obviously we have different opinions and different strengths of opinions,” he said, “and without going into individuals, none of us feel comfortable playing these games. But once we have decided to play them, we all stick together and play as one.

“We want to represent Ireland with the best games and performances as we can. That’s the agreement between all of us. We don’t all share the same opinion and that’s just human nature.”

The questions continued in a subsequent interview with the written press, eight minutes into which Hallgrímsson’s press officer made an unsuccessful attempt to steer the questions to football. Hallgrímsson, to his credit, continued to field all questions.

“We are all different, I feel a little uncomfortable talking about this as my background is not the same as yours,” he said. “I just don’t have the depth of how you process things on this. I am really happy for [director of football] John Martin to speak yesterday about these things, and tomorrow David Courell will have another meeting on these issues. Hopefully I can do as much thinking, talking and focusing on the football side rather than all of those things.

“As you understand, my job here is football, and I need to be focused on football. The less noise for me the better and the less noise for the players, they are more likely to perform better on the pitch.”

Scent of goal: Spurs work themselves up into a lather on and off the pitch

That Martin and Courell are fronting up this week is a belated show of leadership from the FAI, given Courell and president Paul Cooke scarpered from the scene and left Hallgrímsson to field all the questions when Ireland first drew Israel in February. On Thursday, Hallgrímsson mostly spoke with his customary, calm assurance, though there were moments in which he did appear uncomfortable.

He does worry about saying the wrong thing, and perhaps his clumsy comment in May that Ireland would seek to “win this game against them, win this war” is still playing on his mind. His anxieties are heightened by the fact he primarily thinks in Icelandic, and translates his thoughts to English. Ultimately, for many of the Irish fans opposed to these games, there is no such thing as “the right thing” to say in a context such as this.

There was a single football question at the end of his briefing with the written press, with confirmation that Dara O’Shea will captain Ireland for these games with Nathan Collins and Séamus Coleman absent. Given the captain’s front-facing role, it feels a dubious honour for the two-and-a-half weeks ahead.

A standard journalist trope of these press events is to describe the mood in the camp. In this instance, the mood is uptight, foreboding and willing all of this to be over soon.

How often does a brand create skin products specifically for over-40s? Not that often. And how often does a brand create products specifically for over-40 skin, only clinically test those products on women over 40, and only use images of faces over 40 in all its marketing material?

The answer, until two years ago, was never, until Sarah Creal created her own brand.

You might not know her name, but if you like make-up, you definitely know her work. Creal is one of the best beauty formulators in the industry and the woman behind many fabulous products, from the original Tom Ford Beauty line to Prada’s lip balms from the 90s, and more recently, the Estée Lauder and Victoria Beckham collaboration. She went on to co-found Victoria Beckham Beauty with Beckham herself, sitting at the helm as chief executive until 2022.

Now in her late 50s and frustrated by the lack of luxury beauty products made for women her age, she decided to solve the problem and create her own line, which is now available in Ireland for the first time via Space NK.

Face Flex Concealer and Complexion Enhancer (€52 from Space NK) is one of the best concealers I’ve ever used - luxuriously packaged and well formulated with hyaluronic acid, green tea and caffeine, all key ingredients for mature (and maturing) under-eyes. It has a fluid, lightweight formula with excellent coverage that “flexes” on the skin.

As your skin moves and folds and creases - as it is designed to do - the concealer moves with it. Then, when you relax your face, it flexes back into place. No sinking into fine lines, no pooling, no drying up in clusters.

It’s designed to also be used as foundation when needed, so thin and lightweight is the formula. Simply dot it across areas of the face and buff in with a brush. It brightens and evens, and covers blemishes, redness and pigmentation spots. The finish is velvety and dewy and smooth, but never sticky or heavy.

Creal’s Eyes Up Creamy Kajal Longwear Eyeliners (€32) are also worth a mention - I rank them among the longest-wearing eyeliners I’ve ever used, without a single smudge in sight.

Other products on my “excellent for mature skin” list include Westman Atelier Baby Cheeks Blush Stick and Face Trace Contour Stick (€52 each from westmanatelier.com), which are creamy and pigmented but never sticky, with excellent longevity. Dior Forever Nude Bronze Glow Powder (€59 from Brown Thomas), Merit Day Glow Highlighting Balm (€35 from meritbeauty.com) and Lisa Eldridge Seamless Skin Tint (€47 from Space NK) are all excellent too.

What all of them have in common are hydrating formulations that never veer into greasy or overly shiny territory. On the whole, they contain ingredients that are good for your skin and, most importantly, they last and last.

This week I’m loving… Voya Awakening Sugar Scrub

I fear Voya have missed a trick by not also including the word “invigorating” in the name of its new Awakening Sugar Scrub (€55 from voya.ie). Because this product is invigorating with a capital I. Infused with peppermint, botanical oils and organic seaweed, it wakes up the skin and the senses in seconds.

It was laid out in flats when they bought originally in 2005, which prompted the first renovation job. Then, in 2015, with kids then in residence, the house underwent a more extensive restoration with the addition of new windows, a new roof and an extra 40sq m (430sq ft) of space.

“It definitely has the practicality of a bigger house,” the owner says. “The new layout was very deliberate. We had to think of who would use what space, and what could fit into every corner.”

It is by no means a small house, however, with a floor area of 173sq m (1,862sq ft). It’s got an upside-down layout to maximise light and views from the living areas, with the four bedrooms on ground level. The main bedroom is en suite and there is a shower room for the other bedrooms and a laundry room.

During Covid lockdowns, the owners decided to make better use of one of the bedrooms and converted it into a home office/den for the kids.

Although they have made the difficult decision to sell number 9 as their children enter the more space-consuming stage of their lives, the owners cannot bear to leave the area.

“We love Howth and the community so much. We definitely want to stay within walking distance of the village,” they say.

Number 9 Abbey Street is now on the market with Sherry FitzGerald, seeking €1.15 million.

A walnut staircase leads up to the open-floor living area. You arrive straight into the kitchen which has fitted cream units on both sides with granite worktops. There is an island in the centre with a sink, lit up by bronze pendant lights at night and a Velux window by day.

There are steps up to the living area which has a vaulted ceiling and doors out to a large deck and terraced garden beyond.

Glass doors at the opposite end of the kitchen lead into a separate dining/livingroom. This room was the original part of the house, with three sash windows overlooking Abbey Street below and the ruins of the old Abbey church. There is a gas fire with marble surround, as well as the original corner tiled fireplace. Lastly on this level is another bathroom with the original enamel roll-top bath.

The dramatic landscaping at the back of the house happened by accident, when the owners had a gardener take a look at the lower area outside the house.

“He went up to the top of the back garden to have a sandwich one day, which was absolutely wild territory at the time. He called down to us to come up and have a look at the sea view, so that is when we changed the plan completely.”

The multi-tiered garden now has a stepped path that climbs up to a decking area with views of the village and harbour, where the owners love escaping to for a glass of wine at sunset. There are also various seating areas at other levels and on the ground level there is artificial grass with planted beds and a storage shed.

The B-rated home has Howth’s best cafes, restaurants and bars, including the renowned Abbey Tavern, just minutes away, as well as the Dart station. The H3 bus route goes through the village and there is space for two cars in the front driveway.

“It’s very rare now that on one side you have a minister from Ukraine and sitting on the other side, somebody from Russia. There is no such thing in Europe, and this is the real importance of this forum,” he said.

The Xiangshan Forum, Beijing’s annual security conference, is unique in its ability to bring together representatives from both sides in some of the hottest conflicts in the world. An earlier session was marked by fiery exchanges between speakers from Saudi Arabia and Iran over Tehran’s attacks on targets in the Gulf.

Prince Turki al-Faisal, chairman of the King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies, accused Iran of failing to respect the sovereignty of Arab states with “aggressive and unlawful attacks” on their territory. Mohammad Taghi Osanlou, an Iranian general who is deputy for operations at the army’s general headquarters, said Tehran’s attacks were aimed only at American assets in the region.

“We have not attacked any Arab countries or their territories. We only attacked US military bases in Arab countries,” he said.

“We not only targeted Saudi Arabia. We launched strikes against US military bases in Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar, not just those in Saudi Arabia. Our target is the United States, not other Arab countries.”

The later session was less heated, not least because Klimko and Alexandria each looked straight ahead while the other spoke, but there was nothing close to a meeting of minds. Klimko said he could foresee negotiations towards a ceasefire, but there was no prospect of a peace deal, much less of a broader agreement on Europe’s security architecture.

Alexandria described the war as a failure of strategic stability and suggested that, while a post-ceasefire agreement could deal with issues like borders and military forces, a more ambitious strategic agreement was needed to make the next war less likely. Demko, who said the Russian invasion of Ukraine was unjustified, suggested that it was time to talk but with limited expectations.

“What we need now is to extinguish the fire and keep it down. We cannot rebuild the house,” he said.

The panel in an earlier session about the trend towards multipolarity in the international order included Timothy O’Brien, an Irish general who is director of cabinet for the chairman of the EU’s military committee, former Defence Forces chief of staff Seán Clancy.

O’Brien said that, if the EU was focusing more on military affairs than before, it was because of the changed circumstances it faced.

“We are not becoming a more military organisation. However, we live on a Continent in Europe ... where conventional war has returned by Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine,” he said.

“The war in Ukraine is an illegal act of aggression against one of our partners. And therefore, that is why you hear defence being discussed now, by European leaders, both leaders of the institutions and the prime ministers of the member states, because that’s the reality we’re living in. War has returned to our Continent.”

O’Brien said that there was no doubt that the world was becoming multipolar, but the question surrounded what kind of multipolarity was most desirable. He said the EU favoured a multipolar world that envisaged more voices, greater representation and stronger participation in international decision making.

“Multipolarity alone does not necessarily produce enhanced stability. Several centres of power can co-operate, but they can also compete, divide the world into spheres of influence and leave smaller states caught between them. That is why the European Union believes that multipolarity and multilateralism must be brought together,” he said.

“If a multipolar world means that several large powers each require a privileged sphere of influence around themselves, then we have not created greater equality. We have simply redistributed a hierarchy. The sovereignty of smaller states must carry the same fundamental meaning as the sovereignty of a major power.”

I was born in 1954, and there was a big gap between me and my siblings. I’m fifth in my family’s birth order and I have four siblings. There is a four-year gap between my sibling before me and there are bigger gaps beyond that. I was teased a lot growing up. They usually say that the baby in the family is spoiled and all that kind of thing, but it wasn’t so with me. I was teased a fair bit by the elder siblings when I was a child, and sometimes it turned into a bit of ridicule. I kind of grew up with teasing and that was because I think I was very different from the rest of the family and my siblings. I was always a bit determined and maybe a bit obstinate at times because I was kind of fighting my way. I felt I never really fitted in with my family in that kind of a way. I was different and especially compared to my sibling before me, my older sister. My sister was quiet and she was perfect all around, and I could not fit in with that. I was always fighting to be myself and not to be changed. I think that fight and the way I grew up is why I have been able to do what I have done in the last few years in my work. I felt I had to fight for the little ones that had no voice and I just felt that I never really had a voice in the household so that is how it has really defined me as a person.

What is your middle name and what do you think of it?

My name is Catherine Patricia, and I never liked either name. I was born in March in 1954, so my name probably had something to do with St Patrick and St Patrick’s Day. My father’s name was also Patrick. There are Patricks everywhere in my family. I think I just did not want to be called that, and I really didn’t like it.

When did you last get angry?

The last time I got angry, to be honest, was probably last weekend because of Donald Trump’s visit to Doonbeg, Co Clare. Donald Trump being there was bad enough, but when I saw all the people in Doonbeg, well not everyone, but most of them, clapping and cheering for him. That is what really got to me. It’s bad enough that the Republican Party and Americans are cheering for him and cheering him on the whole time, but we all know the facts here. I know what Donald Trump is, and I know what he has done, and that is what really got me going recently.

What have you lost that you would like to have back?

Probably my teenage years. You have better health and you have more energy, and that is never coming back.

Where is your favourite place in Ireland?

The drive from Clifden into Leenaun in Co Galway. It is just spectacular. I love the mountains and nature and all that. I always think of that drive between Clifden and Leenaun and we really try to get down to there as much as we can.

What is your strongest childhood memory?

I remember I was in hospital as a child and I was maybe about six years old. At the time. I needed eye surgery and I remember, I’ll never forget it, I woke up after the surgery, and I was so terrified. I thought I had gone blind, because there were these bandages all over my eyes. I was trying so desperately to take off the bandages. I remember a nurse came in and gave a whole thing to me about leaving the bandages on and how I should not touch them again. It was very frightening, it was all so dark, and I did not know what was happening. But everything was fine once all the bandages were off.

When do you think you were happiest?

I would say I was happiest when I met my husband in my teen years. We met just through friends of friends when we were younger, meeting after school and things like that. We became soulmates, and he listened to me, really listened to me, and he appreciated me. He appreciated me more than my family did, and it was a new life, it was a new awakening for me. I’m happy to say that we are still soulmates, even though we’ve been through a lot of turbulence. But me and him were very alike, and that was when I found him, through the turbulence.

What do you think happens when we die?

Well not what the church is preaching to us. I think that is a fairy tale. The body evaporates and we go into molecules and all that, but I do believe that whatever goodness we have within us, whatever kindness, has to live on somewhere, and has to turn into something new, that’s my belief.

Which actor would play you in a biopic about your life?

The actor Monica Dolan has played me in The Lost Children of Tuam this year, and it is out there now, and I must say, she was such a great choice. She is really fantastic, and she played me as a character so well. She just played me as I was and truly showed my want for the truth to come out, I have always wanted to stick with the truth, and she plays that very well. It is surreal though seeing yourself on screen, because [the idea for the film] came around about 10 years ago and it was just all surreal for our family. The film coming out is just so wonderful for us and the children and our grandchildren are in the film. My husband, Aidan, has even got a small part to play also. So it really is a huge deal for us in the family really and it’s going well so far. I wasn’t involved in the production of the film. I left it all to themselves.

‘Would you believe I got a call from Liam Neeson?’: Catherine Corless film premieres in Galway

Do you have any career/personal regrets?

I really do not think I have any personal regrets. I was just thinking on this the other day and we all have regrets. Small, tiny regrets. Maybe there are small, tiny regrets every single day, but we get through them and we put them behind us.

The Lost Children of Tuam, directed by Liam Neeson and starring Monica Dolan as Catherine Corless, is in cinemas from Friday, September 25th, with a gala screening taking place in Dublin this evening.

Chestnut Grove is a high-end boutique development of contemporary homes in a quiet cul-de-sac just off the Sea Road in Kilcoole, designed and built by Ambihouse.

Number 5 Chestnut Grove extends to 210sq m (2,260sq ft), with four bedrooms. With an A Ber, it is now for sale through DNG, seeking €1.1 million.

The developer has focused on optimising space and light and using high-quality materials at the development. The layout of these homes blend luxury style with practical everyday living, ensuring that each house meets the needs of a busy family in this commuter-belt location.

Outside, the contemporary aesthetic is apparent from the dark-grey zinc portico with timber slats and the large corner window in the livingroom, to the modern oriel window jutting out from the main bedroom to the side.

Inside, the entrance hall is laid in herringbone flooring, and to the right is a bespoke built-in bench, boot drawer, coat-hanging area and cloak cupboard. A generous understairs cupboard is one of several storage areas cleverly placed around the house.

Off the hall is a large utility room, with a washer and dryer that are included in the sale. The plant room housing the air-to-water heating system is tucked away here. There is also a guest loo with half-panelled walls and leaf-patterned wallpaper.

The herringbone flooring moves to plank flooring for the livingroom and the open-plan kitchen/dining/living area. The large corner window brings in light and offers views out from two sides, while leaving plenty of wall space for furnishings and a media centre.

The L-shaped kitchen/dining/living area is designed as the hub of the house, with bespoke cabinetry and shelving, and large glass sliding doors opening out to a wide side patio.

The kitchen revolves around a large central island, with cabinetry in a warm grey and elegant stone worktops. A large concealed pantry provides all the storage needed to keep the kitchen uncluttered.

A back door leads from the kitchen to the rear garden, laid in lawn with wooden fencing lined with new plants. A wide patio-style path leads from the main patio at the side to another patio outside the kitchen.

Upstairs are four double bedrooms, with the main bedroom overlooking the back garden. Thanks to the oriel window, however, the main bedroom also has a view to the front. It has a large walk-in wardrobe with shelf, drawer and hanging space, and an en suite shower room with twin hand basins.

The other three double bedrooms have fitted wardrobes, also in grey, and soft carpeting. The large family bathroom has a bath and separate shower and is laid in a tasteful blend of dark and light tiling.

