Stephen Donnelly was taken ill after unveiling country’s pandemic plan
Ireland’s government suffered a Covid-19 scare on Tuesday after the health minister reported feeling unwell after a cabinet meeting.
Cabinet ministers were told to restrict their movements and parliament was suspended pending a coronavirus test for Stephen Donnelly. Hours later it came back negative, averting the spectre of an outbreak at the heart of government.
Continue reading...Dublin minister says UK plan to undo Brexit deal would have ‘unthinkable’ consequences
The Irish government has accused Boris Johnson of trying to sabotage the Northern Ireland peace process with a “unilateral provocative act” based on spurious claims about the Good Friday agreement.
As Brexit talks hang by a thread following the UK’s threat to renege on parts of the withdrawal agreement, Thomas Byrne, Ireland’s European affairs minister, branded the UK government’s claims that its move was to protect the peace process as “completely false”.
Continue reading...Health authorities across continent try to reach under 30s as cases among younger people rise
As the number of Covid-19 cases rises sharply in parts of Europe, health authorities from the UK to Spain are calling on young people to do more to halt the spread of the virus. This is how the situation looks in a number of major European countries and how it is being tackled.
Continue reading...Mairead McGuinness to take role in overseeing access for the City of London to EU markets
The veteran MEP Mairead McGuinness has been proposed as Ireland’s new EU commissioner, replacing Phil Hogan, who was forced to resign after breaching coronavirus lockdown rules.
McGuinness, a European parliament vice-president, would take on the portfolio of financial services, giving her a key role in overseeing access for the City of London to EU markets.
Continue reading...UK on collision course with EU and Ireland over unilateral powers for British ministers
Downing Street has defended plans to give British ministers unilateral powers over Brexit arrangements in Northern Ireland, putting them on a collision course with the EU and Irish leaders in a week of crunch negotiations.
A No 10 spokesman said the measures were “limited and reasonable” and insisted the UK would remain compliant with the Northern Ireland protocol – despite anger from Brussels and Dublin at the plans leaked overnight.
Continue reading...Hogan’s resignation comes after Irish government signalled it wanted him to quit or be sacked
The embattled European trade commissioner, Phil Hogan, has resigned his post after an outcry over his breaches of coronavirus rules during a golfing break in Ireland.
Hogan issued a statement on Wednesday night apologising to the Irish people and the EU commission for causing hurt and embarrassment, ending his attempts to ride out the controversy and keep his post as a key player in Brexit talks.
Continue reading...Irish government says it has lost confidence in Phil Hogan after he flouted quarantine regulations
The Irish government wants the embattled European trade commissioner, Phil Hogan, to quit or be sacked after concluding he flouted coronavirus regulations during a golfing break in Ireland.
The Green party leader, Eamon Ryan, part of the ruling coalition, on Wednesday said the government had lost confidence in Hogan.
Continue reading...Phil Hogan gave more detail about his trip but said he was exempt from lockdown restrictions
The embattled European trade commissioner Phil Hogan is facing fresh accusations that he flouted coronavirus regulations during a golfing break in Ireland.
Hogan attempted to douse the controversy and save his job in a media interview on Tuesday evening, but ended up tacitly admitting he had violated quarantine rules, triggering more questions and calls for his resignation.
Continue reading...Italy reported 1,071 new infections on Saturday; PHE report into levels of transmission in schools released; Australian deaths pass 500
Travellers from the UK to France are required to self-certify that they are not suffering coronavirus symptoms or have been in contact with a confirmed case within 14 days preceding travel.
The requirement to self-certify has been added to the UK government’s travel advice for those visiting France.
Russia aims to ramp up production of its potential Covid-19 vaccine to between 1.5 million and 2 million doses a month by the end of the year, Reuters reports.
Industry minister Denis Manturov said on Sunday that the nation hopes to eventually produce 6m doses a month, according to the RIA news agency.
Continue reading...Agriculture minister Dara Calleary attended just after Ireland’s restrictions tightened
Ireland’s agriculture minister has resigned after he said he had damaged the national effort to contain Covid-19 by attending a social event police were investigating for an alleged breach of health regulations.
Dara Calleary was among more than 80 guests at a hotel dinner hosted by the Irish parliament’s golf society the night after he and his cabinet colleagues significantly tightened nationwide restrictions to try to rein in an increase in infections.
Continue reading...Michael Cawley tenders his resignation after details of Italian holiday are revealed
The chairman of Ireland’s tourism authority has resigned after defying government guidance to avoid all non-essential travel by going on holiday to Italy.
