Author: News Desk

Ballot papers for the next member of Seanad Éireann go out on 23 October 2026, and only 233 people can return them.The seat is on the Cultural and Educational Panel and has been vacant since Seán Kyne was elected to the Dáil in May. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Browne, announced the polling day order on 24 September. Nominations closed at noon on 6 October, the Seanad Returning Officer rules on nominations on 16 October, and the poll closes at 11am on Friday 6 November 2026, according to the Department’s notice.When Kyne won this seat in…

Courts are cancelled, schools may close and the HSE is planning to cancel all non-urgent care on Wednesday 14 October 2026, as public service unions hold a one-day strike over pay. The Courts Service, the HSE and the Department of Education and Youth have each published notices for the day.It may not be the only one. The Department’s circular to schools, dated 8 October, refers to one-day work stoppages on 14 October and 21 October 2026. The National Shared Services Office lists the same two dates, following a work-to-rule that began on 30 September.On Monday 12 October the Minister for…

Recommendations from Irish citizens’ assemblies have gone to the people six times since 2015. Voters said yes three times and no three times.The no votes include the two most recent referendums. On 8 March 2024, proposals that grew out of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality were rejected: 67.69% voted against the family amendment and 73.93% against the care amendment, according to the Referendum Returning Officer. No referendum has been held since.Most assembly recommendations never reach a ballot paper at all. They go to an Oireachtas committee, then to Government departments, and their fate is harder to track. Here is…

An animated look at international migration into Ireland and county-to-county movement inside the State Ireland’s migration story is changing the shape of the country. New residents are arriving from across the world while people already living in Ireland are moving between counties, often following housing, work, family and affordability pressures.This interactive map brings both movements together. It shows major international migration patterns into Ireland and internal county-to-county movement within the State, using official population data. The result is a clearer picture of where people are coming from, where they are settling and how migration is reshaping Ireland’s population map. Play…

Approximately one third of Irish households rent their home. For many of them, the legal framework that governs that rental relationship is something they encounter only when something goes wrong when a rent increase arrives, when a landlord serves a notice of termination, or when a dispute about a deposit or a repair becomes impossible to resolve informally. By then, the question of what the law actually says and what can be done about it has become urgent.The law governing private residential tenancies in Ireland is primarily contained in the Residential Tenancies Acts 2004 to 2024, a body of legislation…

There is a particular kind of silence that settles over a town when it begins to die. It is not the silence of the countryside which has its own rhythms, its own life. It is the silence of empty shopfronts on a main street that once had a butcher, a pharmacy, a hardware shop and a post office within fifty metres of each other. It is the sound of a community centre with no programming, a GAA pitch with no underage teams, a school with falling rolls.Ireland has several communities experiencing this challenge. The 2022 Census produced population data that…

Ireland Road Accident Map: Collision Hotspots and Crash Data by Location An interactive map of every serious-injury and fatal road collision recorded across Ireland in 2024 — revealing that the locations where crashes happen most often are not the same places where they kill.n 2024, Ireland recorded 1,582 serious-injury and fatal road collisions across all 26 counties. Behind those numbers lies a stark geographical divide. Dublin generated the largest share of incidents over a quarter of the national total concentrated heavily around the city centre during the evening commute. But the west of Ireland tells a different story: Mayo, Donegal,…

Gopalkrishna Gandhi’s appearance at Trinity College Dublin this weekend brought together several strands of history that continue to connect Ireland and India: literature, anti-colonial politics, partition, diplomacy and the moral memory of Mahatma Gandhi.The writer, academic and former diplomat was in Dublin as part of JLF Island of Ireland, the all-island edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival. His presence carried a particular resonance. Gopalkrishna Gandhi is the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, but his public career also stands on its own. He has served as a diplomat, administrator, writer and public intellectual, including as India’s High Commissioner to South Africa and…

The Government has announced more than €731,000 in funding for 112 organisations and local authorities under the 2026 Communicating Europe Initiative, as Ireland prepares to take over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union on 1 July.The grants were announced by Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Helen McEntee and Minister of State for European Affairs Thomas Byrne. The Department of Foreign Affairs said the funding will support projects aimed at improving public understanding of the European Union and Ireland’s role within it. The announcement was made at Citywise Education in Jobstown, Tallaght, one of the organisations receiving…

A former Bord na Móna site in Cork Docklands has been transferred to the Land Development Agency, paving the way for a new residential project with the potential to deliver up to 300 affordable homes.The five-acre site on Monahan Road, known locally as the former Suttons Coals site, is located close to Marina Park and opposite the former Live at the Marquee venue, where a separate apartment development is already under construction.The transfer follows engagement between Bord na Móna, the Land Development Agency and Cork City Council. The LDA had previously identified the site as public land with potential for…