Sinn Féin TD for Louth Joanna Byrne says she will resist efforts which she claims have been made by Drogheda United’s board to remove her as co-chairperson of the club. The alleged move by the board comes after Byrne called for the FAI to boycott the Republic of Ireland’s Nations League fixtures against Israel later this year. “I stand over those comments.”Since 2023, Drogheda is owned by The Trivela Group, an Alabama-registered family office formed by Ben Boycott and Ken Polk which holds €11 billion in capital. In response to Byrne’s statement on Wednesday, Drogheda United commented: “Drogheda United Football Club has noted the statement issued regarding our co-chair, Joanna Byrne. To be clear, the substance of Ms Byrne’s views has never been attacked by the club or Trivela Group.”

Pay rises are stalling or slowing as employers trim costs and ease recruitment, recruitment group Morgan McKinley says in a new report. Employers have also slowed the rate at which they hire workers, according to Tracy Keevans, the firm’s global FDI director. Keevans said bigger employers’ slowdown in graduate recruitment benefited smaller businesses, which were able to hire more people with college degrees as a result. The firm’s report does not include building trades’ pay, but shows salaries paid to professional workers in the industry. In Cork, the same worker can also earn up to €90,000, while pay in other cities reaches €80,000, Morgan McKinley says.

Perhaps we all need to check our prescription because the ease with which people have fallen for obvious artificial intelligence (AI) training models lately is alarming. We love to be flattered, we love things that are easy, and we love to try things that our friends have done. That is obviously far less appealing, and the people putting together AI training models know it. Viral fads are a relatively low-effort way for AI training models to hoover up swathes of information to get smarter. You alone eschewing fads that are AI training models won’t stop them from learning.

‌Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, a lot of the conversation around the club has focused on the summer. Fresh Barcelona battleManchester United could be in line for not one but two Barcelona targets, according to reports in Germany. Bayern Munich, Eintracht Frankfurt, Bayer Leverkusen, RB Leipzig, Barcelona and Real Madrid have been named as potential suitors, along with United. Article continues belowFOLLOW OUR MAN UTD FB PAGE! Latest United news and more on our dedicated Facebook pageJoin our new MAN UTD WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Manchester United content from Mirror Football.

EmailMarried At First Sight viewers have lashed out at controversial bride Gia Fleur, after she blamed producers for her 'mean girl' bullying against co-stars Stella and Alissa at the Stan Dinner Party. The shock Dinner Party saw Gia, 35, and her co-star Brook Crompton, 27, unleash vile insults at the fellow brides. 'At that Dinner Party, things happened before it that were really hard. 'We really took it up a notch at the Dinner Party... we are really not proud of our behaviour. The Stan series MAFS: After The Dinner Party aired unseen footage of Brook and Gia continuing their attack against Stella Mickunaite and Alissa Fay behind the scenes.

Only when it was remarked that mankind had ruined the earth was an outer ring of the target hit. Brecht’s heavy-handed German ideas of American frontier colloquialism are rendered even more ludicrous by Jeremy Sams’s English translation, which adds an encrustation of banality to the peculiar original. Weill managed one hit song, ‘Moon Of Alabama’ with its quaint lyrics, so of course we have to hear it three times. Danielle de Niese as Jenny does her considerable best with it, but even she cannot rescue her other main number. Exiting from the London Coliseum, I gratefully gave a quid to a beggar just to reassert my humanity.

Britain and the US have a joint military base on Diego Garcia, the biggest of the Chagos Islands. Photograph: Alamy/PADonald Trump wants to stop Britain returning some islands in the Indian Ocean to its former colony of Mauritius. The dependencies included the Chagos Islands, which were mostly populated by the descendants of enslaved people who had been brought there from East Africa to work on coconut plantations. In May last year, the Labour government concluded an agreement that recognised the sovereignty of Mauritius over the Chagos Islands, including Diego Garcia. If Trump wishes to use Diego Garcia for his next attack on Iran, he will need Starmer’s approval and this could prove difficult.

The report on the pipeline of housing activity showed that of the 27,288 homes with planning permission in the Dublin City Council area in the third quarter of 2025, 26,813 or 98.3 per cent were apartments. In Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, 15,609 or 88 per cent of the 17,736 new homes with planning permission were apartments. In Fingal, planning permission was in place for 21,022 homes (13,539 or 64.4 per cent of which are apartments), while in the South Dublin County Council area planning permission was in place for 14,534 new homes (9,887 or 68 per cent of which are apartments). There are early signs of that change reflected in the houses and apartments available for sale in Dublin, the commuter counties and beyond. A selection of these developments is included in this week’s Irish Times coverage of new homes.

