A report on anti-Semitism in Ireland, released last week by the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, had some deeply distressing findings: 143 incidents were recorded over a six-month period ending in January 2026. Graffiti and vandalism are a common theme in the report, as are numerous vile, abusive and threatening emails sent directly to Irish Jews. But the largest demographic of anti-Semitic incidents receives no mention; the anti-Semitism where no Jews are present. The Government needs to implement the EU Strategy on Combating anti-Semitism and Fostering Jewish Life 2021-2030, as 17 other EU states have. My wife, who is not Jewish asks me periodically when we’ll know if it’s time to leave Ireland.

No clean delivery, or indeed any sort of delivery at all, was sent in Hayes’ direction for another 12 minutes. There was then another gap of 17 minutes before Hayes was again properly fed. “I'd be very happy with our progression through the last four games in particular, in terms of the improvements that we're seeing, incremental improvements,” said Kiely. Scorers for Cork: T O’Mahony (0-7, 0-5 frees, 0-1 ‘65); T O’Connell, B Hayes (0-3 each); B Walsh, S Barrett (0-2 each); E Downey, S Kingston, A Walsh (0-1 each). CORK: P Collins; E Roche, D O’Leary, G Millerick; M Mullins, E Downey, D Cahalane; C Joyce, T O’Connell; B Walsh, T O’Mahony, S Kingston; S Barrett, A Walsh, B Hayes.

University Hospital Limerick has started renting floor space at Bon Secours Limerick to alleviate periods of peak pressure. “I’m delighted to announce we've reached a service level agreement with University Hospital Limerick. As of this Monday morning, Mr Kenny said 13 patients transferred from UHL were being treated in Bon Secours. The official opening of Bon Secours Limerick, Ireland’s first new acute hospital in almost 20 years, took place on Monday, after a €213m investment. It's a big investment and a big undertaking.”Local TD and communications minister Patrick O’Donovan was also at the launch of Bon Secours Limerick.

I remember when bottles of water were first sold in shops, we thought it was ridiculous – only idiots would pay for something running freely from every tap. When we were thirsty, I said even more primly, we had a drink when we were next in a place with a water supply. But I wonder, were many people always thirsty, in the millenniums before water bottles? [ Why is everyone lugging huge water bottles about? But I am still not going to drink water unless I feel thirsty, and I am certainly not going to displace the knitting and notebook in my bag with a heavy bottle.

The chairs of the three national cultural institutions wrote to Minster for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers and Minister for Culture Patrick O’Donovan (pictured) in January to outline their concerns. Photograph: Bryan O’BrienThree national cultural institutions are struggling to pay their pension costs and have asked the Government to intervene. The chairs of the boards of the National Library of Ireland, the National Museum of Ireland and the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Imma) said the situation is “an issue of considerable concern” which “ultimately impacts our capacity to deliver programmes”. Cathal O’Donoghue, chairperson of the National Museum; Ali Curran, chairperson of Imma, and Eoin McVey, chairperson of the National Library, wrote to Minster for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers and Minister for Culture Patrick O’Donovan in January to outline their concerns. “Every year we are faced with a difficult process of budget management to the year end in relation to pension lump sums and in the case of the National Library of Ireland and the National Museum of Ireland supplementing our pension costs with our pay allocations,” the letter stated.

Gary Aspden, the curator of the Spezial collection, was a good friend of the late Terry Hall of The Specials and Fun Boy Three. Fellow pundits and former football players Ian Wright and Roy Keane. “I called Nick Griffiths [commercial director] and said I want to approach Roy Keane about being in our next film. A Roy Keane hoarding defaced in Dublin in 2002 after the Saipan incident. Roy Keane, centre, at the filming of 'Gary Neville's The Overlap on Tour' at Blarney Castle, Co Cork, with Jamie Carragher, left, and Gary Neville.

In recent years, many of the State’s leading telecom operators, including Vodafone, Eir and Three Mobile, have linked their prices to inflation. “I am just getting in touch about the [Consumer Price Index] CPI increase coming up in April for most mid-contract telecoms customers,” he writes. “You covered this before and the Minister’s plan to introduce legislation to give power to customers to exit these contracts,” he writes. The Department of Communications has confirmed to Pricewatch that the proposed legislation has made little progress in recent months. The Department will conduct stakeholder engagement including with the telecoms industry during the development stages of the legislation.”

