CountryNa Clocha Lia, Station Road, Kingscourt, Cavan€699,000, Keenan AuctioneersNot many people know that Na Clocha Lia is just off the main street of Kingscourt in Cavan as it is hidden down a long, tree-lined driveway. The three-bedroom, three-bathroom house is behind an electric gate and sits on 0.4 acres (0.16 hectares). Livingroom, Na Clocha LiaInside the C2-rated home, there is a large livingroom at the centre as well as a sunroom, kitchen and diningroom. There is an overall floor area of 99sq m (1,066sq ft) that includes a kitchen, diningroom and study. The attic is large enough to convert (subject to planning) and there is a solid-block shed in the garden.

Astronaut Chris Hadfield’s wife Helene had to initially take on a lot of the home responsibilities and child rearing to allow her husband pursue his career, he admits. And so they took the rather unusual option at holiday time of Chris taking the children away for a fortnight, but not Helene. Working in the armed forces for the majority of his children’s lives meant that Chris was away from his children a significant amount of time. With a new Irish granddaughter Chris “couldn’t be more delighted”, and he discusses the excitement and anxiety of awaiting her arrival from a distance. “If you’re the child of someone like that, then if you’re successful ‘well of course you’re successful.

The Rule of Law Index is compiled from hundreds of thousands of surveys completed by lawyers, judges and others worldwide. The World Justice Project warned of an “authoritarian push” eroding the rule of law in many countries. Its annual Rule of Law Index reported that 68 per cent of countries showed declines in judicial independence, freedom of expression and assembly, and constraints on government powers. Source: WJP Rule of Law Index Insights 2024“Judiciaries are losing ground to executive overreach, with rising political interference across justice systems,” it said. “Civil justice weakened in 68 per cent of countries, including Ireland,” the index said.

Ireland is home to around 1,500 species of moth, but only two are known to feast on our clothes: the aptly named common clothes moth, and the case-bearing clothes moth. We have helped clothes moths along by making our homes so cosy, with central heating, wall-to-wall carpets and overflowing wardrobes. There was a decline in clothes moth numbers in the 1980s, when synthetic fabrics such as polyester, acrylic, nylon, spandex, and PVC became widespread, leaving less natural material for moths to eat. Small cashmere holes might require 50 stitches, while chunky knits can be faster. The ultimate irony is that, because MothTech is organic cotton, real clothes moths would not touch it.

This would form part of a major restructuring across its corporate workforce, with 14,000 jobs expected to be cut globally. Reuters earlier said the company was planning to cut as many as 30,000 corporate jobs, as the company compensates for overhiring during the peak demand of the pandemic. The figure represents a small percentage of Amazon’s 1.55 million total employees, but nearly 10 per cent of its roughly 350,000 corporate employees. This would mark Amazon’s largest job cut since late 2022, when it started to eliminate around 27,000 positions. Layoffs.fyi, a website tracking tech job cuts, estimated that about 98,000 jobs have been lost so far this year among 216 companies.

in the area of data protection, equality, energy, transport, financial services) play an essential role in implementation and enforcement. There was no cooling-off period between the appointee working as a lobbyist for the tech industry and becoming Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner. This is inimical to the role of independent data protection supervisory authorities under the Charter and to the credibility of the Union’s data protection regime. [35] This is the first and only such action ever taken by any data protection supervisory authority. Since one of the two sitting commissioners has no prior expertise in data protection, the members of Ireland’s data protection supervisory authority include only a single individual who may claim to have any depth of knowledge on data protection.

Photograph: AFP via Getty ImagesSeven seriously ill children were successfully evacuated from Gaza to the Republic via Jordan on Saturday night. Saturday’s mission is the third successful medical evacuation of its kind. The World Health Organisation (WHO) worked to bring the children from Gaza to the border with Jordan in a medevac convoy. The third successful medical evacuation was confirmed by Tánaiste Simon Harris and Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill. Children’s Health Ireland chief executive Lucy Nugent said it was “meaningful and emotional that we can in some way help the children of Gaza”.

