The UK Is a Voluntary Union, So There Must Be a Mechanism to Leave | Stephen Gethins

Sep 14, 2026 | “Let’s figure out what the mechanism [to leave the UK] is so we can get on with the debate about the substance.”

The last Scottish independence vote was “a long time ago” and the current union doesn’t properly serve the people of Scotland, says minister for Europe, external affairs and energy for the SNP Stephen Gethins.

Ireland Losing Pubs Rapidly, Industry Group Warns

Aug 14, 2025 | Ireland is losing one pub every 2.8 days, the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland (VFI) has warned.

The introduction of the breathalyser started the problem for pubs, then came the smoking ban. Both sounded the death knell for pubs. Then, add to that the extortionate prices for drinks in recent times and you have a disaster. Ireland without pubs will be like Saudi Arabia without mosques! — © Mark Alexander

Brexit Deal Stalls Over Ireland Border Dispute

Britain and the European Union say they are confident of reaching an agreement on Brexit withdrawal terms, despite no deal being announced on Monday. Among the main issues yet to be agreed, is what the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland will look like.

Yanis Varoufakis on Brexit Negotiations, Ireland, Greece

Nov.29 -- Former Greece Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis discusses Brexit negotiations, his recommendations around Brexit, the Irish border issue, Emmanuel Macron's policies for France, EU common budget and his outlook for Greece. He speaks on "Bloomberg Markets: European Open."

With Brexit Looming, Ireland Braces for Its Economic Impact

The IMF and other international financial bodies have warned that leaving the European Union could have negative consequences for Britain's economy. As Prime Minister Theresa May prepares to formally withdraw the United Kingdom from the EU, Britain's closest neighbor, the Republic of Ireland, is already feeling fallout. NewsHour Weekend Special Correspondent Patricia Sabga reports from Ireland.

Davos 2017: Hard Brexit 'a Double-edged Sword for Ireland'

Inside Story - Has Ireland Given Illegal Tax Incentives to Apple?

Britain Would Welcome Apple After Tax Case Issues With EU

Apple has already announced that it will appeal the European Commissions' ruling that the company owes 13 billion euros in back-dated taxes. And now the UK has opened the door for Apple to invest its business in post-Brexit Britain. For more on this I am joined live by RT's Laura Smith.

Inside Story: Has Austerity Worked?

As Spain shakes free from its bailout, we ask if Europe is on the road to economic recovery.

Irish Back EU Fiscal Pact
Irish voters have agreed to back the European Union's fiscal pact in a referendum, final results show. About 60 per cent of those who voted said "yes", with turnout at about 50 per cent. There are 17 countries in the eurozone, but only 12 of them are required to ratify the treaty in order for it to become law. The treaty makes deficit reduction a priority for the budgets of all signatories, but critics say that it makes it illegal for member states to follow pro-growth policies, by necessitating a pro-austerity approach. Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons reports from Dublin, Ireland.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

Wishing all my Irish visitors a very Happy St. Patrick’s Day. May the luck of the Irish be with you!

WIKI: St. Patrick’s Day »

Fracking Could Ruin Ireland Warn Experts
The windswept hills of Ireland are believed to be sitting on a treasure trove of natural gas. One company wants to use a controversial drilling technique - called fracking - to get it out but critics says the process would damage the environment. Al Jazeera's Simon McGregor-Wood reports from Leitrim county in Ireland.

Irish Leaving Country to Work Abroad
This year, more people will leave the Ireland to find work than at any time since the 1980s. Al Jazeera's Simon McGregor-Wood reports from County Donegal.

Irish Workers Leave the Emerald Isle
The great recession has triggered yet another wave of Irish emigration. WSJ's Don Duncan reports on how that is playing out in the national election

New Irish Exodus To America
SKY NEWS: The number of people travelling from Ireland to New York to find work is rising, according to the city's Irish community leaders.

Moody’s Slashes Ireland’s Credit Rating
THE NEW YORK TIMES: BRUSSELS — Even as Europe’s leaders were praising the Irish government’s deficit-cutting efforts, the country received a dramatically different verdict Friday from a credit rating agency: a steep downgrade and a warning of more to come.