I don’t know how parents don’t spend all day, every day, worrying that they’re creating monsters. And I know that the ones worrying the most are the women in my life who are raising boys. And the dads are so important, but in my life it’s the mothers I’m most attuned to. And the dads are so important, but in my life it’s the mothers I’m most attuned to. It’s the mothers that the little boys are obsessed with, that the little boys want to marry, that the little boys deafen with their play.

Gordon Ramsay says he doesn’t want his ambition to be a ‘burden’ to his childrenBy Yolanthe Fawehinmi, Press AssociationCelebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has said he never wanted to “burden his children with his own ambition”. The 59-year-old, who shows a different side to himself in the new Netflix documentary series Being Gordon Ramsay, shares six children with his wife Tana Ramsay – Megan, 27, Holly, 26, Jack, 26, Tilly, 24, Oscar, six and Jesse, two. Being Gordon Ramsay follows the restaurateur, as he works towards opening five restaurants in one of London’s tallest buildings, 22 Bishopsgate – his biggest culinary ventures to date. Gordon Ramsay and his wife Tana have six children (Netflix/PA)“So far, we have an amazing police officer, and she is incredible. We need to change that environment, because it’s one of the most expressive, emotional things you can ever do.”Being Gordon Ramsay will be available to stream on Netflix on Wednesday.

Mikel Arteta points finger of blame for Arsenal's dramatic collapse vs WolvesArsenal led a crucial victory slip through their fingers against rock-bottom Wolves with boss Mikel Arteta having spoken out on his side's collapse at MolineuxView 2 Images Mikel Arteta's side slipped up against Wolves (Image: Getty Images)Mikel Arteta blamed Arsenal's dismal second-half display for their baffling collapse against bottom-club Wolves and says they deserved' to drop points at Molineux. ‌The draw leaves Arsenal vulnerable, with Pep Guardiola's Manchester City now just five points behind with a game in hand. Wolves comeback stuns Arsenal as title race takes huge new twist - 5 talking points READ MORE :Bukayo Saka limps off as Arsenal suffer major scare ahead of Tottenham READ MORE :MAKE THE MIRROR YOUR FIRST CHOICE! Click here to activate or add us as Preferred Source in your Google search settingsSpeaking after the game, Arsenal boss Arteta has slammed his side for their second-half performance in the Midlands. View 2 Images Mikel Arteta saw his side collapse at Molineux (Image: Getty Images)‌FOLLOW OUR ARSENAL FB PAGE!

Is there anything from what Scotland did tactically, though, that Ireland can also use to close the apparent gap between the sides? Photograph: Andy Buchanan/AFP via GettyOf all the areas where Scotland may have bettered England, the aerial game was not entirely predictable. If Scotland did look for touch, Ben White at scrumhalf was excellent when finding length on his clearing box kicks. We may well have seen that variance simply swinging against England in a one-off match, as much as Scotland outcompeting them. Ireland can of course improve their own aerial game and look for similar success to Scotland.

‌Marek Mirga failed to appear in court several times after the council decided to prosecute him when he failed to pay a £400 fixed penalty notice. ‌But at Plymouth Magistrates’ Court last week he pleaded guilty for the incident at George Place in July 2023 and was ordered to pay £1,887 in fines and costs. On 26 January 2026, Mirga was arrested by Nottinghamshire Police and brought before Nottingham Magistrates’ Court. He was subsequently bailed to attend in person at Plymouth Magistrates’ Court on February 12 where he admitted the offence. A total of 132 fixed penalty notices for dumping rubbish were issued during 2025.

More babies are stillborn or die within a month of being born in Ireland every year than people die on the roads, a bereaved mother warned on Wednesday. It also heard from senators Nicole Ryan and Tom Clonan on their personal experiences with pregnancy loss and how services could be improved based on this trauma. Cork woman Mairie Cregan, of Feileacain the stillbirth and neonatal death charity, discussed the need to raise awareness of preventable baby deaths. Professor Keelin O’Donoghue lead, Pregnancy Loss Research Group, University College Cork, said this is a “significant” challenge. “I think unfortunately all aspects of pregnancy loss have been quite a stigmatised issue, quite a hidden issue and something that people don’t talk about,” she said.

US president Donald Trump hosts a signing ceremony for his proposed Board of Peace during the World Economic Forum in Davos. Photograph: Doug Mills/The New York TimesDonald Trump’s controversial Board of Peace will hold its first meeting in Washington on Thursday to discuss Gaza’s reconstruction. Announced last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the board was conceived as a temporary body linked to the Gaza ceasefire and reconstruction. [ McEntee ‘doesn’t see’ Ireland joining Donald Trump’s Board of PeaceOpens in new window ]Disarmament is a key stumbling block in the Gaza ceasefire process. The United Nations, World Bank and European Union estimate that reconstruction of the territory will cost a staggering $70 billion.