Research from the UK restaurant software group Vita Mojo shows 61 per cent of customers would spend more at a kiosk than a till. Even doctors’ reception rooms have what the touchscreen industry likes to call self-service “kiosks”. A screen does not merely curb the need for people, with all their whiny demands for decent pay and working conditions. Research from the UK restaurant software group Vita Mojo shows 61 per cent of customers would spend more at a kiosk than a till. As Vita Mojo says: “Kiosks never forget to upsell with sides, meal deals and targeted promotions.”I believe claims that customers often prefer the ease and speed of touchscreens.

Christine Falls is an exception to this general mistiness. But in the early years of the new century, Christine Falls, like Christine Falls herself, languished, and I set it aside. All the same, might not my readers think that with Christine Falls the novel I was indulging in a postmodernist joke at their expense? I doubt there is a single line of dialogue in the script of Christine Falls that did not have to be reshaped for Christine Falls the novel. From the start I regarded the novelisation of Christine Falls as not much more than a jeu d’esprit, a one-off little adventure.

The son of Iran’s slain leader has, reportedly, been chosen as the country’s new supreme leader under pressure from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards. Iran’s 88-member Assembly of Experts conferred remotely last week and chose the new leader. But critics have expressed concern about hereditary rule and clerical credentials; the position of supreme leader is both religious and political. Removing the top figure is unlikely to achieve regime change. The US effected policy change but not regime change in January when Washington abducted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, whose replacement, Delcy Rodríguez, has been receptive to US demands.

On Sunday, Israel confirmed two of its soldiers were killed in combat in southern Lebanon – the country’s first fatalities since hostilities resumed. Of the 200 militants Israel claims to have killed, the IDF says 80 were members of Hizbullah’s elite Radwan force. Israel has ordered all residents south of the Litani river to leave their homes along with residents of Beirut’s Dahiya quarter. More than 400,000 residents are now homeless, creating an instant humanitarian crisis in a country that has still not recovered from the last war between Israel and Hizbullah. “Our working assumption was that fighting with Iran could draw Hizbullah into the war,” IDF officials said.

Ireland’s oldest man Paddy Claffey (104) owes his long life to his wife’s baking, never drinking alcohol and giving up smoking at 45. Video: Bryan O'BrienIreland’s oldest man, Paddy Claffey, attributes his longevity to hard work and a good appetite. On St Patrick’s Day, Paddy will be the grand marshall of the parade in Clara, Co Offaly. Born on April 17th, 1921, in his “home house” in the townland of Noggusboy near Ferbane in Co Offaly, Paddy was the youngest of 10 children, with six sisters and three brothers. That story illustrates his father’s kindness says Paddy’s son Patrick, who stays with Paddy most weekends.

Dust off 1986 for instance, 40 years ago now, and have a gander at the way the world was turning back then. The story of the Gold Cup in 1986 reads like a novel with five chapters; horse, owner, trainer, jockeys, and the drama of the race itself. The prevailing issue in the lead up to the Gold Cup was exactly who was going to ride the mare. Mrs Hill insisted on re-employing Jonjo O’Neill who had ridden her to success in the Champion Hurdle two years earlier. The Gloucestershire sky was peppered by hats and newspapers thrown high in celebration and Jonjo paraded Tony Mullins on his shoulders in the raucous winning enclosure.

Researchers from the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge found that the Ancient Egyptians used a white pigment to amend their papyrus paintings. Ms Strudwick says: 'It’s as if someone saw the original way the jackal was painted and said: “It’s too fat; make it thinner". Using a technique called transmitted light infrared photography, the researchers were able to peer through the upper layers of white pigment to see the painting below. That suggests that the white pigment wasn't an original part of the illustration, but rather something added later to tidy up the scribe's error. Ms Strudwick adds: ''Our analyses also show that the white paint on Ramose’s robe is only made of huntite.

Adams has always denied being a member of the IRA, and is fighting the case in the High Court in London. The former Sinn Féin president appeared at Court 16 – known as the Chancellor’s Court – shortly before the case began. Studd cited a 2010 interview with former IRA member Dolours Price, who was one of 10 convicted of the Old Bailey bombing. The three Troubles victims are also relying on claims by former IRA member Sean O’Callaghan that he attended IRA meetings with Adams in the 1980s. Adams is arguing that evidence shows Sinn Féin politician Gerry Kelly, not him, “dominated and controlled” the IRA in the 1990s.