Early Edition

There has been more escalation in the exchange of fire between Iran and the United States. The brother of Mackenzie Michalski, who was murdered by a Dublin man in Hungary in November 2024, has said he is happy the man is off the streets having been handed 14 years in prison. Political correspondent Harry McGee explains why there is so much opposition to hare coursing in the Daíl. What does The Iri...

Minister of State for Road Transport Seán Canney has told the Road Safety Authority (RSA) he was concerned about its “lack of visibility” following a series of road deaths late last year. The regulator for utilities has imposed a €31 million penalty on Uisce Éireann for failing to meet performance targets, relating to leakages and bad debts. The Government should recuse itself from negotiating leg...

Irish authorities granted gambling licences to six companies at the heart of a global network of black-market betting websites. Two Irish companies were also found to be processing payments for unlicensed gambling sites operating in Europe. Ireland’s richest political party, Sinn Fein, sold merchandising worth euro more than €405,000 last year, according to financial accounts filed with the Standa...

Former Olympic swimming coach George Gibney, who’s 77 with an address in Florida, has been found guilty of sexually abusing four girls more than 50 years ago. Authorities in France have evacuated 10,000 people because of wildfires burning out of control near the Spanish border. Fires are also raging in northern Spain, Portugal, and Greece. With Donald Trump reigniting his feud with Italian Prime M...

New figures show some patients are waiting as long as 13 and a half years for community healthcare appointments like dietetics, ophthalmology and psychology. Ireland will chair EU meetings around new European Oceans legislation aimed at strengthening protection of Europe’s marine territory, undersea cables and pipelines, and improving ocean health. Gardaí have uncovered what’s believed to be the m...

Taoiseach Michéal Martin has faced questions over exports from the Aughinish Alumina plant in county Limerick to aluminium smelters supplying the Russian military. The government will sign a new law requiring financial service providers to offer customers the right to speak to a human rather than an AI bot. A jury in the trial of a 77-year-old man on historic sex abuse charges will continue its de...

Riad Bouchaker, who’s 52, has been found guilty of attempted murder in relation to the stabbing in Parnell Square in November 2023. Our legal affairs correspondent Mary Carolan recounts the events which left a child with life altering injuries. After authorities in Sweden froze the assets of a company owned by Rusal, which owns the county Limerick plant Aughinish Alumina, what next for the firm li...

The Government is seeking to fast-track legislation which will allow for the establishment of a State agency to deliver the planed Dublin metro project . The Ukrainian Government has rejected a donation from Ireland of a fleet of armoured combat vehicles to aid in the fight against Russia. The Defence Forces’ 27 light armoured tactical vehicles (LATVs) were first acquired 20 years ago but had a po...

Aughinish Alumina will be forced to pay up front for the costs of closing down the Co Limerick plant and repairing environmental damage in the area, under a new deal agreed with the State. Europe is being “ flooded” by cheap vapes and e-cigarettes produced in Asia that often do not meet EU safety rules, dodge customs taxes and in some cases contain harmful and illegal substances, the head of the E...

Coalition leaders will consider plans to continue the reductions in excise on petrol and diesel, at least in part, beyond the July 31st deadline. However it is expected that the reductions introduced following the fuel protests in April will be tapered off over the coming months. The State is opting to retain out-of-date aircraft navigation systems as they are less susceptible to Russian jamming a...

“As it stands right now, Ireland isn’t in heatwave conditions,” says Holly O’Neill, a meteorologist from Met Éireann, “although we recognise that it is unusually warm, of course”. Dublin City Council (DCC) is to commission a new monument honouring the women of Ireland’s revolutionary period , as part of a broader effort to address the historic underrepresentation of women in public spaces. Thirty...

Minister for Finance Simon Harris brought a group of “finance influencers” who run popular Instagram accounts into the Department of Finance this week to brief them on the new State savings scheme. Government TDs are seeking extra scrutiny of legislation scrapping the three-day waiting period for abortion services due to fears of a backlash over it being “railroaded” through the Dáil. Ireland’s he...

