#denis-donaldson

#denis-donaldson

Sanewashing is a word that had to be invented to describe how the more strait-laced media outlets were covering the speeches and tweets and other outpourings of Donald Trump.

The power-sharing coalition's principal parties, Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist party (DUP), are locked in chronic feuding that has severely hindered legislation and governance, creating a perception of drift and neglect.

Ray McAdam, the 41-year-old Fine Gael politician and Lord Mayor of Dublin, is gearing up for the Dublin Central by-election on May 22, aiming to secure the Dáil seat left vacant by Paschal Donohoe.

I was not involved in any way in the planning, preparation or conduct of any of the bombings, and have never been a senior, let alone most senior figure, in the IRA. I had no involvement in or advance knowledge of the Old Bailey bombing (1973), the Canary Wharf bombing (1996) or the Manchester bombing (1996).

'Old age,' Bette Davis once said, 'is not for wimps.' There's nothing wimpy about the formidable team of Terry Prone (77) and Fergus Finlay (75). The communications doyenne and the former Barnados CEO are about to launch Grey Matters, a new podcast which is billed as 'a long overdue conversation about ageing'.

When the gunmen came for Jimmy Graham they were thorough. They fired the first two shots as he parked his bus in the school yard, then boarded the bus and fired another 24 shots. As the killers sped away they whooped in delight. Yahoo, they screamed. Yahoo. It was 1 February 1985 and the IRA team had special reason to celebrate: it had bagged a third Graham brother. They had killed Ronnie Graham in June 1981, Cecil Graham in November 1981 and now, just over three years later, they got Jimmy. A hat-trick.

Even unionists would struggle to object to such a move, even if the Irish Government has shied away from it Why is there no Irish passport office in Belfast? Once, such a question would only have been asked by the most ideologically committed northern nationalists. Demand for Irish passports was limited, the issue was seen as controversial and even if those objections were overcome, security considerations would have made such a proposal problematic.

February 25, 2006 was a busy day in Dublin, where concert goers, rugby fans and film festival attendees mingled on the city streets. It was a bright spring day in that optimistic era that followed the Good Friday Agreement, a time when "reconciliation" was the word on everyone's lips. So few could have imagined that reconciliation would become rioting before the afternoon was out.

When the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky first addressed the Dáil via video link back in 2022, Mary Lou McDonald was amongst his most ardent supporters. It was the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Sinn Féin leader hit out at the "ferocious violence" and the "shameful disinformation war" being waged by the Putin regime "to justify the savagery of its military invasion".

Ahern said that Mitchell has been a friend of his for 30 years and that if he did have contact with Epstein after his 2008 conviction, "he shouldn't have"

I was absolutely delighted to welcome Uachtarán na hÉireann Catherine Connolly to Belfast today. She's here for a packed visit over the next couple of days, many community events. It was my honour as First Minister to welcome her to Stormont Castle. She is very much fulfilling her pledge that she made to be a president for all, to make her first official visit to the north. It was just great to have her here today. I believe that her whole campaign was about hope, about opportunity. It was about inclusion, it was about unity, it was about building for the future, and I think that we are going to enjoy a very good relationship with her throughout her tenure as Uachtarán na hÉireann.