Free Republic

After finding fame and fortune in Riverdance and other stage shows, Michael Flatley is to seek a new role: president of Ireland. The Irish American dancer and impresario planned to move back from Monaco to Ireland and would seek nomination in the upcoming election, a Dublin court heard on Friday. An affidavit submitted during a high court case in relation to a legal dispute over renovations at Flatley’s mansion said the 67-year-old was “to seek nominations to run for president of Ireland”. An election for the largely ceremonial post must take place in the 60 days before 11 November, when...

France will recognise a Palestinian state in September at the UN general assembly, Emmanuel Macron has said. The French president announced the decision on X on Thursday evening, saying he hoped it would bring peace to the region. Macron published a letter sent to Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, confirming France’s intention to become the first major western power to recognise a Palestinian state. “True to its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognise the State of Palestine,” Macron said. “I will make this solemn announcement at the...

From a stumbling economy to soaring crime, France has plenty of problems. But, judging by recent events, the government seems to have another threat in mind: social media. Earlier this month, prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into Elon Musk’s X, alleging foreign interference through algorithm manipulation, while also condemning the platform for spreading “hateful” content. This followed a police raid on the headquarters of the National Rally, France’s leading opposition party, after the launch of yet another dubious investigation into campaign financing. The Fifth Republic is far from alone here. For Western democracy is under threat — not from “foreign...

Several thousand people took part in a demonstration in Dublin city center in support of Palestine today. It is one of several protests called across the country today. Crowds marched from the Spire on Dublin’s O’Connell Street to the Department of Foreign Affairs on Saint Stephen’s Green. There were chants calling for a ceasefire now and for the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland. Dr. Abdullah Al Bayvari, a Palestinian-Irish doctor, addressed the rally on behalf of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Committee. He called on the Irish Government to take immediate action against Israel saying “the time to act...

Around 10,000 people have taken part in a march in support of Palestine on the streets of Dublin. The National March for Palestine, organized by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, began at Parnell Square this afternoon and made its way to Leinster House for a rally outside the Dáil (lower house of parliament). Today’s march is the 16th national march since October 2023. Groups representing trade unions, political parties as well as churches took part, carrying banners to show their group’s support for the cause. A group from GAA Palestine also took part in the march after the club made a...

Poland demands Vatican dismiss two bishops over sermons against illegal immigrationThe liberal Polish government claimed the comments violated the 1993 concordat between the Holy See and Poland.The Polish government has called on the Vatican to punish and dismiss two Catholic bishops who spoke out against the country’s immigration policy.Poland’s ambassador to the Holy See, Adam Kwiatkowski, delivered a diplomatic note to the Vatican’s Secretariat of State complaining about the recent statement by two Polish bishops on immigration and the Polish government.The document accused the bishops of making speeches that “undermine good Polish-German relations, slander the government, and indicate clear support...

Amid disastrous green diktats and crippling cuts to farmers’ livelihoods, the out-of-touch elites in Brussels seem to have forgotten where their food comes from. This afternoon, farmers from all over the European Union met outside the European Parliament to march on the Berlaymont, the European Commission’s HQ. Organised by COPA-COGECA, the umbrella body for 22 million European farmers, the demonstration should by all rights be a wake-up call for Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The unions will hand over a petition signed by 6,335 organisations, along with a symbolic pair of boots, in protest of the EU’s plans to...

Ireland appears closer to passing a bill that will ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements in occupied territories in the West Bank, sparking sharp criticism from US officials who have signaled the move could harm Dublin’s relationship with Washington. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee accused Ireland of “diplomatic intoxication” Tuesday in a sharp rebuke of the draft legislation, invoking a derogatory stereotype of the Irish people. “Did the Irish fall into a vat of Guinness & propose something so stupid that it would be attributed to act of diplomatic intoxication? It will harm Arabs as much as Israelis. Sober...

The Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs has heard stinging criticism of the Occupied Territories Bill from former minister for justice Alan Shatter, who likened it to legislation passed in Germany in the 1930s. Mr. Shatter described the proposed legislation as the first “Boycott Jews bill” by a European government since 1945, and replicated the type of legislation initiated by the Nazis. Committee chair John Lahart of Fianna Fáil said that a claim made during the proceedings that the bill is anti-Semitic was “hugely hurtful and slanderous”. For some weeks the committee has been scrutinizing the Bill, known as the Israeli...

Thousands of businesses and households are waiting to connect to the Dutch grid, forcing network operators to ration power in an early indicator of what other European countries are likely to suffer as the speed of electrification increases. . . . The Netherlands is among the countries in Europe to have moved fastest to electrify critical parts of the economy after it in 2023 ended production at its giant onshore gasfield, Groningen.