There’s off-street parking for several cars to the front, with provision for an electric gate and electric car charger. There’s also no shortage of on-street parking on this peaceful cul-de-sac.

Two more homes are set to be launched at the scheme soon.

The area around Kilcoole is well served with schools and shopping and leisure facilities, not to mention coastal walks and other outdoor activities by the sea. Dublin Bus services run from the village, while Greystones Dart station is just under 6km away.

Peter Broome spent the summer holidaying in Ireland. As well as enjoying the exceptionally dry and sunny period, the Brisbane native used his time to take up fly fishing.

“I got all the gear and had no idea and just started,” he says. “I’ve been fishing with different guides around the country and meeting people and it’s enjoyable.”

The boss of Outsurance’s Irish insurance arm has also been casting out for new customers.

The fly-fishing trips have proven to be inadvertent market research opportunities.

“I tend to find if you’re in a pub talking to people because you’re travelling and they find out you’re in insurance, they always want to have a chat,” he says.

“They all want to tell you that it’s too expensive.”

Broome laughs as he recalls some encounters.

He says he enjoys “educating” people on why insurance premiums work the way they do - but also that Irish customers are among the savviest in the world. It is that cohort his business has been trying to win over for the past two years.

From its Irish base in Cherrywood, south Co Dublin, Outsurance has employed more than 200 people and has concentrated on cracking the Irish motor insurance market.

Its TV ads and online media spots have sought to use “real” customer testimonies and feature a distinctive paper-man character who consists of random sheets of paper and bundled-together office supplies.

Broome is under no illusion about the challenge. “I can say to you, probably tens of thousands of customers have now joined us. We’re still very small.”

With the considerable backing of its parent group – the multinational Outsurance Group in South Africa - Broome says the Irish business should begin to make proper inroads.

“We’re still going to be well in the lowest, lower single digits when it comes to market share at this stage of the game,” he adds. “And, and you know, that’s fine because it takes time to build trust with consumers.

“You can’t just come in overnight and think you’re going to run some ads and get a big book. Because I mean, the Irish have got long memories as well and so they’ve seen in the past where insurers have come and then gone.

“You need to build a little bit of confidence with the market that you’re here to stay for the long run. As we earn those stripes, they’ll join us at much higher rates.”

Broome is alluding to the troubled past of Ireland’s insurance market.

Quinn Insurance’s collapse in 2010 still haunts the minds of Irish consumers. Until this year, every non-life insurance customer here was paying a 2 per cent levy that essentially covered the cost of the Quinn administration. It was reduced this year to 1 per cent.

In the years that followed the Quinn debacle, more than one international insurance brand looked at Ireland and turned its nose up.

Arrival

Outsurance’s arrival proper in 2024 was welcomed by the Government as a watershed moment - and recognition that the fundamentals underpinning the insurance sector had been significantly improved.

A new Book of Quantum had been established, which was designed to bring down the high cost of personal injury payments, and moves were made towards a more efficient and less costly way of dealing with claims.

Reform of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board sought to increase the use of mediation and ultimately bring down insurance premiums by limiting the use of solicitors and the need to go to court.

This was “all very positive”, says Broome, but more needs to be done.

“There’s plenty of data out there, as you’ve seen around the quantum of bodily injury payout, in comparison to the UK it is still higher. So I think there’s still probably work to do there.

“We need to drive as much through the Injuries Resolutions Board [formerly PIAB] as we can. I think in terms of mediation, you want a fair outcome for the customer – that’s a must.

“Sometimes the legal route can take you years, whereas if we can try and keep that process with the Injuries Resolution Board to a shorter process, it costs less and still ends up with a very fair outcome for the consumer.

“The more those numbers look the same, the more people will transition towards the resolution board.”

While the insurance market is arguably more attractive now than it was a few years ago – offering the promise perhaps of cheaper premiums in the future – there are new trends that may mitigate any big reduction in costs.

The increase of more technologically-advanced electric vehicles on the road poses new types of claims for the industry.

“With the ADAS [driver assistance] systems that were coming in and more automation of vehicles coming through, that always comes with increased technology, which inevitably comes with more costs in repair,” says Broome.

“The other side of that coin is it can come with lower frequency of accidents because the alarm systems are telling you you’re about to back into something, rather than the old days where we had to just use the mirrors.

“So it can help reduce your frequency, but it does tend to lead to it being a more expensive repair in the long run.”

Key to bringing down the costs of repairs, he says, is an increase in the availability of parts. With more of these cars on the road the pressure on new parts should lessen over the next few years.

For now, it is the motor insurance market that Broome is largely occupied with.

The company has yet to venture seriously into home insurance. According to Broome, this is to be expected.

“When you’re a new entrant into the market, consumers will try you with their car and give you an opportunity to price on that and to cover them for a year and they’ll see how your service is,” says Broome.

“And if they can trust you and then as that trust builds, they’ll then trust you with their larger assets. So that’s not an unusual thing.”

Weather

He has watched as severe weather events in Ireland have begun to change the reckonings for many customers and their insurance providers. It was a horrendous winter for many homeowners around the country due to flooding.

The Central Bank of Ireland estimates that around one-in-20 homes struggle to get cover due to being located in an area that has already flooded or is deemed to be at risk of flooding.

Just last month the industry’s representative body, Insurance Ireland, published proposals to close what it called Ireland’s “flood insurance protection gap”.

Among them, the establishment of a “sustainable” flood insurance fund that would extend cover to vulnerable properties.

Broome says Outsurance has been part of drawing these up. “The house that was built in a spot decades or hundreds of years ago, is now exposed in a way that it never was back then,” he says.

“They could never have imagined at that point in time that that home would be exposed to consistent weather events. And it’s exactly the same worldwide.”

He refers back to his home country where severe weather is now a simple fact of life. As an example, he talks about houses on the Brisbane river in Queensland that are now expected to be flooded-out every “seven to 10 years”.

“It’s very hard to insure your way out of that because the cost of it is massive,” he says.

He says the insurance gap in Ireland isn’t as large as some other countries, and he is optimistic that it will be addressed.

No conversation with a senior business person these days would be complete without the inevitable mention of artificial intelligence.

Surely the insurance industry would be well placed to take advantage of what AI offers - particularly when it comes to automating claims and detecting fraud?

Broome adopts a cautious stance.

“We take a softly, softly approach with AI,” he says. “It could be an excellent tool for assisting humans in doing their job. But I think it’s quite important for us to be a bit slower in adoption in terms of making sure that it’s not making decisions.”

The company has not, he says, deployed AI when it comes to pricing risk or new policies.

“There’s a million companies that would be quite happy to sell us their AI model tomorrow,” he says. ”We certainly don’t think that at this stage it’s costing us anything from a competition point of view.”

But at the same time it is watching this area “quite closely”.

Might this mean, in future, a reduced headcount in Cherrywood?

“We don’t want to replace people,” he replies. “Irish consumers, if there’s something going on and they want to pick up the phone and ring somebody, they want to get you on the phone and have it sorted out fairly quickly.”

He says the 240 staff there are part of a “service level commitment” to answer 95 per cent of all calls in 20 seconds.

“And that’s by a human being, not by the IVR (Interactive Voice Response) or an automated message saying, yes, you’re in the queue. That’s actually picked up by a human who can help you.

“That, to us, is quite a pivotal piece.”

Broome saysOutsurance aims to have 300 people on the payroll by the end of the year. The Irish market, he believes, is different to others in that customers here want to talk about their policies with other human beings.

“You need to be there to take that call. And that’s why chatbots and things like that, those [things] can be quite frustrating. We’re still a bit old school in our service offering.”

In terms of pricing, it has been a tough decade or so for consumers here - with persistent claims of price gouging on premiums.

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has instigated investigations in the past into “price signalling” - a practice where providers make public statements about what they intend on doing with their premiums, allowing the rest of the industry to price accordingly.

Understandably, Broom says he has to “keep his cards close to his chest”.

“We are constantly monitoring on a daily basis … as to how the numbers track and we have brought prices down quite intentionally,” he says.

“My team put through another base rate decrease here just in the last couple of weeks. Which again, I shouldn’t be telling you. But you know we are proactively looking at price and trying to make sure that we’re matching as much [of] those numbers [that] will add up to stay competitive.”

Ultimately, he says, the business has to be profitable. And how is that working out?

“[There’s] ... always a long tail in insurance,” he says. “So when you start out, it’s always going to be a costly exercise to set up the business.

“We’re lucky to have such a supportive group in Outsurance that’s very committed to the business and stumped up the capital for us to get started. We’re well capitalised and in a very good position and the business plan is going quite well.”

Broome plans to see more of Ireland over the coming years having already taken in “Malin to Mizen”. The increasingly “savvy” Irish customers he encounters on his travels are likely to provide more real-world research and selling opportunities.

“That’s why the chats are always quite interesting, depending on how many pints I’ve had.”

The argument doing the rounds is that Ireland is missing an entire tier of accommodation - hostels, and properly serviced sites for campervans and tents - scattered around the country the way they are across much of the mainland.

I have a vested interest in that argument. I have been touring Ireland in a micro-camper for the past few summers - a converted seven-seater Nissan Serena with a fold-flat bed, a narrow kitchen unit, an electric shower in the boot, and a drive-away awning. There’s nowhere better than Ireland on a sunny day and when you combine that with a good campsite, it’s the best holiday you could have. Although, when the weather is bad and the campsite is worse, you can find yourself sitting bored in a damp car park re-installing the Ryanair app.

I am not a tent person. My tent-camping career peaked at Witnness music festival (yes, I am that old) and now extends only as far as a glamping yurt at All Together Now. So my camping experience is exclusively campervan-based. That said, the experience itself is widespread. I have toured France and Spain in my micro-camper, along with a fair amount of Ireland, so my baseline for comparing campsites is quite high.

They know how to do it on the continent, and while we could do with more, we have some fantastic campsites right here. Here are three sites that earned that title. They are not ranked, they are just the ones I keep going back to.

Mannix Point, Cahersiveen, Co Kerry

Mannix Point sits right on the water’s edge just outside Cahersiveen, nestled prettily in grassy banks against a hilly backdrop. The pitches terrace down towards the sea, with Valentia Island in front of you and a harbour behind, and the whole thing is arranged so that almost everybody gets a view rather than just the people who arrived first.

The basics are all there and all well minded - hot showers, a communal kitchen, laundry, and a location you can walk into town from for dinner. The staff are warm and helpful. But that is not what earned it its place on my list.

What puts it on my list is the living room. There is a fire lit on wet evenings, games to play, and instruments left out for anyone to pick up. Guitars, a bodhrán, and a piano. Nobody organises anything, it’s just all there for you to entertain yourself as you dry off by the fire. I don’t know if anyone remembers the storms of July 2025, but I was so grateful to escape the thundering in the campervan. I passed a very happy evening singing songs and playing piano and listening to a fabulous guitarist sing better songs, and we all had a roaring evening while the rain poured.

Book early - it is small, it is popular, and word has got out. campinginkerry.com

Clifden Eco Camping, Co Galway

Connemara does not need any help from me selling itself. Acton’s Eco Camping is tucked into the dunes outside Clifden, and rather than the usual open field with numbered sites, you find yourself pitching among hilly dunes and tall marram grass. The effect is that the campsite can be full to capacity and you can still feel like you have the place to yourself. The grass does the work of a windbreak too, which in that part of the country is not a small thing.

The beach is a hop, skip, and a jump away. So are the walks, the swims, a barrel sauna, and some of the best coastal scenery in the country.

I’m a Galway native by birth and by university, and there are a million things I love about the county, not least of which is the seafood. A local fisherman rowed up onto the campsite beach one evening and sold us fresh fish straight off the boat, which we cooked over the charcoal an hour or so later. It was divine - nearly as good as the excellent fare you can get in Oifig an Fish a few miles down the road.

It books up fast, and it helps if the owners like you, so be sound. clifdenecocamping.ie

Keel Camping, Achill Island, Co Mayo

This one is different, because I’ve been going to Keel long before I ever had a van (or a driver’s licence).

Keel Camping sits right on the beach in the middle of the village, which is about as central as most Irish campsites get. My aunts and uncles have descended on Achill every summer since long before my cousins and I were born, and one aunt kept a caravan there back in the nineties when we were little. Two of them have since bought homes on the island, so we are all still regulars, only now we are bringing the next generation with us.

The routine hasn’t changed much. Paddling with the littles in Keel Lough. Swimming and surfing at Keel, Keem and Dugort. A walk around the Deserted Village on the slopes of Slievemore. The aquarium for a wet afternoon, which never fails to delight the children. Coffee in the Beehive. And a pint in Lynott’s with my cousins, which remains one of my favourite activities of all time.

Last summer we camped there with my cousin and his wife, their baby, and our three dogs between us. We swam, dozed in the dunes in the afternoons, and watched my cousin surf while we ate 99s, which feels like a fair division of labour. It is busier than it was thirty years ago, of course it is. But the magic of the place has not been diluted one bit. keelcamping.ie

Learned along the way

The weather is the whole game. Not the rain itself - you get wet, you dry off - but whether there is anywhere warm and dry to retreat to afterwards. A campsite with a communal room and a fire is worth twice one without, especially if your camper is lacking in living space, and this is exactly the sort of thing that a national investment in serviced sites would fix.

Sand gets absolutely everywhere and there is nothing you can do about it, so stop fighting it. Hose everyone off at the back door when you get home.

Barbecue smoke is my personal underrated misery of Irish camping. It sticks in the hair and the clothes, and stings the eyes no matter where you sit. That said, I’d never pass a night without a barbecue or a campfire. Just check which way the wind is going before finding your perch for the evening.

And bring the dog. Mine has been to all three of these sites and many more besides. I recommend a frisbee to wear them out on the beaches.

Prices vary by season and I’d recommend phoning first, though all three sites have good websites. Wherever you end up going, check the dog policies, barbecue requirements, and opening dates before you travel. Remember to be sound and have fun.

Samhain season

You can’t talk about autumn in Ireland without showboating Halloween. And being the ancestral home of the ancient festival of Samhain, it’s great to see a celebratory renaissance of those traditional roots year on year. Discover Ireland have unveiled seven hubs for celebrations for 2026 with an eclectic line-up of atmospheric events around the country.

The City of Tribes will host Gaillimh Ah-Boo! (cliste!) featuring its annual Macnas parade and dark history tours, while in Ireland’s Ancient East the Púca Festival with headline happenings in the Boyne Valley while the Lú Festival of Light will illuminate the town of Drogheda. Nearby in Longford and Westmeath, the counties will be hosting the likes of the Fire & Shadows procession and An Tairseach Samhain, while in North County Dublin, the Fingal Festival of Fire will be setting the skies alight while Limerick’s Harvest Festival will be taking place at the popular Milk Market.

In The Kingdom, Samhain Ciarraí will mark a fortnight of colourful events while food lovers can make tracks for Savour Kilkenny, taking place at the city’s iconic castle. And don’t forget about Derry’s magical festival as an option too.

Bakery tourism

Sweet treat craze, anyone? It doesn’t seem long ago that heading out for food on a weekend morning meant a fix of eggs Benny or avocado toast, but now there’s a growing rise (pun intended) in our grá for every baked good from almond croissants to chocolate cruffins. With that bakery tourism is emerging as a new travel mainstay where consumers can now experience accessible luxury produce in trendy, artisanal bakers rather than splashing out on an extravagant meal. There are a whole plethora of options to enjoy from The Grumpy Bakers in Cork to Scéal Bakery in Dublin. Perhaps we can look forward to some tasty seasonal specials too?

Slow birding

As wildlife tourism evolves like all niches, there’s a growing appreciation that you no longer need to embark on an epic safari to get a thrill from wildlife. A simple “twitch” will do the trick. Trending slow birding, for example, celebrates low-impact, low-mile wildlife watching closer to home and appreciating some of our lesser sung avian delights. Autumn is a great time to pull out the binoculars, with migrating visitors such as Brent geese on the island as well as the likes of skuas and shearwaters along the south coast. For a great day out, pay a visit to the RSPB centre in Belfast, North Bull Island in Dublin or Harper’s Island in Cork. To make a night of it, the family-run Castle Hotel in Macroom offers excellent dining breaks and sits just a kilometre, as the heron flies, from the tranquil Gearagh bird sanctuary. Keep an eye out for giant egrets!

Country house stays

Is there anything more inviting than a country house stay in autumn? Benefit from lower off-season rates and a wonderfully inviting atmosphere whether curling up alongside a roaring fire, or even retiring by the pool if we’re treated to an Indian summer this year. Ireland is blessed with a whole host of hideaways, with collections from Ireland’s Blue Book properties and Hidden Ireland to independent gems peppered across the countryside. Fancy a whole-house takeover for friends or family? The Irish Landmark Trust also offers characterful historic properties which make for excellent value, particularly when there’s a gang to divvy up the costs.

