Tributes paid to ‘erudite and impactful’ former TD Máirin Quill who has died in Cork
Máirin Quill, a native of Kilgarvan in Co Kerry, has died at the age of 89. Photograph: Matt KavanaghTaoiseach Micheál Martin has led tributes to former Cork North Central Progressive Democrats TD and a founder member of the party Máirin Quill who died in Cork on Thursday at the age of 89. “Erudite and impactful, Máirin championed the arts and culture in Cork city – I served on many boards with her, but I particularly enjoyed our time together on the arts committee of Cork Corporation. In 1987 she won a seat for the party in Cork North Central, one of 14 PD TDs returned for the 25th Dáil. Ms Quill’s funeral takes place on Saturday at 10am in St Patrick’s Church, Lower Glanmire Road, Cork.
Source:The Irish Times
December 19, 2025 14:37 UTC
Greystar buys 700-bed student accommodation in Dublin and Galway for €105m
Cúirt na Coiribe comprises 434 student beds and is located close to the University of Galway and the city centre. Greystar, the US property investment firm, has agreed to acquire a portfolio of more than 700 student beds in Dublin and Galway, establishing it as one of the biggest operators of purpose-built student accommodation in Ireland. Project Galaxy comprises 290 units at Mayor Square in Dublin’s IFSC, and 434 beds at Cúirt na Coiribe in Galway. The Dublin scheme is located adjacent to the National College of Ireland (NCI) campus and is a short walk to Trinity College Dublin. [ Greystar buys Dublin student housing scheme for around €150mOpens in new window ]Cúirt na Coiribe, meanwhile, is located close to the University of Galway and Galway city centre.
Source:The Irish Times
December 19, 2025 12:16 UTC
Circle K’s Ciara Foxton: ‘The grid isn’t strong enough’ for EV charging in all areas
Ciara Foxton, managing director of Circle K Ireland, at its service station in Dublin Port. Including the forecourt, Circle K occupies an eye-popping real estate footprint in the port. The group has invested more than €15 million in EV charging infrastructure in the past three years. “I don’t have a magic number in my head,” she says when asked how much Circle K plans to invest in EV charging over the coming years. “Even leaning into the EV charging [side of the business], you’re stopping and maybe dwelling a little bit longer.
Source:The Irish Times
December 19, 2025 12:01 UTC
Life on a remote Danish island: It is the same as west Cork in many ways
The island is the same as west Cork in many ways: granite cliffs, fishing industry, farming, arty with tourism. My children’s grandad was born and raised on the island, so just like in west Cork, we are related to half the country. The rocky Baltic Sea coast of Svaneke on Bornholm island, Denmark. She now lives in Bornholm, an island three hours from the Danish capital. This article is part of a series following Irish people living abroad in remote areas or countries with small Irish-born populations.
Source:The Irish Times
December 19, 2025 12:01 UTC
Irish grandmother Donna Hughes-Brown to be released from US custody
Jim Brown, whose wife Donna Hughes-Brown was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, stands near US secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem at a recent committee hearing in Washington. Photograph: GettyDonna Hughes-Brown, the Irish woman who has been held in a US immigration detention centre since July, is to be released in the coming days following a court hearing on Thursday. “She’s no longer deportable,” her husband, Jim Brown, said shortly after the court hearing concluded. “The DHS (department of homeland security) can still appeal the decision so that is why our lawyer is filing a bond. At one, Kristi Noem, the secretary for homeland security, thanked him for his military service in the navy and agreed to examine the case.
Source:The Irish Times
December 19, 2025 11:34 UTC
Temperatures set to drop to -2 over weekend but white Christmas unlikely
Snow is not expected over the Christmas period but prepare for low temperatures, says Met Éireann. Sunshine will develop more widely in the afternoon with highest temperatures of 7 to 10 degrees. Saturday will have a windy start with some scattered showers and highest temperatures of 7 to 11 degrees. Highest temperatures will be 4 to 8 degrees. Highest temperatures are forecast to be 4 to 8 degrees with a light easterly breeze.
Source:The Irish Times
December 19, 2025 10:49 UTC
It is right to be careful about our language after Bondi. But we can’t fall silent on Gaza – The Irish Times
A child of 10 with her face painted for a party was among 16 people who died in the Bondi shooting. In Australia last weekend, other people were unknowingly tasting their last latkes in celebration of Hanukkah when two men riddled them with gunfire on Sydney’s Bondi Beach. When news broke of the brutality on Bondi Beach, politicians, human rights campaigners and commentators will have paused to examine their consciences for anything that might have contributed to the killers’ anti-Semitism. Wrong is wrong. Nothing excuses what those two killers did on Bondi Beach.
Source:The Irish Times
December 19, 2025 10:41 UTC
The only way I could afford to come back to Dublin is if the Irish Government hired me for a very specific role – The Irish Times
Are their children working jobs outside of their degrees purely because it’s on the sponsored skill list? Or were their children able to secure well-paying jobs and/or live in one of the family’s investment properties instead of paying €1,000 for a single room in an Irish city? [ Brianna Parkins: I don’t enjoy Christmas as much as I did as a kidOpens in new window ]And the Irish Government response? It’s wrongOpens in new window ]The only way I could afford to come back to Dublin is if the Irish Government hired me for a very specific role. Between this column being written and published, the worst terror attack on Australian soil was committed in the city where I live, Sydney.
