Despite a marked improvement in the local elections, women still account for just 20% of local councillors, write Adrian Kavanagh, Fiona Buckley, Claire McGing, and Noirín Clancy

The votes are still being counted, but attention is already shifting to whether this weekend’s Local and European Elections mark a breaking of the mould in Irish politics, or merely a mid-term kicking for the Government.

The votes are still being counted, but attention is already shifting to whether this weekend's Local and European Elections mark a breaking of the mould in Irish politics, or merely a mid-term kicking for the Government.

ASK anyone from a rival party what’s the secret of Sinn Féin’s rise in popularity and they all say the same thing: They’ve never been in Government.

I WAS having a chat with my aunt — 80 years old yesterday — about how women’s place in society has changed. As I’d been arguing that women still had so far to travel, she told me a short story illustrating just how far we’ve come.

An election expert has said the only possible two-party coalition Government that could emerge in the next General Election, based on the most recent polls, would be Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

With constituencies in general growing larger, parties will find it easier to implement gender quotas. But some areas will see unprecedented competition, writes Adrian Kavanagh

With a team of effective young TDs and disillusionment with the main parties growing, Sinn Féin has risen in the polls. But to have a chance of winning power it needs the support of middle Ireland. Michael Clifford wonders if voters will take a chance on them at the next election

More than 20% of constituency boundaries will have to be changed based on latest population figures, it was claimed last night.

JEDWARD’S hopes of making it to the Eurovision final could be boosted by their last-place slot in Thursday night’s semi-final in Germany, according to an academic who has analysed previous contests.

PRESSURED by the unrelenting property boom, industrious young workers from Dublin embarked on a modest western migration.

ONE-IN-THREE motorists spends on average more than two hours a day stuck in traffic, with the number of cars on the road now at an all-time high.