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“I’m saying f*** it to life and getting out there because the last time I dated it was in the 1990s and there were no mo...
12/01/2025

“I’m saying f*** it to life and getting out there because the last time I dated it was in the 1990s and there were no mobile phones.”

Norma Sheahan, the Cork-born actress and comedian, is navigating dating apps for the first time in her life after amicably signing divorce papers with her ex-husband on their 22nd wedding anniversary

Sheahan, who grew up on a farm in Whitechurch, about 11km from Cork city, is best known for her acting roles in The Clinic, Moone Boy and Dead Still, as well as stage roles in Shirley Valentine and Angela’s Ashes: The Musical

Kayleigh Trappe believes there’s never been so much pressure on young women to conform to beauty standards and that soci...
12/01/2025

Kayleigh Trappe believes there’s never been so much pressure on young women to conform to beauty standards and that social media influencers have a responsibility to promote natural looks

“It’s up to people like me who have a platform to change the narrative a bit,” she says. “I do genuinely believe the trend will go full circle over time, from being all about glam to more about embracing natural beauty.”

The 29-year-old former primary school teacher from Co Monaghan rose to fame on Instagram and TikTok with her comedy and lip-syncing and regularly posts online without make-up. However, she has been glammed up to the nines as a contestant on the latest series of RTE’s Dancing with the Stars

The government took a huge bite out of family wealth last year as the inheritance tax take increased by more than a thir...
12/01/2025

The government took a huge bite out of family wealth last year as the inheritance tax take increased by more than a third to nearly €1 billion

Receipts from capital acquisitions tax (CAT), which is levied on inheritances and gifts, shot up by €220 million last year to €854 million, according to final exchequer figures for 2024, as the prices of houses and other assets continued to rise

The amount captured by the tax has more than doubled in the last decade with taxpayers in Dublin, where houses are most expensive, consistently paying more than half the total

The liquidators of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation have sold the Hilton Prague, a trophy asset in Sean Quinn’s former ...
12/01/2025

The liquidators of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation have sold the Hilton Prague, a trophy asset in Sean Quinn’s former empire, for close to €280 million

PPF Group, a Czech property holding company with interests across the world, bought the hotel, subject to regulatory approval. The 791-room property is the biggest hotel in the Czech Republic. It has hosted three American presidents, in Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton, has 5,000 sq m of conference space and had been on the market since July

Quinn Group Hotels paid €145 million for the Hilton and the neighbouring Ibis hotel in 2004. The property’s value has since soared, despite closures during the pandemic. The liquidators of IBRC, Kieran Wallace and Eamonn Richardson, took control of Quinn Group Hotels in 2019 after a court battle with the family

The banks are preparing to hit savers with more reductions to deposit rates in the coming weeks to preserve their ­margi...
12/01/2025

The banks are preparing to hit savers with more reductions to deposit rates in the coming weeks to preserve their ­margins ahead of likely further cuts by the European Central Bank this year

AIB and PTSB are expected to follow Bank of Ireland in paring back interest on term deposits after the latter cut its rates on 12 and 18-month savings accounts by 0.25 percentage points last week

“All three banks have moved on ­reducing or adjusting mortgage rates since the ECB started cutting, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they will now want to move on the deposit side following four ECB rate cuts [last year] with another four to five to come in 2025,” Denis McGoldrick, banking analyst with Goodbody, said

Counties within the greater Dublin area saw an increase in the construction and sale of new home developments last year,...
12/01/2025

Counties within the greater Dublin area saw an increase in the construction and sale of new home developments last year, which helped to ease supply constraints. Agents are predicting an average increase of 6.7 per cent in house values over the coming year

There are now 174 TDs in the new Dail, 64 of whom are taking a seat for the first time and are set for five years of a m...
12/01/2025

There are now 174 TDs in the new Dail, 64 of whom are taking a seat for the first time and are set for five years of a multitude of challenges and triumphs

Some of these newly minted representatives will be beginning long and illustrious careers in politics while others could be packing their boxes in Leinster House after the next general election

While we wait to see what the 34th Dail has in store, here are a few promising fresh faces that will be worth keeping a close eye on

“Who? Andrew Tate? Who’s that? I’ve never heard of him,” said a bewildered cousin of the controversial figure who reside...
12/01/2025

“Who? Andrew Tate? Who’s that? I’ve never heard of him,” said a bewildered cousin of the controversial figure who resides in the village of Buttevant, Co Cork

Tate, a polarising social media influencer, made headlines last week with the announcement of his bid to run for UK prime minister under the banner of the BRUV Party, an acronym for “Britain Restoring Underlying Values.”