Michael Cawley, Ryanair’s former chief operating officer, handed in his resignation on Saturday after details of his Italian excursion were revealed by the Irish Independent.
Continue reading...Fishermen found 17-year-old girl and 23-year-old cousin 17 miles from Galway Bay
Two paddle boarders who vanished off the west coast of Ireland survived a night of rain, wind and thunder by clinging to a lobster pot buoy.
Two fishermen found the 17-year-old girl and 23-year-old woman on Thursday two miles south of the Aran islands, about 17 miles from Galway Bay, where they were last seen on Wednesday night.
Continue reading...New infections back to nearly half their peak in the Netherlands as France reports ‘worrying increase’
New daily coronavirus infections in the Netherlands are back to roughly half their level at the peak of the pandemic, while France’s prime minister has said it is crucial for his country to avoid a new lockdown amid a “worrying increase” in cases.
Jaap van Dissel, the Netherlands’ chief epidemiologist, told the Dutch parliament on Tuesday that 4,036 new Covid-19 cases had been reported in the past week, an increase of 55% on the previous seven days. The figure translated to a daily average of more than 500, compared with nearly 1,200 at the peak of pandemic.
Continue reading...Host Henry Deane remembers Belarus’s opposition leader arriving in Roscrea at the age of 12
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the woman who has been catapulted into political stardom in Belarus by her push to dislodge the man often referred to as Europe’s last dictator, may be an accidental challenger, standing in Sunday’s presidential election only because her opposition activist husband Sergei was arrested.
But a hint of the strength and resilience that has made her a courageous if unlikely opponent who has refused to accept Alexander Lukashenko’s claim to victory in a poll marred by vote-rigging may have been present at age of 12, when she arrived to spend a summer in rural Ireland.
Continue reading...Proposals to install low-energy devices in seven coastal beacons in the north and the republic have angered campaigners, who say the enchanting ‘loom’ of the beams will be lost
The “loom of the light” is a phenomenon that lets you see the glow of a lighthouse from over the horizon. Particles of water vapour in the atmosphere scatter the light upwards so it can be glimpsed further than the line of sight. It is an optical wonder that has delighted – and guided – mariners for centuries.
But now some fear an environmental push towards low energy will extinguish a loom that stretches across the Irish Sea, draining beauty from the nocturnal landscape.
Continue reading...Hotels and restaurants are turning away US guests, citing high Covid-19 rates and lax quarantine. Some fear this will backfire
Ireland has long greeted American tourists with open arms and the Irish salutation céad míle fáilte, literally, “a hundred thousand welcomes”.
An especially warm welcome awaits visitors who are big spenders and descendants of the diaspora.
Continue reading...Possible inquiry into assault on Hazel Behan comes after claims against Madeleine McCann suspect
Portuguese police have begun a process that could lead to the reopening of an investigation into the unsolved rape of an Irish woman as they seek to build a case against a possible suspect in connection with the abduction of Madeleine McCann.
Detectives in Portugal last week collected the archived case file on the vicious assault in 2004 of Hazel Behan, who was working as a holiday rep in Praia da Rocha on the Algarve, according to a source in the public prosecutor’s office.
Continue reading...Armada 1588: Shipwreck and Survival tells turbulent tale on bucolic stretch of Irish coast
Streedagh beach was the setting for young love in the TV drama Normal People, but its latest screen depiction reveals a dark history of plunder and slaughter on the golden sand.
Instead of romance among the dunes, viewers encounter drownings, stabbings and hangings on this bucolic stretch of Ireland’s Atlantic coast. And unlike the adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel, it’s all true.
Continue reading...Ireland eased restrictions this week and drinkers have been getting used to the new normal
They had had to book a table, restrict their group to four people, sanitise their hands, shun the bar, not sing, and leave after 105 minutes, but Johnny Knox and Tommy Flannery were not complaining.
After three months of lockdown, Ireland eased restrictions this week and the pair were back in the pub, sinking pints and talking up a storm. “The first pint? Absolutely brilliant,” said Knox, 64, working his way through another Tuborg.
Continue reading...Fianna Fáil leader forms government with Fine Gael and Greens vowing end to ‘civil war politics’
The Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has been elected as the Republic of Ireland’s taoiseach – prime minister – after the formation of an historic coalition government.
The three-way coalition of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green party is the first time the first two parties – former civil war rivals – have been in government together.
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