The Garda Special Detective Unit (SDU), which is responsible for investigating threats to national security, is investigating the sighting of a group of drones near the flight path of Ukranian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s aircraft as he arrived for a State visit to Ireland on Monday night. The SDU is primarily tasked with investigating terrorism and threats to the State and has in the past been involved in investigations into suspected Russian espionage and other forms of hybrid warfare. The move comes as the French military confirmed its soldiers opened fire on five suspected drones spotted over a nuclear submarine base on Thursday night. The drones appeared near the coast by Howth around the time Mr Zelenskiy’s aircraft was due to pass. The Garda investigation will focus on the drones’ suspected flight path in an effort to discover their origin.

The Merz coalition scraped together a majority of 318 Bundestag MPs in favour of the contested pensions Bill. Photograph: John MacDougall/ AFP via Getty ImagesGerman chancellor Friedrich Merz saw off a parliamentary rebellion on Friday and narrowly held his coalition together in a controversial pensions vote, after two months of bad-tempered debate. [ German vote exposes Merz weakness and some CDU members’ far-right ambitionsOpens in new window ]It instructed its MPs to abstain to lower the majority required to pass the pensions Bill. Not all younger CDU MPs heeded that warning. In addition to its multi-billion Bill, younger CDU politicians said the pension Bill pre-empted pension reform recommendations from a state commission, due next year.

Leinster head coach Leo Cullen calls on nine of the starting team from last season's 62-0 victory against Harlequins. When it comes to frontliners, Harlequins travel to Dublin for this Champions Cup Group A clash in an emaciated state. But that’s week on week, there’s no point looking too far ahead or looking at the past now. Leinster: J O’Brien; T O’Brien, G Ringrose, C Frawley, J Larmour; S Prendergast, J Gibson-Park; P McCarthy, D Sheehan, T Clarkson; RG Snyman, J McCarthy; J Conan, J van der Flier, C Doris (capt). Replacements: G Turner, W Hobson, P Delgado, J Launchbury, L Schmid, L Friday, J Benson, B Bradley.

Architect Frank Gehry was one of the first architects to embrace the potential of computer design. He moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1940s, where he attended the University of Southern California, studying ceramics, after a brief stint in the US army. Frank Gehry poses with miniatures of his designs in Los Angeles in 1989. Photograph: Bonnie Schiffman/ Getty Images“I love working,” he told the Guardian shortly after his 90th birthday. “I love working things out.

Defence Forces Chief of Staff Lieut Gen Rossa Mulcahy pictured earlier this year visiting Irish troops at mission position 6-52 in southern Lebanon. Photograph: Conor Gallagher/ The Irish TimesIrish peacekeepers in Lebanon escaped injury when they came under small arms fire from militants on Thursday. A group of Defence Forces soldiers were on patrol in armoured utility vehicles (AUVs) when they were approached by six men on three mopeds. [ New Defence Forces chief: ‘Ireland has to be able to provide a defence to repel any initial invasion’Opens in new window ]“Attacks on peacekeepers are unacceptable and serious violations of Resolution 1701,” it said. She commended the Irish troops involved “for their professionalism in extremely challenging circumstances”.

Eden Golan from Israel performs on stage during The Eurovision Song Contest 2024 Grand Final in Malmo, Sweden. Photograph: Martin Sylvest Andersen/Getty ImagesJack Horgan-Jones and Harry McGee join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:Ireland, along with Spain, Slovenia and the Netherlands, will boycott next year’s Eurovision Song Contest in protest of Israel’s participation. Far more contentious was the proposal to rename Rathgar’s Herzog Park in south Dublin. Named in honour of Belfast-born Chaim Herzog, Israel’s president from 1983 to 1993, who spent his early childhood in Dublin. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was in Ireland this week, but it was drones more than diplomatic ties that made the headlines.

Austrian singer Johannes Pietsch, known as JJ representing Austria with the song "Wasted Love" celebrates with the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest trophy after winning the grand final at the St. Jakobshalle arena in Basel on May 18, 2025. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP) (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)For all its silliness and ephemerality, the Eurovision Song Contest remains one of the few truly pan-European mass-cultural events. So it is not an inconsequential matter when countries are either barred from the contest or withdraw from it for political reasons. While viewers may think of it as a competition between nations, the contest is actually between the respective national broadcasters. The history of Eurovision is littered with national rivalries or tensions affecting the show and, at times, the outcome.

