Is Brexit Pulling the United Kingdom Apart? | 7.30

Mar 17, 2023 | The disruptive force of Brexit - the UK's 2020 separation from the European Union - continues to reverberate. The long-running issue of the border between the North and South of Ireland was recently resolved but what the long-term consequences of Brexit will be for the Irish people remains to be seen.

Fintan O'Toole is one of Ireland's leading writers and is in Australia for the Adelaide Writers Festival. He speaks to 7.30’s Sarah Ferguson.

Leo Varadkar Nightclub Footage Triggers Privacy Debate in Ireland

THE GUARDIAN: Leaked clip of deputy leader also fuels moves to tighten social media regulation

Leo Varadkar has said he does not wish to comment on a personal matter. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho/Rex/Shutterstock
A video of Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s tánaiste, socialising in a nightclub has triggered a debate about the right to privacy and regulation of social media.

The brief clip of the deputy prime minister was clandestinely recorded in a Dublin nightclub earlier this month and has racked up millions of views on multiple platforms.

Varadkar told reporters this week he did not wish to comment on a personal matter but hinted at regret. “Everyone makes errors in judgment. You wouldn’t be a human being if you didn’t.” He defended his record in office, saying he got the big calls – the Covid pandemic, Brexit, the economy – right.

The taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader, Micheál Martin, branded the video a violation of his colleague’s right to a private life. » | Rory Carroll, Ireland correspondent | Tuesday, December 13, 2022

The Hunger I ARTE.tv Documentary

Dec 4, 2021 • 175 years ago Europe was struck by a devastating famine. The food crisis was triggered when a deadly fungus escaped from South America and destroyed the potato crops. 100,000 people died of starvation and disease in France, Belgium, Holland, Scotland and the Kingdom of Prussia.

In Ireland, where half the population relied on the potato as their main source of food, the impact was even more extreme. One million people died and between 1845 and 1855, two million emigrated. Today Ireland is the only country in the western world with a population lower than it had in the 1840s. The famine had broader repercussions. It caused the fall of the British government led by Robert Peel in 1846, was a catalyst for the revolutions that rocked Europe in 1848 and became the root for the global Irish Diaspora that today numbers 70,000,000 across the world.

A co-production with RTE

Ireland Condemns ‘de facto Annexation’ of Palestinian Land by Israel

THE GUARDIAN: Foreign minister Simon Coveney supports parliamentary motion and says treatment of Palestinians is ‘manifestly unequal’

Ireland’s government has supported a parliamentary motion condemning the “de facto annexation” of Palestinian land by Israeli authorities in what it said was the first use of the phrase by a European Union government in relation to Israel.

Ireland’s foreign minister, Simon Coveney, supported the motion on Tuesday, and condemned what he described as Israel’s “manifestly unequal” treatment of the Palestinian people.

But he also insisted on adding a condemnation of recent rocket attacks on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas before he agreed to government support for the motion, which had been tabled by the opposition Sinn Fein party.

“The scale, pace and strategic nature of Israel’s actions on settlement expansion and the intent behind it have brought us to a point where we need to be honest about what is actually happening on the ground. ... It is de facto annexation,” Coveney told parliament. » | Reuters | Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Brexit: Ireland Needs to Press for Reunification Vote, Says Sinn Féin

THE GUARDIAN: Party leader Mary Lou McDonald says Boris Johnson’s attitude to EU withdrawal agreement means her country cannot trust him

Ireland cannot trust an “erratic” and “dangerous” Boris Johnson on Brexit and needs to start pressuring Downing Street for a referendum on Irish unification, according to Mary Lou McDonald, the leader of Sinn Féin.

Johnson has forfeited credibility by unpicking the withdrawal agreement and cannot be believed when he says he wants a trade deal, said McDonald. “He’s the prime minister and perfidious Albion just got perfidiouser, if there’s such a word.”

If Britain did not “honour a bargain fairly struck” it would face a backlash from Ireland’s allies in the EU and US, where congressional leaders could sink Downing Street’s hopes of a US trade deal, said McDonald. “If there is damage in Ireland, if there’s a hardening of the border – well, then all bets are off.” » | Rory Carroll, Ireland correspondent | Thursday, October 1, 2020

Ireland Vows to Treat All Covid-19 Patients for Free

The Irish government nationalized its hospitals, imposed a rent freeze, and authorized state-funded childcare, promising free treatment for patients with Covid-19.

Coronavirus: US to Extend Travel Ban to UK and Ireland

BBC: The US is to extend its European coronavirus travel ban to include the UK and Republic of Ireland.

The ban will begin at midnight EST on Monday (04:00 GMT Tuesday), Vice-President Mike Pence announced. » | Saturday, March 14, 2020

Brexit Anxiety in Ireland's Drummully Polyp | Focus on Europe

People in the Irish enclave of Drummully Polyp fear the introduction of a hard border. Some 200 live in Drummully, which is almost entirely surrounded by Northern Ireland. Many think the return of checkpoints could also lead to a return to violence.

Ireland Tells Boris Johnson There Will Be No Backstop Renegotiation

THE GUARDIAN: Irish government says there is no prospect of rethink in Brexit stalemate

The Brexit stalemate looks set to continue after the Irish government said the backstop would not be up for renegotiation at a planned meeting between Boris Johnson and Leo Varadkar.

