Charities fear ‘increasing risks of destitution and exploitation’ of refugees as they go into hiding
The Home Office is dealing with growing fallout from the high-profile round-ups of asylum seekers it wants to send to Rwanda, as some have gone into hiding while others have fled across the border to Ireland.
Officials began rounding up asylum seekers to detain them for the Rwanda scheme a week ago, with at least one now on hunger strike and another threatening suicide.
Continue reading...Shocked people from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria herded on to coaches as 200 tents removed and streets cleaned
The convoy arrived just after sunrise: a stream of police vehicles, council trucks, mounted cranes and coaches, ready to dismantle a tent city of migrants and refugees in the heart of Dublin that had become too big, too visible, too political.
They fenced off streets and herded shocked, sleepy men from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and other countries on to buses and began to extirpate about 200 tents, gradually extinguishing all traces of the camp, but no amount of sweeping and hosing could remove the whiff of elections and diplomacy gone wrong.
Continue reading...Scotland’s first minister resigns after failing to muster enough votes to survive a no confidence vote this week
Humza Yousaf is holding a press conference at noon, Sky News and the BBC are reporting.
Mandy Rhodes, editor of the Holyrood magazine, says she was due to interview Humza Yousaf this afternoon, but he’s cancelled.
Continue reading...Prime minister dismisses potential deal with Dublin, increasing prospect of an escalating UK-Irish crisis
Rishi Sunak has said the UK will not accept the return of asylum seekers from Ireland and dismissed the prospect of a deal with Dublin.
The prime minister doubled down on his Rwanda deportation plan and appeared to reject any deal with the Irish government, which is alarmed at asylum seekers entering the republic from Northern Ireland.
Continue reading...UK PM points to Irish deputy PM’s claim that threat of being deported led people to cross border from Northern Ireland
An increase in asylum seekers heading to to Ireland proves that the Conservative party’s Rwanda plan is working, Rishi Sunak has claimed.
In an interview with Sky News’ Trevor Phillips that will air on Sunday morning, the prime minister said the “deterrent is already having an impact because people are worried about coming here”.
Continue reading...Micheál Martin says UK asylum seekers fearful of being removed to Rwanda are seeking sanctuary in Ireland
The UK government’s Rwanda policy has been described as a “kneejerk reaction” to migration by Ireland’s deputy prime minister, who said an influx of asylum seekers could arrive in Ireland as a result.
Micheál Martin, Ireland’s Tánaiste, reportedly said asylum seekers fearful of being removed from the UK to Rwanda were seeking sanctuary in Ireland.
Continue reading...Leaders of two nations vow to muster international support for two-state solution to Gaza crisis
Ireland and Spain have reiterated their intention to forge an alliance of countries that will soon recognise Palestine as a nation state.
The Irish taoiseach, Simon Harris, and Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, vowed on Friday to muster international support for a two-state solution in Israel and Palestine.
Continue reading...Pedro Sánchez is first foreign premier Simon Harris will meet since becoming leader
The new Irish taoiseach is to meet the Spanish prime minister to discuss their joint plan to recognise Palestine as a nation state and their attempts to force the EU to assess Israel’s human rights obligations as a condition of their trade deal with the bloc.
Pedro Sánchez, who is due to arrive in Dublin on Friday, is the first foreign premier Simon Harris will meet since his promotion to the office of the taoiseach this week.
Continue reading...Leader receives seal of office, marking low-key end of Varadkar era and start of unofficial countdown to election
Simon Harris has pledged to invigorate Ireland’s ruling coalition after being elected the country’s youngest taoiseach.
The Dáil voted 88 to 69 on Tuesday to anoint Harris, 37, as successor to Leo Varadkar, who unexpectedly announced his resignation last month.
Continue reading...Dublin politician says he is looking forward to a ‘different chapter’ after tendering resignation to president
Leo Varadkar has said he has “no regrets” about standing down, as he officially resigned as Ireland’s taoiseach.
The Dublin politician, who has been the country’s prime minister for four years, said he was looking forward to a “different chapter”.
Continue reading...Gusts of more than 70mph recorded on Irish Sea coast, as temperatures rose above 30C in mainland Europe
Storm Kathleen brought strong winds to Ireland and the UK at the weekend, causing travel and power disruption. The storm, named by Met Éireann, developed in the Atlantic on Thursday, deepening explosively as it pushed northwards to the west of Ireland.