Having pledged late Thursday to do “whatever is required” to contain the debt crisis and defend their embattled currency, European Union leaders reconvened for the final day of a summit meeting. In the draft of a closing statement, the leaders welcomed the “impressive progress” in Dublin toward meeting the stiff conditions set for its recent bailout, including adoption of steep budget cuts.

Moody’s Investors Service had a different assessment, however. It cut Ireland’s credit rating by five notches to Baa1, with a negative outlook, from Aa2 and said further downgrades could follow.

The downgrade represented a further blow for a county that has enacted deep austerity cuts — and it is likely to raise questions about whether the rating agencies are exacerbating the efforts of struggling euro countries to emerge from the crisis. >>> Stephen Castle and Matthew Saltmarsh | Friday, December 17, 2010

The Roof Falls In On Ireland's Millionaires Row
THE OBSERVER: In 2007 Shrewsbury Road in Dublin was the sixth most expensive street in the world. Now, post-crash, homes have been abandoned and the tycoon residents have run for the hills

Walford on Shrewsbury Road in Dublin, the most expensive residential street in the Irish capital, where prices have crashed by 50% or more. Photograph: The Observer
There is a padlock on the gate of Walford, the most expensive house in the priciest street in Ireland. Graffiti adorn the conservatory windows, the lawn is overgrown and old mattresses are piled up in the front room.

In a well-publicised deal at the height of Ireland's economic boom, this red-brick mansion, which sits on a one-and-a-half-acre plot, was sold for an eye-watering €56m (£48m) to a mysterious trust called Matsack Nominees, widely reported in the Irish media to be controlled by the wife of a millionaire property developer, Sean Dunne. The neighbours include telecoms tycoon Denis O'Brien, the biggest shareholder in Independent News & Media, who bought Belmont, a house a few doors down, for €35m.

Walford, which sits abandoned after a failed redevelopment application, is on Shrewsbury Road – a pleasant, tree-lined avenue in the Dublin inner suburb of Ballsbridge which, in the extraordinary gold rush that gripped Ireland, ranked as the sixth most expensive street in the world, ahead of Beverly Hills's Carolwood Drive and St Moritz's ritzy Via Suvretta. >>> Andrew Clark in Dublin | Sunday, December 05, 2010

€90bn Irish Bailout Ends in Turmoil – Now Europe Fears Crisis Will Spread
THE GUARDIAN: Brian Cowen defies calls for resignation / Fears that Portugal and Spain may need aid / International rescue plan does little to calm markets / Datablog: how will the bailout be funded and how exposed is each economy?

Markets thrown into ­turmoil amid fears of a collapse in Ireland’s ­government. Photograph: The Guardian
Financial markets were thrown into turmoil today amid fears that an imminent collapse of Ireland's beleaguered government would have a knock-on effect across the eurozone.

The announcement of the potential €90bn international bailout for debt-laden Ireland – of which the UK could contribute up to £10bn – offered only a temporary respite to nervous markets.

By tonight, concerns that Portugal and even Spain might also need their own rescue packages were rising and sent the euro and shares falling while the risk of holding the debt of potentially vulnerable countries rose alarmingly.

After a tumultuous day in Dublin, where protesters tried to storm the parliament building, the prime minister, Brian Cowen, defied calls for his resignation but conceded he would call an election in the new year. The move was forced upon him after the Green party pulled out of his fragile coalition government, unnerving markets on a day which was supposed to restore confidence in Europe's decade-old single currency.

Instead there was a sense of growing unease in the markets amid evidence that investors felt Portugal would not survive without aid., Dealers said sentiment in the markets was reminiscent of the days after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. Read on and comment >>> Jill Treanor, Nicholas Watt and Henry McDonald in Dublin | Monday, November 22, 2010

Irland bittet IWF und EU um Milliardenhilfe
WELT ONLINE: Jetzt also doch: Irland wird unter den Euro-Rettungsschirm schlüpfen. Das hochverschuldete Land braucht "mehrere zehn Milliarden Euro".