Tate, 38, a British-American social media influencer and self-styled “king of toxic masculinity”, is under house arrest in Romania on charges related to human trafficking, which he denies. The former kickboxer is renowned for his controversial far-right views, particularly his anti-feminist rhetoric

Dukes Education Group paid close to €130 million for the Institute of Education, the famed grind school owned by the Kea...
12/01/2025

Dukes Education Group paid close to €130 million for the Institute of Education, the famed grind school owned by the Kearns family, according to documents filed in the UK Companies Office

Dukes took control of the Institute, as it known was to generations of Leaving Certificate students, in April 2023, with the Kearns family retaining a 6.7 per cent stake. The purchase price, which was not disclosed at the time, was £113.9 million

The acquisition included the Institute’s properties on Leeson Street, valued at £25 million (€30 million) and £8.6 million in cash. The actual education business was valued at more than €91 million

Estate agents across Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan predict an average hike in values of 7 per cent across the three counti...
12/01/2025

Estate agents across Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan predict an average hike in values of 7 per cent across the three counties

The Central Bank of Ireland increased its budget by 6 per cent to €419 million this year to pay for an expanding workloa...
12/01/2025

The Central Bank of Ireland increased its budget by 6 per cent to €419 million this year to pay for an expanding workload and is reviewing the levy it charges regulated firms to source extra funding

The Central Bank Commission approved the €25 million spending increase at a November meeting where the annual business plan and budget were finalised

According to the minutes, deputy governor Vasileios Madouros said that, at the current spending trajectory, costs would continue to rise beyond 2025 by between 3 and 6 per cent a year, excluding the €20 million earmarked for a new cash centre. As a result of these pressures, the bank is developing a new financial action plan this year and reviewing the levy strategy and methodology

More than 70 would-be buyers will be invited to bid for Waterford Whisky, the distillery business founded by Mark Reynie...
12/01/2025

More than 70 would-be buyers will be invited to bid for Waterford Whisky, the distillery business founded by Mark Reynier, a veteran of the industry

The sales process is being handled by Mark Degnan and Daryll McKenna of Interpath Advisory, the company’s joint receivers, who aim to sell the business as a going concern rather than break up the company and sell the distillery and stocks separately

No guide price has been set but the company’s assets, including the stock and distillery, are thought to be worth over €100 million

Standing on the upper deck of our ice-friendly ship, the SH Diana, a Scottish colleague and I were almost alone at this ...
12/01/2025

Standing on the upper deck of our ice-friendly ship, the SH Diana, a Scottish colleague and I were almost alone at this early hour. We stared around in wonder at Fournier Bay in Antarctica and spotted movement in the water far below. What kind of jumping fish were these, we wondered aloud, before realising that they were penguins

Unless you’ve seen them in the wild, how would you know what penguins moving through the water look like? Two humpback whales duly appeared, spouting and flashing their tails within this immense, hushed world devoid of humans

When you look at the map of Antarctica and try to get a handle on its size, it feels impossible. This is a continent larger than Europe, so does going to see a tiny piece of it really constitute “seeing” Antarctica? From Ushuaia in Argentina we sailed 1,000km south to the very tip of the continent. On a map it looks almost like an afterthought of the White Continent, a tailed-off section fizzling out. Surely not much to see there, right?

