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President Catherine Connolly has described the situation in the Middle East as a “deliberate assault on international law”. President Connolly’s comments come after the US and Israel’s conflict with Iran entered its second week. She said that “violations of the UN Charter cannot be ignored” and described what is being witnessed as “shocking and numbing”. In a statement marking International Women’s Day, President Connolly said: “What we have witnessed in recent days in the Middle East, and beyond, are not political disputes. They are deliberate assaults on international law, the international laws that have underpinned global peace for 80 years....

The Jewish Representative Council of Ireland has expressed “deep concern” about the number of anti-Semitic incidents recorded here over a six-month period up to January this year. A community reporting mechanism established by the JRCI has reported 143 such incidents in that time period. The JRCI has called for the development of “a dedicated national plan to counter growing anti-Semitism”. The incidents were recorded through a JRCI online reporting form between July 2025 and January 2026. The report says some incidents were recorded by JRCI staff acting as intermediaries, based on information received through direct contact, email, or follow-up conversations....

With St. Patrick's Day taking place on Monday, Ireland had a rather curious day of celebrating the saint who spent years of captivity there. As video footage shows over X, the Ha’Penny Bridge bridge in Dublin has not only featured Irish flags, but Palestinian flags over the weekend as well. Despite how anti-Israel the Irish government has been, other social media posts, especially when it comes to pro-Palestinian accounts over Instagram, claim that the flags were flown by protesters because their government isn't Palestinian enough. Irish celebrate St Patrick’s Day in Ireland by waving PALESTINIAN flags next to Irish flags....

An Irish man has spent five months in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention and faces deportation despite having a valid work permit and no criminal record. Seamus Culleton was a “model immigrant” who had become the victim of a capricious and inept system, said his lawyer, Ogor Winnie Okoye. Originally from County Kilkenny, Culleton is married to a US citizen and runs a plastering business in the Boston area. While buying supplies at a hardware store on 9 September 2025 he was arrested in a random immigration sweep, according to Okoye, of BOS Legal Group in Massachusetts. Culleton entered...

Ireland has joined 10 other European countries calling for Israel to halt demolitions of the headquarters belonging to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in east Jerusalem by Israeli authorities. Earlier this month, Israeli bulldozers began demolishing the compound, having effectively banned the organization from operating in the country in January 2026. The joint letter was signed by Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee and the foreign ministers of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Spain and the UK. It described the demolition as an unprecedented act which marked the “latest unacceptable move” to undermine a UN...

The prospect of a full-blown trade war between the EU and the US was averted for the second time in less than 12 months following President Donald Trump's dramatic U-turn on Greenland. For Ireland, several uncomfortable truths are emerging after this week’s geopolitical chaos. The trading relationship with the US is part of the bedrock of the Irish economic success story. It is based on Ireland providing an environment of stability for multinationals. One of the certainties important for US corporations is the level of tariffs applied to exports shipped across the Atlantic. […] Fortunately for Ireland, pharmaceuticals and computer...

Ireland is to give €42 million in aid to the people of Palestine over the course of 2026, up from €36 million last year. Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee made the announcement during a visit to the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza. The funding will include €20 million to support the work of UNRWA that provides vital services to Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the West Bank, and across the region, while €2 million will assist the work of the Egyptian and Palestinian Red Crescent Societies. …

Gardaí, the Irish police, have opened a hate crime investigation after antisemitic graffiti, including swastikas and the words “Jew” and “rat,” was sprayed on roads in Co Louth, the Irish Times reports. Holocaust Awareness Ireland condemned the incident, saying the graffiti “repeats one of the most disturbing antisemitic caricatures deployed by Nazis in pre-war Germany.” In a statement, the Garda confirmed it had received a report of criminal damage and is treating the case as a hate crime. It urged anyone with information to come forward. .....

Former White House strategist Steve Bannon has been helping to form an Irish “national party” as he works “behind the scenes” on what he described as “the Irish situation”, he said in an interview. The Donald Trump ally, whose anti-EU rhetoric previously included an expressed desire “to drive a stake through the Brussels vampire”, told the Politico news website that there would soon be an “Irish Trump”. Mr. Bannon, who hosts the War Room podcast and retains influence in the grassroots of the MAGA (Make American Great Again) movement of Trump-supporting populists, is quoted as supporting the new US national...

An advisory body has warned that Ireland’s population is at risk of what it called a “vicious downward cycle” due to a declining birth rate. The statement is contained in a report by the National Economic and Social Council (NESC), which researched recent demographic shifts across the country. It calls on the Government to begin planning for any negative impacts from a downward cycle before it becomes too difficult to reverse. The report says that Ireland’s demographic profile is undergoing rapid and profound change as the birth rate falls and the population ages. It means an aging and declining population...

