Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore yesterday expressed hope that the momentum pushing the US towards immigration legislation would benefit the 50,000 Irish living in what he described as a “twilight zone”.

Two of the world’s superpowers are to battle it out on Irish soil — for the coveted ancient title of High King of Ireland.

FIANNA FÁIL TD Timmy Dooley has criticised Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore for refusing to attend a male-only dinner during his St Patrick’s Day trip to America.

Exploiting the US president’s Irish ancestry helped Ireland retain its influence on Capitol Hill, writes Ryle Dwyer

Senior US politicians have contacted clothing retailer Urban Outfitters over a fashion range which plays on the stereotype of the ‘drunken Irish’.

ÁRAS an Uachtaráin last night refused to confirm or deny claims President Mary McAleese turned down the role of grand marshal of the New York St Patrick’s Day parade because the event excludes gay people.

Two Orange halls were attacked with petrol bombs in Co Antrim, police said today.

THE government was embarrassed after New York congressman Mario Biaggi wrote to taoiseach Jack Lynch on January 24, 1978, congratulating him on an RTÉ interview a fortnight earlier in which he called on the British to declare their intention to withdraw their troops from Northern Ireland.

New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn plans to march in Dublin’s St Patrick’s Day parade this year, again snubbing the American parade because of its organisers’ refusal to allow gay and lesbian groups to march.

BEFORE the top crook from Enron heads off to do a lifetime’s porridge, he needs to meet the lads from the Ancient Order of Hibernians. They have so much in common. Especially God. He’s on their side. They’re sure of it.

ANTI-GAY protestors violently barracked Justice Minister Michael McDowell yesterday as he spoke at a conference on the legal status of same-sex couples.

The intolerance displayed towards Justice Minister Michael McDowell at the conference on the legal status of cohabiting and same sex couples organised by the Equality Authority and the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network was more pathetic than serious.

Anti-gay hecklers have interrupted a speech by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell on civil partnerships for same sex couples.

New York City Council’s first openly gay leader, who is boycotting today’s parade because organisers barred Irish gays and lesbians from joining the festivities for the 16th straight year, blasted its chairman for remarks that compared gay Irish-American activists to neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and prostitutes.

Police officers and fire-fighters came under attack from a group of up to 50 youths last night after apparently being lured into a nationalist estate in the Co Antrim town of Ballymena.

The PSNI is pressing ahead with a process of asking all officers to register their membership of semi-secret organisations like the Orange Order, the Freemasons and the Ancient Order of Hibernians.

PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde has halted a move to force all officers in Northern Ireland to declare membership of outside organisations, it emerged tonight.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams blamed the inability by Ulster Unionists “to manage a process of change” for difficulties in pushing forward the peace process in Northern Ireland.

GAA members of the North’s Police Service will soon be forced to declare their affiliation, it was claimed today.

I WANT the people of Ireland, the Government and anyone who had anything to do with bringing the Jeanie Johnston to Philadelphia to realise the importance of her visit.

One of America’s biggest St Patrick’s Day parades was going ahead today, despite a bitter split over the presence of a convicted IRA bomber.