Tag Archives: Ireland

Irish Central reports: An Irish priest has said he is saving ‘a special place in heaven’ for Donald Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Junior after the two brothers visited a multitude of local pubs in Doonbeg on Wednesday night. Doonbeg parish priest Joe Haugh had previously pledged a place in heaven for President Trump but has now extended that pledge …

The Irish Times reports: US president Donald Trump will visit Co Clare in early June, his first visit to Ireland as president, the White House has announced. Mr Trump will touch down in Shannon on the afternoon of June 5th after a three-day state visit to Britain. He will then depart the following morning to attend the D-Day commemorations in …

The Irish Times reports: Disagreement over the location of a possible meeting between US president Donald Trump and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has thrown a potential visit to Co Clare by the president into doubt. While the Taoiseach’s preference is to meet Mr Trump in Co Clare, Irish officials are reluctant to meet the US president in his golf course in …

The Irish Times reports: An American preacher with extreme anti-gay and anti-Semitic views has become the first person ever banned from Ireland by exclusion powers dating from 1999. Steven L Anderson, a Baptist pastor based in Arizona, came to public prominence in 2009 when telling his congregation he had prayed for the death of then president Barack Obama and also …

The Irish Times reports: On Thursday, Mr Varadkar attended a breakfast at the residence of vice-president Mike Pence. In a short speech delivered beside the vice-president, the Taoiseach reflected on his ambition to become a politician when he was younger. “I also knew at the time that I lived in a country where if I tried to be myself at …

The Guardian reports: The EU has injected further pressure into the Brexit talks by confirming it will enforce a hard border on the island of Ireland in the event of a no-deal outcome, despite the risk this would pose to peace. In comments that proved highly uncomfortable for Dublin, Jean-Claude Juncker’s chief spokesman told reporters in Brussels it was “pretty …

The Guardian reports: Campaigners in Ireland celebrated the end of a “medieval” ban on blasphemy on Saturday, after voters overwhelmingly backed removing the offence from the constitution in a referendum. The referendum saw 64.85% vote yes to remove the prohibition on blasphemy, with 35.15% in favour of retaining it. A total of 951,650 people voted for the change, with 515,808 …

The Hill reports: President Trump’s scheduled trip to Ireland in mid-November has been canceled, an administration source confirmed to The Hill on Tuesday. No reason was given for the cancellation, although Trump was expected to face protests in Ireland. Trump had been expected to visit Dublin, the Irish capital, as well as a golf course he owns in Doonberg, County …

The BBC reports: Pope Francis has said he is ashamed of the Catholic Church’s failure to adequately address the “repellent crimes” of sex abuse by clergy. The Pope was addressing political leaders and diplomats at Dublin Castle during the first papal visit to the Republic of Ireland for 40 years. He is expected to meet victims of clerical sex abuse …

Irish Central reports: Irish leader Leo Varadkar will bring up same sex marriage to Pope Francis when he meets him in Ireland on August 25th saying that such marriages are the same as any conventional marriage and should be treated as such by the church. Varadkar is Ireland’s first gay leader. Questioned on what he would say to the Pope …

Britain’s iNews reports: A moving advert for Dublin Bus features four dads surprising their children by picking them up for Dublin Pride. The short film opens with a bus driver who has been with bus company since 1982. “We’re going to pick up people for Pride parade” he explains. “We’re going to have proud fathers on the bus.” Three of …

Ireland’s state broadcaster reports: The Taoiseach has paid tribute in the Dáil to those who were criminalised for homosexual activity prior to the repeal of the laws in 1993. “Today the people I want to pay a special tribute to are the unknown heroes, the thousands of people whose names we do not know, who were criminalised by our forbears,” …

The Guardian reports: Ireland has voted by a landslide to legalise abortion in a stunning outcome that marks a dramatic defeat for the Catholic church’s one-time domination of the Republic. The Irish electorate voted by 1,429,981 votes to 723,632 in favour of abolishing a controversial constitutional amendment that gave equal legal status to the lives of a foetus and the …

The Irish Times reports: Ireland has voted by a landslide margin to change the constitution so that abortion can be legalised, according to an exit poll conducted for The Irish Times by Ipsos/MRBI. The poll suggests that the margin of victory for the Yes side in the referendum will be 68 per cent to 32 per cent – a stunning …

The BBC reports: Turnout in the Republic of Ireland’s referendum on abortion laws is higher, so far, than in recent votes. Voting will continue until 22:00 local time on Friday. The turnout at mid afternoon on Friday was higher than at the same stage of the country’s referendum on same-sex marriage and its most recent general election. Polls opened at …

The Guardian reports: The European Broadcasting Union has blocked a Chinese broadcaster from airing the Eurovision song contest after it edited out LGBT elements from an online stream of the semi-finals on Tuesday. Mango TV, a video-streaming site linked to one of China’s most watched channels, Hunan TV, blacked out the performance of Ireland’s Ryan O’Shaugnessy, during which two male …

Ireland’s Gay Community News reports: Sinn Féin spokesperson for the Arts, Youth Affairs and LGBTQI rights, Senator Fintan Warfield has welcomed the passing of the Prohibition of Conversion Therapies Bill 2018 through second stage in the Seanad today. The bill aims to make the practice of performing so called ‘conversion’ or ‘reparative’ therapies illegal in Ireland and would carry fines …

The Indianapolis Star reports: Vice President Mike Pence’s breakfast with new Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar was closed to the media — at the request of the vice president. In a departure from the recent past, reporters were told Friday’s event to be attended by Pence and Varadkar will be private and the media won’t be invited. Pence also had …

The Irish Independent reports: Ireland’s 2018 Eurovision entry could face a broadcast ban in Russia as the video for the song features a gay couple. Ryan O’Shaughnessy will represent Ireland in Lisbon with self-penned track Together. The video features a male couple dancing in Dublin’s Temple Bar. However there has been speculation that the video violates Russia’s strict anti-gay “propaganda” …

ABC News reports: The death of The Cranberries lead singer Dolores O’Riordan is not being treated as suspicious, British police say. O’Riordan was found dead at a London hotel on Monday morning (local time) and officers initially described the death as “unexplained” but now say nothing suspicious had been found. The case is being passed to a coroner to determine …