Peak wind gusts of 40-60mph (65-95km/h) were recorded quite widely across Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and western parts of England and Wales on Saturday, with some Irish Sea coastal regions experiencing gusts above 70mph. A gust of 72mph was recorded at Drumalbin, Lanarkshire.
Continue reading...Met Office says temperatures may hit 22C in East Anglia on potentially hottest day of year but warns of strong gusts and rain
Storm Kathleen has brought disruption to the UK and Ireland with dozens of UK flights cancelled and about 34,000 left without power as Saturday provisionally become the hottest day of the year.
The highest temperature of 20.9C was reached in Santon Downham, Suffolk, on Saturday afternoon.
Continue reading...Each time Madrid and Dublin speak out on the war in Gaza others are emboldened to join them, sources say
Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that the Israeli military’s killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza on Monday night was “a tragic incident” did precious little to allay the fears of Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez. Nor did his assertion that “this happens in wartime”.
Sánchez, who has been one of the most outspoken and persistent European critics of the way in which Israel has prosecuted its war in Gaza after the terrorist atrocities of 7 October, described the Israeli prime minister’s “supposed explanations” as “totally unacceptable and insufficient”. He added that Spain was waiting for a full and detailed account of the killings before deciding “what action we’ll take with regard to the government of Prime Minister Netanyahu”.
Continue reading...Dublin joins South Africa’s case in the international court of justice, arguing that stopping delivery of essentials may constitute ‘genocidal intent’
Ireland is to seek to widen the definition of genocide to include blocking humanitarian aid in a landmark international court of justice (ICJ) case against Israel.
The Irish government will intervene in the case taken by South Africa and argue that restricting food and other essentials in Gaza may constitute genocidal intent, the foreign minister Micheál Martin said on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Higher education minister will become taoiseach in April after shock resignation of Leo Varadkar
Simon Harris will become Ireland’s youngest prime minister after the leadership race in his Fine Gael party ended without any other candidates coming forward.
The leadership became vacant after the taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, announced his surprise resignation “for personal and political reasons” last week.
Continue reading...Nearly half of Fine Gael parliamentary party endorses 37-year-old as string of potential rivals rule themselves out
The contest to become Ireland’s next prime minister is turning into a one-horse race after the higher education minister, Simon Harris, secured the backing of nearly half his parliamentary party before he had even confirmed he was running.
Within hours of nominations opening on Thursday to succeed Leo Varadkar, whose unexpected resignation as Fine Gael leader and taoiseach shocked the country, Harris had been endorsed by 24 of the party’s 54 TDs (MPs), senators and MEPs.
Continue reading...Varadkar announces decision to resign as taoiseach and leader of Fine Gael party for ‘personal and political’ reasons
Leo Varadkar has announced he is standing down as Ireland’s prime minister and also giving up his role as leader of the Fine Gael party in the ruling coalition, in a surprise move described by pundits as a “political earthquake” for the country.
Citing “personal and political” reasons, Varadkar, 45, announced his decision at a press conference in Dublin on Wednesday, saying in an at-times emotional speech that he no longer felt he was the “best person” to lead Ireland.
Continue reading...Sinn Féin members pay tribute to Dugdale, who was also involved in 1974 art heist and police station attack using hijacked helicopter
Rose Dugdale, who went from a background of wealth and privilege in England to become an IRA militant and bomb maker, has died in a Dublin nursing home aged 83.
Dugdale was presented as a 17-year-old to Queen Elizabeth as part of the 1958 summer debutante season. Years later, in 1974, Dugdale was given a nine-year prison sentence, in part for her role in the theft of 19 paintings from the home of a wealthy British politician.
Continue reading...A collection of more than 7,000 letters will form a publicly accessible digital archive that offers a window to the past
In the week that Ireland turns everything green and celebrates its diaspora, a new online archive has given voice to the human cost paid by generations of emigrants.
More than 7,000 letters from emigrants to North America spanning four centuries have been collected and digitised, giving poignant insight into the homesickness, tribulations, and occasional triumphs, of those who crossed the Atlantic.
Continue reading...Thomas Costello, who at 6ft 4in is same height as Jack Andrews, says ‘people in weighing room looked at me like I had four heads’
You don’t come across many lofty figures in the weighing rooms of the UK’s racecourses but two jockeys standing at a (relatively) towering 223cm (6ft 4in) will rub shoulders when the Cheltenham festival begins on Tuesday.
Jack Andrews, 25, from Warwickshire, rose to fame last year when he was billed as the tallest jockey in the world during his appearance at the festival, but this week has a rival for the title – Thomas Costello, from County Clare in Ireland.
Continue reading...