A Palestinian doctor living in County Meath, whose family members have been killed in the war in Gaza, has called for more aid for the people of the enclave. Four of Dr Mahmoud Abumarzouq’s close relatives were killed in an Israeli strike earlier this year. At his home in Navan, Dr. Abumarzouq is going through some family photos. He knows more than most about the misery the war has brought. […] The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said 70,000 people have been killed, since the outbreak of the war and the 7 October attacks. …

Activists have recreated the nativity scene in Dublin to draw attention to the conflict in Gaza. The Gaza Solidarity Nativity, organized by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, was enacted beside the Molly Malone Statue less than a week before Christmas. The event heard reflections that if Jesus had been born today, he “would be born under siege, displaced, without access to medical treatment or nutrition”, while the wise men and the shepherds who visited him “would be taken hostage and they would be illegally detained in Israeli prisons”. It also heard a call for the Government to “move beyond empty platitudes,...

One of the more bizarre artifacts of the Israel-Hamas War—which Hamas started just over two years ago, when it attacked, murdered, and kidnapped more than 1,000 Israeli civilians—is the exposure of the rabid and rampant antisemitism among the Irish, especially Irish Catholics. One might expect that Catholics—whose popes have denounced antisemitism off and on since the sixth century and have clearly and repeatedly condemned it since the 1930s—would be understanding of the Jewish people’s plight and willing to listen to Pope Pius XI’s admonition that “Antisemitism is inadmissible. Spiritually, we are all Semites.” In the case of many Irish Catholics,...

Dublin councilors halted plans to rename a park currently honoring a past Israeli president that had drawn criticism from the Irish and Israeli governments, the city council said on Sunday. The park, located near Dublin’s sole Jewish school, is named after Ireland-born Chaim Herzog, Israel’s sixth president. Ireland, home to about 3,000 Jewish people, has been among the most outspoken critics of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, and the move to rename “Herzog Park” followed a campaign by anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian activists, but official council documents did not disclose a reason for the proposal. The proposal had been scheduled for...

In idle moments on our shows, I occasionally warble the presidential campaign song from the 1931 Gershwin musical Of Thee I Sing:Wintergreen for President!Wintergreen for President!He's the man the people chooseLoves the Irish and the Jews!That's a more fractious coalition than you might think. Across the sea in Erin itself, the Irish do not love the Jews. But they used, publicly, to moderate their hostility into mere antipathy. Not anymore. In Dublin it is now proposed to rename Herzog Park in Rathgar - a neighbourhood I know rather well. Herzog Park honours Chaim Herzog, born in Belfast, raised in Dublin,...

EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner has said Ireland is “very well” placed to adopt the Migration and Asylum Pact, and described the Citywest accommodation center for International Protection applicants as an example of “best practice”. He was speaking in Dublin after visiting Citywest, holding meetings with senior gardaí and the head of the Criminal Assets Bureau, as well as speaking to Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan. The Migration and Asylum Pact becomes operational this June and seeks to introduce a more harmonized approach to asylum, migration and border checks, with swifter screening, mandatory health and security checks and a streamlined...

Members of the Football Association of Ireland voted overwhelmingly on Saturday for its board to request that Uefa immediately suspends the Israel Football Association from European competitions. A resolution passed by FAI members cited alleged violations by Israel’s FA of two provisions of Uefa statutes: its failure to implement and enforce an effective anti-racism policy and Israeli clubs playing in occupied Palestinian territories without the consent of the Palestinian Football Association.

A group of sick Palestinian children have been evacuated from Gaza to Ireland to receive medical treatment, the Tánaiste and Minister for Health have confirmed. Seven children arrived in Dublin on Saturday evening, with 29 accompanying family members.It marks the third medical evacuation from Gaza following Government approval in September last year in response to an appeal from the World Health Organization (WHO) to address the health needs of Gazans. Doctors from Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) worked with the WHO to identify sick and injured children who would benefit from treatment in Ireland. The group traveled from Gaza to Jordan...

This is the moment a police van was set on fire as riots broke out near a hotel used to house asylum seekers in Dublin. Officers were also attacked with missiles and fireworks as protesters gathered at the Citywest Hotel last night. Six people were arrested and the Irish police service, the gardai or An Garda Siochana, said one of its officers suffered a foot injury. Ireland's Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan said that those involved in the violence will be brought to justice. He said: 'The scenes of public disorder we have witnessed at Citywest tonight must be condemned. 'Unfortunately,...

Tánaiste Simon Harris is expected to call for the EU to play a greater role in increasing humanitarian aid to Gaza … at an EU foreign minister meeting today. […] Speaking ahead of today’s meeting, the Tánaiste said the EU’s focus on the Middle East “must now be on preserving the ceasefire and flooding Gaza with desperately needed humanitarian aid”. “The people of Gaza have endured unimaginable suffering. Ireland has announced an additional €6 million in humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza to fund urgent food, medical care and other vital services,” he added. …