Leaving cert reforms: The allocation of 40 per cent of the final marks to coursework is causing profound unease in every subjectLeaving Cert reform began in classrooms last August. Incidentally, 16.4 per cent of Leaving Cert students sat physics in 2001, and 12 per cent sat chemistry. [ Most secondary teachers will struggle to authenticate students’ work under Leaving Cert reforms, survey findsOpens in new window ]Teachers are supposed to have no input into the design of these experiments. [ Can the Leaving Cert be AI-proofed?Opens in new window ]Perhaps a saint would stick to these guidelines. It risks making a mockery of the slogan of Leaving Cert reform, equity and excellence for all.

Champions Cup: Leinster 45 Harlequins 28Leinster got there in the end with the anticipated bonus point although the scoreline could not mask more imperfections in both attack and defence. A young, remodelled and hitherto misfiring Harlequins also took a bonus point from a low-key pre-festive “marquee” fixture which was more ho-hum than ho-ho-ho. Photograph: Niall Carson/PAOn a wintry night in Ballsbridge, the musical interludes were, as always, an accurate barometer of the atmosphere. Maybe the home crowd were even more expectant of a rout after Leinster jumped off the blocks. Hardly a scrum ended up without a penalty, three of the first four going to Leinster and giving them plenty of access.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy: Too many of those who say the Ukraine war is about international law, territorial integrity, war crimes, freedom and democracy portray the necessary talk of territorial concessions and security guarantees to end it as betrayal. If we have reached the Ukraine war’s endgame we need help to interpret what has been happening and what is now taking its course. Three narratives about the war based on moral convictions say it is about international law and territorial integrity; war crimes and genocide; freedom and democracy. “Ukraine must not lose the war, and Russia must not win it” sums up the better European pragmatic consequentialist approach. Ukraine has secured its sovereignty and path to the EU, Russia many of its war aims.

The six counties of Northern Ireland are under a status yellow weather warning, issued by the UK Met Office, which is due to lapse at 3pm on Sunday. Met Éireann predicts a dull start for the rest of the country, with outbreaks of drizzle and occasionally heavy rain. Counties Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Cork, Kerry, Tipperary and Waterford will come under a status yellow rain warning from 9pm on Monday until 9am Tuesday. The State will also be affected by a status yellow wind warning between 3am and 9pm on Tuesday. Met Éireann anticipates “very strong and gusty” southerly winds, with gales possible near coasts.

Not since 1989 and its invasion of Panama has the United States so ostentatiously wielded its “big stick” in the Caribbean. The ultimate target of this supposed policing operation is Venezuela’s dictator Nicolás Maduro, for years the principal antagonist of the US in the western hemisphere. After several previous failed attempts to eject the Chavista socialist from power, Washington once again has the former bus driver in its crosshairs. The USS Gerald R Ford in the Strait of Gibraltar before arriving in the Caribbean. This psychological pressure campaign against Maduro is just the latest sign that under Trump, Washington has adopted a new more muscular interpretation of its interests in the western hemisphere.

Approximately one-third of income earners are effectively outside of the income tax net. Photograph: iStockThe lopsided nature of Ireland’s income tax base was laid bare in a Department of Finance report this week. It noted that the top 10 per cent of income earners here now generate 40 per cent of income tax receipts and 60 per cent of USC (universal social charge) contributions. Even more striking, approximately one-third of all income earners – equating to 1.2 million tax units (which can be an individual or a couple) – are effectively outside of the income tax net courtesy of the State’s generous system of tax credits. That’s because many of the top income earners work for the big US multinationals which pay the lion’s share of corporation tax.

Charlie Smyth of the New Orleans Saints kicks a field goal during an NFL preseason game against the Jacksonville Jaguars in August. The Charlie Smyth average is 100 per cent. [ Charlie Smyth scores 56-yard field goal on first career NFL start for New Orleans SaintsOpens in new window ]The numbers won’t last. Daniel Rooney, Pittsburgh Steelers Director Business Development & Strategy, and Tadhg Leader of Leader Kicking at Sport Ireland campus in Dublin in April. Charlie Smyth in action for Mayobridge.

