It is truly ironic that as we approach commemoration and celebration of a century of Irish democratic rule, we endure what must be the most irrelevant government this State has ever experienced.

Through the daring with which it has lifted the curtain on the British royal enterprise, Peter Morgan’s saga ‘The Crown’ has moved into in a class of its own, says Giles Harvey

John Giles was excused Premier League punditry duty tonight to be granted the freedom of the city of Leeds.

The embattled British prime minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland arrives in Dublin on Monday morning.

Almost 20% of Irish people claim to have a relative who was involved in Operation Pied Piper, the mass movement of millions of women and children from British cities in the first three weeks of the Second World War.

Simon Coveney has warned the British prime minister Ireland will not be “steam-rolled” into any deal which drags this country out of the EU to solve the Brexit crisis.

Brian Cody and Winston Churchill might not seem to have that much in common, apart from a shared disdain for appeasement.

Ryle Dwyer examines the vital part played by one Cork man in highlighting, for the broadest international audience, the blatant contradictions of Britain’s behaviour during the two conflicts.

Boris Johnson could strike a chord with key sections of the electorate in the short-term before major damage is done. They will live to regret it, writes Andrew Hammond

Boris Johnson has been confirmed as the Conservative Party’s new leader – and the UK’s next prime minister.

They have continued to bomb, kill, and maim, even as they have met with the Afghan government to discuss an end to violence, says Shashi Tharoor.

Since the United Kingdom’s Department of International Development (DFID) was created 22 years ago, it has lifted millions out of poverty, sent millions of children to school, and saved millions of lives through vaccination programmes and other innovative initiatives.

Britain under Boris Johnson will lack the status to lead in important global multilateral development efforts, argues former British Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown.

For the generations born in Ireland since the end of the Second World War it is understandably difficult for some of them to envisage the state of public opinion on the issue of Irish neutrality during WWII.

The apparent triumph of Nigel Farage in the British political sphere has cast a huge shadow over a nation struggling to find its identity, writes Gordon Brown.

US President Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK was offered with exceptional speed, from a position of weakness, writes Martin Farr.

There’s much to tempt collectors at Fonsie Mealy’s sale next week, says Des O’Sullivan.

Business books of the year

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which has played a pivotal role in the quest for global justice, writes TP O’Mahony.

As the delicate endgame of Brexit fast approaches, some clear pockets of optimism for Ireland are beginning to shine through an otherwise gloomy picture, writes John Daly.

As we put back the clocks this weekend, could it really be for the last time?

In volume two of his biography of Éamon de Valera, covering 1932-1975, the RTÉ journalist David McCullough paints a complex picture, writes Ryle Dwyer.

Fake news has been a part of how humans try to dominate each other since well before the ancient Greeks used a hollow statue of a horse to smuggle troops into Troy to break a 10-year siege.

Next Tuesday marks the origins of an American conspiracy to depict Éamon de Valera and his government as morally indifferent to the outcome of the Second World War. Historian and author Ryle Dwyer argues that false claims about neutrality have produced possibly the greatest distortion of Irish history since independence.

It wasn’t quite on the same scale as Brexiteers puffing out their chests and quoting Winston Churchill’s “we will fight them on the beaches” speech, but, in an Irish context, there was no avoiding the point being made by the Cabinet yesterday.

A vanity case belonging to the fiancee of Michael Collins is to go under the auction hammer next month.

Former defence minister Willie O’Dea last night sounded a Churchillian battle cry against €10m plans by Irish Cement Ltd to phase out the use of fossil fuels at its factory in Mungret, Co Limerick, in favour of used tyres and solid recovered waste.

‘SUPERFICIAL, flighty, witty and effervescent,” is how director, Michael Cabot, of London Classic Theatre, always regarded the work of Noel Coward whose play, Private Lives, is at Cork’s Everyman.

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.

Gary Oldman told his 98-year-old mother to “put the kettle on, I’m bringing Oscar home” as his portrayal of Winston Churchill earned him his first Oscar.

This week Dan MacCarthy looks at Kay Summersby's life on Inishbeg

The beginning of the year has become a treasure trove of cinematic treats for Irish movie fans. Keeping films fresh in the minds of awards-season voters often means they’re released just before Christmas in the US, so they reach our shores between the Golden Globes and the Oscars. Esther McCarthy selects the movies you really don’t want to miss

Here's your morning news bulletin...

Saoirse Ronan and Midleton’s Nora Twomey are among the Irish hopefuls for the Golden Globes on Sunday, writes Esther McCarthy.

Your lunchtime news bulletin.

Few figures loom as large in public consciousness as Winston Churchill. His image is easy to conjure up in our minds - cigar in hand, rotund in stature, writes Laura Harding.

“JAW-JAW is always better than war-war” — a reflection on the nature of conflict attributed to both Harold McMillan and Winston Churchill.

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.

The Bolsheviks’ efforts to change the world remain relevant in our own time of popular disaffection with establishment politics and brutalist economics, says Geoffrey Roberts

The president cannot be tamed, so it is time to put the national interest ahead of party politics, says Nina L Khrushcheva.  

An unassuming Irish librarian has been credited as a Nazi codebreaker who helped to alter the course of the Second World War.

Ryanair pilots have been encouraged to invoke Winston Churchill in an attempt to deal with their management collectively.

With 1,300 years of history, Ireland’s ‘Alcatraz’ has been named Europe’s No 1 tourist attraction, writes Sean O’Riordan