Ryan Odusanya (20) of Bremore Pastures Drive, Balbriggan, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to holding €20,000 in criminal proceeds in his bank account. Photograph: Matt KavanaghA Dublin man who allowed his bank account to be used to hold more than €20,000 in funds stolen in an online banking scam has been given a 20-month suspended sentence. Judge Martin Nolan imposed the suspended prison sentence on Ryan Odusanya (20) of Bremore Pastures Drive, Balbriggan, Dublin, who pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to holding €20,000 in criminal proceeds in his bank account on September 5th, 2023. The man spoke to his wife the following day and they agreed to forward money from their AIB bank account to the account details provided in the text. At the hearing on Tuesday, Judge Nolan said that these type of money laundering cases were coming before the court “in droves”.

(Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times)Ireland’s infrastructure deficit is not just an issue related to business and competitiveness. In Ireland’s infrastructural omnishambles, a lack of housing near city centres forces many people to live a long way from where they work. Poor water and energy infrastructure stymie attempts to build houses to help to address all this. But the slashing of State investment thereafter is a key reason why Ireland now faces so many pressing infrastructure problems, including a housing crisis. The plan to accelerate the provision of infrastructure published this week is a welcome realisation of the extent of these interconnected issues.

Mr Justice Patrick McGrath sentenced the boy to three years in detention but suspended the final 21 months on strict conditions. Photograph: Alan BetsonA teenage boy will spend 15 months in Oberstown detention centre for the sexual assault and rape of a 13-year-old girl he had been dating for a number of weeks. The girl told gardaí that one day he got on top of her and said he wanted her to “give him head”, but she said no and started crying. The trial heard that the boy told gardaí he “never” asked the girl for sex and denied all of the allegations. When asked if he had ever had sex with the girl, the boy replied, “No, never, and I never plan to.”

Ross McGarry of Ballyboden St Enda's kicks a score against Castletown in the Leinster Club SFC quarter-final at Chadwicks Wexford Park. The Dublin champions were expected to be tested in Tullamore last week but a first-half blitz all but closed the argument. That day was a bit of a trial by fire for the Wexford champions - and most of the current crop were playing. This is especially the case when the Cork champions have Ian Maguire in such a dominant vein of form. Verdict: St Finbarr’s

Jackie Sexton alleged negligence and breach of duty following a fall from a second-storey hotel window on her wedding night. Mr Quirke told the court in his opening speech that Mr Sexton returned from the bathroom to the bedroom where there was no sign of his wife, and the window open. Ms Sexton told the court she had been an active person who enjoyed walking and swimming, had a jockey licence since her teens and had qualified in horsemanship. Just after 3pm today, Mr Quirke said the matter had been resolved and that it could be struck out without any costs order. Ms Justice Brett then struck out the case, which had been slated to last five days, and passed on her best wishes to Ms Sexton.

Investigations are focused on his time at Fibber Magees pub on Parnell Street, Dublin 1, in the hours before he suffered his fatal injuries. As part of its investigations to date, a Garda member was arrested for questioning in August about Mr Butler’s death. Mr Butler died after the incident outside the Holiday Inn on O’Connell Street in the early hours of Friday, August 15th. Just after Mr Butler had been taken to hospital, the incident was referred by Garda headquarters to Fiosrú for investigation. “Fiosrú investigators are tracing the movements of Mr Butler prior to the incident,” the agency said in a statement on Friday.

The GAA were very conscious on Thursday when launching the report of their demographics committee that the concerns expressed were not new. GAA president Jarlath Burns was asked whether without Government engagement and support, was the report not merely about managing decline. “That’s right and that was my very first comment, that the population shift and the GAA clubs do not align any more. In a lot of local authorities they say, ‘well we’ll provide soccer pitches, a smaller piece of ground. And I think the local authorities have a lot to answer for in their lack of provision for GAA pitches.

A computer-generated image of plans from Cairn Homes for the Montrose site in Dublin 4 it purchased from RTÉOnly one objection has been lodged against the revised €295 million apartment scheme that Cairn Homes is proposing for its Montrose site at RTÉ in Donnybrook, Dublin 4. The new proposal by Cairn Homes Montrose Ltd is made up of 326 two-bed apartments, 125 one bed apartments, 51 three bed apartments and eight studios across eight apartment blocks. In their joint objection the Murphys said that the plan proposes to build 10 blocks ranging from three to 10 storeys on a 4.155 hectare site. They argued that “the scale, mass and density of the proposal even at the marginally reduced scale in the resubmitted plans is excessively overdevelopment”. It is now more than eight years since Cairn Homes agreed a €107.5 million deal with RTÉ in June 2017 to purchase just under nine acres of lands at RTE’s Donnybrook headquarters.