Photograph: Nick Bradshaw for The Irish TimesFine Gael MEP Seán Kelly has claimed he was “shafted” by his party when colleagues in Leinster House declined to back him to run for the presidential election. Mr Kelly claimed that Heather Humphreys, who went on to lose to a Catherine Connolly landslide last weekend, had been “anointed” as the candidate. In particular, I think they were quite disappointed with the way the nomination process was handled,” Mr Kelly said. Mr Finucane said he felt Mr Kelly “didn’t get a chance”. “Seán Kelly is fluent in Irish, and I believe that the party made a cardinal mistake in their nomination,” he added.

Gardens near my house have half-buried skeletons emerging from the lawns, some with shreds of tissue still adhering. I saw skulls on a barbecue yesterday, as if the residents were planning human brains for tea. It’s like a simulation of a particularly horrifying civil war, scenes too violent for newspapers and television. You’d think the people of suburban Dublin were going about their business ignoring continual, open-air mass killing and torture. They represent sadism without suffering, dismemberment and execution without pain, because they are made of petrochemical rather than organic material, plastic not flesh.

An illustration of the planned development at the former Central Mental Hospital site in Dundrum, which has been held up for two years by legal challenges. Judicial reviews, once a key check on major planning decisions, have become a weapon of delay, not justice. Legal challenges, often taken on the thinnest of grounds, can hold up a project for years, sometimes killing them entirely. Too often, it’s less about protecting nature than about using the legal system as a stage for personal crusades. In tandem, the bar for judicial reviews needs to be raised and all parties need to be at risk of incurring costs.

The much-awaited trial of the man accused of murdering former prime minister Shinzo Abe starts on Tuesday. Yamagami was born the son of a construction boss in 1980 into a prosperous family that subsequently fell apart. Overwhelmed by these tragedies, Yamagami’s mother joined the Unification Church. Now known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, or the Moonies, the church became noted in Japan for preying on misfortune. Family members say Yamagami’s mother sold the family home and donated the proceeds, along with her husband’s life insurance, to the church.

Photograph: Dan DennisonThe fallout from the landslide win for Catherine Connolly in the presidential election began immediately this weekend. Mary Lou McDonald congratulates Catherine Connolly as she arrives to the final announcement of the 2025 presidential election on Saturday. Ms Connolly said during the campaign it was “at the core of our neutrality”. Dublin South-West TD Mr Lahart said: “Fianna Fáil has suffered. Meanwhile congratulations continued to roll in for president-elect Ms Connolly after her overwhelming victory in Friday’s election.

When Dublin Airport opened 85 years ago, the original terminal building was intended to cater for 100,000 passengers a year. Garda Peter Mullins and Garda Debbie Burnett on duty at Dublin Airport. “I loved the community policing work,” says Burnett, who was previously based at the Bridewell, then Store Street in Dublin city centre. Movement between the different areas of the airport and out around the planes comes with strict rules for the gardaí. In the airport, Burnett says, violent encounters are very rare, with drugs more commonly at the heart of the most serious crime.

The HSE is encouraging people who do not usually avail of a flu vaccine to get the jab. “They’re devising regional plans [and] identifying areas of low uptake – identifying groups where there’s low uptake and focusing resources and maximising uptake in those groups and those areas." The flu vaccine is being indicated among this cohort, as opposed to workers being asked to get both flu and covid jabs. Dr Henry described the rollout of RSV vaccine to newborn babies in hospital last year as a “very positive story”, with 85 per cent uptake. This year, the health service has expanded the vaccine programme to babies aged up to six months as of September 1st.

The successful prosecution of three members of the family of Jozef Puska for withholding information concerning his murder of Ashling Murphy may encourage more such prosecutions, lawyers believe. The outcome of the Puska family case could act as a deterrent to others against withholding information on serious crime, he added. Istokova pleaded guilty before the trial to withholding information. A landmark Supreme Court decision six years ago may have encouraged the DPP to proceed with the withholding information charge. He was not told his failure to respond to questioning could lead to a separate charge of withholding information.