Source:The Irish Times
December 19, 2025 09:53 UTC
The Irish Times view on the UK rejoining the Erasmus scheme: a sign of things to come?
The UK government’s agreement with the EU to rejoin the Erasmus educational exchange scheme for university students, apprentices, sporting bodies and adult learners is a welcome confirmation that its wider “reset” with the EU is genuine. The decision follows those on scientific research, veterinary and electricity schemes; it may herald more important ones on the customs union, security and defence. A more explicit reconsideration of elements of Brexit by the Labour government is driven by growing evidence of its economic damage and geopolitical misjudgments. The Erasmus scheme pioneered by Jacques Delors and Irish commissioner Peter Sutherland in 1987, inspired by Renaissance humanism, has seen millions of students spend up to a year in places of learning elsewhere in Europe without paying additional fees. UK re-entry comes ahead of ambitious plans to extend the scope of what is now called the Erasmus + scheme in the next EU budgetary period.
Source:The Irish Times
December 19, 2025 09:21 UTC
Jeffrey Epstein photos: Woody Allen, Noam Chomsky among those pictured in latest release
Jeffrey Epstein and an unidentified person in one of the images released from Epstein's estate. The president’s one-time top strategist Steve Bannon is also pictured with the disgraced financier, as are public intellectual Noam Chomsky and film-maker Woody Allen. Mr Trump has acknowledged that he and Epstein were once friends but said they fell out more than two decades ago. New photographs released from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate include this image of Bill Gates. House Democrats said they had received 95,000 pictures from the Epstein estate as part of lawmakers’ investigation into the financier.
Source:The Irish Times
December 19, 2025 08:07 UTC
Government unlikely to hit its housing targets, Central Bank says
The Central Bank said its housing forecasts were conditional on the revised National Development Plan delivering new infrastructureThe Central Bank of Ireland has raised doubts over whether the Government will achieve its target of building 300,000 new homes by 2030. The Government’s new housing plan promises that a minimum of 300,000 new homes will be built by 2030 but a sharp slowdown in commencements has placed a question mark over that target. The Central Bank said its housing forecasts were conditional on the Government’s revised National Development Plan delivering new infrastructure “that relieves current binding constraints in energy, water and wastewater”. Headline growth (in MDD terms) is expected to average 2.9 per cent between 2026 and 2028. “Domestic activity signals are more mixed, with data pointing to a slower pace of growth and higher inflation,” he said.
Source:The Irish Times
December 19, 2025 07:54 UTC
Inside Tommy Robinson’s world: Leader of Britain’s right-wing nationalist upsurge
Be there in an hour.”Robinson (43) is the UK’s most notorious anti-Muslim activist and the street leader of the radical right-wing nationalist upsurge gripping Britain. A band plays during a Christmas carol service in Whitehall, London, organised by Tommy Robinson's Unite the Kingdom movement on Saturday, December 13th. Dean Sohail, a Pakistani convert to Christianity who now works as a chaplain, and who was backstage at Robinson's event. Wearing slicked-back hair and a long beard, Doolan, a self-confessed former “hopeless addict”, is also at the Whitehall event. Tommy Robinson delivers a speech at a Unite the Kingdom Christmas event.
Source:The Irish Times
December 19, 2025 07:17 UTC
Global shares jump as markets cheer US inflation surprise
The S&P 500 halted a four-day slide, with tech shares leading the charge after Micron Technology’s solid outlook, which propelled its share price 15.5 per cent higher. DublinThe Iseq index added 0.6 per cent, pulled higher by the banks and Ryanair. Ryanair jumped by 0.6 per cent to close at €29.62, part of a sectoral move for the European airline industry. The rebound was also fuelled by tech stocks after an upbeat forecast from the largest US memory chipmaker, Micron Technology. Index heavyweight Shell was up by 0.1 per cent, while Centrica moved 0.6 per cent higher.
Source:The Irish Times
December 19, 2025 01:16 UTC
Jury unanimously convicts school-transport operators of anti-competition offences
The five men were found guilty of colluding a decade ago to drive tender prices higher in the provision of schoolbus services. File photograph: Getty ImagesA jury at the Central Criminal Court has unanimously convicted five men of colluding a decade ago to drive tender prices higher in the provision of schoolbus services across the southwest of the country. The jury was told that 10 per cent of school routes were provided directly by Bus Éireann, with 90 per cent serviced by contractors. He would invite other bus operators, and the prosecution alleged they would then discuss the allocation and pricing of the schoolbus routes. Mr Cahill told the jury in his closing speech that his client was “supporting his fellow busmen” in the tendering process.
Source:The Irish Times
December 18, 2025 23:53 UTC
IVF centre receives advertising complaint for claims of ‘20,000 babies born’
First IVF attracted complaints to the Advertising Standards Agency over claims about 'outstanding success rates' with 'over 20,000 babies born and counting'. First IVF attracted complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority over claims about “outstanding success rates” with “over 20,000 babies born and counting”. One complainant said the claim that First IVF was responsible for “20,000 babies and counting” was highly improbable given it had only been operational since 2021. The advertiser said the statement “20,000 babies and counting” was never intended to suggest that First IVF alone was responsible for that number. “We are committed to strengthening accountability and compliance with the code across the Irish advertising industry.”
Source:The Irish Times
December 18, 2025 23:25 UTC