The completed groups after the 2026 Fifa World Cup draw, which took place in Washington on Friday. Photograph: Sam Corum/PA WireThe Republic of Ireland will feature in Group A of the 2026 World Cup, along with South Korea, South Africa and co-hosts Mexico, if they qualify via the play-offs next March. The Azteca hosted the 1970 World Cup final, when Brazil beat Italy 4-1, as well as the 1986 decider when Argentina beat West Germany 3-2. The opening game of the tournament is between Mexico and South Africa at the Azteca on June 11th. “This is exactly what you want having worked so hard to get to a World Cup.

Senior gardaí have questioned the Defence Forces’ handling of the security incident in the skies off Dublin on Monday night around the time the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s aircraft arrived for a State visit to Ireland. Senior gardaí are annoyed at what one source termed the “weak” response from the Defence Forces, which had the LÉ William Butler Yeats in the area at the time as part of the State security operation for Mr Zelenskiy’s visit. Garda Headquarters said its special detective unit (SDU) was leading the investigation into the events of Monday night, aided by the Defence Forces and international partners. It made no reference to how the Defence Forces had handled the incident. One source believed Mr Zelenskiy’s aircraft had landed in Dublin before the incident in the skies out to sea began to unfold.

Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil Micheál Martin launching the Accelerating Infrastructure action plan at Government Buildings on Wednesday. Almost all agreed they cannot see Martin leading Fianna Fáil into the next general election. Micheál Martin with Fianna Fáil TDs at the launch of the party's presidential campaign in September. Photograph: Dan DennisonGary Murphy, politics professor at DCU, is the biographer of former Fianna Fáil leader Charles Haughey, who survived multiple heaves and crises. He says he heard serious internal disquiet over the fiasco in the immediate aftermath of the presidential election.

In the St Martin’s clubhouse there is a giant mural on the wall, a vivid tableau of local landmarks and wildlife and bloodstock and flowers and hurlers and footballers. St Martin’s won the county final, and he stayed until their interest in the Leinster championship had ended. Players survived it but it was too tough.”In his career St Martin’s lost two senior finals. In 1999, when St Martin’s won their first Wexford title, they approached him before the semi-final to come out of retirement, but his “heart wasn’t in it”. George O’Connor with St Martin's players Michael Coleman and Joe Barrett after the win over Na Fianna in this year's Leinster quarter-final.

Metrolink: The project's programme director Sean Sweeney recently told an Oireachtas committee Ireland does not have enough workers to build it. The Construction Industry Federation insists we have plenty of workers; the problem is pipeline, planning, funding. Then the MetroLink director tells an Oireachtas committee that Irish construction fundamentally cannot support this project. The Metro North cancellation is our Rosetta Stone for understanding Irish infrastructure dysfunction. The problem for Ireland is that we have too many professional problem-identifiers, and too few professional problem-solvers.

Although only a 15-minute walk from St Stephen’s Green, the atmosphere on Francis Street is a world apart. Martin Fennelly points to the amethyst-coloured glass “Drunk” decanter set (€1,100) made by Austrian artist Koloman Moser, as one of the more unusual decanter sets in his shop. An early 20th century porcelain footbath (€395), on sale in The Collector's Corner, Francis Street, Dublin, would make a stylish planter. Mervyn Blanc, who runs Yeats Country Antiques on Francis Street, and in Drumcliffe, Sligo, specialises in Victorian gilded over-mantle mirrors and console tables. Finally, Sheppard’s Irish Auction House in Durrow, Co Laois, is the last of the auction rooms to host a pre-Christmas Irish and International Art auction.

But it feels like an enormous moment in both the past and future of the cinema age. Warner Bros has, since it was dreamed up by four Polish-American brothers in 1927, been a vital element of the United States ascension to superpower in the Twentieth Century. With the acquisition of Warner Bros, Netflix will have access to a century of extraordinary film-making, from the first ever talkie, The Jazz Singer (1927), through to the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings series. The Warner Bros studio, in Burbank, offers tours for the dwindling number of tourists still enchanted by the history and make-believe of cinema. And the deal has far-reaching implications: Netflix is simply after Warner’s Bros and its streaming branch, HBO.

