Microsoft Round Island One is ‘tax resident’ in Bermuda, with no employees except directors
An Irish subsidiary of Microsoft made a profit of $315bn (£222bn) last year but paid no corporation tax, as it is “resident” for tax purposes in Bermuda.
The profit generated by the company, Microsoft Round Island One, is equal to nearly three-quarters of Ireland’s entire gross domestic product (GDP) – even though it has zero employees.
Continue reading...Common travel area with Britain will not be restored due to concerns over India variant
Ireland will adopt the European Union’s Covid-19 certificate to help citizens move more freely across the bloc and allow the resumption of international travel from mid-July.
The country’s government said it will broadly apply the same approach to arrivals from elsewhere including Britain and the US.
Continue reading...Novel, which weaves together the stories of Mexican migrants with those of a US family on a road trip south, was picked for the prize by a Barcelona library
Earlier this year, a library in Barcelona submitted a nomination for its favourite book of the year: Mexican author Valeria Luiselli’s Lost Children Archive. On Thursday, thanks to Biblioteca Vila De Gràcia, Luiselli was named winner of the world’s richest prize for a novel published in English, the €100,000 (£86,000) Dublin literary award.
“It’s a beautiful, relatively small library in Barcelona who nominated me,” said Luiselli. “I’m going to kiss its rocks one day, because I probably won’t be able to kiss its librarians because of Covid.”
Continue reading...IT systems shut down and some medical appointments cancelled after attempt to access data
Ireland’s state health services provider has shut all its IT systems and cancelled some medical appointments after what it described as a “significant ransomware attack” overnight caused widespread disruption.
Paul Reid, the Health Service Executive chief executive, told RTÉ there had been a “human-operated” attempt to access data stored on central servers for a presumed ransom. “There has been no ransom demand at this stage. The key thing is to contain the issue. We are in the containment phase.”
Continue reading...Ruth Gilligan’s thriller about eight men who cull cattle in rural Ireland wins £10,000 for books that ‘best evoke the spirit of a place’
Ruth Gilligan’s literary thriller The Butchers, set in the Irish borderlands during the BSE crisis, has won the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje prize for books that “best evoke the spirit of a place”.
Gilligan’s novel beat titles including James Rebanks’ memoir of his family farm, English Pastoral, and Nina Mingya Powles’ poetry collection Magnolia, 木蘭 to the £10,000 prize. The Butchers opens with an ancient curse that decrees that eight men must touch every cow in Ireland as it dies, and follows a group of eight men as they roam rural Ireland in the 1990s, slaughtering the cows of those who still believe in the old ways. The novel unpicks the mysterious death of one of the Butchers, whose corpse is found suspended from a meat hook.
Continue reading...The Guardian’s former deputy editor recalls his time reporting from Belfast during the Troubles
Paul Johnson has a vivid memory of one of his most dispiriting moments as the Guardian’s Ireland correspondent.
It was April 1986 and he was covering a Democratic Unionist party (DUP) conference. A warmup speaker for the party leader, Ian Paisley, electrified the audience with a suggestion.
Continue reading...Sinn Féin, Labour, SDLP and Alliance accused Downing Street of betraying victims of violence
Politicians in Northern Ireland have condemned reports that the UK government is to ban prosecutions of British army veterans for alleged crimes during the Troubles.
Sinn Féin, the SDLP, the Alliance party and Labour accused Downing Street of betraying victims of violence and making a shameful attempt to protect security force personnel at the expense of justice.
Continue reading...Three Dublin lads and their super-smart classmate face an uncertain future in a tale that only hints at dark possibilities
Here is an ensemble coming-of-ager in which someone actually says the line: “That summer may have changed everything …” It’s in a style I associate with the 90s: movies such as Trainspotting or Human Traffic, with people clubbing and yearning and discovering the value of friendship together as the sun comes up. There’s certainly an impressive cast lineup for this one, but there’s also something weirdly formless and frustrating about it as well; the film gestures at some dark and disturbing possibilities in human nature without quite knowing if or how to follow through.
Matthew (Dean-Charles Chapman), Kearney (Finn Cole) and Rez (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) are three Dublin lads who leave school without much idea of what they want to do – not like their super-smart classmate Jen (Anya Taylor-Joy) who has some ambitious life plans figured out and on whom sweet, sensitive Matthew has a massive crush. But then the boys witness something horrible that shakes them up and reveals a sinister side to Kearney, who has a creepy attitude to Jen and a droog-like enthusiasm for torturing homeless people.
Continue reading...Spaniards David Beriáin and Roberto Fraile, and Rory Young, a Zambian-born Irish citizen, ambushed by jihadists
Two Spanish journalists and an Irish conservationist have been killed after they were ambushed by jihadists while on an anti-poaching mission in Burkina Faso.
On Tuesday, Spain’s foreign minister, Arancha González Laya, said 44-year-old David Beriáin, a reporter, and 47-year-old Roberto Fraile, a photographer, were believed to have been murdered on Monday, after they were identified from an image provided by Burkinabe authorities.