Katelyn Rose Downey spent last Christmas much like any other teenager, relaxing at home and playing quiz games with her ...
12/01/2025

Katelyn Rose Downey spent last Christmas much like any other teenager, relaxing at home and playing quiz games with her cousins at her grandmother’s house

But this 15-year-old from Knocklyon in Dublin is not exactly like most other teenagers — she happens to be the star of The Nun II, a Hollywood horror film from 2023 that grossed €260 million across the world from a €37 million budget

Like most other people her age, Katelyn sat her Junior Cert last year. She also filmed Blade Runner 2099 – an Amazon Prime series and a sequel to the iconic science-fiction movies Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017). Amid all this excitement, she managed to ace her exams

Trevor Dietz, manager of Fontaines DC, chuckles as he remembers one of his first encounters with the band, after booking...
12/01/2025

Trevor Dietz, manager of Fontaines DC, chuckles as he remembers one of his first encounters with the band, after booking them for a 2015 gig at the Workman’s Club in Dublin. “Any other band in the city was going, ‘Come along — it’s gonna be the best night of your life’,” he says. “Whereas they just said, ‘Fontaines. The Workman’s. 8pm. Free in.’ They didn’t even use a picture of themselves, they used a picture of Shane MacGowan.” He shakes his head. “I just found that hilarious, and a bit ballsy. It felt like a bit of a return to rock’n’roll.”

Dietz, a booker and promoter at the popular Dublin venue, has helped to steer Fontaines DC to global renown, establishing them as arguably the most important Irish band of their generation. Last week their fourth studio album, Romance, was shortlisted as one of the records of the year for the Choice Music prize

Dietz was immediately struck by the five-piece’s unapologetic stage presence and their unified mentality. “I met them backstage in the green room, and there was no ‘leader and four quiet lads’ — all five of them spoke, all five had personality, all five were fully in, and were so patient with each other. They had that kind of gang telepathy between them,” he recalls

A shadowy Chinese agency that targeted Prince Andrew has cultivated connections across Ireland while opening “stations” ...
12/01/2025

A shadowy Chinese agency that targeted Prince Andrew has cultivated connections across Ireland while opening “stations” to recruit those involved in sensitive research

United Front Work Department (UFWD) stations operate under the guise of consular offices and Chinese associations, which act as centres for intimidation of dissidents, spying and other activities

Two are based in Dublin, two in Cork and one at Galway University, according to information gathered from publicly available Chinese records examined by researchers at the international Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China. One was found to be directly aligned to a UFWD department in the Shandong province of China

The father of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, the late French TV producer, remained convinced that chief murder suspect Ian B...
12/01/2025

The father of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, the late French TV producer, remained convinced that chief murder suspect Ian Bailey killed his daughter 28 years ago as he spoke of her to his family the week before he died in hospital

As the one year anniversary of Bailey’s death approaches, the British journalist continues to be linked to the cold case with his former partner Jules Thomas taking on Netflix in the High Court this week and a new movie by Jim Sheridan hitting screens later this year

Georges Bouniol, a former dentist, died in Paris aged 98 on December 30, having spent close to three decades seeking justice with his wife Marguerite for the murder of their 39-year-old daughter in Schull, west Cork on December 23, 1996

The US federal budget deficit — the gap between state spending and state revenues — is running at 6 per cent of national...
12/01/2025

The US federal budget deficit — the gap between state spending and state revenues — is running at 6 per cent of national income. That is extraordinarily high when we consider that America is neither in a recession nor in a significant war. According to the economist David Rosenberg, federal spending ballooned by nearly 20 per cent last year compared with 2023. That is the key reason why the US economy grew by more than 3 per cent

In the UK, the new Labour government, under Rachel Reeves as chancellor, attempted to reduce its deficit by increasing some taxes. But those taxes were raised in productive areas of the economy while largely unproductive areas were the main beneficiaries of her spending increases. Business confidence has been crushed. The resulting negative growth impulse risks pushing the UK economy into recession

On mainland Europe, the politics of France and Germany have been fundamentally undermined by weak economic growth and resulting weak public finances. Emmanuel Macron is due to remain president of France until May 2027. But can he credibly remain in office if France’s parliament repeatedly refuses to approve a new government? Facing similar parliamentary problems, Germany’s next federal election has been pulled forward by almost a year to February 23

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