Glowcations

South Korea seems to be the new Japan when it comes to leading TikTok travel trends and now glowcations is just one of the latest. The trend, where consumers travel for skin care and wellness is on the rise, not only for women but also for males who previously may have given the cryotherapy a skip. You don’t need to travel to Seoul either … how about popping Tipp in your wellness diary. The Horse & Jockey Hotel in Thurles features a great spa and excellent value autumn wellness and dining breaks for anyone chasing a value wellness getaway. Pair a treatment with a walk along the Littleton Labyrinth which reaches the majestic ruins of Derrynaflan Church.

Sauna scene

Forget Finland, saunas have become such a mainstay feature of the Irish coastal experience, it’s hard to image sea swimming without them. But with their proliferation, how can they stand out from the crowd? A rave sauna, no less. Adding a new musical element is taking the experience next level, by providing outlets for those not wishing to spend their nights (or at least all of it) in a pub, and increasing wholesome community levels too. Coastal Cabins located on Garryvoe Beach in East Cork are one such operation, where you can sweat, plunge and throw shapes while overlooking Ballycotton Lighthouse in the bay. Keep an eye out for their popular full moon sauna sessions too.

Spice and chilli tourism

A literal hot trend alert. There’s been an exponential global rise in the appeal of chillies, hot sauce and spicy food in recent years, not least thanks to viral YouTube shows like Hot Ones, where celebrities are interviewed while tackling increasingly spicy rounds of chicken wings. That online obsession has spilled into real life, driving a surge of chilli festivals not only in prime Tex Mex country but in Ireland too. Marina Market in Cork just hosted a chilli festival while this September, head to Co Down for its family-friendly chilli festival on the grounds of Bangor Castle.

Off the beaten track

Ireland has become a nation obsessed with staycations, particularly since the post-Covid era, and as our familiarity with the island grows, so does the appetite to find somewhere at home which is just a little bit more undiscovered. With that, expect counties like Monaghan, Longford and Tyrone to grow in popularity as visitors trade well-trodden hotspots for quieter nooks, with the added bonus of far fewer tourists around. The new addition of Ómós is expected to see a lot of travellers heading to Co Laois too.

Cabins

Pining for a forest getaway? This year brings a whole new range of cabin breaks for those looking to reconnect with mother nature. Cabü in Co Cavan has launched a new collection of barn-style houses, with USPs of their own private deck hot tubs, while Glamping Under the Stars in Co Laois has added three new properties to its site this year. Meanwhile, Cape Clear Glamping in West Cork has unveiled a whole new fleet of designer cabins set against a spectacular coastal backdrop. For families, Killarney Glamping’s brand-new site at Killarney Racecourse offers a great all-weather base to nestle down in.

Northern Ireland

One thing that always strikes me as a travel writer and an Irishman is just how many people across the island have never actually travelled to the six counties. It’s always pretty much top of my list when it comes to a staycation tip with its energy, people and landscapes always guaranteeing a memorable trip. The Harrison in Belfast is a great pick for a stylish city break, while Co Armagh aka the Orchard County is the most idyllic spot to celebrate for autumn’s cider season, while for a unique self-catering break, the Old Kiln in charming Bushmills is one of my favourite finds of the year.

In a letter, co-signed by several addiction specialists, Stewart Kenny described online slot machines and casino games as “the crack cocaine of gambling”.

These games were being heavily marketed here as “harmless fun” when they were anything but, Kenny said, while claiming that international gaming companies were taking advantage of Ireland’s “lenient” tax regime.

The UK government recently increased its remote gaming duty, which applies to profits from online gaming, from 21 per cent to 40 per cent.

Ireland takes a different approach to taxing these companies, applying a 23 per cent VAT rate to their gross gambling yield.

“As an absolute minimum, it is necessary that the Irish Government immediately follows the example of the UK and introduces a new minimum levy of 40 per cent on gross gambling yield for online casinos,” Kenny’s letter said.

“We believe in subsequent budgets the online casino taxes should be raised further to mirror taxation levels on tobacco, which are close to 80 per cent.”

Kenny was chief executive of Paddy Power from 1988 to 2002. He resigned from the board in 2016, accusing the company of profiteering from gambling addicts online. Since retiring he has become a critic of the gambling industry’s tactics.

Paddy Power’s parent company Flutter, which also owns Betfair in the UK and FanDuel in the US, is the world’s largest gambling and online gaming company.

‘World’s largest’ betting website closed to Irish users after regulator action

Kenny’s letter is co-signed by Prof Colin O’Gara, clinical professor of psychiatry at University College Dublin; Dr Frank Houghton, principal investigator of the Tobacco, Alcohol and Gambling Research Group at Technological University of the Shannon; and Niall McNamee, a former Offaly county footballer and recovering problem gambler.

There is growing evidence to suggest that gambling companies are using traditional sports betting “as a Trojan Horse or a gateway, to lure gamblers from sports betting to their more addictive online casino and slot machine operations”, the letter said.

Online slot machines and casinos are much more profitable than traditional forms of gambling such as horse racing as they require little or no manpower and can operate 24 hours a day, it added.

Gaming and gambling sites have proliferated in Ireland over the past 10 years with the gambling spend and online advertising rising in tandem.

The letter was accompanied by a report from Dublin City University economist Tony Foley that examined the evolution of onling gambling in the UK, which it concluded was fast “becoming a reality in Ireland”.

The UK gambling market is now dominated by online casino games and slot machines, with an estimated £84 billion (€97 billion) a year gambled on online slot machines alone.

“Put simply, Ireland has become a magnet for these online casinos who concentrate marketing spend here rather than in other, higher-tax markets,” Kenny’s letter said.

“Online casinos pose a significant danger especially to younger men, who often do not fully understand the risks of actions they take,” it added, while noting that that there was growing evidence that gambling addiction is now a major cause of suicide and self-harm.

Verdejo has been grown in the Rueda region of Spain for centuries. Most of the wines are aromatic with racy acidity and fresh green fruits. If you enjoy sauvignon blanc, I suspect you will like verdejo too.

The red wine comes from Ribera del Duero, a region that has enjoyed great success in recent years. The most popular grape here is called tinto fino, which translates as “fine red”. It is the same grape as tempranillo, the Spanish variety used to make rioja and a host of other wines. In Ribera del Duero, it tends to produce robust full-bodied wines.

Tesco Finest Rueda 2024, Verdejo, Viñas del Rey Organic

11%, €12 (€9 with Tesco Clubcard)

Fresh floral aromas, lemon peel and green apple fruits with a dry finish. Enjoy on its own, with lighter salads or maybe a seafood paella.

Tesco Finest Ribera del Duero 2024 Ebeia

13.5% €15 (€13 with Tesco Clubcard)

A powerful wine with plenty of ripe dark fruits and vanilla spice from a short ageing in oak. Locally, they would enjoy it with roast lamb, but any red meat, pork or firm cheese would do nicely.

They also discuss Munster’s outhalf crisis, optimism for Connaht and Ulster ahead of the new campaign plus World Rugby’s continuing bid to crack the American market.

Produced by John Casey and Andrew McNair.

Over the past few months, severe weather events have made climate change feel immediate, while the impact of geopolitical issues such as conflicts and tariffs brings energy matters home to us in a very real way.

Electric Ireland’s head of net-zero strategy and sustainability, Ellen Diskin, understands this completely, both in her professional capacity and as a single parent to two young children, trying to make the best energy decisions for her own household.

“As an organisation, Electric Ireland is committed to reaching net zero by 2040. But a really important part of our culture is making sure we don’t leave customers behind. The energy transition needs to work not just for the environment, but for households and families too.”

As a nation we are investing at scale.

Ireland is making significant investments in renewable generation, including wind and solar power, helping reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels.

But for consumers, the transition becomes real through everyday decisions in their own homes, whether that’s moving to a smart-meter tariff, installing solar panels, upgrading heating systems or switching to an electric vehicle.

“The challenge for many people isn’t motivation,” says Diskin. “It’s understanding what action makes sense for them, and what step they should take first.”

But such steps cost money, and decision making around them can feel overwhelming.

Electric Ireland sees its role as helping make those decisions easier.

“It is our role to help make those decisions as easy and accessible for people as possible, working with government and other organisations to make sure that people are not left on their own to make them,” she says.

“People shouldn’t feel like they’re navigating this alone. We want to help customers understand their options and make informed decisions that suit their household, lifestyle and budget.”

People shouldn’t feel like they’re navigating this alone. We want to help customers understand their options and make informed decisions that suit their household, lifestyle and budget

This is even true of her own family choices. For Diskin, sustainability is as much a personal consideration as a professional one.

“So for my household the easiest thing to do right now was to go on to a smart-meter tariff and start making small changes to when and how we use energy.”

“With the Electric Ireland app you can get smart-meter insights on your phone. It gives you a breakdown of what appliances are using energy and generates tips for savings. For me, the big one was waiting to do the washing and drying until after peak time,” she says.

“Cooking is another big energy user for me but one I can’t really move around – when the kids get in from school and have homework to do, I have to feed them. But the Electric Ireland app gives suggestions on ways to reduce energy usage, such as slow cooking, batch cooking at weekends, or using an air fryer or microwave, which just use so much less energy.”

It’s a simple example of a wider reality about sustainability. The journey to net zero is not “one big bang retrofit”, she points out.

“For most people it’s about doing it bit by bit over the years. That might mean moving to a smart meter tariff today, investing in solar panels in a few years’ time, or considering an electric vehicle when it’s time to replace the current car,” she says.

Results from the most recent Electric Ireland Sustainability Index, a survey conducted among 1,005 consumers in Ireland, bear this out. It found 36 per cent of people want to live more sustainably but just don’t know how.

For Diskin, that’s an important insight. Consumers are aware of the big climate questions, but they want to understand the practical solutions for their life.

“What they want to know is, if the radiator starts to leak, what should they replace it with? Is there a grant available? And how can they be sure the replacement will be ready for a heat pump down the line?” she says.

Some 87 per cent of us would take such actions if we had confidence they would work.

That peace of mind is something else Electric Ireland can help with. “We are an organisation that commits a lot of time and expertise into making sure the solutions we make available will work, help you manage your costs, and help you reduce your carbon footprint,” says Diskin.

That is also reflected in the Electric Ireland Sustainability Index findings. “People who put solar panels on their roof report seeing perceived savings of on average of about €58 per month, and households that have gotten a heat pump – and if you’ve got a relatively new home, it may be heat pump-ready from the outset – are reporting savings of €77 every single month on their heating bill,” she says.

“Those who have electric chargers are saying they are saving on average €91 a month on fuel costs.”

And wherever you are on your sustainability journey, Electric Ireland ensures the path ahead is clearly defined.

Increasingly, consumers are looking for more than an electricity supplier, but for trusted advice that helps them understand their energy use and make informed decisions for the future.

To support customers in their sustainability journey, Electric Ireland has transformed itself, becoming not just an energy supplier but a trusted provider of expert guidance and effective solutions too.

Not alone is it committed to completing its own journey to net zero, but it is supporting its customers, both businesses and residential, as they make the transition too.

Whether through smart meter tariff plans, energy management solutions, or products such as solar panels, EV chargers and batteries, Electric Ireland is enabling customers to better understand their energy use and make more informed decisions.

“For the journey to a more sustainable life to work, it has to work for the household, for the family, for the business. That’s where we focus our attention, helping people take the next step with confidence,” she concludes.

For more information on the steps you can take in your journey to Net Zero, visit the Electric Ireland Net Zero hub

First up on God’s food trail is recently opened Ómós in Abbeyleix, a visionary concept by chef Cuan Greene, formerly of Noma in Copenhagen and Bastible in Dublin. The fine dining restaurant is just part of the overall experience at this restored Victorian estate, its neutral tones, stone and wooden interiors a lesson in relaxed refinement.

It’s hard to believe this estate had fallen into ruin before it was bought by Irish tech billionaire John Collison in 2022. He and a handful of other investors have allowed Greene the time, creative space and money to pull together a unique addition to the Irish travel and food scene.

The 13-course tasting menu with wine pairing, or a thoughtful non-alcoholic option, is a joy from start to finish. Its summer menu begins with tomato pie, topped with anchovy brought to the table by one of a large team quietly working away in an open-plan kitchen that exudes calm. No thrown pots or kitchen hysterics here, just a love for the produce and in creating an exceptional meal for guests.

Dishes include dry-aged hamachi with rhubarb dressing and magnolia condiment, an Irish summer salad (reimagined rolled ham and egg) line caught fish as well as a snail dumpling that evokes more nostalgia by way of old school chicken Kiev that arrive one after another. Tables at Ómós are mainly held for residents, but some are made available to those not staying. — MM

Sika, Powerscourt, Co Wicklow

Look out onto the empyrean sight of Douglas Firs, Corsican Pines, Giant Redwoods and Atlantic Cedars from your table at Sika restaurant in Powerscourt estate. The eight-course tasting menu is thoughtfully compiled by executive chef Cormac McCreary and each new course is a triumph. Start with canapés that comprise tuna tartar with ponzo, Coolattin cheddar gougère, brioche feuilleté and Guinness and treacle bread paired with a glass of Perrier-Jouët Grand Brut NV. An assortment of tastes bursting with flavour, this is an exciting start to an exceptional meal. Next tuck into foie gras parfait with peach, native lobster, tomato and parmesan followed by sole Viennoise, broccoli, sudachi and smoked Dashi Sauce, an elegant dish excellently paired with a Trimbach Riesling. Things switch up a gear with the final savoury course and Wicklow lamb with Baba Ganoush, Romesco and Polenta. — MM

The Pullman, Glenlo Abbey, Co Galway

Kick off eight divine courses with nibbles and a glass of Billecart Salmon aboard The Pullman restaurant which is presided over by head chef Angelo Vagiotis. Stunningly located aboard two decommissioned Orient Express carriages on the grounds of Glenlo Abbey and overlooking magical Lough Corrib, Vagiotis’ ethos is to be ever-changing with the seasons. This Michelin-star meal starts with cheese puffs (hastily eaten in one bite), Flaggy shore oysters and Guinness bread, deftly followed by Bonito, topped with caper and raisin, hazelnut and cucumber. The bouquet salad, a signature dish and on the menu since day one is an example of the best use of seasonal ingredients from farm and garden. Fragrant, simple and delicious. A tomato consommé with pea ravioli, red prawn and lovage is followed by Atlantic perch, a new dish that got its first outing the evening we visited. Paimpol beans, the most delicate baby octopus and Luciana top the fish, which is expertly paired with a Spanish Albarino. Service and atmosphere is as good as how I imagine it aboard the Venice Simplon Orient Express and if that is on your bucket list, like mine, The Pullman isn’t to be missed. — MM

Éalú at The Stonehouse, Dingle Peninsula, Co Kerry

Head out around the Slea Head drive and just after the wholesome frolics of the Hold a Baby Lamb (does it get more Godlike?) experience, you will find Éalú at The Stonehouse. On a sunny day there is nowhere finer to sit outside admiring the glistening majesty of the Atlantic spread out before you, with a glass of bubbles expertly chosen by wine buff Clíona Moriarty. With her chef husband Kallam, they took the lease on the restaurant in this unusual stone building and turned what could have been a very standard tour bus café stop-off into one of the Dingle Peninsula’s must-visit foodie destinations. Try some sharing plates of baked Cavanbert or some juicy Nocellara olives, pick a small plate like a lobster bisque, or go for a more substantial elevated take on a seafood chowder. But make sure to leave room for dessert. Kallam’s patisserie skills are of a level rarely seen outside Paris. — DO’C

Ard na Sidhe Country House, Killorglin, Co Kerry

The ethereal magic or Ard na Sidhe hits you full force as you pull into the driveway and the vista of Caragh Lake down below takes your breath away. The old house, all stone, sits unobtrusively, complementing its surroundings. It still has the feel of an exquisite country home, rather than a hotel. The welcome is warm, and whether you come for the famed afternoon tea or stay on for dinner, you are guaranteed to feel entranced. On the menu is fine dining paired with a surprisingly reasonably priced wine list. The pan-fried duck breast with cherries and smoked beetroot is a standout flavour combination, while the excellent hake served with a courgette and parmesan puree, mussels and spicy chorizo is another delight. After a bottle of Gruner Veltliner with our meal, very generous serves of Sauternes dessert wine sent us off to enjoy the cosy lounge with a very warm glow. — DO’C

Mara, Waterford

Mara is somewhere to contemplate, be mindful. The tiny restaurant with just six tables is a far cry from the site’s original incarnation – vegetarian café Haricots. Today, the experience is elevated but relaxed – you can choose between a la carte and an 11-course tasting menu (pre-booking essential). The menu changes seasonally but is inspired by chef Luis Martin’s Spanish roots, paired with the best of local produce, with an emphasis on local organic and foraged ingredients. The highlight for me perhaps was the appearance of padrón peppers as a side to my steak – to my mind a perfect pairing. Gaston, front-of-house, is on hand to advise on perfect wine pairings, with lots of vegan and biodynamic options. — DO’C

O’Sullivan’s Crookhaven, West Cork

An open crab Sandwich in O’Sullivan’s on a sunny July day is a simple but sublime experience.