There were some hopeful signs in 2025 that Hollywood could make money out of good films that did not spring from established franchises. The 50 best films of 202550. In this German‑language family drama, two ageing parents with severe health problems and their estranged children confront mortality, grief and neglect in a darkly comic, deeply human portrait of familial breakdown and bad dentistry. Trier risks invoking Ingmar Bergman with his tale – out on St Stephen’s Day – of a film director (Stellan Skarsgard) attempting an autobiographical work. A long-time collaborator with Sean Baker – who co-writes and produces here – Tsou returns to her native Taiwan for a hectic family drama.

Garda headquarters said no further information is available. Photograph: Alan BetsonA young boy and a woman in her 60s have died in a house fire in Co Offaly, gardaí have confirmed. Another woman (50s) is receiving hospital treatment for serious injuries following the fire. Garda headquarters confirmed the two fatalities in a statement on Sunday morning. It said gardaí in Tullamore are investigating the cause of the fire and have appealed for anyone with information to come forward.

Every year Herself and a friend embark on what she deprecatingly calls an old lady holiday, though it’s not really that. This year they visited Bletchley Park, the home of the second World War codebreakers. Of course, the project would never have happened without them, but the main bulk of the labour was carried out by people who didn’t know what they were doing. In those days Bletchley wasn’t close to any towns (Milton Keynes wasn’t created until decades later), so everyone lived onsite. Herself and her friend were told about a married couple who had both worked in Bletchley before they met.

But she has come across files in respect of other Grünenthal drugs where the company was negotiating their distribution with State departments. Document dated September 1956 concerned with the sale of Grünenthal products Paratebin and Prevecillin in the Republic. As the long-time spokesperson for the Irish Thalidomide Association, she is anxious to stress that others have much more debilitating deformities than her. “Thalidomide products remained in medicine cabinets in homes and even on pharmacy shelves for years,” Cassidy says. [ Thalidomide survivors: ‘Having no arms is an unusual disability, there’s no guidebook.

Dance crazes can be mini social revolutions designed to cause rifts in generations and, if successful, become measurements of time. So too in 1930s Ireland, where the dance crazes of the day caused division among the generations. Edwina Guckian's The Devil in the Dancehall blends theatre and dance. Now we’re married 42 years’Opens in new window ]For Guckian, the starting point for the project came from looking at Ireland’s 1935 Public Dance Hall Act. Today it’s not just dance crazes that mark time but also campaigns to repeal dance acts.

The implication is that these so-called empty nesters should just move into smaller homes and leave the youngsters to get on with their lives. Making the move to a smaller property in retirement is not always motivated by the costs and efforts involved in maintaining a larger one. We can sell our house tomorrow but can’t afford to buy a smaller house in town – the cost is higher. “We can sell our house tomorrow but can’t afford to buy a smaller house in town – the cost is higher,” she says. The paper found that Ireland had a rate of 67 per cent – more than twice the European average.

The 2026 Michelin Guide ceremony for Britain and Ireland will be held on February 9th at the Convention Centre Dublin – its first time on Irish soil. Given Tourism Ireland’s all-Ireland remit, and Fáilte Ireland’s newly announced remit, the Michelin ceremony offers scope for a joint North-South initiative. The Convention Centre will host the 2026 Michelin Guide Ceremony for Britain and Ireland on February 9th. Despite overlapping responsibilities, no State body – Fáilte Ireland, Tourism Ireland, Bord Bia or DAFM – carried a direct mandate for restaurants. The arrival of the Michelin Guide ceremony with high-profile chefs and journalists from Britain and Ireland should have been an all-Ireland opportunity.

The Irish economy dodged a bullet this year. Back in April, we were trying to count the cost of Donald Trump’s tariff threats and his demand that American multinationals relocate production to their home market. This week, official Irish figures showed that we have so far got away with it. The 10 per cent plus annual growth in Irish GDP recorded this week by the CSO will be rightly written off across Europe as more “leprechaun economics”. But 2025 was another decent year for the Irish economy.