Republic of Ireland

The Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is in Washington DC, where he has been meeting leaders, including President Trump.

On Friday Ireland will decide whether to scrap its almost-total ban on abortion. Vocal proponents for and against reforming the constitution have powered a referendum campaign that has become increasingly bitter, but with a significant proportion of the electorate thought to have made up their minds. Our Social Affairs Editor Jackie Long is joined in…

Facebook has blocked foreign adverts that target voters in Ireland’s upcoming abortion referendum. The referendum, being held on 25 May, could repeal the Republic’s Eighth Amendment, which currently upholds a near-total ban on abortions. In a statement, Facebook said: “as part of our efforts to help protect the integrity of elections and referendums from undue…

John McGrane, from the British Irish Chamber of Commerce, discusses Brexit.

The European Council President Donald Tusk has told the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar that Brexit talks will go no further, unless Ireland is happy with Britain’s plans for the future of the Irish border. He said the UK’s decision to leave the EU had created uncertainty for millions of people, declaring that any British…

Joining us now to debate the issue is Nicola Byrne, President of the Irish Exporters Association, Editor of Brexit Central, Jonathan Isaby, Senator Neale Richmond, Brexit spokesperson for Fine Gael – Ireland’s ruling party, Jennifer Kavanagh is a law lecturer at the Waterford Institute of Technology, Deputy Editor of Belfast based, News Letter, Ben Lowry…

We’re live at Dublin’s Convention Centre on the banks of the Liffey in Ireland where there’s one word on everyone’s lips – Brexit. For weeks that word has caused high tension between Britain and Ireland in a standoff over the Irish Border – today some mood music that small amounts of progress is being made.

It had looked as if a crisis involving the Irish Deputy Prime Minister Frances Fitzgerald might force a snap election. It was the last thing that the Irish public wanted or that the Irish government needed in the middle of crucial Brexit negotiations. In the end the deputy PM resigned, the crisis went away and…

Welcome to Dublin where the vexed issue of the future of the Irish border is threatening to scupper the even more vexed issue of Brexit… today Ireland’s foreign minister warned all 27 EU nations agreed that Brexit talks wouldn’t move onto discuss future trading relations until Britain gave further assurances that there wouldn’t be a…

Tonight Ireland has a new Prime Minister-elect: if the Dail approves his appointment, he’s set to become the youngest in the country’s history. Leo Varadkar, the new leader of the ruling Fine Gael party, is smashing a few more preconceptions too: he’s also the gay son of an Indian immigrant. So who is he and…

His father was shot dead by loyalist paramilitaries in front of his family. Now, John Finucane, the son of murdered solicitor Pat Finucane, is standing as Sinn Féin’s parliamentary candidate in North Belfast. The party is confident he can take the seat from the Democratic Unionists for the first time in its history.

The former prime minister Tony Blair has said a hard Irish border would be a disaster, with an agreement the best way of limiting damage after Brexit.

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has promised to work with Ireland to avoid the return of a hard border with Northern Ireland, telling a joint session of the Irish parliament that “nothing should put peace at risk.” Our Chief Correspondent Alex Thomson is in Dublin now.

Once the Brexit negotiations actually begin, a key priority will be Northern Ireland. Today the Irish prime minister said nothing should be allowed to undermine peace and stability – with no return to the old, hard border between north and south.

The remains of babies and young children have been found in a mass grave on the site of a former home for unmarried mothers in Ireland run by Catholic nuns.