The two prime ministers will meet early next month but a spokesman for Varadkar said there was no prospect of a rethink on the most contentious part of the withdrawal agreement.

Johnson has been invited by the taoiseach to Dublin with “no preconditions” but the Irish government is keen to avoid any ambiguity. » | Daniel Boffey in Brussels | Sunday, August 11, 2019

Trump Likens Irish Border to Wall between US and Mexico

THE GUARDIAN: Leo Varadkar tells US president Ireland wishes to avoid border or wall after Brexit

Donald Trump has started his visit to Ireland by comparing its post-Brexit border with Northern Ireland to the US border with Mexico, along which he wants to build a permanent wall.

Trump, sitting next to a visibly uncomfortable taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, waded into the Brexit debate minutes after Air Force One touched down at Shannon airport on Wednesday afternoon.

“I think it will all work out very well, and also for you with your wall, your border,” he said at a joint press conference. “I mean, we have a border situation in the United States, and you have one over here. But I hear it’s going to work out very well here.”

Varadkar interjected that Ireland wished to avoid a border or a wall, a keystone of Irish government policy. » | Rory Carroll in Shannon | Wednesday, June 5, 2019


King Klown’s understanding of geopolitics is remarkable – remarkably stupid! Each and every time he opens his mouth, his lack of understanding is a dead giveaway. – @Mark

Ireland Bars Christian Fundamentalist Pastor from Entering Country

THE GUARDIAN: Immigration law used for first time to deny entry to anti-gay preacher Steven Anderson

An anti-gay US Christian fundamentalist pastor who has been accused of Holocaust denial has become the first person to be barred from entering Ireland under a 20-year-old immigration law.

Steven Anderson was due to travel to Dublin on 26 May to preach in the city, but the Irish justice minister, Charlie Flanagan, took the unusual step to ban him from coming into the country.

More than 14,000 people signed an online petition set up by the Christian gay rights campaign group Changing Attitude Ireland calling on the Irish government to block Anderson’s trip to the country. The organisation claimed that in the past he had “advocated exterminating LGBT+ people”.

Confirming the barring order under the 1999 Immigration Act, Flanagan said: “I have signed the exclusion order under my executive powers in the interest of public policy.”

It is the first time the Irish government has used the legislation to bar anyone from the country. » | Henry McDonald | Monday, May 13, 2019

Trump in Turmoil, Italy Migrant Crisis and the Pope's Visit to Ireland

Brexit Could Lead to UK-Ireland Border Control

Northern Ireland suffered almost 30 years of violent conflict before it ended two decades ago. Much of that was because the border with the Republic of Ireland was dismantled allowing free movement of people and goods. But the UK's decision to leave the EU could mean Britain’s only land boundary with an EU country would need new controls. Al Jazeera’s Tony Birtley reports from the Irish border.

Ireland Could Elect Its First Gay Prime Minister

Ireland could soon have its first openly gay prime minister. Leo Varadkar, the son of an Indian immigrant, is the favourite to win a ruling party vote. His political achievements are sign of huge generational change in the once staunchly Catholic country. Al Jazeera’s Neave Barker reports from Dublin

Could Brexit Lead Way to a United Ireland – BBC News

The BBC’s Fergal Keane travels from Belfast to Cork to understand what effect Brexit is having on the future of the island.

Irish PM Tells Trump: ‘St Patrick Was an Immigrant’

With Donald Trump standing only a few feet away, Irish PM Enda Kenny identifies St Patrick with immigrants – ‘the patron saint of immigrants’ – at the annual St Patrick’s Day lunch in Washington on Thursday. Kenny quotes from Emma Lazarus’s The New Colossus, saying the Irish were ‘the wretched refuse on the teeming shore’

Read the Guardian article here

The UK Should Rethink Brexit Says Former Irish PM John Bruton

Is Ireland Going To Have To Start Importing Priests?

Vatican Says Ireland Gay Marriage Vote Is 'Defeat for Humanity'

THE GUARDIAN: Vatican diplomat seen as second only to the Pope insists Saturday’s referendum result shows ‘the church must strengthen its commitment to evangelisation’

A senior Vatican official has attacked the legalisation of gay marriage in Ireland. The referendum that overwhelmingly backed marriage equality last weekend was a “defeat for humanity”, he claimed.

“I was deeply saddened by the result,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, said at a conference in Rome on Tuesday night. “The church must take account of this reality, but in the sense that it must strengthen its commitment to evangelisation. I think that you cannot just talk of a defeat for Christian principles, but of a defeat for humanity.”

The remarks by the Vatican’s top diplomat, who is seen as second only to the pope in the church’s hierarchy, represent the most damning assessment of the Irish vote by a senior church official to date. » | Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome | Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Church in Ireland Needs 'Reality Check' after Gay Marriage Vote

BBC AMERICA – EXTRACT: The Republic of Ireland has a written constitution which can only be changed by referendum.

Now that the proposal has been passed, a marriage between two people of the same sex will have the same status under the Irish constitution as a marriage between a man and a woman.

They will be recognised as a family and be entitled to the constitutional protection for families.

Civil partnerships for same-sex couples have been legal in Ireland since 2010, giving couples legal protection which could be changed by the government.

However, married gay people will now have a constitutional standing that can only be removed by another popular vote. Read the whole article here » | Saturday, May 23, 2015