The heatwave has caused chaos in a number of European countries. At least 40 people have drowned in France after entering seas and rivers. The US millionaire Jason Cardiff is facing extradition to the US on allegations he defrauded customers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars through the sale of products marketed for sexual performance, weight loss, and smoking cessation. He denies the charge...

The former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson has been told by a judge to expect a lengthy prison sentence after he was convicted of all 18 sex abuse counts, including the rape of a woman when she was in primary school. The UK will get a new Prime Minister following the announcement by Kier Starmer that he is to stand down. Our political editor Pat Leahy says he improved the relationship between the UK...

Peace talks have been taking place in Switzerland between the US and Iran following the publication of an initial deal signed by Donald Trump last week. The Government is set to approve major new rail funding as part of the Shared Island initiative which it says will improve services and cut journey times on key cross-border services. Ireland’s waste management system is under fresh scrutiny amid...

A full memorandum of understanding has been published on the peace deal between Iran and the US including an end to the conflict on all fronts, a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and that Iran will not produce any nuclear weapons. The jury in the sex abuse case against Jeffrey Donaldson, who’s 63 and from Dromore, County Down, will continue its deliberations at Newry Crown Court today. He denies...

A significant row has erupted between AnPost and the Minister for Communications Patrick O’Donovan over pay for its new chief executive, and Government authorization to raise the company’s borrowing limit for its future development strategy.  Ireland has a strong economy and a resilient society, but “well-being data” shows a more complex picture where inequalities persist, a new Government re...

The timing of when the Natural History Museum will reopen, and the final budget for its redevelopment, remain unclear almost two years after it closed for refurbishment. Readers have been having their say on the UK’s plans to introduce social media ban for under 16s, with many of you believing it would be far more effective to ban harmful algorithms instead. The government’s new pilot scrappage sc...

The US has struck a deal with Iran which could pave the way for an end to the war, but key details are yet to be released. Terrence McKeever was found murdered by the IRA 40 years ago today. Concerns are growing over capacity and safety at Ireland’s main youth detention centre at Oberstown following new released documents. Ireland is well prepared for any potential cases of Ebola and the over...

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions says the Government risks industrial unrest unless it delivers a budget that supports working people. Survivors of abuse by Bill Kenneally will meet the Justice Minister this week, calling for a new law, making misconduct in public office a criminal offence. There has been a steady rise in the number of asylum seekers choosing to leave Ireland voluntarily accordi...

Two consultants are taking two separate judicial reviews against the HSE seeking the right to offer private care in new publicly funded surgical hubs. From Kharg Island in the Gulf of Hormuz Persian Gulf to Whiddy in Co Cork, the trickle-down effect of the Iranian oil crisis is starting to affect Ireland’s national oil reserve . Aughinish Alumina complained to the European Commission about difficu...

The trial of Riad Bouchaker resumes today and the Central Criminal Court. He has pleaded not guilty to a number of charges relating to the stabbings in Parnell Square in 2023 in which several people, including children, were injured. Smaller pockets of protests occurred in Northern Ireland on Wednesday night following the knife attack on Steven Ogilvie in north Belfast on Monday. Around 200 people...

Hundreds of protesters gathered on the Newtownards Road in east Belfast where a bus was hijacked and set alight, stoking racial tensions after a horrific attack on a man in his 40s on Monday night. The government needs to start preparing to relocate communities away from areas where repeat flooding or coastal erosion can’t be stopped, according to the Climate Change Advisory Council. And...

Sean McGovern, a senior figure in the Kinahan cartel, has received what The Irish Times understands to be one of the longest gangland sentences in Irish history. There has been a rise in reports of wildlife habitat destruction, but according to new figures, prosecutions for it aren’t keeping up, according to the National Parks and Wildlife Service. An “exponential” rise in Irish language exem...

An Garda Síochána is facing what insiders are calling a “ticking time-bomb” of retirements as new projections show nearly 1,700 Garda members are due to retire over the next decade. Concerns have been raised over the number of landlords asking for sex in exchange for accommodation. A row has erupted over what’s believed to be the use of artificial intelligence in Irish politics after one TD submit...