The crab itself, simply bound, dressed and allowed to sing sweetly and delicately, is the stuff of legend, both local and further afield. But it’s the setting that makes this a one-of-a-kind place to eat and a must on God’s foodie road trip. In a world of complicated dinners, this is on my list for its simplicity, for the way the sea breeze acts as a seasoning and the sound of herring gulls and kittiwakes lapping over waters providing a celestial soundtrack to the food. — M’OL

Mamó, Howth

There is a very understated decadence to the upstairs dining room in Mamó. It’s not just to be found in the walls, fine stemmed glasses or the tablecloths, the true pleasure of the room comes from a deep generosity on the pass and the plate. Allow your palette to be kicked into gear by a Buffalo Ray wing and a signature cod chip - one sharp with cayenne-spiked vinegar against a soft nugget of ray wing meat, the other a masterclass in coaxing nostalgic magic from a spud. Two bites that will stay wedged in your hippocampus for a long time to come. If you’re lucky, and the boats have come in, you may be treated to a whole Turbot to share, and if you’re enjoying it as part of a Sunday lunch, there may be a moment where the sun shines in and casts a halo in the slick, sticky, collagen-rich jus around the fish, blurring the lines between heaven and earth in a single bite. — M’OL

The Landline at the Park Hotel, Kenmare

Being able to see the water from which your Kenmare Bay pot prawns were plucked a few hours earlier is a glorious thing, and The Landline at the Park Hotel, headed by chef James O’Sullivan, is a sublime restaurant. Kerry is a place of otherworldly natural beauty, with produce to match. Mountain lamb, incredible seafood and a million other ingredients make this one of the most special places to dine in Ireland for me. The food itself is considered, fresh and delicious, hyper-local in a way that doesn’t feel like a box-ticking exercise, cooked with a level of confidence that’s rare and exciting to see. Eating in the Landline, looking out at the clouds rolling over the infinite shades of brown and green in the hills leading down to water gives a context to what’s on the plate in a way that feels like a full-circle moment. What you’re eating in the Landline is Kerry itself, and it’s never been better. — M’OL

Cummins has been instrumental in putting Waterford squarely on the map in recent years, having been heavily involved in the opening of the Greenway in 2017. The 46km route from Waterford city to Dungarvan has grown in popularity with cyclists and walkers in the past nine years. Lots of cafés and restaurants have sprouted up along the path, with Coach house Coffee at Kilmacthomas offering a wide selection of lunch options, while the cakes at The Railway Cottage are homemade and a feast for the eyes as well as the belly.

But the views of powdery stretches of sandy beach below as you make your way from Durrow, past Clonea Strand and into Dungarvan, passing through the Ballyvoyle tunnel makes the long but manageable cycle worth it. On a recent trip to the sunny southeast, we hired bikes from Greenwayman and Cummins gave us an interesting history lesson on the area as we strapped on helmets and took to the bike path.

My kids have also been going to Waterford since they were babies and have a deep love for the Déise. Their paternal grandmother is from Dungarvan, and every time we visit there is always something ‘more’ to discover in the county of Mores. We stayed in Comeragh pods at the foot of the Comeragh mountains, a perfect spot to base yourself.

The brainchild of Tracy and Padraig Quinlan, the couple has put six glamping pods and a spa area including outdoor hot tub and sauna overlooking the unspoiled mountains and the Tay river close by. It’s rustic but with everything needed to make a stay less arduous than actual camping – a win for a tired mum who really doesn’t want to have to sleep on a blow-up bed in a tent.

The kids took to paddling in the river in rolled up jeans and making smores over the gas lit coal fires as the sun went down. We threw the devices to one side and tried our hands at a couple of the board games that are available in the communal area before chilling out in our pod with a movie. A breakfast basket is provided by the owners in the morning.

Before leaving the Dungarvan area check out Cookhouse 360, with a vast menu that will suit both adults and kids, it’s unfussy, tasty food with excellent service in pleasant surrounds.

Along the coast to Dunmore East, a gorgeous town of thatched cottages, secluded coves and buzzy food spots and places to have a pint. East Pier was set up by Elaine Power in 2019, who previously worked with Rick Stein in his Padstow restaurant.

A selection of the freshest fish including oysters, hake, lobster and prawns, as well as white fish caught close by for your classic fish and chips make this menu a fish lover’s dream, or nightmare, the choice a hellish conundrum. We narrowed it to crab brioche, scampi and fries and the most delicious fish tacos on a bed of corn and coriander salsa. With plenty of outdoor seating and some indoor, munch on your takeaway while quaffing a Rose or even a snipe of Moet. Chips and champagne, a classic combo.

Dunmore East Adventure centre is a must if travelling with kids, there is an inflatable aquapark (that they deflate and bring to shore each evening), kayaking, SUP as well as an excellent indoor adventure area including climbing wall, Ninja course, Laser challenge and archery which is perfect for grey, drizzly days.

One of their instructors, Andy took me on a tour of the coastline by kayak, while the kids were busy bouncing and sliding on the water. He told me a little of the history of the area, pointing out Hook lighthouse in neighbouring Wexford, and showing me Smugglers Cove, a charming swimming spot.

Back in Waterford city and a Viking virtual reality experience awaits that is as interesting for the adults as it is fun for the kids. Put on headsets and get transported to longships raiding monasteries and watch as Reginald, grandson of the legendary Ivar, returned to Waterford where he built a fort and became king in 917 AD. You also get to inhabit a recreated Viking hut, constructed just as it would have been, in the ruins of Baileys New Street’s ancient friary. Learn what it meant to be a Viking and how they cooked, kept warm, slept and passed the time over 1000 years ago.

Close by on Greyfriars Street in the heart of Waterford’s Viking Triangle, the Irish Museum of Time is housed within a restored Gothic-style church. A highlight of the trip and the real reason for visiting this time around is to see the recently opened Black Forest Cuckoo Clocks exhibition, which is believed to be among the finest collections in the world.

I’ve always been transfixed by the cuckoo clock; a great aunt had one when I was a child and I would impatiently wait for the clock to strike the hour and the little mechanical bird to appear, as if by magic.

This new gallery brings together hundreds of exceptional pieces, from miniature works to much larger pieces inspired by woodland scenes. Originating in southwest Germany, cuckoo clocks uniquely showcase a blend of craftsmanship, artistry and engineering. A standout feature is a rare century-old fairground organ that plays it’s tune as you sit listening in a mini theatre.

The museum also showcases the oldest Irish-made grandfather clocks, table clocks and watches, as well as featuring rare timepieces from across Europe and beyond, including Switzerland, England, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, Russia and Japan.

Finish with lunch at Grow HQ, an award-winning café on the outskirts of town with an organic kitchen garden, farm shop, education centre and working farm. We enjoyed delicious salad and frittata as well as homemade ice cream, the perfect way to end a relaxed summer staycation.

There was, the State-owned rail operator said, a “major signal fault across the suburban network”.

For about 30 minutes during the morning rush hour, rail services were suspended, affecting the Dart in Dublin as well the busy northern commuter line from Drogheda and trains using the Phoenix Park tunnel linking the city and west Dublin and Kildare, along with the Rosslare and Sligo routes. The disruption was caused by a fault at the Irish Rail control centre at Connolly Station in Dublin city.

The train network relies not just on tracks and carriages. Signalling is crucial to control the movements of trains carrying hundreds of passengers, particularly on the congested routes into Dublin city and on large portions of the network where there are only single tracks.

Irish Rail had been working on updating its system for controlling train movements for years as the existing system was considered to be on the brink of obsolescence.

Irish Rail chief executive Mary Considine told the Oireachtas Committee on Transport in June that the central traffic control technology in use at the facility at Connolly was “life-expired” and no longer supported by the developer.

The rail operator had been working on introducing a new traffic management system (TMS) that would integrate signals, communications and other systems on the railway network for more than a decade but the project experienced extensive delays.

The problems experienced on May 29th showed, albeit for 30 minutes – the disruption that could be caused by an ageing control system. Considine told the committee the planned new control system would not now be in place for the foreseeable future.

Irish Rail and the Department of Transport have interim plans to shore up the existing arrangements, particularly to cover the busy Greater Dublin Area in the absence of a complete new system.

Dispute over failed Irish Rail IT project could end up in court

Irish Rail insists safety is its priority. Considine said if serious control problems emerged, it would shut down parts of the network affected.

“There would be interruptions to services but safety would not be compromised,” she said.

Passengers would face potential significant disruptions, Paul Hendrick, director of capital investments at Irish Rail, told the committee. “If the system goes down, it will pose a challenge in terms of service levels. We may have to operate in a degraded mode. We would not be able to run our normal, full timetable. It is more of an operational impact on the services we offer to customers.”

Less than a fortnight before the system fault on May 29th, the long-running saga over the replacement control system essentially reached the end of the line. Twelve years earlier, Irish Rail had approved a €500,000 budget for a proposal to update its then central traffic control system. The IT project, known as a traffic management system (TMS) was to be a subset of a new overall national train control centre at Heuston Station, which was approved by the government in 2019.

The contract for the design, supply, installation and commissioning of the new system and control equipment was agreed with Spanish multinational IT company Indra Sistemas in 2020. The project was expected to cost €19.5 million including VAT, with a target that the new TMS would be commissioned by June 2024.

However, the project was beset by delays and cost overruns. The final straw for Irish Rail came in April when the company maintained the latest software delivered by Indra failed a number of key tests.

On May 6th, the board of Irish Rail wrote down by €50 million the value of its investment in the national train control centre, due to the problems with the TMS. On May 18th, the company sent its accounts for 2025 to Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien. A note in the accounts said Irish Rail, informed by the test results to date, “does not have confidence that the asset in the current state can be deployed for use on the network”.

Three days later The Irish Times revealed details of the €50 million writedown, leading to fury on the part of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

It emerged that Indra had received about €28 million from Irish Rail for its work on the TMS. However, in addition the rail company had also spent about €20 million on third-party costs and other project supports, including a significant amount on external consultants.

The board of the National Transport Authority (NTA) – which provided the funding for the TMS – commissioned consultants EY to investigate what had gone wrong. Quickly it became clear that Irish Rail and Indra have different versions of the background to what PAC chairman John Brady of Sinn Féin described as a “national scandal”.

Considine told the Oireachtas Committee on Transport that six years after the contract was signed and two years after the original commissioning date for the TMS, “Indra still does not have a developed product fit for deployment on our rail network, and it remains in a product development cycle”.

Irish Rail fires IT firm behind much-delayed project and prepares to seek damages amid €50m writedown

The board of Irish Rail had been told by management that it could be the summer of next year before the first phase of the project – covering the Dublin-Rosslare line – would be introduced and that it could be well into the 2030s before the full system was operational.

Indra, for its part, has blamed Irish Rail for how it has handled the project.

In a lengthy statement to The Irish Times, it said Irish Rail had depended too heavily on external advisers, mainly from abroad.

Indra also said that critical knowledge about the unique characteristics and limitations of the Irish Rail network had neither been comprehensively documented nor systematically shared with the project team. It said key Irish Rail personnel who would use the planned system had not been actively involved in the project until its fifth year.

“Indra was required to design the solution without visibility of infrastructure behaviours that materially affected system performance,” it said.

Indra said it had made every effort to deliver the project.

“Irish Rail did not or was unable to collaborate on the implementation of the TMS in a way that would be considered standard for operators in other countries. For the first five years of the contract, the absence of effective sponsorship from Irish Rail coupled with its failure to appoint and empower suitably qualified internal technical experts to assume leadership of the project created a significant governance and oversight gap,” Indra said.

The statement came as The Irish Times was about to reveal that the board of Irish Rail had fired Indra.

In late June, following a meeting of its board, Irish Rail management wrote to the NTA seeking approval to end the contract with Indra. This was accepted by the NTA on July 13th and within a few days the rail operator told Indra it was invoking provisions in the contract to terminate the arrangement “for convenience”.

However, Irish Rail has also been working on plans to sue Indra, leaving open the prospect or likelihood that the dispute over the TMS will end up in the courts.

With the Indra software now seemingly off the pitch, there is a growing focus on what should happen next. Irish Rail, the NTA and politicians all agree that a new control system is needed.

The NTA told the PAC that €20 million over three years may have to be spent to shore up the existing control systems in Dublin. This will be in addition to the €50 million writedown on the TMS system that Indra was to have delivered.

“As a result of delays in the delivery of the TMS, the Minister for Transport has approved additional signalling works ... this year that will deliver additional signalling resilience on the busiest parts of the network around the Greater Dublin Area and mitigate the risk of a big failure of the existing central traffic control system at Connolly Station. An additional benefit of this investment is that it will ensure that envisaged future Dart+ services will be able to come on-stream in the coming years regardless of the delayed delivery of the TMS,” the NTA said.

“These resilience works envisage reducing the load of the current train control centre system by migrating a number of ‘desks’ controlling parts of the network on to an alternative control system in the National Train Control Centre [the new facility at Heuston Station]. This will provide the additional control capacity needed for those particular parts of the network.

“Expenditure on these resilience works is estimated at €5.7 million in 2026, €9.8 million in 2027 and €4.3 million in 2028,” the NTA said.

The NTA also warned of other potential costs, particularly in relation to planned developments in Cork.

Spending on rail expansion plans could be hit by costs of failed €50m IT project

“The current planned date for commissioning the new signalling system in Cork is August 2027. In advance of this signalling system being commissioned, it will be necessary to have developed a suitable TMS for the signalling to feed into. If there is a delay to the commissioning date for the Cork signalling system, this could lead to additional costs on the project including contractor delay claims and internal and external project management of up to €800,000 per month,” the NTA told the PAC.

In parallel with terminating Indra’s contract, Irish Rail decided to look to another company, Siemens Mobility, to deliver a control system. But this needed the backing of the NTA.

Irish Rail told the NTA it wanted to publish what is known as a voluntary ex-ante transparency (VEAT) notice to the market. This would set out its plans to award a direct contract to Siemens Mobility to deliver its system, known as Westcad, across its network without going through a procurement competition.

The timing of NTA approval was important for Irish Rail’s strategy, in particular for dealing with Indra.

There would be a 30-day window for any challenge to the VEAT notice. The company wanted to have this out of the way before it proceeded to issue a default notice regarding Indra’s performance. Irish Rail believed this had to be done by the middle of October.

However, the NTA initially sought more information and then in July rejected the application by Irish Rail to publish the VEAT at that time. In August there was more correspondence between Irish Rail and the NTA.

The NTA wanted more details surrounding Irish Rail’s plans. The rail operator was increasingly concerned that any breach-of-contract case against Indra had to be issued by October 15th. It was worried that Indra could challenge the VEAT notice about the contract to Siemens.

Irish Rail considered it was essential the VEAT notice be issued by the first week in September to allow it to initiate its action against Indra in mid-October.

In a statement this week, the NTA said Irish Rail had submitted an approval request in relation to proposed delivery arrangements for an alternative train control system.

“This is currently the subject of engagement between Irish Rail and the NTA and involves a legal assessment of the procurement proposals. That process is ongoing.”

While the forthcoming EY report is expected to deal with what happened in the past about the TMS project, in Leinster House there are concerns also about the future.

The chairman of the Oireachtas transport committee, Michael Murphy of Fine Gael, said Ireland needs a modern, reliable TMS.

“Urgency cannot become an excuse for simply moving on without establishing what went wrong. Approximately €50 million has already been written down on a system that was not delivered. We need to understand when it became clear the project was in serious difficulty, why expenditure continued despite repeated missed deadlines, and what lessons have been learned,” Murphy said.

“My concern is that the failure of the previous TMS project cannot now be allowed to create a further bottleneck for the wider rail investment programme. I want clarity from Irish Rail and the NTA on what impact the failure and subsequent delays could have on Dart+ and other planned investments, and what measures are being taken to ensure those projects remain on track.”

In fact, our Stone Age masterpiece, Newgrange, whose passage and chamber are aligned with the rising sun around the winter solstice, is one of many reminders that the Irish people have long maintained strong celestial connections.

