on-the-runs' from Troubles who hold police letters will not be immune from future arrest None of the IRA's "on-the-runs" who hold police letters promising immunity is safe from arrest, the Northern Ireland secretary is to say. In a speech at lunchtime on Friday, Theresa Villiers will say that even the 187 IRA "on-the-runs" – members who are wanted in either Great Britain or Northern Ireland for crimes...
s former prime minister, whose passport was confiscated after tax fraud conviction A Milan court has rejected a request by Italy's former prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi , whose passport was confiscated after his conviction for tax fraud, to leave the country to attend a conference in Ireland, judicial sources said. The leader of the centre-right Forza Italia party wanted to attend the European People's...
court on 27 February, which involved a man accused of assaulting two police officers, Morris was also approached by a protester who sought to intimidate her. Other intimidating gestures had previously been made towards the press box by protesters sitting in the public gallery. The National Union of Journalists has condemned the treatment of Morris, an award-winning reporter . Séamus Dooley, the NUJ...
A legal battle is being fought over the will of the late newspaper publisher, Deirdre Romanes, that could affect the future of the titles she loved. Romanes, who was chief executive of the Dunfermline Press group, died in 2010 with an estate estimated, according to HoldTheFrontPage, at £4.6m. In her last will, which was drawn up days before she died, she left the bulk of her fortune to the Dunfermline...
s ailing Sunday Business Post has found a new friend. According to the Irish edition of the Sunday Times , the co-founder and chief executive of the sports broadcaster Setanta, Michael O'Rourke, has joined the newspaper's board. Paul Cooke, managing director and co-owner of the title, is quoted as saying that O...
Regional newspaper publisher Johnston Press is hoping to raise £75m in a rights issue, reports the Sunday Telegraph. The company, which owns some 200 titles, is expected to issue new shares to investors at a discount as part of a debt-refinancing package. It follows a turnaround in the business since Ashley Highfield became chief executive in 2011 and immediately instituted a strategy of cost-cutting...
s most notorious drug traffickers and the chief suspect in the murder of the journalist Veronica Guerin was in hospital on Saturday night after being shot twice in a gun attack while at a Christening party. John Gilligan hid in a downstairs toilet after two masked men broke into the home and opened fire. The 61-year-old was hit in the leg and arm while attending what was believed to be a family celebration...
s rising star in the Irish parliament Pearse Doherty, with all three men coming from Co Donegal. A deal between the party and Tony Blair's government was reached and fugitives began receiving the secret "get out of jail letters" – notes that it has emerged continued to be sent after the coalition took office in 2010. But what seems clear is that the existence of the "get out of jail" letters was not...
s previous government was kept in the dark about the existence of the controversial 187 "get out of jail letters" for the IRA's most wanted at the time they were sent, the Guardian has learned. A former cabinet minister from Bertie Ahern's government revealed that while his coalition came under constant pressure from Sinn Féin over the status of IRA "on the runs", it never agreed to grant amnesties...
s the rage? , 22 February). In Dublin I witnessed the public support for another playwright, Margaretta D'Arcy, whose outstanding contribution to Ireland's artistic life is honoured through her membership of Aosdána. She is serving three months in prison for non-violent protests against Ireland's complicity in rendition flights and other uninspected US military uses of Shannon airport. By trespassing...
s agriculture department, Mike Steel, expressed doubts about this explanation. Meat that had been poorly stored and moved for testing would be expected to rot uniformly and not in the patchwork way seen in the photographs in the Polish report, he said. The photographs and descriptions suggested meats of different origins and freshness had been mixed and frozen from the start in a way not seen in authentic...
campaign group the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation, said this meant the rate of empty properties would have increased to more than 26,000 by the end of 2014. Almost a fifth of mortgage holders are in arrears in Ireland – the majority more than three months behind their payments. In its latest analysis of the Irish property market at the start of 2014, the ratings agency Fitch said one in five...
shocking waste' of homes lying empty while millions cry out for shelter More than 11m homes lie empty across Europe – enough to house all of the continent's homeless twice over – according to figures collated by the Guardian from across the EU. In Spain more than 3.4m homes lie vacant, in excess of 2m homes are empty in each of France and Italy, 1.8m in Germany and more than 700,000 in the UK. There...
s been growing to decorate his hat on the big day have been eaten by neighbour Alice's escaped chickens – they haven't spoken since the last time she let them get away, three years ago. The Squire's daughter is secretly walking out with Alice's son. He is a brilliant but dangerously innovative dancer ("There's no call for artistic expression!"), too scared to ask Squire's permission to court his daughter....
brainwashing' in China and recruitment quotas for Irish speakers Ghana: former chief of staff recommends cutting half of public service staff Ghana should sack half its public servants and pay the rest better , said a former chief of staff Kwadwo Okyere Mpiani. The government spends a large proportion of tax revenue on the public wage bill, and the civil service is criticised as being bloated. Looking...
s electorate will back the introduction of gay marriage in the one-time Catholic Church dominated Republic. A new opinion poll shows that only just under 20% of voters will oppose introducing same sex marriage into the Irish constitution. More than three-quarters of voters say they support marriage equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in a proposed referendum by the Fine...
s three home-grown national titles have enjoyed a reasonable six months in terms of circulation, according to the latest set of ABC audited sales figures. But the year-on-year comparisons reveal an average fall of more than 6%, which is slightly better than the overall decline in UK regional titles. The biggest-selling Irish Independent, with an average daily sale of 117,361 in the six months up to...
s defence forces – a man and a woman – were detained on Tuesday. The arrests followed the discovery less than 24 hours earlier of a viable pipe bomb device close to a petrol station in Burnfoot, not far from the Northern Ireland border. Gardaí are questioning the pair over alleged links with the new IRA over the border in Derry. But the Garda Siochána is also pursuing an alternative theory centring...
s armed campaign by targeting mainland Britain. Dissident republican organisations have not struck in England for almost a decade. There have been a series of arrests made among all three anti-process republican groups – the new IRA, the Continuity IRA and Oglaigh na hEireann – over the past 12 months and security forces on both sides of the Irish border have thwarted at least half a dozen attempts...
s "unfair, cumbersome and misleading" practice of opting customers in to buying its travel insurance as default. Those wishing not to buy insurance from the Irish airline have to select a "No Grazie" option nestling between Malta and Norway in a drop-down list of countries of residence. EasyJet said it was disappointed that the authority had decided to fine it for the way it sold travel insurance....