#mary-hanafin

#mary-hanafin

Look, he's lucky I exist. That's all I can say, because if you're gonna allow countries that are sick and demented—and they are demented—to have nuclear weapons everybody in the whole world should be very thankful, and I'm disappointed in NATO. Very disappointed.

Freezing, knock-kneed and shivering in a tartan pleated skirt. A withering bunch of shamrock attached by safety pin to the only green jumper I owned, still damp from its overnight submersion and the splash of holy water from early mass. A grey, damp day, squashed up against a cold metal barrier since early morning, to 'get a good spot', a red line for my father.

Former EU Commissioner, Phil Hogan, has been nominated as Ireland's candidate to be the next Director-General of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The Cabinet has agreed to put him name forward for the role and it's expected he will get the backing of other EU countries for the election of the position, which takes place in summer 2027.

'Old age,' Bette Davis once said, 'is not for wimps.' There's nothing wimpy about the formidable team of Terry Prone (77) and Fergus Finlay (75). The communications doyenne and the former Barnados CEO are about to launch Grey Matters, a new podcast which is billed as 'a long overdue conversation about ageing'.

Buckley's tribute to her Hamnet co-star at the Critics' Choice awards was better than the preaching we often hear The identity of Jessie Buckley's husband is wrapped in more mystery than the whereabouts of the Ark of the Covenant, or why anyone watches Mrs Brown's Boys. It is known that his name is Freddie, that he is British (which is not his fault) and he works in mental health. His surname and age have never been revealed.

SNA allocations fiasco has put the spotlight on Hildegarde Naughton once again The Government got an awful shock last week. Ministers suddenly discovered their policies were being taken seriously. There they were thinking their job was just to go around announcing hypothetical proposals and then letting them drift away in the hope the public would forget about the issue in time.

I was absolutely delighted to welcome Uachtarán na hÉireann Catherine Connolly to Belfast today. She's here for a packed visit over the next couple of days, many community events. It was my honour as First Minister to welcome her to Stormont Castle. She is very much fulfilling her pledge that she made to be a president for all, to make her first official visit to the north. It was just great to have her here today. I believe that her whole campaign was about hope, about opportunity. It was about inclusion, it was about unity, it was about building for the future, and I think that we are going to enjoy a very good relationship with her throughout her tenure as Uachtarán na hÉireann.

I suppose every part of me, I wasn't well, I was physically drained, I had lost loads of weight, I wasn't sleeping, and it crept up on me very quickly. I'd had some kind of virally things, but didn't think they were significant until I was hit with this. I suppose it was like a bolt from the blue, where I was knocked sideways and couldn't keep going.

If there are two commandments in Irish politics - get thyself elected and mind thy seat - there might be room for another about boosting thy salary. But do government wages in this country need an overhaul?

At yesterday's monthly council meeting, elected representatives passed a motion calling his assertion "baseless" and accusing him of attempting to "scapegoat and demonise migrants" for the housing crisis. Introducing the motion, Labour councillor Darragh Moriarty said the Tánaiste was conflating the issues of housing, homelessness and immigration, and had presided over a housing crisis for the last decade and a half. "[Simon Harris] has never met a problem that he won't blame on someone else, and now he's pointing the finger at migrants. It's disgraceful," he said.

When the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky first addressed the Dáil via video link back in 2022, Mary Lou McDonald was amongst his most ardent supporters. It was the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Sinn Féin leader hit out at the "ferocious violence" and the "shameful disinformation war" being waged by the Putin regime "to justify the savagery of its military invasion".