Today, the island of Ireland holds a trio of DarkSky International accreditations: Kerry International Dark Sky Reserve, Mayo Dark Sky Park and Tyrone’s OM Dark Sky Park and Observatory. This coveted status, which recognises the absence of light pollution in their night skies, was achieved through years of careful monitoring.

To the delight of rural communities, Ireland’s astro-tourism is seeing a surge in interest, not only at these three locations but also in remote spots across the island, especially between September and April when nights are longest and darkest. As a bonus, our northerly position means that during periods of strong solar activity, stargazers might even glimpse the aurora borealis.

“Plan your observing session because knowing which planets, meteor showers or nebulae are visible is key,” Caoimhe Lyons from Blackrock Castle Observatory suggests. She also recommends finding out “what the moon is up to”, as its light can obstruct your view of the stars and other objects in the sky.

“Software like Stellarium is brilliant for mapping what will be in the sky,” Caoimhe adds. “Binoculars and small telescopes can go a long way if you get your timing right. Also, being somewhere elevated or on a beach means it’s less likely that trees, buildings or other structures will obstruct your view.”

Whether you’re an expert stargazer or a novice, or are simply drawn to these sanctuaries of tranquillity to escape the chaos of modern life, this guide offers insights into the best places to witness the wonders overhead.

And despite Mr Wilde’s claims, none of them involves any gutters.

Kerry International Dark Sky Reserve

In 2014, South Kerry became the first place in the Northern Hemisphere to be designated a Gold Tier International Dark Sky Reserve. In addition to a coastline of cliffs, coves and beaches, the reserve extends inland to Ballaghisheen, with many archaeological sites scattered across the landscape. Standing alongside a Neolithic or Bronze Age site on a starry night offers the perfect way to connect with our ancestors.

Constellations closest to the Pole Star, such as Ursa Major and its well-known asterism, the Plough, are visible all year round here. Orion, the iconic constellation, is visible from late September to April, and in the summer, the Milky Way dazzles.

Kerry Dark Sky Tourism participates in several events throughout the year, including the Skellig Coast Archaeology Festival in October and Heritage Week in August. kerrydarkskytourism.com

Local intel: “The Kerry Dark Sky Reserve feels far from a city and closer to the stars,” says archaeologist Aoibheann Lambe, co-owner of Kerry Dark Sky Tourism, which offers stargazers immersive astronomy and heritage experiences.

“It reminds us that we are tiny and part of something greater than ourselves. We are, after all, made of stardust. The dark skies connect us to everyone, past and present, who has ever looked up.”

Recommended viewing spots:

1. Derrynane Beach

2. Com an Chiste

3. Castlecove

4. St Finian’s Bay

5. Staigue Fort

6. Valentia Island

Where to stay: The historic Royal Valentia hotel is a convenient base. Their Dark Skies Package runs on selected dates from October to March. royalvalentia.ie

Where to eat: For over 60 years, Waterville’s family-run Lobster Restaurant and Bar has been impressing travellers on the Ring of Kerry with award-winning seafood. thelobsterwaterville.com

By day: Located on Valentia Island, the Skellig Experience Visitor Centre is dedicated to the Unesco World Heritage Site of Skellig Michael. Alongside boat tours (weather permitting), the centre brings the magic and mystery of these famous rocks to life through film presentations, reconstructions and soundscapes. skelligexperience.com

Mayo Dark Sky Park

As the sun fades, Wild Nephin National Park transforms into Mayo Dark Sky Park, where views of the Milky Way, meteor showers, planets, stars and, on occasion, the aurora borealis await. The site, named International Dark Sky Place of the Year in 2024, is free to access at any time. There are also exhibits to admire at the Ballycroy Visitor Centre.

Wild Nephin National Park is twinned with Yosemite National Park, and they have extended this connection to protect their nocturnal nightscapes and biodiversity under the tagline, ‘Two parks, one sky’.

At different times throughout the year, the park hosts free events, including weekly walks. The annual Mayo Dark Sky Festival is soon to celebrate its tenth anniversary, with an exciting programme of events running on October 30th and November 1st. Other meteor showers include the Geminids in December and the Lyrids in April. mayodarkskypark.ie

Local intel: “Mayo is working towards becoming an International Dark Sky Reserve, which will encompass the whole county, further protecting the dark sky park as its core and darkest centre,” says Georgia MacMillan, Mayo Dark Sky Park development officer.

“The future reserve will provide further access to peripheral sites across the county, including the north coast of Mayo for the aurora views, and island communities such as Inishturk at the edge of the Atlantic.”

Recommended viewing spots:

1. Ballycroy Visitor Centre

2. Claggan Mountain Coastal Trail car park

3. Letterkeen Trail Head

Where to stay:

A short drive from Ballycroy Visitor Centre is the four-star Mulranny Park Hotel, a firm favourite with locals and tourists alike, thanks in part to its majestic views of Clew Bay. mulrannyparkhotel.ie

Where to eat: Ginger and Wild is a light and airy café next to the Ballycroy Visitor Centre. The homemade food is crafted from locally sourced produce and its gallery showcases Irish artwork. gingerandwild.com

By day: The Céide Fields Neolithic Site contains the world’s oldest known stone-walled fields, dating back nearly 6,000 years.

OM Dark Sky Park and Observatory

OM Dark Sky Park and Observatory, the only one of its kind in Northern Ireland, is a truly special destination for stargazers. Its name honours the sound of the universe while also referencing Ogham, our ancient alphabet, both of which perfectly encapsulate a visit here; connections to our past and present abound.

OM organises events all year round, depending on what the night sky reveals. They offer hands-on telescope sessions as well as naked-eye observing.

Local intel: “We have a range of night-time experiences available to book if you would like to join us on one of our night-time adventures,” says Roisín Doyle, duty manager at OM Dark Sky Park and Observatory. “From the darker nights to the brighter days, our skies are always offering us something special to see.”

Recommended viewing spots:

1. The on-site Ceoldán — an enormous statue imbued with celestial and mythical symbolism

2. The park has viewing platforms near the building with special red lighting

Where to stay: Ardtara Country House, a member of the prestigious Bluebook collection, is a 30-minute drive from the park in neighbouring Derry. ardtara.com

Where to eat: OM has an on-site grab-and-go café serving hot and cold drinks and snacks. For something more substantial, try Millwheel Bar & Restaurant in nearby Dunamore.

By day: The Sperrin Mountains, particularly Davagh Forest, teem with surviving megalithic monuments, including the incredible Beaghmore Stone Circles, comprising seven mystical circles, 10 rows of stones and 12 cairns, all carefully arranged.

Co Donegal

It may be known as the Forgotten County, but a stargazing experience in Donegal will surely be remembered long after your stay, thanks to its remote northwestern location, which brings clear skies and low light pollution. For those interested in the Northern Lights, winter and spring offer the best chance of seeing them. govisitdonegal.com

Local intel: “When the aurora borealis is visible, the best place on the entire island to witness the phenomenon is undoubtedly Malin Head in Inishowen, Ireland’s most northerly point,” Shane Smyth from Donegal Tourism explains.

“However, in more recent displays, it has been visible in many parts of the county and as far south as Sliabh Liag, Ballyshannon and Bundoran.”

Best viewing spots:

1. Malin Head

2. Dunree

3. Mamore Gap

4. Ballyliffin

5. Fanad Peninsula

Where to stay: The four-star Redcastle Hotel stands sentinel on the rugged Inishowen Peninsula. On-site leisure facilities include a swimming pool, gym, spa and a nine-hole parkland golf course. redcastlehoteldonegal.com

Where to eat: Seaview Tavern is a firm favourite on Malin Head. The seafood is sourced from the local pier and from nearby Greencastle Harbour, while Ronald Boggs, a butcher in the town, supplies the meat. seaviewtavern.ie

By day: Rising 600m above the waves, Sliabh Liag is one of Europe’s highest sea cliffs and served as a Christian pilgrimage site for over 1,000 years.

Burren National Park

With its limestone terrain, Co Clare’s Burren National Park is undoubtedly one of Europe’s most unique regions, and it also makes a perfect base for stargazing. In addition to its remote location, the rocky, expansive landscape contrasts beautifully with the sparkling skies, making it popular with photography enthusiasts. burren.ie

Local intel: “The Burren is home to some of Ireland’s darkest and most pristine skies,” says Niamh Farren of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, which, together with its partners, including Clare County Council, is committed to keeping the skies above the Burren naturally dark for present and future generations to enjoy.

“Generally, the best viewpoints are at altitude, in areas free from or with little light pollution, and with good views of the southern sky.”

Recommended viewing spots:

1. Mullaghmore

2. Slieve Carran

3. Poulnabrone Dolmen car park

4. Fanore Beach

5. Black Head

Where to stay: The four-star Doolin Inn blends the relaxed charm of a country house with the professional service of a hotel. The property’s staff are happy to share their knowledge of stargazing and other local experiences. doolininn.ie

Where to eat: Housed in a charming Victorian property, The Wild Honey Inn is Ireland’s only Michelin-starred pub, specialising in bistro-style cooking with a twist. wildhoneyinn.com

By day: After admiring the dark skies, turn your attention underground to Doolin Cave, home to the Great Stalactite, one of the world’s longest known free-hanging stalactites.

Connemara, Co Galway

The many writers, poets and artists who have found inspiration here all agree that Connemara has something otherworldly about it. Maybe it’s the deep connections with the Irish language and culture. Or perhaps it’s the unique landscape that unfolds towards the dramatic coastline.

Whatever the reason, this undefinable energy enhances every stargazing experience. With its long, crisp nights, November to April is the best time to visit, and if the gods are on your side, you could spot shooting stars and even the northern lights. connemara.ie

Local intel: “I’m incredibly fortunate to call Connemara home, as it’s one of the best places to experience the magic of the night sky,” says TG4’s long-serving weather presenter Fiona Ní Fhlaithearta.

“What’s more, the vast open horizons, framed by mountains, lakes and the rugged Atlantic landscape, create the perfect setting for creative photography.”

Best viewing spots:

1. Connemara National Park (Diamond Hill)

2. Lough Inagh

3. Pine Island

4. Lettergesh Beach

Where to stay: The Connemara Coast Hotel is located at the gateway to Connemara, where the dark skies can be admired from the grounds. connemaracoasthotel.ie

Where to eat: Perched in the heart of the Ceardlann Craft Village, Spiddal’s Builín Blasta is many things at once — a café, bakery, gourmet grocer and takeaway. The queues outside at lunchtime attest to its enduring popularity. builinblasta.com

Nearby is the famous Standún Department Store, which serves hot refreshments and cakes in its café. standun.com

By day: Killary Fjord is the only one of its kind on the island. Killary Fjord Boat Tours offer a 90-minute trip departing from Leenane, with uninterrupted views of the spectacular scenery. killaryfjord.ie

Co Cork

Co Cork holds a special place in the hearts of astronomy enthusiasts interested in the planets, stars, the wider universe and space exploration. The region is home to many sites dedicated to or inspired by its dark skies. These include Blackrock Castle Observatory and the Wild Sky Dome in the Mealagh Valley, Europe’s first dark-sky-approved lodging. Elsewhere, at the Liss Ard Estate, is the Irish Sky Garden, created by the renowned American artist James Turrell.

Local intel: “While there are a few sites relatively close to Cork City, such as Rockey Bay, Nohoval Cove and Corrin Wood, for really dark skies you need to travel further from the city,” says Declan Foley, secretary of Cork Astronomy Club, which is set to celebrate its golden anniversary.

“The ideal places are by the coast, with any light pollution behind you. Looking out over the sea gives you a great southeasterly, southerly and southwesterly horizon.”

Recommended viewing spots:

1. The Old Head of Kinsale

2. Ballycroneed Beach, Ballycotton

3. Long Strand, Beara Peninsula

4. Cape Clear, Sheeps Head

5. The Gearagh

6. Lough Hyne

Where to stay: Esk Mountain, a 270-acre nature restoration project near Glengarriff, offers unique studio apartments that blend indoor and outdoor living. eskmountain.com

Where to eat: The delightfully named Fishy Fishy Restaurant in Kinsale is an award-winning restaurant run by the husband-and-wife team Martin and Marie Shanahan. The kitchen follows an ethos of cooking local, fresh and seasonal fish, served in an informal setting. fishyfishy.ie

By day: While Gougane Barra is another favourite spot for stargazers, the glaciated mountain valley — home to the oft-photographed St Finbarr’s Oratory — is also popular with hikers.

Co Meath

Despite its proximity to Dublin, the Royal County of Meath offers some of the darkest skies in eastern Ireland, blending peaceful rural landscapes with Brú na Boinne’s ancient monuments, which have been linked to the night sky for millennia.

On the outskirts of Oldcastle, the mighty Loughcrew Cairns are widely regarded as the county’s best stargazing spot. At over 5,000 years old, Loughcrew is a focal point for visitors during the spring and autumn equinoxes, when the rising sun illuminates the inner chamber of the Cairn T passage tomb. Stargazers also plan their trips around meteor showers in August, October and December. discoverboynevalley.ie

Local intel: “Sitting atop the county’s highest point, Loughcrew offers panoramic views, dark skies and a unique connection to Ireland’s ancient astronomical heritage,” says Sarah Farrell from Loughcrew Cairns Megalithic Centre.

Best viewing spots:

1. Loughcrew Cairns

2. Hill of Tara

3. Fourknocks Passage Tomb

4. Rathbeggan Lakes (a popular spot for the Meath Astronomy Group)

Where to stay: Open seasonally from March to October, Loughcrew Megalithic Centre invites visitors to bring their own campervan or tent, or to opt for glamping in one of the cosy yurt. loughcrewmegalithiccentre.com

Where to eat: Nelly’s Café is the on-site tea rooms at the Loughcrew Megalithic Centre. It is open daily from 11am, serving a range of beverages alongside homemade cakes and treats.

By day: Every stargazer visiting Meath should arrange a trip to the world-famous Neolithic monument of Newgrange, which, among other purposes, served as a scientific instrument, recording the solar year. It’s also an early example of a sundial and a calendar. The nearby sites of Knowth and Dowth are also worth a visit.

Must-visit Irish observatories

1. Birr Castle, Birr, Co Offaly

Birr Castle is home to the Great Telescope, once the world’s largest, which helped reveal the spiral nature of galaxies. Designed and built in the 1840s by the Third Earl of Rosse, the 72-foot-long feat of engineering drew visitors from around the world to observe the stars.

Today, the Great Telescope sits at the heart of the castle’s demesne, while the Historic Science Centre demonstrates how the extraordinary telescope was constructed. birrcastle.com

2. Dunsink Observatory, Co Dublin

Dublin’s Dunsink Observatory has been a centre for astronomical research since 1785 and has been associated with many of our most renowned scientists, including Sir William Rowan Hamilton. The historic facility is open to the public for select, family-friendly events throughout the year, particularly during winter. dunsinkdias.ie

3. Armagh Observatory and Planetarium

Armagh Observatory and Planetarium is a leading centre for astronomical research and education. Its extensive grounds, which include Astro Park, offer opportunities to get closer to nature and space.

In the Planetarium’s dome theatre, visitors can explore the night sky, while the exhibition area celebrates the region’s rich celestial heritage. Ireland’s largest meteorite is also here. Elsewhere, the observatory features several historic telescopes and, although an active research facility, is open to the public for limited, scheduled tours. armagh.space

4. Blackrock Castle Observatory

On the outskirts of Cork stands the 16th-century Blackrock Castle. Its original role as a watchtower has evolved into a place for observing the wonders overhead, and it also serves as a science centre featuring the new Ireland in Space exhibit.

In the working observatory, a team from the Munster Technological University searches for new planets around distant stars using telescopes both within the castle and abroad. A ‘behind the scenes’ guided tour brings the past, present, and future together.

Stargazing essentials

1. Binoculars or telescope

2. Phone, camera, tripod and portable charger

3. Red torch light (helps you see in the dark without spoiling night vision)

4. Charts, maps and apps like Stellarium, SkySafari and Mobile Observatory

5. Warm clothing, including a hat, thick socks, fingerless gloves and good, old-fashioned long johns

6. Blanket and reclining folding chair

7. Snacks and thermos with hot beverages

8. Insect repellent spray

Weather considerations

1. Cloud coverage

2. High pressure is usually your friend

3. High humidity or sharp temperature changes can scatter light and affect how crisp your view of the sky is

4. There are plenty of websites that provide detailed weather forecasts for stargazers. For casual observers, something like AccuWeather is simple and reliable.

The Irish Times understands the man lives very close to the crime scene in Dublin’s south inner city and appears to have acted in a “spur of the moment” manner.

The suspect, who is in his 50s, is known to gardaí and has a history of offending, including chaotic crimes and for-profit offences, stretching back many years. Garda are trying to determine what motivated the attack and if the suspect has any links to protest, or extremist, groups.