Continue reading...The chatshow host on his new novel, his pride in appearing on RuPaul’s Drag Race and why Ireland is in a sweet spot right now
Broadcaster and author Graham Norton, 58, grew up in County Cork. He moved to London to go to drama school, before becoming a standup comedian. His TV breakthrough was in the sitcom Father Ted. His BBC chatshow began in 2007 and has won five Baftas, while his Virgin Radio show is broadcast on weekend mornings. Norton has commentated on the Eurovision song contest since 2009 and is a judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK. His third novel, Home Stretch, is out in paperback this week.
Home Stretch traces the fallout from a car crash. Was it based on a real-life incident?
It’s based on a whole phenomenon. Every summer in Ireland, there are these crashes of cars with too many young people in them. Sometimes, there might be drink involved, but often it’s just reckless driving and the confidence of youth. Because it’s a much smaller country, these stories make the national news and what I noticed was that often the driver survived. That was my starting point – I thought, what happens to that life? It’s hardly begun but it’s blighted by this awful tragedy.
Paschal Donohoe says Dublin will not accept reforms that affect its ability to undercut its rivals
Ireland’s finance minister has signalled the country will resist attempts to rebalance the global tax system if they affect Dublin’s ability to undercut its rivals.
Under new tax proposals led by the US, Ireland could lose 20% of its tax revenues, according to Paschal Donohoe.
Continue reading...Mary Lou McDonald says she is sorry the late Duke of Edinburgh’s uncle was killed by IRA bomb in 1979
The Sinn Féin president, Mary Lou McDonald, has apologised for the IRA’s 1979 murder of Lord Mountbatten, the Duke of Edinburgh’s uncle.
Speaking after the funeral of Prince Philip, she told Times Radio she was sorry that Mountbatten, 79, had been killed when the fishing boat he was on was blown up by an IRA bomb.
Continue reading...On 23rd anniversary of Good Friday agreement, Martin says onus on political leaders ‘to step forward’
The Irish taoiseach Micheál Martin has said that political leaders must not allow Northern Ireland to “spiral back to that dark place of sectarian murders and political discord” after the region was marred by another night of disorder.
On the anniversary of the Good Friday agreement 23 years ago, the taoiseach said there was “a particular onus on those of us who currently hold the responsibility of political leadership to step forward and play our part and ensure that this cannot happen”.
Continue reading...A round-up of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Mexico to China
Continue reading...Chief constable briefs party leaders after political crisis intensified by another night of riots in Belfast
Northern Ireland’s power-sharing executive is holding an emergency meeting in Stormont after another night of riots scarred parts of Belfast and ratcheted up a political crisis.
Simon Byrne, the chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, briefed party leaders on the security situation on Thursday before a debate at the assembly, which has been recalled from its Easter break.
Continue reading...Figures show more than 420,000 applications were made from 2016-2020
The number of Irish passports issued in Great Britain rocketed in the years following the Brexit referendum, according to figures.
The data emerged as it was revealed that the celebrated British author John le Carré went to his grave as an Irish citizen.
Continue reading...Philippe Robrecht was living the quiet life with his wife and hens when stardom came calling back
Something odd happened to Philippe Robrecht while hunkered down in lockdown on Inishbofin, a tiny island with just 170 inhabitants off Ireland’s Atlantic coast: he became, again, a pop star.
The 55-year-old musician and singer had not made an album in almost a decade and was all but forgotten in his native Belgium when the Covid-19 pandemic reached Ireland last year.
Continue reading...U-turns, infighting and vaccine blunders cast sense of disarray over Dublin’s pandemic response
When Ireland’s taoiseach, Micheál Martin, gave his latest Covid-19 address earlier this week there was none of the poetry or literary allusions that have peppered previous speeches.
Sensing the nation was fed up and in no mood for high-brow quotes, Martin appealed for patience on what he termed the final stretch of a terrible journey. “A lot has been asked of everyone … it has been, and continues to be, exceptionally difficult.”
Continue reading...From France to Spain, Germany to Greece, tight rules are in place to contain the spread of coronavirus
Europe may not be subject to the drastic lockdown measures introduced to combat the first wave of coronavirus a year ago, but many countries still face another Easter of greatly reduced meeting and movement.
In France, new restrictions come into effect across the country from 7pm on Saturday that limit travel to within 10km (six miles) of home, absent one of the allowed “imperative” reasons. Sworn declarations known as “attestations” will be necessary for anyone travelling outside these rules.
Continue reading...Beacon hospital chief is believed to have sent his children to St Gerard’s school, where staff received jabs
The Irish health minister has moved to suspend coronavirus vaccines from being given at a private hospital in Dublin after it used spare doses to vaccinate teachers at a fee-paying school.
Stephen Donnelly said it was “completely unacceptable” and has asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to suspend vaccinations at the Beacon hospital, with the exception of already scheduled appointments.
Continue reading...