“Currently, live music bookings are handled through a mix of WhatsApp messages, phone calls, spreadsheets and agents. This creates unnecessary administration, poor visibility around availability and last-minute cancellations,” says Matthews, who co-founded digital booking platform CeolConnect, with Hugh Prendergast and Sam Owens last year. “CeolConnect is designed to simplify how live music is booked and managed across Ireland’s hospitality sector. Venues can post gigs, manage schedules, confirm bookings and keep track of their live music calendar in one place. “The platform is built specifically around the realities of Irish live music, where recurring weekly gigs, local relationships, and trust matter,” Matthews adds.

The businessman Denis O’Brien has welcomed the decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) not to pursue criminal proceedings arising from the Garda inquiry into the Moriarty tribunal report on payments to politicians. O’Brien acknowledged that the task facing the tribunal chairman, Judge Michael Moriarty, had been a difficult one but said the tribunal had rejected evidence “unhelpful to the case being prosecuted by them”. “I believe the Moriarty tribunal’s report was a clear manifestation of these fundamental structural shortcomings,” O’Brien said. Evidence gathered by a tribunal cannot be used in a criminal case and the Garda had to conduct its own, fresh inquiries. The report was “always flawed, not being based on hard facts or admissible evidence, but on conjecture, manipulation and speculation,” he said.

Many of Iran’s missile launch sites ‘have still not been located by US forces’US forces have been unable to locate all of Iran’s missile launch sites, ­officials have admitted. Some officials have suggested that Mr Trump and his advisers misjudged how Iran would respond. US officials told Axios that snubbing the proposal was one of the biggest tactical miscalculations by the Trump administration. The US news website reported that during a White House meeting in August, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky offered Mr Trump low-cost interceptor drones. The waterway had been effectively closed for tankers since the Iran war began when the post was published, causing chaos for global oil markets.

Jack Draper overcame Novak Djokovic for the first time in his career to keep the defence of his Indian Wells title on track. Djokovic took a hard-fought opening set 6-4 but Draper responded by taking a second break point in the opening game of the second. A powerful forehand winner down the line in the next earned Draper three break points at 0-40 and he broke with the first when Djokovic netted. Djokovic refused to roll over and saved two set points before an ace finally drew the left-hander level. Djokovic sent a backhand long to hand Draper a first match point in the tiebreak and netted a backhand to hand the Briton one of the most significant wins of his career.

A senior Dublin City Council (DCC) planner conceded that they have concerns over the watering down of fire safety rules for apartment schemes in the capital. Housing Minister James Browne. "There’s been an ongoing battle to maintain housing standards in Dublin,” he said. Dublin architect Mel Reynolds said he would “concur with the concerns”, and said many of the new apartment standards “haven’t really been thought through”. Mr Reynolds assessed two housing schemes after former minister Kelly reduced apartment standards, and those wide-ranging changes saved a mere €600 per apartment.

Tributes are pouring in for veteran Home and Away star Wendy Playfair, who died on Wednesday aged 99, just five months shy of her 100th birthday. The beloved actress had a fifty year career in Australian film and television, appearing in many acclaimed productions including Home and Away, Prisoner and Packed to the Rafters. 'The Playfair family have just advised me of the passing of the beautiful and incredibly talented Wendy Playfair, who has died peacefully at the age of 99,' they began. 'Many fans will fondly remember Wendy for her role as Minnie Donovan, the formidable Top Dog of Wentworth Detention Centre in the iconic Australian television series Prisoner. RIP Wendy,' someone else wrote.

Arsenal are still on track to reach the Champions League quarter-finals; on paper, they are the better side compared to Bayer Leverkusen. We'll adapt a few things and yes, we'll move on.’On the penalty, Arteta declined to comment. Leverkusen did to Arsenal what Arsenal have done to so many sides this season — death by a set-piece. MATCH RATINGS BAYER LEVERKUSEN (3-4-2-1): Blaswich 6.5; Quansah 7, Andrich 6.5, Tapsoba 6.5; Poku 6.5, Palacios 7, Garcia 6, Grimaldo 7; Terrier 7, Maza 6.5 (Tillman 74, 5.5); Kofane 7. ARSENAL (4-2-3-1): Raya 6.5; Timber 6, Saliba 5.5, Gabriel 5.5, Hincapie 6; Rice 7, Zubimendi 5.5; Saka 5.5 (Madueke 60, 7.5), Eze 5.5, Martinelli 6; Gyokeres 5.5 (Havertz 74, 7).