The suspect is also closely linked to a man who took part in a Kinahan-Hutch feud murder and was jailed for his supporting role in that gun killing, carried out for the Kinahan cartel.

However, there is no suggestion the man being questioned about the assault on the TD was in any way involved in the feud murder his associate was jailed for.

The suspect was arrested in central Dublin on Thursday morning by members of the detective unit from Kevin Street Garda station. He is due in court on Friday morning.

Due to the nature of Healy-Rae’s injuries, which caused blood loss and required stitches, a charge of assault causing harm may result. That is much more serious than a common assault charge, and carries a much longer sentence on conviction, of up to 10 years’ imprisonment.

Speaking before news of the arrest emerged, Assistant Garda Commissioner Jonathan Roberts told the media at an event in Dublin that gardaí had good CCTV image of the suspect.

He added it was difficult to say whether or not the incident was a spontaneous attack, or a more planned event. “It was a very brief incident,” he said.

Healy-Rae had been in the Dáil on Wednesday and was driving home to Kerry, through Dublin’s south inner city, when he was attacked just after 4pm.

He was in his Skoda vehicle, which is marked in Michael Healy-Rae livery, when he was stopped in traffic on Cork Street with the window down. The Kerry Dáil deputy and former junior minister was spotted by his attacker, who began shouting abuse before walking over and assaulting him through the open window.

The attacker had fled before uniformed gardaí arrived on the scene and offered assistance, bringing Healy-Rae in a patrol car to Kevin Street Garda station before he was taken to St Vincent’s hospital for medical treatment.

He suffered a wound to his head, which was cleaned and stitched before he was discharged before 9pm and made the journey home to Kerry.

Gardaí took witness statements from people in the area at the time of the attack and also viewed footage recorded on CCTV cameras locally. On the footage, gardaí were able to track the movements of the suspect before and after the attack, aided by the fact the suspect was at the time walking a dog described as distinctive.

Earlier, Healy-Rae said he would “not be deterred” from his work after the attack.

He said, however, that a “serious conversation” was needed about the “growing toxicity directed towards politicians and public representatives”.

In a statement released on Thursday morning, he thanked the gardaí at Kevin Street Garda station, the ambulance crew and the hospital staff who assisted and treated him and expressed gratitude to “the thousands of people from Kerry and across the country who have contacted me and my family”.

“Whatever the intention behind this attack, I will not be deterred from continuing my work or from representing the people of Kerry to the very best of my ability.”

Assault on Michael Healy-Rae increases fears over TD safety

Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who was in Farmleigh House for a meeting with the president of the European Council Antonio António Costa, said he had contacted Healy-Rae by phone on Wednesday night and had had a conversation with him about the assault.

“We are seeing an increase of propensity for violence, for aggression, for hostility in our society, and that’s something that is clearly regrettable,” he said.

Since 2025, the Garda has made some 18 arrests in relation to some form of abuse or offence targeted at people in public positions.

Earlier, the TD’s son Jackie Healy-Rae said his father was “a bit shook” and “a bit sore” after the incident but would not be deterred from doing his job.

He said: “Someone would have to kill him to stop him and I hope that never happens.”

Street attack on Michael Healy-Rae a worrying development for our democracy

Covered in blankets and sleeping bags, and surrounded by bags of food, water, and more blankets, the five students remained fastened to the railing at the office’s entrance by means of bike chains, saying it was done as a “last resort”.

The Trinity College Dublin (TCD) students had been there since Wednesday night, they said, staying put after a protest was held over the refusal rate of student visas for Palestinians.

Speaking shortly after 8.30am on Thursday, they said they had been campaigning and advocating for affected Palestinians “all summer long”.

“This is our last resort,” said Ava Tuohy, as a CMAT song played from a speaker beside her.

The Department of Justice did not respond to requests for confirmation of the number of student visas refused to Palestinian students, except to say that 50 had been granted this year.

The protesters maintained that more than a hundred Palestinian students who had secured places at Irish universities, and were due to begin this month, had been denied.

“I will be honest, this entire situation has brought me to a point of despair about the humanity of the Irish Government,” said Amy Kennedy, president of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union.

The denial of visas for students who have “survived genocide and who continue to study through scholasticide” is “abhorrent and completely incomprehensible”, she added.

“It was cold, and I’m very, very damp but I don’t care,” said Kennedy of the overnight stay, adding: “We’re here for a reason. When the department isn’t listening, that isn’t enough, and at that point I’m willing to continue doing stuff like this until they start caring.”

Seán Radcliffe, chairman of the TCD Boycott, Divest, Sanction committee, said he had been in contact with affected Palestinian students, connecting them with lawyers and NGOs over the past two months to support them in their appeals.

He said he “slept like a baby because I felt like I was doing something”.

“It’s hard to turn off the laptop and stop the emails ... I get up at 6am most days to take a call from a student in Gaza,” he said, pointing to a post on social media from one of the affected students.

“Three years of war couldn’t break me. But Ireland did,” the post said.

A Department of Justice spokeswoman said it “acknowledges the very difficult circumstances facing many Palestinian students”.

She said each application is decided on its own merit, and all applicants are “advised that the responsibility is on them to provide as much information in support of their application as is necessary”.

She added that appeals are processed “as quickly as possible”.

Fifty study visa applications from Palestinian nationals were granted and 115 refused from January 1st 2026 to September 15th. Eight appeals have been received.

Its offices were next door to O’Donoghue’s pub in Dublin, above a fried chicken outlet. It was six months before the magazine had a telephone line: such was the Ireland of the 1970s.

From unpromising beginnings, the magazine flourished in the 1970s and 1980s, breaking big stories about the Arms Trial, planning corruption and the Kerry Babies case. It also gave a break to journalists and authors who would become significant figures in Irish media afterwards – among them Fintan O’Toole, Gene Kerrigan and novelist Colm Tóibín.

Despite the magazine’s commercial and critical success in holding the powers-that-be to account, it was perennially short of money and closed in August 1990 before being revived between 1997 and 2003 and between 2004 and 2009. Browne bought the title in 2017, but it has not been republished since.

The tempestuous story of Magill magazine has now been turned into a book by the journalist-turned-academic Kevin Rafter, who is head of communications at Dublin City University (DCU)

Entitled Vincent Browne’s Magill and Ireland in the 1980s, it features a picture of the founder on the cover, but the man himself was conspicuous by his absence at the launch in the Mansion House.

Browne will be launching his own book, entitled Charles Haughey, Glory, Greed and Guns, next month, a book with one of the longest gestation periods in Irish publishing history.

The Magill book was launched by broadcaster Pat Kenny, who described Browne as a “national treasure” and noted that many journalists were proud to have been mentored by him. He used other words to describe Vincent Browne – not all of them his own.

The most apt word, Kenny suggested, was “fearless”, which Rafter had chosen for the title of his book, but others might describe Browne as “driven, mercurial, capricious, amusing, curious, intelligent and undoubtedly talented”.

Browne told the author that writing a book about Magill magazine wasn’t worth Rafter’s time. “I may have proven him wrong,” said Rafter.

“Too often journalism is a footnote in history written by the political scientist and historians, but journalism is a worthy source in itself,” he said.

“And for me, Magill was a useful prism to examine Irish society in the bewildering decade that was the 1980s. And the journalism ... is only one part of the story of that decade. And Ireland is certainly the better for those journalists and their work.”

For the unfamiliar (perhaps you live in Siberia), Sweeney is a 29-year-old Washington native who got her break on the Gen Z TV show Euphoria. She is blond and doe-eyed, with a Baywatch figure and an uninterested facial expression.

She made news (or, better put, headline upon headline upon headline) last year as the face of an American Eagle ad campaign. “Sydney Sweeney has good jeans” went the tagline. Funny, I thought: she’s wearing a pair of jeans, and evidently has good genes.

This was enough to earn you the reputation of a white supremacist in some quarters. Joking about genes was too close to phrenology and eugenics for polite society in 2025, we were told. And this was all made much worse because she did it as a white woman. (How dare she, etc.)

Now she’s back in the commercial for Novig, a sports-betting agency, in which she has an equity stake. In it, she is naked, hot, functionally useless for anything other than her body. This time she is accused not of white supremacy but of failing the sisterhood. It is wrong for a non-athlete famous only for her sexiness to devalue the talents and bodies of real athletes.

Sweeney doesn’t look as if she could throw a javelin or steer a boat. Who does she think she is?

It’s a victory for sexism, so the most boring people in the world will tell you, because it elevates Sweeney’s hotness over a female athlete’s talent. And Sweeney is apparently no accidental bystander but a willing foot soldier in the cause of the patriarchy: women should be dumb, gorgeous, blond and quiet. And, worse even yet, she has not only failed fellow women but also proved herself a destructive and nasty capitalist.

Thanks to Sweeney, men will spend more money betting on sports because she is a siren, leading them into a gambling addiction by the sheer force of her sexiness.

Donald Clarke: Sydney Sweeney looked unstoppable. But she left 2025 a divisive figure

Forgive me for finding this all a bit worthy, humourless, po-faced, sanctimonious, high-minded and any other synonym thereof. I don’t know who decided that women weren’t allowed to have a sense of fun (lest she betray the feminist cause), but I would like to have a word with them.

Sweeney is young, beautiful and playing with all the tropes and baggage that come with it. Those who respond with outrage, furrowed brows and pompous Judith Butler-esque lectures sound at best swivel-eyed and at worst very boring.

Beautiful women have been driving the world insane as long as has been recorded. The semi-mythical Helen of Troy is the most obvious evidence. Cleopatra was a main character at that great hinge point of history when the Roman republic collapsed and the emperorship was created. Anne Boleyn – by today’s standards perhaps not as “hot” as Sweeney – scrambled Henry VIII’s faculties, redirecting the House of Tudor.

Sydney Sweeney faces backlash for ‘sexualising women’s sport’ in betting ad

Sweeney is a historic figure too – not because she is likely to change the course of events but because she is an avatar for some very 21st-century anxieties.

Her fans say she is a woman making decisions about her own body, and making money while she does it. (Lean in, girl!) The critics say this is harm to women writ large, as she regressively proves to the world that they are only valuable for their appearance, their role as sex objects. You could make a legitimate “feminist” case for both arguments, and you are welcome to (just out of my earshot, please).

What I see, instead, is a sense of humour. A self-knowing wink at the reader or the viewer. An ability to play a character, and to shun to pearl-clutching prigs who insist she should know better. She is refusing to be a moral weathervane, no matter how many are trying to force it.

Sweeney has a long battle ahead. I remember many years ago arguing with an aspiring scriptwriter who suggested that Once Upon a Time in ... Hollywood was a moral aberration because (spoiler) they kill a woman at the end. Huh? “It’s a movie. They didn’t kill a real woman,” I wanted to shout back. But such is the air we breathe: nothing is allowed to exist without being judged for its political decency.

Really, I just want these people to listen to themselves: is Sydney Sweeney a tool of late-stage capitalism? Is my sports-betting agency feminist? What? And has my toaster read Das Kapital?

Amid a sea of distraction (three high-profile politicians accompanied by an imposing Garda presence and one matchmaker making her rounds at the bar, but more on that later), a long line of people were steadfast in their determination to pose for a picture at the Keogh’s Crisps photo booth. And only a minute or so later, a potato would pop out of a hatch with the impromptu model’s likeness imprinted on its unpeeled skin. Innovation and tradition all in one – it’s a Ploughing miracle.

Elsewhere on the 700 acres of Offaly fields, two EU commissioners and one Fine Gael Cabinet Minister walk into a sauna. In what was actually the EU’s headquarters at the agri-convention, comparisons were drawn given the wood-clad walls and soaring temperatures inside.

The three men were greatly outnumbered by reporters, with questions on how the bloc will support Irish farmers – as well as a number of gardaí keeping an eye on the door at all times.

It’s no surprise given this week’s events: a man arrested under the Public Order Act following an interaction with the Taoiseach at the Ploughing on Tuesday, and another man arrested on Thursday morning following an assault on Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae in Dublin.

“I was very shocked to hear of what happened,” said EU justice commissioner Michael McGrath. “It’s not acceptable that any member of the public would be assaulted, but any attack on an elected representative is an attack on democracy.”

One stand with slightly less security was The Whistlin’ Donkey bar. There all week has been Mairead Lochman of the Love HQ Matchmaking service, eyeing up singles and “situationships” alike.

“We had a guy from Tipperary and a girl from Carlow yesterday, and they seemed very taken with each other, is all I’d say ... we might have seen a bit of smooching over in the corner,” she said.

“Even a father and son yesterday; they were asking me to match them up with a mother and daughter. I don’t know what they had in mind, but sure, look, it was great fun. All we’re trying to do at Love HQ is help as many people as possible find love.”

Martin has strongly backed Canada becoming an associate member of the European Union.

The Taoiseach met António Costa, the president of the European Council, in Farmleigh House, Dublin, on Thursday to discuss the major issues facing the EU during Ireland’s six-month presidency.

In a press conference afterwards, both expressed support for a closer alignment with Canada.

Martin said Canadian prime minister Mark Carney had made it very clear that he is pivoting to Europe strategically.

He indicated the relationship could be mutually beneficial.

“For Ireland, our exports have increased four times since the introduction of Ceta,” he said. “What we are looking at now is close co-operation and the fleshing out of the concept of an association agreement. Fundamentally, what we’re witnessing here is a close alignment of values and co-operation.”

Costa said that countries around the world were now looking at the European Union as a reliable and predictable partner.

He said that while Canada was not a close neighbour, it is an ally for many member states and also a like-minded partner.

“We can build the closest relation possible between the European Union and Canada, and we are working on this,” he said.

Why is the EU courting Canada? Trump might have something to do with it

Speaking on the ongoing negotiations and wrangling over the EU budget, Martin said it needed to be realistic. He said that public finances in many EU countries were under pressure, and that the council was looking to ascertain if there were new forms of revenue.

He said Ireland would work “as an honest broker to try to narrow gaps and to bring people together.

“Our aim remains to deliver a new European Union budget that is both strong and sustainable. President Costa and I agreed to work very closely together with you to secure an agreement by year end, if possible. And this will not be easy, but we are up for the challenge,” said Martin.

Coleman (37) has not signed for a new club since leaving Everton last season but Hallgrímsson has left the door open for him to rejoin the squad in the future.

“Neither Séamus nor Robbie Brady have a club so we leave them out for this camp,” said Hallgrímsson. “Séamus will be with us in the future, hopefully as a player. He hasn’t been training with a team so we felt it was appropriate that he sits this camp out. It was more Séamus’ decision as it would not be fair on other players.”

Liam Kitching is the latest English-born, Irish-qualified player to be selected in place of the injured Ireland and Brentford skipper Nathan Collins, who is expected to be sidelined for five weeks with a calf injury.

Owen Elding, the former Sligo Rovers attacker who joined Hibernian in the Scottish Premiership last season, is set to win his first cap while Bosun Lawal is named as a midfielder alongside Harvey Vale and Jayson Molumby.

“I hope so,” said Hallgrímsson when asked if Lawal can establish himself in midfield. “But he is injured. We rate him so highly that we feel it is necessary that we have him around the squad.”

Sammie Szmodics is overlooked, but Rocco Vata returns to the set-up after an injury lay-off.

The Israel squad that was also named this morning by head coach Ran Ben-Shimon includes the Arab-Israeli wing back Anan Khalaili who has started the season well at Crystal Palace, where he works alongside Ireland coach Paddy McCarthy, since his €25 million move from Belgiam club Royale Union Saint-Gilloise.

Ajax playmaker Oscar Gloukh is also included for their games against Austria in Linz, Ireland and Kosovo in Debrecen before Ireland’s ‘home’ tie at the TSC Arena in the small Serbian town of Bačka Topola. Gloukh featured against Shelbourne last month in the first-leg of the Uefa Conference League qualifiers but he was an unused sub for the second-leg at Tolka Park.

The official Israel football association website is geoblocked in Ireland.

There are ongoing and very public problems in the Kosovo camp ahead of their opening match against Ireland in Pristina next Thursday as a number of top players have pulled out of the squad in solidarity with Napoli’s Amir Rrahamni.

“After 10 years, seven as captain, I will not be part of the Kosovo squad as long as the FKK is led by its current individuals,” said Rrahamni.

Former Ipswich Town goalkeeper Arijanet Murić and Juventus midfielder Edon Zhegrova are also believed to have declined a call up to Franco Foda’s panel.