While Donald Trump – and other western leaders – are taking their time to catch up with reality, it is obvious that Vladimir Putin has no apparent desire to halt the war in Ukraine. A realistic future military and diplomatic strategy for Kyiv has to accept that fact – and formulate a new approach. The past six months have been dominated by the erroneous assumption that it would be possible for Trump to negotiate a ceasefire, even an armistice. That would be followed by the arrival of an Anglo-French led stabilisation force to secure the future of Ukraine. But Putin...

Keir Starmer has been branded "weak" after migrants in Calais said they would not stop coming to the UK despite a new asylum deal between France and the UK. The pilot initiative was designed to reduce the number of small boat crossings by returning illegal arrivals to France in exchange for legally processed asylum seekers with family ties in the UK. But within hours of the announcement, the Express witnessed hundreds of migrants gathering in northern France, preparing to make the journey. Some were already attempting to board inflatable dinghies, while others had managed to launch boats that ultimately reached...

President Trump raged Saturday that he’s giving “serious consideration” to taking away comedian Rosie O’Donnell’s US citizenship – but the actress fired back with a flurry of posts ripping him and picturing him with Jeffrey Epstein. The social media sparring between the longtime rivals reignited when Trump argued the former talk show host is a “Threat to Humanity” in a fiery post on Truth Social. “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “She is a...

A rising number of young German women are being converted to Islam through hardline Salafist outreach on social media, according to Berlin’s domestic political intelligence agency. The fundamentalist Salafism branch of Sunni Islam is making gains in Germany through increased proselytising on social media, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) has said. According to figures shared with Die Welt, the number of Salafist followers in Germany in 2023 stood at 10,500. This rose to over 11,000 last year, nearly three times the number recorded in 2011. The political spy agency claimed that conversions of German women...

People belonging to extremist organisations, including the far-right AfD party, will be blocked from taking up government positions in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, the state's interior minister has announced. Members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won't be able to enter public service positions in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate going forward, the state’s interior minister, Michael Ebling (SPD), announced on Thursday in Mainz. The western German state is changing the rules around recruitment for civil servants. Specifically, applicants for government positions will be required to declare that they do not belong to an extremist organisation (and have not...

The contentious migrant effigies at the heart of a racism storm in Belfast have been set alight after police have made a decision not to assist Belfast City Council in helping contractors remove material from a bonfire site in the city. A Belfast City Council committee voted on Wednesday to send contractors to remove the towering pyre on Meridi Street off the Donegall Road. Belfast DUP councillors have launched a ‘call-in’ procedure over the planned removal of the controversial bonfire. The move comes in the wake of a vote at City Hall to remove the bonfire off the Donegall Road...

The trial of two Iranians and six others, who tried to smuggle 2.2 tons of cocaine to the island, exposed networks spanning the Middle East and Venezuela. JNS Staff. July 9, 2025 / JNS) An Irish court on July 4 sentenced two Iranian nationals in connection with a transnational drug trafficking operation involving more than 2.2 tons of cocaine, as authorities investigate suspected links to Hezbollah and the Iranian regime, Irish media reported. The men—Soheil Jelveh, 51, a former captain of the cargo vessel MV Matthew, and Saied Hassani, 39, a senior officer with significant maritime experience—received sentences of 17.5...

Far-right MEPs heckled EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen while she called them names in Strasbourg on Monday (7 July), in a failed bid to oust her from her post. The level of shouting and jeering during von der Leyen's speech saw EU Parliament president Roberta Metsola intervene three times to call for quiet. The debate was a small moment of triumph for populist MEPs after a Romanian right-winger, Gheorghe Piperea, tabled a motion of censure against the commission on grounds of von der Leyen's allegedly improper SMS-es with US vaccine-maker Pfizer during Covid. The motion, to be voted...

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has called on the Government to immediately intervene to bring 18 children from Gaza to Ireland for vital medical treatment. Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Micheál Martin has insisted there will be no delay in getting the children to hospitals here amid indications that the medical evacuation will not take place until the autumn. Ms. McDonald warned there is every chance these children will be killed while the Government is engaged in what she termed “bureaucratic wrangling”. “The only humanitarian approach is to get these children out now,” she said. She told the Dáil (parliament) that...

Donald Trump told a private gathering of donors last year that he once sought to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from attacking Ukraine by threatening to “bomb the sh*t out of Moscow” in retaliation, according to audio provided to CNN. “With Putin I said, ‘If you go into Ukraine, I’m going to bomb the sh*t out of Moscow. I’m telling you I have no choice,’” Trump said during one 2024 fundraiser, according to the audio. “And then [Putin] goes, like, ‘I don’t believe you.’ But he believed me 10%.” The remarks, which came as Trump made his case for a...