Die hohen Staatsschulden der Iren bedrohen die Stabilität der Euro-Zone. Bild: Welt Online
Irland wird als erstes Land offiziell um Finanzhilfe aus Mitteln des Rettungsschirms der Euroländer und des Internationalen Währungsfonds bitten. Finanzminister Brian Lenihan sagte am Sonntag im irischen Sender RTE, es gehe um „mehrere zehn Milliarden Euro“, nannte jedoch keine konkrete Summe. Griechenland hatte im Mai 110 Milliarden Euro erhalten, allerdings gab es damals den 750 Milliarden Euro umfassenden Rettungsschirm noch nicht. Er werde einen entsprechenden Vorschlag noch am Sonntag im Kabinett machen, sagte Lenihan. >>> dpa/cat | Sonntag, 21. November 2010

FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: Irland bittet um Hilfe: „Mehrere zehn Milliarden Euro“ >>> bes./wmu. , F.A.Z. | Sonntag, 21. November 2010

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Ireland Asks for Aid From Europe, Minister Says: DUBLIN — Ireland has formally applied for a bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, Brian Lenihan, the country’s finance minister, said Sunday. >>> Landon Thomas Jr. | Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Hunt for Jobs Sends the Irish Abroad, Again
THE NEW YORK TIMES: DUBLIN — Antoinette Shields had a plan to keep her tall, blue-eyed son, Kevin, close at hand. When she took over her boss’s construction company in 2002, she hoped to retire at 55 and give her son the business.

But it is not working out that way. Mrs. Shields’s company, which once employed 26 people, is now down to 8, still afloat in Ireland’s collapsed economy, but barely. Though Kevin graduated from college two weeks ago, she has no work for him, and he expects to emigrate to the United States or Canada next year.

“That is where we are,” Mrs. Shields said. “Sad, isn’t it?”

Just three years ago as Ireland’s economy boomed, immigrants poured in so fast that experts said this tiny country of 4.5 million was on its way to reaching population levels not seen since before the great potato famine of the mid-19th century. The conditions that prompted the Irish statesman Éamon de Valera to express the hope that Ireland’s children would no longer “like our cattle, be brought up for export” seemed like quaint history.

That has abruptly turned around. >>> Suzanne Daley | Saturday, November 20, 2010

THE TIMES: Ireland goes cap in hand to IMF >>> Sadie Gray | Sunday, November 21, 2010 | (Behind a paywall: £)

THE SUNDAY TIMES: Who killed the Celtic tiger? >>> James Ashton and Iain Dey | Sunday, November 21, 2010 | (Behind a paywall: £)

THE SUNDAY TIMES: Death of the euro >>> David Smith and Richard Woods | Sunday, November 21, 2010 | (Behind a paywall: £)

Greek Rescue Frays As Irish Crisis Drags On
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The eurozone bail-out for Greece has begun to unravel after Austria suspended aid contributions over failure to comply with the rescue terms, and Germany warned Athens that its patience was running out.

Thousands of Communist Party supporters wave flags during the protest rally in central Athens on November 15 against the IMF-EU troika visit in Athens and the expected new austrity package. Photo: The Daily Telegraph
The clash caught markets off-guard and heightened fears that Europe's debt crisis may be escalating, with deep confusion over the Irish crisis as Dublin continues to resist EU pressure to request its own rescue.

Olli Rehn, the EU economics commissioner, said escalating rhetoric in Europe was turning dangerous. "I want to call on every responsible European to resist the centrifugal tendencies and existential alarmism."

Swirling rumours hit eurozone bond markets, while bourses tumbled across the world. The FTSE 100 fell 2.4pc to 5681.9, and the Dow dropped over 200 points in early trading. The euro slid two cents to $1.3460 against the dollar as the US currency regained its safe-haven status. Read on and comment >>> Ambrose Evans-Pritchard | Tuesday, November 16, 2010

TELEGRAPH BLOGS – JEREMY WARNER: Austria Tells Greece to Get Stuffed: Europe’s hastily assembled bailout fund already seems to be coming apart at the seams, and that’s before Ireland has even tapped into it. Austria is refusing to contribute to the next tranche of bailout money for Greece, citing the country’s failure to meet conditions. Yesterday it emerged there is serious slippage in Greece’s deficit reduction programme. >>> Jeremy Warner | Tuesday, November 16, 2010