Republic of Ireland squad

Goalkeepers: Caoimhín Kelleher (Brentford), Max O’Leary (West Brom), Gavin Bazunu (Bolton)

Defenders: James Abankwah (Udinese), Joel Bagan (Cardiff City), Jimmy Dunne (Queens Park Rangers), John Egan (Hull City), Liam Kitching (Sheffield United), Ryan Manning (Southampton), Jake O’Brien (Everton), Dara O’Shea (Ipswich Town), Liam Scales (Celtic)

Midfielders: Finn Azaz (Southampton), Conor Coventry (Charlton Athletic), Jason Knight (Bristol City), Jamie McGrath (Hibernian), Jayson Molumby (West Brom), Harvey Vale (Queens Park Rangers), Bosun Lawal (Stoke City)

Forwards: Owen Elding (Hibernian), Adam Idah (Swansea City), Jack Moylan (Cardiff City), Chiedozie Ogbene (Lincoln City), Troy Parrott (Real Betis), Rocco Vata (Watford), Tom Cannon (Sheffield United)

Nations League fixtures

Thursday, September 24th: Kosovo v Republic of Ireland, Pristina, 7.45pm

Sunday, September 27th: Israel v Republic of Ireland, Debrecen, Hungary, 7.45pm

Thursday, October 1st: Republic of Ireland v Austria, Aviva Stadium, 7.45pm

Sunday, October 4th: Israel v Republic of Ireland, Bačka Topola, Serbia, 7.45pm

Having been an unused sub in the Verdiblancos’ 2-1 win away to Villareal on Monday, the 24-year-old made his third start for Manuel Pellegrini’s side against 15th-place Getafe.

The Dubliner was in early action, almost bagging a wonder goal inside five minutes. Pouncing on a stray Getafe pass on the halfway line, Parrott lobbed a long shot over David Soria, the goalkeeper only just managing to deny the goal with a fingertip save at full stretch.

What a hit from Parrott! So close to scoring from miles out! 🤯#LaLigaHighlights pic.twitter.com/IGCOcwxIfv

— Real Betis Balompié (@RealBetis_en) September 17, 2026

Despite Betis’ dominance, the home side struggled to make it count, Antony twice blazing shots over the crossbar. They finally went ahead through Abde Ezzalzouli’s 45th-minute strike, Parrott in the role of supplier.

Playing out of their own half, Abde took the ball in the midfield, finding Antony on the run up the wing. Coming through the centre, Parrott received the pass at the edge of the box, sending it back across the goal to the waiting Abde, who buried it low past Soria.

Troy Parrott plays his part as Real Betis take the lead! 🔥

He provides the cutback for Abde Ezzalzouli who finishes to make it 1-0 🌴 pic.twitter.com/4MmCwkPspd

— Premier Sports Ireland (@PremSportsIRL) September 17, 2026

With Getafe sitting deep, Betis were frustrated in their hunt for a second – Parrott, Isco and Abde all making way midway through the second half as Pellegrini looked to shake up his attack.

But there was no further goal to be had to the final whistle, the hosts holding on for the 1-0 win after surviving a late charge from Getafe.

The result saw Betis up to third in La Liga, level on 15 points with second-place Real Madrid but trailing on goal difference. Barcelona, with wins from each of their six games so far, lead on 18 points.

Parrott provided the winner when Betis played Real Madrid a fortnight ago, coming off the bench to score in his first home outing at Estadio La Cartuja, the first defeat of the season for José Mourinho’s side.

Comer has been placed on the latest forfeit list after failing to pay penalties imposed on him by the IHRB.

Earlier this year, the IHRB went to the High Court in relation to the fine and costs involved in the high-profile doping case which led to Comer losing his license to train horses for three years in 2024.

In the biggest drugs scandal in Irish racing history, an IHRB raid on Comer’s stables near Kilternan, Co Dublin resulted in a dozen of his horses testing positive for the anabolic steroids methandienone and methlylestosterone.

Comer, who is based in Monaco, denied wrongdoing and any knowledge of how the drugs got in the horses. An IHRB referrals panel couldn’t establish how the substances got in the horses and found there was no evidence of deliberate doping.

But as the licence holder, Comer was held responsible despite telling the committee he spends just three months of the year in Ireland.

Comer failed in an appeal, while an IHRB appeal against the leniency of the penalties was also turned down. As well as losing his licence to train, Comer was fined over €85,000 and ordered to pay legal costs of €775,000 to the IHRB.

A disqualified person is not allowed to own or train racehorses. They are allowed on racecourses, but only in areas accessible to the general public. Access to integrity areas, such as the parade ring and weighroom, is not allowed.

Despite his license suspension, Comer has continued to be a significant sponsor in the sport. On Sunday, he was at the Curragh for the Irish Champions Festival and presented the winning trophy for the €500,000 Comer Group Irish St Leger, won by the Aidan O’Brien-trained Scandinavia.

An IHRB spokesman confirmed on Thursday evening that such sponsorship can continue if it is not Comer individually who’s involved.

An IHRB statement said: “In May 2024, the appeals body considered Mr Luke Comer’s appeal against the September 2023 decision of the referrals committee relating to adverse analytical findings.

“The appeals body confirmed the penalties imposed for breaches of Rule 96(a) and (b)/(c). It directed that the fines be paid by July 15th, 2024, and awarded costs in favour of the IHRB.

“The fines remain unpaid and the costs awarded to the IHRB remain outstanding.

“Under the rules of racing, sums due to the IHRB which have not been paid when due or on demand constitute arrears. Rule 165 provides that the forfeit lists shall include such arrears by whom they are due.

“The forfeit list is maintained and published by Horse Racing Ireland in accordance with HRI directive eight.”

Comer has been approached for comment.

He said he believed the airline’s safety management processes were “compromised” and that there had been an attempt to “mislead the authorities” about an alleged incident on a ferry flight on July 5th, 2023, in which he claimed he was “poisoned” by a fume leak.

Veteran Airbus A320 pilot Tom O’Riordan concluded his primary evidence on Thursday at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) after testifying for four days. He was sacked in 2024 after 14 months off sick.

He has accused the airline of penalising him as a whistleblower for reporting his concerns.

A series of online posts for which O’Riordan was subject to disciplinary action were made between mid-March and mid-June 2024, the tribunal heard.

They included a number of internal Aer Lingus files, along with correspondence pertaining to the disciplinary process and letters he had received from managers.

O’Riordan told the WRC he had not been satisfied with the conclusion reached by the airline when it closed off the air safety report into the flight on June 5th, 2023, in August that year. He said this was done without his involvement and did not go beyond stating that the fumes were down to an “oil leak”.

At the end of April 2024, O’Riordan received a maintenance report on an engine that was removed from the aircraft involved in the June 5th flight and sent for maintenance at an Iberia Air maintenance facility in Madrid, which was furnished to him by Conor Nolan, the director of safety and security at Aer Lingus.

It was after he had pursued a grievance challenging the company on its level of engagement with him and raised issues about his name being attributed to an air safety report filed on the flight.

O’Riordan said he did not agree with the conclusion reached by that report that the leak had been the result of “wear on the gaskets”.

“These engines are highly inspected. Any wear should have been detected in advance of this,” he said.

O’Riordan told the WRC on Thursday that on February 24th, 2024, he used an online aviation safety portal run by the European Air Safety Authority (EASA) to make a report. It was one of a number of contacts he made to outside agencies around that time, he said.

“I told them about my fume event and fume issues on Aer Lingus aircraft,” O’Riordan said.

“On one Aer Lingus aircraft?” his barrister David Byrnes asked.

“No, on many,” O’Riordan said. “I had in my possession an internal report from Aer Lingus, what’s called a safety plan progress report I was furnished by a captain in Aer Lingus.”

“[This] highlighted there had been 22 fume events between January 2022 and January 2023,” he said.

He said he believed his disclosure to EASA had prompted an emergency airworthiness directive on March 9th, 2024.

That would have had the effect of grounding a number of Aer Lingus Airbus A320 airliners if the airline had not already taken them out of service the night before, the tribunal was previously told.

“There was numerous aircraft grounded, numerous engines had to be replaced at short notice, at a cost of millions,” O’Riordan said.

He said that a “thorough root cause analysis” of the June 5th flight would have “led us to the seal that was the subject of the EASA emergency airworthiness directive”.

O’Riordan said his belief was that the actual cause of the leak was the failure of a labyrinth seal in the engine system caused by damage from an induction lamp used during maintenance at the Iberia workshop.

He said there was “subterfuge” about filing an air safety report about the June 5th flight, in that his name was attached to it as the reporter.

He said his understanding was that the report had in fact been filled out by Colm Wynne, a safety manager in flight operations, on foot of details supplied by the first officer.

O’Riordan said he did not understand why the first officer had not been left to file the report.

“I would have to question why it was done, because it wasn’t necessary. I have to draw the inference that there was an effort to mislead the authorities,” he said. He added that he regarded Aer Lingus’s safety management system as “compromised”.

Byrnes later opened another document O’Riordan had shared in the course of his online “awareness campaign”.

O’Riordan said it was an internal Aer Lingus document dating from January 2020, which he said was not promulgated to flight crew.

“It shows Aer Lingus have known all this time about the manifest danger of fumes on aircraft,” he said.

“I think about this document and that Aer Lingus knew about this issue since 2020. Why is Aer Lingus not warning passengers and crew about the danger to their lives?” O’Riordan said.

The 2020 document included “odour descriptors for oil and hydraulic fumes” and stated that these “may contaminate the downstream vent ducting and the air carried to the cabin or flight deck”.

He said his understanding was that any such contaminant would “remain in the system unless properly dealt with and continue to poison passengers, general public and crew”.

“If we look at the safety data sheets for the oil used to lubricate Aer Lingus engines, it states it’s suspected of damaging fertility and the unborn child,” he added.

Tom Mallon, for Aer Lingus instructed by Arthur Cox LLP, objected and said that had not been put to his witness. Byrnes said he was “not going down that road”.

O’Riordan said the same document urged “continuous vigilance” for “suspect fumes, smoke, visible haze” on aircraft.

“What were you trained to do if you picked up on an odour of smoke or smelly socks?” Byrnes asked.

“We received no training on fumes at all,” O’Riordan said.

“You heard Conor Nolan say he doesn’t think the public should be informed,” Mr Byrnes said.

“That was his testimony,” O’Riordan said.

“What’s your concern there?” counsel asked.

“Aer Lingus knows about this. Why can’t the passengers know?” O’Riordan said.

Nolan’s evidence to the WRC had been that O’Riordan had been wrong to share “confidential internal safety, engineering and operational data”, referring to the report on the repairs to the engine removed from the jet involved in the flight on June 5th, 2023.

This was on the basis that material of that nature “viewed out of context by unqualified members of the public” had the potential to damage Aer Lingus’s reputation, he said.

“In the wrong hands, it could be misconstrued as presenting some sort of safety risk,” the witness said.

The airline wholly denies putting any passengers, staff or aircrew at risk.

“I had reported to external agencies, reported internally, and now the attempts to shut me down in public were an attempt to mask the real imminent and manifest danger,” O’Riordan said.

“I believe it’s very, very dangerous. One of the barriers against accidents and incidents and dangers in aviation is the crew’s ability to speak up about threats, and any attempt to shut that down is an attack on safety in aviation,” he continued.

O’Riordan has now concluded his evidence-in-chief. The case continues on Friday.

Belkin, who avoids combing the internet for information about her students, knew nothing about Beaton. She was curious about his absence, though, so she reached out to a dean, who sent an email.

Beaton was apologetic in his reply, saying he had mixed up his schedule. He was in New Zealand, teaching a course in entrepreneurship at the University of Auckland, but would be back in New York the next week.

That was when Belkin decided to break her rule. Who was this guy?

Beaton, she learned, had graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 2016, picking up a master’s degree in applied mathematics along the way. He had gone on to collect an MBA from Stanford University. Then a law degree from Yale University. That was followed by a doctor of philosophy in public policy from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes scholar – all before age 28.

Attending classes remotely and in person, he earned additional master’s degrees from – deep breath – the University of Pennsylvania (education entrepreneurship), Stanford (education technology), Princeton University (finance), Cornell University (healthcare policy and economics), Dartmouth College (implementation science), King’s College London (war studies) and Tsinghua University in Beijing (global affairs).

Still, there was more: Beaton, who was born and raised in New Zealand, was a founder and the CEO of Crimson Education, a college admissions counselling service that has been valued at more than $600 million.

A week after his apologetic reply, Beaton made his first appearance in Belkin’s classroom. As the semester went on, he did not miss an assignment.

“He was a joy to get to know,” Belkin said. “But it was also the weirdest relationship I’ve ever had with a student.”

Passions

A five-foot-six personification of naked ambition whose LinkedIn profile has been the subject of memes and Reddit threads, Beaton has gone to the head of a rarefied class – perpetual students.

If he continues collecting advanced degrees at such a swift pace, he will surpass Benjamin B Bolger, who has racked up 16 at age 50. He might even beat Michael Nicholson, an octogenarian forever scholar with more than 30 degrees to his name.

Away from his studies, Beaton (31) has become a player in the field of college admissions counselling. His clients pay between $30,000 and $200,000 for a multiyear programme designed to enhance their children’s chances of getting into top universities.

His own academic background has raised some questions, starting with: How can this be real? Is it education as performance art? An elaborate marketing ploy for his business?

The truth, Beaton said, is more prosaic.

“The first five degrees had a clear skill acquisition component to them,” he said. “Since then, it’s really been about following different passions and curiosities.”

We met on a recent afternoon in Manhattan, not far from where he lives with his wife, Priscilla Beaton. His day was crowded with appointments, including an evening event at the Harvard Club in Midtown, where he and his Crimson Education colleagues would hold a meet-and-greet with potential clients.

“I love the action, and I love a jam-packed day,” he said. “It’s good fun.”

So many things are, according to Beaton, “good fun.” An abridged list: Helping students decode the college admissions process. Studying the viability of distressed companies. Grabbing snacks in the Amtrak cafe car. Reading big books in one gulp. Riding the fastest roller coaster in the world on a recent trip to Saudi Arabia.

He was cheerful and accommodating. He spoke rapidly, in fully formed paragraphs. Shortly before we met, he emailed me a 61-page legal notice stating that Crimson Education had initiated a $28 million hostile takeover of Kip McGrath, an international tutoring provider.

He keeps up with his studies even while travelling the world on business. A few weeks ago, he was in India when he submitted his end-of-semester project for a course at Brown University, where he is working toward a master’s in data science. He said he tries to get six hours of sleep a night.

“Oh, he’s lying,” John Key, a former prime minister of New Zealand, said in a telephone interview.

Key, the chair of Crimson Education, considers Beaton the second-brightest New Zealander, behind the noted scientist Ernest Rutherford, who died nearly 90 years ago.

“And I’m only saying that because it’s hard to take it away from the guy who split the atom,” Key said.

Amy Chua, the author of “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,” a 2011 memoir about her hard-driving parenting style, was one of Beaton’s professors at Yale Law School. In recent years she has written more letters of recommendation for him than she can count.

“He can’t stop applying to things,” she said.

‘I want to work’

The making of the boy who wanted to know everything began in Auckland, where he was the only child of a single mother, Paula Beaton. She was pregnant when she and Jamie’s father separated, she said. They later divorced.

Jamie, who took his mother’s surname, recalled “odd experiences” when he was young, like when his mother joined him for father-son breakfasts at his primary school. But family was important – his maternal grandparents, John and Sarah Beaton, lived with them – and so was education. Jamie’s grandfather, a tradesman, always seemed to be leafing through a newspaper or an Andy McNab thriller.

“Academics was our religion,” Jamie said.

His mother said that one of her goals had been to expose her son to myriad opportunities. So he played tennis and basketball. He went camping, swimming, kayaking. He was nine when his mother introduced him to a chess coach named Glenn Harry Kwok. Kwok and Paula soon began dating and are now long-term partners.

“I wondered why we weren’t doing much chess,” Jamie said.

His mother chauffeured him to tutoring centres and hired academic coaches, which was unusual for a middle-class family in New Zealand.

“We wouldn’t be getting new cars or anything like that,” Paula Beaton said. “Everything revolved around education, and we didn’t see it as a sacrifice.”

As a teenager, Jamie dreamed of attending a top college in the United States. In his final year of high school, he took more than twice the number of required courses. He was admitted to 25 universities, including Harvard, Yale and Princeton.

Before leaving home, he cofounded the counselling service that would become Crimson Education, billing it as a way to help international students navigate their way to US universities. After all, he had done it himself.

‘Going from strength to strength’: Six Irish universities move up global rankings

At Harvard, he felt all alone at first. Then he joined 15 student organisations, including the debate club and the undergraduate economics association. Brett Davis, one of Beaton’s roommates at Harvard, grew accustomed to his 2am business calls.

“That was certainly a clue that this guy was thinking beyond the script of what is normal to do or achieve in college,” Davis said.

