IT will come as news to some that Conor McGregor, the well-known whiskey impresario and threat to public order, is fighting this weekend.

Ireland could well have to live with the dire consequences of a no-deal Brexit for a while, despite its devastating consequences, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has conceded for the first time.

The sight of Jacob Rees-Mogg lying stretched across three seats at the House of Commons during Tuesday’s late night debate on Brexit is proof of the contempt with which he and some of his colleagues hold the Mother of Parliaments.

Rees-Mogg’s attempt to drag Parnell into the Brexit debate was a squalid ploy to exploit anti-Irish sentiment in Britain and cling to power, writes Ryle Dwyer

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has suffered a double blow after it emerged Britain is seeking to renege on its commitments to protect the all-Ireland economy and US vice- president Mike Pence called on Ireland and the EU to respect the UK’s right to leave.

In late July and on through August, on the biggest days of the GAA calendar — when all other space is filled — the Nally Terrace will be home to the GAA supporters who are unable to get tickets for anywhere else in Croke Park.

Cynics tend to dismiss the practice of holding Cabinet meetings outside Dublin as a “Cabinet Roadshow” yet there is little doubt that conducting government business in different locations across the country is welcomed by local communities and provides an opportunity to meet regional organisations and groups.

Plans to convert a former hotel in Cork city centre into an upmarket retail store have been put on hold following objections from a number of local businesses and An Taisce.

A former Cork city-centre hotel, with a 207-year pedigree on St Patrick’s St, is to be partly demolished and redeveloped for high-end shops use, possibly with an appeal to the likes of Zara.

David Creedon has been nominated for the Hennessy Portrait Prize for his picture of Billy Ramsell. It’s the latest addition to his hugely impressive body of work, writes Marjorie Brennan.

On the eve of what would have been Princess Diana’s 56th birthday, Ryle Dwyer reveals her hidden Irish connections.

Considering the taste for tabloid fervour across the English Channel, Ireland has something akin to a Gallic disinterest in our politicians’ private indiscretions, writes Clodagh Finn

RONAN O’GARA was granted the Freedom of Cork, a signal honour that dates from the 14th century. 

What does the future hold for Ireland?

Des O’Sullivan on an important and historic sale of primary sources for the Irish revolutionary period. 

THE setting is Victorian Dublin, as newly promoted detective inspector, Joe Swallow investigates an outbreak of sexual assaults on women. 

A Dublin man accused of vandalising the headstone of former president and taoiseach Éamon de Valera told gardaí he was guilty, a court has heard.

On the 125th anniversary of the death of CS Parnell, Ryle Dwyer looks at the historical implications of the Church leading a heave against him.

A brass band with a 250-year history, at least, and which performed at the funerals of luminaries such as Charles Stewart Parnell, Michael Collins and O’Donovan Rossa will be giving performances in West Cork this week.

Pick up a copy of the New Testament (a modern translation, if possible) and read a few chapters at random.

The last chance to hit the dance floor at a hotel that hosted top political figures in Irish history takes place this weekend, as the new owner sells off its contents.

Certain things tend to run in families — particularly names. Williams Rossa Cole is a great grandson of O’Donovan Rossa. His brother is Ross Williams Cole, and their father was William Rossa Cole. The brothers have four children between them — all have a Rossa in their name.

Cork Opera House is celebrating its 160th anniversary tonight. It’s a momentous milestone, says Marjorie Brennan.

Former tánaiste and Progressive Democrats leader Michael McDowell has hinted at a potential return to the political arena after leaving the door open for parties to convince him to run again.

Ukip and the SNP are making inroads ahead of the election. Deadlock at Westminster would spell bad news for Ireland, writes 

ASH WEDNESDAY was the day when foreheads were marked with ash and the words ‘Memento, homo, quia pulvis es’ were said (or, in English, ‘Remember, man, that thou art dust’). 

LAST Sunday’s YouGov opinion poll showing a lead for the yes side in the Scottish independence referendum, was a bowel- loosening moment for the British establishment. 

For nearly a decade the United Ireland newspaper was a propaganda vehicle for Charles Stewart Parnell. JP O’Malley on a new history of the publication

The iconic Tipperary hotel where the GAA was founded, and where tens of thousands of sport fans have congregated every year since, is to be sold at auction with a guide price of just €500,000.

With respect to your correspondents (August 16, 2014) who have attacked John Bruton, their approach has been unhistorical wishful-thinking and not an empirical appraisal.

In the opinion section on your paper on August 8, Gerard Howlin writes about Pat Rabbitte’s difficulty coping with being dropped from government. Paudy McMahon wrote a letter rebuffing Gay Byrne who expressed fears about the role of the EU in our lives and Tom Duffy stressed how our government is ramming through its wind energy programme with no regard to the health impact on residents.

SELF-AWARENESS is a virtue that should never, ever be taken too far. It can trip over into insanity.

One of Cork city’s oldest hotels, the Victoria Hotel on St Patrick Street, is for sale by tender in April.

The Inquiry is one of the gems from this year’s documentary strand at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival; although, technically, it’s a drama written from documentary evidence, as its screenplay is threaded with newspaper cuttings and British parliamentary reports.

AN illicit love affair is so quintessentially French that revelations of President François Hollande’s clandestine meetings with Julie Gayet have been greeted by the French with a shrug.

William Dargan: an honourable life 1799-1867

A group of vocal protesters campaigning against banks and house repossessions has forced the cancellation of a large-scale property auction in Dublin.

A house with a cellar, steeped in Irish and horticultural history, is a summer seller in Cork.

A member of England's royal family has laid a wreath at a memorial to rebels who fought and died in the 1916 Easter Rising.

IT’S not an obvious topic for comedy, but Seán Hughes has written a critically acclaimed show about the death of his father, aged 72, from leukaemia a couple of years ago.

The Irish 2012 Olympic team and Katie Taylor scooped the top accolades at the Irish Amateur Boxing Association’s Annual Awards Night at the Green Isle Hotel in Dublin last night.

There is plenty of hype around Ireland’s oil exploration sector, but there have also been numerous disappointments. With the Barryroe bonanza this week, could the country be set for a new boom, asks Kyran Fitzgerald

THERE is a real tremor of delight in subsuming ones intelligence to the blatant nonsense that a particular washing powder will wash whiter than white.

A new book exposes how, after a promising start, corruption became endemic in Irish political life, writes Colette Browne

Biography

IN the future when in Berlin, Enda Kenny and Michael Noonan can reassure Angela Merkel by prefacing their public statements with John F Kennedy’s famous admission: ich bin ein Berliner.

IT MAY go down in the history books as having finally drawn a line under centuries of animosity between two neighbouring nations.

Police held back noisy demonstrators as the Queen took part in a wreath laying ceremony at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin city centre this afternoon.