Ann Fuller: Tempestuous, opinionated and a force of nature, she is remembered by family and friends as a larger-than-life characterBorn: February 4th, 1937Died: : October 2nd, 2025Ann Fuller, who has died aged 88, was a major figure in Ireland’s classical music scene and a cofounder of the Dublin International Piano Competition. She was born Ann Patricia Mahon and grew up on Eglington Park in Donnybrook on Dublin’s southside. Her mother Moira was a strong advocate of animal rights and helped establish the Blue Cross animal welfare organisation in Ireland. Ann returned to Ireland and lived initially in Rathgar and then Sandymount, her home for almost the entirety of the rest of her life. At a bridge party (another of Ann’s passions), the pianist mused about setting up an international piano competition.

I finally feel I understand.”Over coffee in a hotel in Blanchardstown, O’Donnell explains how it felt to receive that email. During that time, Nesting, her debut novel, has been quietly changing her horizons. I just had to know what was going to happen, if these characters would be okay.”Author Roisín O'Donnell. When it was broadcast in 2021, read by Siobhán McSweeney, O’Donnell realised she wasn’t finished with the tale. “Soon after Nesting was published, I needed to go to the local Eason to sign some stock.

Jockey Danny Gilligan covered in mud after finishing the Remix Dry Mortar Novices' Handicap Hurdle on Creadan Grace at Ascot in November. Photograph: Steven Paston/PA WireRising star Danny Gilligan has received a massive Christmas bonus with the lifting of a 14-day ban. Martinez’s evidence showed that tests taken from Gunnery Sergeant the morning after the race confirmed the horse had a severe bacterial infection. The 60-day suspension from racing for Gunnery Sergeant remains in place. Gilligan is on top-weight Buddy One for his father Paul in the €100,000 Bective Handicap Hurdle, a race in which Elliott saddles four.

The ESB paid €213.5 million to the exchequer in 2024The exchequer has received almost €440 million in dividends from State companies over the last two years, Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris has said. The Social Democrats on Friday maintained that the proceeds from such dividends from State companies could provide the basis of a fund to upgrade the national grid and boost energy security. The Tánaiste also said that in 2024 the exchequer also received dividends of €600,000 from the Port of Cork. The Minister said that up to October in 2025 Gas Networks Ireland paid dividends to the exchequer of just over €62 million. Mr Farrelly, a Social Democrats TD for Kildare, said on Friday that funding-generated dividends from State companies to the exchequer should go towards improving energy security.

Social media stars earning tens of thousands, and sometimes hundreds of thousands of euro, must know they will have a tax liability. Brendan Brady represents OnlyFans content creators and other social media influencers who, he says, can earn up to €200,00 a year from the work. And remember, OnlyFans and other platforms are obliged to let Revenue know they’ve paid you in the first place. At either of those levels, any admission from the taxpayer keeps you off the defaulters’ list. If after all this you find yourself on a defaulters’ list, you have only yourself to blame.

Volunteering is shifting as people seek roles that fit around modern work patterns, family pressures and the desire for more meaningful contributions. Charities say the challenge now is matching these changing expectations with roles that offer flexibility while still delivering the consistency and reliability their services depend on. “At the ISPCC, remote volunteering for our Childline service is not an option as the work requires a space that maintains confidentiality. Currently, there is demand for volunteering roles, particularly in ChildLine listening and in its digital support services, says Donlon Fox. Can you trust the organisation to ensure your time and energy will support those most in need?”

US president Donald Trump delivers his speech after receiving the FIFA Peace Prize from Italian Fifa president Gianni Infantino. Infantino had, scattered around the darkened auditorium, some of the most glittering names in World Cup lore as his audience. US president Donald Trump, Mexico president Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian prime minister Mark Carney pose for a selfie with Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA. Even Trump was becoming tired of his host after watching Carney draw Canada and Sheinbaum draw Mexico with the first two countries pulled. I was pretty young at that point.”That was in 1975, a year after the World Cup hosted by West Germany.

Three kilometres an hour was all it took to tip Yan from one Ukrainian life into another. So it’s been disappointment after disappointment; lots of lies, just so people don’t run away from each stage of the process. Photograph: Sergei Supinsky/Getty ImagesLike many Ukrainians, Yan held an officer’s rank from doing basic military training at university, but he had no army experience and worked in event management and video editing before the war. “I was trying to get onto a drone course or straight into the brigade to which we’d been supplying drones. Yan took the last option after failing to secure deployment to his requested brigade after completing training last month.