Beaton was a sophomore when he emailed Julian Robertson, the founder of Tiger Management, a Wall Street hedge fund. Following a practice he had used with other traders at his firm, Robertson sent him off to be evaluated by a psychoanalyst – “Good fun,” Beaton said – before bringing him aboard.

Between classes at Harvard, Beaton spent two days a week at the Tiger Management offices in New York. Robertson, who died in 2022, and his son Alex, who now runs the firm, became mentors. Tiger Management was an early investor in Crimson Education.

Alex Robertson recalled urging Beaton to have more work-life balance: Why not spend a week in Cancún with his buddies? “Honestly, Alex,” Beaton told him, “I can’t think of anything worse than sitting on a beach for five days when I want to work.”

Beaton was among the dozens of students who took a class on entrepreneurship taught by David Ager, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School. Beaton stood out, not only because of his prominent spot in the amphitheatre – “In the front, three rows up,” Ager said – but also because he was such an active participant.

“I say this with love,” Ager said, “but I’m sure there was a little bit of frustration that he had to share the time with other people.”

‘In school people are scared to be a bit strange’: Gifted students on life in mainstream schools

Throughout his journey, Beaton has juggled academics and business. Belkin recalled that he often had his laptop open during class to check work emails or his stock portfolio. “Yet everything came in on time,” Belkin said.

Beaton was multitasking in other ways, too, often talking with the student seated next to him, Priscilla Putzer. “There was a lot of whispering and giggling,” Belkin said.

Beaton and Putzer were married in April at a ceremony on the beach in Santa Monica, California.

Pushback

Crimson Education has not been immune from criticism. Early on, it faced pushback for using aggressive sales tactics and employing many college students as tutors and counsellors.

As the company grew, Beaton said, it shifted to employing more full-time counsellors – the company now has 1,200 full-time staff members, he said – and hired an accounting firm to vet its numbers. Of the 10,000 students who have used its services, more than 2,000 have been accepted by Ivy League universities, Stanford or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he said.

The company has also found itself the subject of a broader critique – that its high price tag effectively self-selects students who already have a good chance of getting into elite universities.

Jeff Selingo, a journalist who has written several books about college admissions, said that private counsellors can be a helpful resource for those who can afford them. “But it’s not going to get you into a place that you can’t get into otherwise,” he said.

Hamish Coates, an education expert at the Australian National University and Beaton’s thesis adviser at Tsinghua University, praised Beaton as someone who understood “the power of higher education.” But Coates posed a hypothetical: “Do you really want your child to be grooming themselves for the Ivy League from the age of five, when 95 per cent fail to get in? Or are you better off doing some finger painting, reading Frog and Toad and having a good life?”

Changing course after a degree: ‘Life is too short to prioritise money over meaning’

Beaton has heard that argument before – the “pressure-cooker environment” on one side and the “chill, happy childhood” on the other. He doesn’t buy the premise. “The students who try harder in high school are often the happiest and most engaged,” he said.

His own future appears to be a work in progress. For now, he said, he is focused on “education and entrepreneurship,” along with starting a family. But several of his friends said they could see him entering politics. He has worked with New Zealand’s centre-right National Party, which was once headed by Key.

“If you said to me, ‘In 35 years’ time, Jamie will still be the CEO of Crimson,’ I don’t see it,” Key said. “I think he’s got other, bigger things that he’s going to move on to.”

At the end of his busy day, Beaton and his Crimson Education colleagues met teenagers and their parents in a wood-panelled room of the Harvard Club. As servers passed around hors d’oeuvres, he stood before the group as a living advertisement for his company, the one-time whizz kid who had beaten the system.

At one point Beaton ceded the stage to a colleague who spoke about scholarships available to high school students, including the John Locke essay competition.

“How many are familiar with John Locke?” she asked.

A single hand shot up from the front row.

“Not you, Jamie,” she said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Darragh Desmond of Broomfield, Midleton, Co Cork appeared before the District Court in his hometown on Thursday.

Garda Sgt Majella O’Sullivan told the court that a small number of people became abusive towards gardaí during the fuel protest at Trabolgan Road in Whitegate on April 11th.

She said Desmond involved himself in the situation and told a garda to “f**k off.”

He then took out his phone and began to record the garda, having been instructed to leave the area.

Defence solicitor Don Ryan said his client deeply regretted his actions.

The fourth-year apprentice has written a letter of apology to the garda. He also apologised at the time of his arrest.

Ryan said his client had saved €500 for the Garda Benevolent Fund. He brought the funds to court.

Judge Colm Roberts said that it was deeply sexist to call a garda a bitch. On hearing that the garda was a man he described it as a case of “inverse sexism”.

He said that what occurred was a “serious matter.” He told Desmond that protest is at its more powerful when it is peaceful in nature.

The judge added people could not go around intimidating and insulting gardaí. “He [Desmond] was part of the mob. I don’t like mobs.”

Desmond was fined €500 and convicted of the public order offence.

Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, recently published a 3,800-word letter calling for a slowdown in the development of AI until appropriate safety standards and a regulatory regime are in place. He was joined in urging new regulation by Elon Musk and Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, among others.

Questions have been raised about the motivation behind Amodei’s intervention. The cynical interpretation offered by other AI companies is that introducing regulation now would stymie competition and create an oligopoly for Anthropic, OpenAI and the other behemoths in the sector. There could be some merit in this position, but the warnings about the potential dangers of the technology cannot be ignored.

These were highlighted by Jacob Coxon, formerly a senior researcher at Anthropic. He quit his role due to what he called the “out of control” nature of AI and the existential threat it poses. He claimed that there is a 10 per cent chance that AI could wipe out humanity in the next decade.

However, there has been implacable resistance from the Trump administration to pleas for regulation. In a social media post, US president Donald Trump described AI risks as a hoax and added that there was what he called a “sick conspiracy against AI and data centres”. He further added that the only guardrail needed was a “strong and smart (high IQ!) president”.

Trump’s position is shaped by considerations other than potential risks. Speaking to reporters on his way back to Washington from Ireland, he said the US was in a race with China for AI supremacy, and “whoever wins, wins”.

Moreover, the US economy – and its stock market – has become a one-way bet on AI, so any pause in its development could have significant knock-on consequences. Indeed, there was a sharp sell-off in stocks immediately following the release of Amodei’s letter.

Amodei has called for independent auditors to check AI companies for safety standards and urged global cooperation in creating rules about its development.

This would be a good starting point, but the industry cannot define its own regulatory regime. And achieving global cooperation will be difficult, with China also hostile to any restraints.

AI has many potential benefits but the concern is that its risks are unknown and unquantifiable. That is why there must be a pause in AI’s development until there is global agreement on a sufficiently robust regulatory and supervisory framework.

McConnell is part of a 14-strong Ireland squad in Sofia that includes a late change after two-time Olympic champion Kellie Harrington was forced to withdraw with a hand injury. Kellie McLoughlin has instead travelled, competing in the women’s lightweight division.

A member of the Holy Trinity club in Belfast, McConnell made short work of Turkey’s Necat Ekinci in their 70kg last-32 bout.

Ekinci, a Paris Olympian and a former World Youth Champion, had no answer to McConnell dominance. The back-to-back national elite champion dictated the tempo from start to finish, claiming a unanimous decision.

The 23-year-old will next fight Damian Durkacz for a place in the quarter-finals on Saturday after the Pole’s unanimous victory over Aleksandr Trofimcuk of Lithuania.

“It was good,” McConnell said of his opening fight. “The first one is always the hardest, everyone knows that, but I felt good in there, I felt sharp.

“I had the first two rounds won so I took the last round off. In these tournaments, it’s down to experience, boxing back-to-back days, but I’m ready to go.”

On his approach facing Ekinci, McConnell added: “Everything was working to perfection. Those were the tactics, to use the jab early and just dominate from the start.

“It gave me an extra push to get the team off to a good start, it’s an individual sport but we’re here as Team Ireland, and I was happy to be first on.”

Jude Gallagher is next up for Ireland in the men’s 60kg division during Friday’s afternoon session. The Derry lightweight will face Slovakia’s Maksym Bocarov for a place in the last 16. Paris Olympian Dean Clancy will be in action on Friday evening, facing Germany’s Mohamed Siala in the men’s 65kg division.

Heavyweight Jack Marley’s last-16 opponent has also been determined for their fight on Sunday, with the 23-year-old set to take on fellow Paris Olympian Aryan Saed Panah.

Nash (39), who is formerly of Fota Island, Co Cork, but now lives in Sweden, was not required to appear in person at Midleton District Court in Co Cork on Thursday for the brief mention of his case.

Defence solicitor Graham Hyde told Judge Colm Roberts he had raised the issue of possibly having an engineer as an expert witness in written submissions on the case which were filed last week. No further details were given as to what the proposed evidence would involve.

The judge adjourned the case for mention until October 8th to give himself time to consider the written submissions. A Garda inspector will also require time to read the submissions.

Nash, who is a former Ipswich Town player, previously elected to contest the case. In June at a sitting of Midleton District Court the Garda evidence was that Nash was unsteady on his feet and smelled of alcohol when he crashed his car into signage near a bridge in Midleton in November 2025.

Garda Jerome Maher told the court he arrived at the scene near the Lakeview roundabout shortly after 3am on November 6th, 2025. He noted a car had crashed in to signage. Maher said he spoke to the driver of the vehicle, Ger Nash.

“There was a strong smell of alcohol from him and his eyes were bloodshot,” he said.

The garda said he formed the opinion that Nash was intoxicated and incapable of driving a vehicle. He arrested him on suspicion of committing an offence.

An Evidenzer breath test was conducted at Midleton Garda station. Nash was found to have 52 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath. This is in excess of the legal limit.

Maher said it was his belief that Nash drove straight through the roundabout, crashing in to signage on the far side of the roundabout directly in front of a bridge. He noted the presence of tyre marks at the roundabout.

Garda Shay Dempsey said that when he arrived at the scene shortly after 3am on November 6th, 2025, a white vehicle was embedded in the road. He said Nash was “unsteady on his feet and swaying” and that two passersby who stopped to assist at the scene were “effectively keeping him up”.

Witness Liam Murray said he spotted a white car heading in the direction of Midleton.

He told the court he was coming from the slip road on to the dual carriageway sometime after 2.30am on November 6th, 2025, when a white hatchback passed him in the overtaking lane.

He stated when he got further up the road at Minister’s Hill the same car was “going slow”. He guessed that the vehicle was travelling at about 20km/h to 30km/h.

Murray passed the white car in the right-hand lane. He said that further down the road at the turn-off to Midleton the same white car passed him on the right-hand lane. Murray said the car was “going fast”.

He said the next he saw of the car was when it had crashed and hit signage near the Lakeview roundabout.

Hyde asked Murray how he could be sure that the white car on the road was the same car that was involved in the crash. Murray said he saw no other cars on the road at that time of the morning.

Hyde said there was no evidence that his client was driving dangerously on the night of the alleged offence. He said it was unsafe to convict Nash on the evidence of a motorist who saw a white vehicle at various intervals. He also said the crash had not been witnessed by anyone.

Nash stepped down from his role at Cork City FC in last December of last year having taken up the job in May 2025. He joined the club following a spell as assistant manager of GAIS in Sweden.

Before his move to Sweden he held a number of coaching roles at Ipswich Town before working with the FAI and Aston Villa. He is now employed as an assistant coach at Swedish champions Mjallby.

Emergency services were called to Rosslare Europort after receiving a distress call from one of the individuals inside the container.

At the time of the phone call the container was on-board a ship which was sailing to Rosslare.

Gardaí from Wexford and the National Ambulance Service members arrived at the port shortly after receiving the phone call.

As soon as the ship docked, Gardaí and National Ambulance Service members searched the vessel and six men were found inside the container aboard the ferry.

All six, five adults and one juvenile, were brought to Wexford General Hospital by ambulance.

Later this evening, three remain in hospital receiving treatment for non-life-threatening injuries, while the juvenile is receiving appropriate supports.

Cllr Ger Carthy, Operation Resource manager with the National Ambulance Service in Wexford, said: “Two ambulances and three response teams were sent to Rosslare Europort.”

Carthy said the group were in a distressed state. “They might have been in the container for up to three days,” he said.

In January 2025, nine people were found in a shipping container at Rosslare Europort, which led to Gardaí and Immigration services launching an investigation following their discovery.

Eight were deemed to be in good health, while one of the group received treatment in hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.

The agency said the total number of dwelling units approved in between April and June was 11,912, up from 7,447 in the same quarter of 2025.

Planning permissions are an imperfect guide to future building activity as many permissions never translate into homes given the uncertainty around infrastructure. Still, they can signpost shortcomings in the years ahead.

Permissions have averaged around 35,000 a year since 2021.

The CSO said houses accounted for 53 per cent of all units granted planning permission in the second quarter, while apartments made up the remaining 47 per cent.

The number of apartments granted planning permission rose by 107 per cent when compared with the second quarter of last year, while the total number of house approvals was up by 33 per cent.

The number of multi-development houses receiving planning permission was up by 41.5 per cent annually, from 3,565 units in the same period last year to 5,046 units this year.

Across the four local authorities of Dublin, there was an annual increase of 78.5 per cent in the total number of housing units approved in the second quarter (3,241). Cork had the second largest number of dwelling units approved at 3,234 units.

The CSO data also highlighted that there was an annual increase of 157 per cent (2,465 to 6,345) in the total number of Strategic Housing Developments (SHD) dwelling units approved, of which the number of apartments approved rose by 230 per cent.

The latest permissions figures came as the Central Bank revised down its forecasts for home completions.

It now expects completions to total 39,500, 41,000 and 45,000 for 2026, 2027 and 2028 respectively, down from 40,000, 42,000 and 46,000 previously.

In a special report on housing contained in its latest quarterly bulletin, the bank noted that the link between permissions and completions in the State had “weakened over time”.

“A consistent share of planning approvals do not get built – of the housing units granted planning approval in each year from 2017 to 2020, around a quarter lapsed without construction commencing in the subsequent five years,” it stated.

However, the Opposition would also have spent billions more than the Coalition while seeking to boost revenue with significant tax increases for higher earners and businesses.

The findings are contained in a report by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) – an independent unit within the Houses of the Oireachtas Service that offers economic and budgetary intelligence – which compared policies the Government enacted in last year’s budget with those proposed by Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats, the Labour Party and People Before Profit.

While the Government increased welfare rates, there was no income tax package and the main tax measure was a VAT reduction for hospitality businesses.

The Government has signalled income tax relief for workers as well as cuts to childcare costs in next month’s Budget 2027, with Minister for Finance Simon Harris saying last week that middle-income earners will see a “significant impact”.

The PBO report says its findings “should be interpreted in light of the scope and limitations of the analysis”. It says the “expenditure comparison takes [the parties’] published policy costings as given and does not independently validate the full fiscal packages”. It also says that proposed revenue-raising measures “are subject to uncertainty, especially where they involve large tax changes that may give rise to behavioural responses, changes in investment or labour supply, tax planning, or other macroeconomic effects”.

But it said that notwithstanding such caveats “the analysis provides a transparent and evidence-based basis for comparing alternative approaches to Budget 2026”.

It highlights “the trade-offs inherent in fiscal policymaking” and says the publication aims to support Oireachtas members “in assessing the implications of competing budgetary choices and in scrutinising the fiscal, social and economic priorities reflected in each package”.

The report says that “larger social welfare expenditure proposals, combined with income tax measures that are generally more favourable to middle-income households, result in larger average income gains for households under Opposition packages”.

It adds: “Relative to an inflation-indexed baseline, average household incomes increase by 0.3 per cent under the Government package, compared with 3.0 per cent under Sinn Féin, 1.7 per cent under the Social Democrats, 2.3 per cent under the Labour Party and 9.4 per cent under People Before Profit.”

According to the report, €97.7 billion in current expenditure – not including capital spending – was announced by the Government for 2026 compared with estimated levels of €99.4 billion for Sinn Féin, €101.2 billion for the Social Democrats, €103.3 billion for the Labour Party and €123.3 billion for People Before Profit.

The report says Sinn Féin would have allocated more funding than the Government to the Department of Health. Meanwhile, increased spending proposed by People Before Profit included setting welfare rates at €350 per week and bringing in free primary medical care.

The report says that all Opposition parties proposed net revenue-raising tax packages to support higher expenditure.

These proposed increases amounted to approximately €700 million for Sinn Féin, €2.7 billion for the Social Democrats, €3.3 billion for the Labour Party and €46.4 billion for People Before Profit.

The largest revenue-raising measure proposed by Sinn Féin included a new solidarity tax of 3 per cent on income in excess of €140,000 annually. People Before Profit proposed an increase in corporation tax for larger companies to 20 per cent.