Contacts between Irish and British officials have not always been like this, particularly in the past decade. The attendance of high-level officials shows how good relations have resumed after the turmoil of the Brexit years. Then there is the summit itself, with the necessary follow-ups afterwards, before preparations begin for the next meeting. There is doubt among some on the Irish side that it would thrive as well without Starmer. He is genuine about his interest in the British-Irish relationship, but his successors might not be,” said one Irish official.

It was January 2025 and the early stages of the new Gaelic football rules rollout. The introduction of the two-pointer to Gaelic football has taken time to win the public over. Read More The Gaelic Football Show: why this is a crunch weekend in the season for players and managersThere have been some notable examples of hat-tricks in recent weeks. Clare forward Mark McInerney recently scored a hat-trick from play to go with two two-pointers, kicked off both left and right, against Limerick. It is because of them we are able to tell you that the first tricolour in championship history was scored by Meath’s Ruairí Kinsella.

The performance of students in the Leaving Certificate is more likely to be influenced by the schools they attend than the neighbourhoods they live in, a new report suggests. Report authors Emer Smyth and Merike Darmody noted there is growing interest internationally in how school and neighbourhood contexts make a difference to academic achievement. They said it can be difficult to disentangle school and neighbourhood effects in countries where all students in a particular area attend their local school. The research said the level of choice among second-level schools in Ireland means it “can provide more precise estimates of school and neighbourhood effects than those available internationally”. Neighbourhood characteristics also make a difference to achievement, with lower grades in areas characterised by higher levels of socioeconomic disadvantage and more neighbourhood disorder.

Grace Tame has revealed her lucrative speaking gigs have all but dried up in the wake of her shouting 'globalise the intifada' at a pro-Palestine rally. Tame admitted during a speech at the No to Violence conference in Hobart on Thursday that she had no more speaking engagements for the rest of the year. Last week three speaking engagements had been cancelled because of an 'ongoing media smear campaign', she said. After her comments were reported by the ABC, Tame took to Instagram to rip into the national broadcaster, accusing it of pandering to the 'pro-Israel lobby' with its portrayal of her. Grace Tame has revealed she has no more speaking engagements for the rest of the year, blaming it on a smear campaignWeeks after the attack - the worst terrorist incident in Australian history - Tame led chants to 'Globalise the Intifada'.

Today’s application is aimed at preparing the Tivoli lands for long-term regeneration as port operations are gearing up to move downstream out of Tivoli Docks and the city quays to Ringaskiddy and Marino Point. Tivoli’s transformation could mirror that seen in historic port cities where docklands have been reimagined.”The proposed development as part of the long-term regeneration of the Tivoli docks. The Port of Cork is the second largest natural harbour in the world and has been a key international trade gateway for centuries. Henry Kingston, PoCC’s chief land development officer, praised this planning application as a “very robust plan”. “We aimed to successfully demonstrate how improved access in and out of Tivoli is a critical step in preparing Tivoli for future regeneration.

Madrid won 3-0, thanks to a quite magnificent hat-trick from skipper Federico Valverde but it might easily have been more. It took City longer to go behind but Real took the lead on 20 minutes. Vinicius Jr demanded the ball on the left and ran at the retreating City defence. Valverde took it in his stride and, with his first touch, he hooked the ball over the head of Marc Guehi. Vinicius Jr took the penalty, Donnarumma guessed correctly, dived to his left and pushed it away.

New immigration strategy ‘must benefit Irish people’, ministers toldBriefing document highlights importance of ‘respect for rule of law’New migration strategy ‘must benefit Irish people’, ministers toldCónal Thomas Today at 06:30Migration into the country must be to the benefit of Irish people, Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan has privately told Government ministers.

The decision of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) not to bring criminal charges against anyone arising from the Moriarty tribunal’s final report in 2011 has been welcomed by Michael Lowry and Denis O’Brien. In his statement on Tuesday, Lowry criticised the tribunal’s 2011 report as “flawed” and based on “conjecture, manipulation and speculation” rather than hard facts or admissible evidence. Neither O’Brien nor Lowry referred in their relatively short statements to the money trail findings of the tribunal, which they rejected at the time of the tribunal’s report. After Lowry’s fall from grace in late 1996, the tribunal also decided that O’Brien supplied financial support to Lowry for property ventures in England. He was a target of the McCracken (Dunnes Payments) Tribunal, the Judge tribunal, an inquiry by the Revenue Commissioners that went on for years and a Garda investigation that also lasted years.