Termination of pregnancy services will be available in Ireland from January 1 - but it will be a limited service, Health Minister Simon Harris has admitted.

My home has become the festive version of The Hunger Games. Mainly due to the competitive battleground between a diminutive elf and a faux root vegetable. Whilst the elf can claim several prior years of residence, his pixie nose has been considerably put out of joint by the arrival of Kevin the Carrot, writes Lindsay Woods.

Today is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement for Jewish people. It is 45 years since the war which bore its name.

At the height of the debate about opening up Croke Park to ‘foreign’ games, a hurling aficionado of my acquaintance offered up a soundbite for the ages.

He may live in the nearest thing we have to a palace, yet, in his annual Christmas message from the grandeur of Áras an Uachtaráin yesterday, President Higgins exuded more empathy and personal connection with Ireland’s homeless than many of our senior politicians.

Richard Coles has become a priest since his days with Bronski Beat. But he was glad to return to the musical fold for an album of seasonal songs, writes Joe Nerssessian

A security guard has been stabbed in Jerusalem as protests and demonstrations take place across the world following US president Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

As children who grew up in Ireland, we are all too familiar with the story of the First Christmas, writes Breda Graham.

My recent trip to Bethlehem shattered my illusions. The most iconic place in all of Christendom is the most unholy and violent I have ever visited.

Two murals depicting an oversized Donald Trump have appeared on Israel's West Bank separation barrier, just yards from where elusive British artist Banksy decorated a hotel earlier this year.

Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ, is synonymous with Christmas, but it is menaced by the concrete divide that encroaches on Palestine territory, says Eoin O’Driscoll.

An exhibition by Palestinian artist Emily Jacir is about to open at IMMA in Dublin. She tells Alan O’Riordan why some of her new work taps into Irish history

The ongoing building of illegal settlements is just one feature of a brutal occupation that foments Palestinian resentment, writes Political Correspondent Juno McEnroe

As events move toward Israel's 50 years of occupation of Palestine next year, confidence in the Palestinian Authority is crumbling and the peace process is on a knife-edge, threatening to create a new generation of radicals unwilling to live through the current malaise and political vacuum, writes Juno McEnroe, Political Correspondent.

As events move toward Israel’s 50 years of occupation of Palestine next year, confidence in the Palestinian Authority is crumbling and the peace process is on a knife-edge, threatening to create a new generation of radicals unwilling to live through the current malaise and political vacuum, writes Political Correspondent Juno McEnroe in the West Bank

As events move toward Israel’s 50 years of occupation of Palestine next year, confidence in the Palestinian Authority is crumbling and the peace process is on a knife-edge, threatening to create a new generation of radicals unwilling to live through the current malaise and political vacuum, writes Juno McEnroe Political Correspondent in the West Bank.

Your letters, your views...

RECENTLY issued as a paperback, having been first published in 2005 and short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, Sebastian Barry’s First World War novel is brilliant in its evocation of the killing fields in Flanders and the tragedy of the protagonist. 

At last some courageous senators in the United States are questioning the many extra-judicial killings being carried out by Israeli forces against Palestinian young people.

We had a few days off last week and were inclined to take a break in the Deep South. 

Cork County Council will provide 1,217 new local authority homes by the end of 2017, according to its chief executive.

Emotion without reason is dangerous. Reason unhinged from imagination is sterile, writes Gerard Howlin.

Cribs come in all shapes and sizes, and exuding varying degrees of piety or cheeriness, depending on which set of people or what establishment happens to be displaying this Christmas tradition. 

In his reply to my letter, Derek O’Flynn of the Israeli Embassy ( Letters, November 6) inadvertently admits to the Apartheid system that exists in the West Bank, when he argues that the water Israel allows to them is two thirds that available to Israeli settlers.

I have just returned from two weeks in the Bethlehem area of the Palestinian West Bank, where I travelled as part of a fact finding tour with the YMCA.

I take grave objection to the description of the Palestinian people put forward by Desmond Fitzgerald (Letters, October 2).

Pope Francis named two Palestinian women as saints yesterday, in a ceremony in Saint Peter’s Square days after the Vatican formalised its de facto recognition of the State of Palestine.

Alex Perry meets the would-be world leader Tony Blair

From bustling bazaars by the Bosphorus, to following in the footsteps of The Fisherman, Eoin Edwards gained a once-in-a-lifetime experience when he undertook a tour of Istanbul and the Holy Land.

In a bar in Cork, Israeli and Palestinian swing dancers jived and cha-chaed as part of a groundbreaking ‘Swing for Peace’ initiative, writes Ellie O’Byrne

The Beatles legend play an impromptu two-hour gig and charged just $40 on a first come, first served basis.

The great changes a young child brought during his brief life of just two years and two months were saluted by a priest yesterday at the toddler’s funeral.