Proposal includes 72,000 social homes to tackle housing crisis, but critics call it ‘old wine in a new bottle’
The Irish government has announced a long-awaited plan to tackle the country’s severe housing shortage by building 300,000 new homes within five years.
It plans to boost supply by increasing construction capacity and the amount of zoned and serviced land, and to increase support for vulnerable groups, according to proposals published on Thursday.
Continue reading...New president pledges ‘all voices’ will be heard and vows to promote climate action, tolerance and a Gaelic revival
Catherine Connolly has vowed to make Ireland a “republic worthy of its name” by using her presidency to champion diversity, the Irish language and the legacy of decolonisation.
Connolly spelled out a leftwing alternative to centre-right orthodoxy in her inauguration speech after being sworn in to office on Tuesday.
Margot Robbie’s company to make movie based on Northern Ireland academics’ stories of poverty and prison
It started as a trawl of dusty archives for an academic project about female Irish emigrants in Canada and the US by two history professors, a worthy but perhaps niche topic for research.
The subjects, after all, were human flotsam from Ireland’s diaspora whose existence was often barely recorded, let alone remembered.
Continue reading...Republic of Ireland body alleges two statute violations
FAI approved a resolution to submit a formal motion
The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) has approved a resolution to submit a formal motion to Uefa urging it to ban Israel from European club and international competitions.
The governing body’s resolution – proposed by the Dublin club Bohemians – cited alleged violations by the Israel Football Association (IFA) of two provisions of Uefa statutes. They are its alleged failure to implement and enforce an effective anti-racism policy and the organisation of clubs in occupied Palestinian territories without the consent of the Palestinian FA.
Continue reading...Independent pledges to be ‘president for all’ after taking 63% of vote in upset for political establishment
The leftwing independent candidate Catherine Connolly has a won landslide election victory and been declared Ireland’s next president.
She pledged to be a “president for all” after securing 63% of the first preference votes, a stunning result that shook the political establishment and will make her the republic’s 10th head of state.
Continue reading...Connolly’s stunning victory humbles old parties and energises the left, yet it’s no revolution: the presidency remains symbolic
Catherine Connolly’s landslide victory in Ireland’s presidential election is a stunning political feat that humiliates the establishment but does not signify a national swerve to the left.
There was nothing inevitable about her triumph, let alone its scale. In July, when she declared her candidacy, she was a one-woman act: an independent leftwing member of parliament from Galway who was unfamiliar to most voters.
Continue reading...Gardaí deployed at Citywest facility as police issue statement urging people to stay away from violent standoff
Irish police are bracing for fresh disturbances outside a Dublin hotel that houses asylum seekers and has become a flashpoint for anti-immigration activists.
Gardaí deployed near the Citywest facility on Thursday in anticipation of another possible standoff with mobs that on Tuesday and Wednesday night threw fireworks and missiles and set a police vehicle on fire.
Continue reading...Officers pelted with stones and fireworks near Citywest facility after man charged over alleged assault on 10-year-old
Twenty-three people were arrested after an hours-long standoff with Irish police, whose members were directly struck with fireworks, stones and other debris on a third consecutive night of disorder in Dublin.
Two members of the Irish police service, An Garda Síochána, were taken to hospital with injuries sustained during clashes with protesters. One garda was struck on the head by a bottle while the other sustained a shoulder injury.
Continue reading...Election becomes unpredictable two-horse contest after political novice quits over debt revelations
One of the three main candidates in Ireland’s presidential election has quit the race in a bombshell announcement that has upended the contest.
Fianna Fáil’s Jim Gavin withdrew on Sunday night after revelations about an unpaid debt to a former tenant, turning the election into an unpredictable two-horse race between a centre-right former government minister and an independent leftwing member of parliament.
Continue reading...Man dies in ‘weather-related incident’ in Co Donegal, while Met Office issues yellow wind warning for whole of UK
A man has died and a fresh weather warning covers the whole of the UK as Storm Amy continues to bring widespread disruption.
Irish police said the man died in a “weather-related” incident in the Letterkenny area of County Donegal, Ireland, shortly after 4.15pm on Friday.
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The Environment Agency has issued two flood alerts where “flooding is expected” for Keswick Campsite in the Lake District and locations near the River Ure, particularly around Boroughbridge Camping and Caravanning Site in North Yorkshire.
“Avoid using low-lying footpaths and any bridges near local watercourses. Take care and avoid walking, cycling or driving through flood water,” it advises.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Author challenges assumption monks on Iona created manuscript, instead positing its origins are Pictish
The Book of Kells was likely to have been created 1,200 years ago in Pictish eastern Scotland, rather than on the island of Iona, according to research that challenges long-held assumptions about one of the world’s most famous medieval manuscripts.
The Book of Kells is an intricate, illuminated account of the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that was long thought to have been started in the late eighth century at the monastery on Iona before being taken in the 9th century to the monastery of Kells in County Meath, Ireland, after a Viking raid.
The Book of Kells by Victoria Whitworth (Bloomsbury Publishing, £35). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
Continue reading...Committee to conclude review of bill by 7 November. This live blog is closed
The UK is preparing to recognise the state of Palestine imminently, after Israel failed to meet conditions that would have postponed the historic step, including a ceasefire in Gaza, Patrick Wintour reports.
YouGov has relased polling today suggesting that Britons are in favour of this by more than two to one, although a large minority of people do not have a view.
Continue reading...Gardaí believe body is that of Daniel Aruebose, whose 2022 disappearance was not noticed by authorities until last month
Irish police investigating the fate of a boy who disappeared four years ago but was only registered by authorities as missing last month have found the remains of a child on Dublin wasteland.
Gardaí named the missing boy as Daniel Aruebose, who is thought to have vanished in 2022 aged three, after they discovered the remains on Wednesday in the Donabate area of north Dublin.
Continue reading...Former mixed martial arts fighter had vowed to curb immigration to shore up ‘Irish culture’ and give power ‘back to the people’
The former mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor has withdrawn from Ireland’s presidential election and complained that nomination rules were a “straitjacket” that prevented a true democratic contest.
“Following careful reflection, and after consulting with my family, I am withdrawing my candidacy from this presidential race,” he posted on X on Monday morning. “This was not an easy decision, but it is the right one at this moment in time.”
Continue reading...Educational bodies from Europe to South America are boycotting Israeli institutions, though Universities UK said it did not support the action
A growing number of universities, academic institutions and scholarly bodies around the world are cutting links with Israeli academia amid claims that it is complicit in the Israeli government’s actions towards Palestinians.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, more than 63,000 people have been killed in the territory – the majority of them civilians – with the true toll likely far higher. UN-backed experts have confirmed parts of Gaza, much of which has been reduced to rubble, are now in a “man-made” famine.
Continue reading...The Swede has has not necessarily become a fan of Irish football, as she sports a club jersey made with help from Fontaines DC
The humanitarian aid flotilla to Gaza is a serious mission with an incongruous detail: Greta Thunberg sporting a jersey of the Dublin football club Bohemians.
The Swedish activist wore the pale blue shirt during an earlier flotilla in June and again this week as vessels prepared to leave Barcelona.
Continue reading...Irish aid worker and director Gena Heraty was taken along with seven Haitians, including a three-year-old child
An Irish aid worker and seven fellow captives have been released nearly a month after they were kidnapped in Haiti.
Gena Heraty, a missionary who ran the Our Little Brothers and Sisters orphanage in the hills outside Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, was abducted on 3 August along with seven Haitians, including a three-year-old child.
Continue reading...Group in Kilteely pooled savings to buy bar and licence and ‘everybody brought something to the table’
A century ago, the County Limerick village of Kilteely had seven pubs but one by one they shut. This year, it braced to lose the last.
The economic and social trends that have shuttered family-run pubs across Ireland appear remorseless, leaving many communities with nowhere to meet, have a drink and share stories.
Continue reading...Liam and Noel used to be taken for summer holidays with relatives in Mayo and kept returning after finding fame
Emigration ripped the heart out of Charlestown: generations of young people took the boat to England and left behind derelict homes and shuttered shops, a hollowing chronicled in a landmark 1968 book, The Death of an Irish Town.
Some returned to this corner of County Mayo for summer holidays – with children who were growing up with English accents and city ways – before vanishing back across the Irish Sea and leaving Charlestown to its decay.
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