News about Mary Lou McDonald

According to a study published yesterday by the Irish think tank Institute of International and European Affairs, Ireland would have to curb public spending and bring about a "immediate, significant decrease" in living conditions if Northern Ireland were to join. According to the report, the basic administrative costs of reunification, the loss of'subvention' payments from the British government, and other adjustments could amount to about €11 billion (£9.5 billion). If Ireland were to harmonize social care, pensions, and public service pay rates in Northern Ireland with those of the Republic, it would rise to around €20.5 billion (£17 billion) (Northern Ireland parliament buildings in Stormont pictured).

Sinn Féin has been accused of hypocrisy after the former English heiress and bomber Pearse McAuley's party distanced itself this week from garda-killer and wife-beater Pearse McAuley. Many current Sinn Féin TDs, as well as former party leader Gerry Adams, attended Rose Dugdale's funeral on Wednesday, whose coffin was draped in the tricolour (inset). During the Troubles, Ms. Dugdale, an English aristocrat, was involved in several IRA operations, including a failed attempt to drop bombs on to a police station in Strabane, Co. Tyrone, where a helicopter was hijacked across the border in Co. Donegal.

In a tweet relating to an upcoming match, Minnesota United FC has released a grovelling apology after using a 'divisive term' linked to the IRA. The American football team announced the use of the word "tiocfaidh ár lá" in reference to upcoming matches against St Patrick's Athletic FC, which is Irish for "our day will come." Minnesota FC's twin cities have a long tradition of Irish roots, which is why the forthcoming friendly game was supposed to celebrate St Patrick's Day. However, the football team's social media staff committed a blunder in promoting the game by using an expression of sympathy for the IRA.

After Michelle O'Neill's election as First Minister in Northern Ireland, Mary Lou McDonald, the nationalists' president, said she thinks the referendum will be held before 2030. After Democratic Unionist Party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson mocked her for saying that Ireland unity was within 'touching distance,' she said on Sky News this morning. She'll need 'the longest arms on this island.' 'Recent elections in the north of Ireland, as well as my colleague Michelle O'Neill, becoming a Sinn Fein First Minister in the north over the weekend, are only signs of a major change in Ireland,' she said.

Michelle O'Neill's election in Northern Ireland has sent shockwaves through Northern Ireland, marking the first time a nationalist has held the office since it was first established at partition in 1921. However, the 47-year-old with her shiny blonde hair, bright lipstick, curled eyelashes, and painted nails signal a change in direction for Northern Ireland in more ways than one. Here's everything we know about Michelle O'Neill, Northern Ireland's first-ever nationalist first minister.

After tense talks that lasted into the early hours of yesterday, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said his party was prepared to secure a deal that would see Sinn Fein's Michelle O'Neill installed as the first republican First Minister. However, concerns have been raised over the detail of the plan and how it will influence the United Kingdom. The deal includes £3.3 billion in new funding for Northern Ireland, as well as promises from the government that post-Brexit trade ties between the Province and the rest of the UK will be reduced.

For the first time in two years since the DUP called an end to its Stormont boycott, NORTHERN Ireland is on the verge of a revival to power sharing. After intense talks that erupted into the early hours of yesterday, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said his party was prepared to support a deal that would see Sinn Fein's Michelle O'Neill named as the first republican First Minister. Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Fein's national leader, said that the change resulted in the reunification of Ireland was now within 'touching distance.' The agreement includes £3.3 billion in new funding for Northern Ireland, as well as government promises that post-Brexit trade barriers between the Province and the rest of the UK will be reduced.

Unionism's 'constitution of Ulster politics had been 'consigned to the pages of the history books,' according to party leader Mary Lou McDonald after the DUP agreed to a deal to restart the power-sharing company. The DUP enabled Stormont to be resurgent after two years of political uncertainty by signing a deal at a marathon meeting. Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the Unionist leader, confirmed the decision in the early hours, with the package including more than £3 billion in extra funds from Westminster and legislation designed to improve the UK's legitimacy. Sinn Fein will take over the First Minister post in Northern Ireland for the first time since coming first in the last elections.

Since being admitted to the hospital with head injury, the six-year-old girl was released by medical staff. At the site near Gaelscoil Mhuire Primary School, floral tributes have been left for the victims. A crazed knifeman started stabbing people outside a school on Dublin's Parnell Square East at 1.30 p.m., according to reports. On Friday evening, the bloodshed wreaked violence, killing three children and injuring the school worker, sparking a series of violent protests in Dublin.

The sinister Telegram voice note that sparked the Dublin riots just hours after a horrific knife assault on three schoolchildren has been revealed. 'Bally [balclava] up, tool up... and whoever f***ing stranger kill them," a troubling call to arms sent by a private group of self-proclaimed Irish 'patriots' at 5.22 p.m. on Thursday. The unsubstantiated internet rumors that the individual behind the knife attack, which killed three children and a woman, was a foreign national, fuelled the riots.

Garrett FitzGerald narrated how his son, six, was one of the children escorting to an after-school creche on Parnell Square East when the knifeman stabbed, passers-by, and injured three children and their teacher. A girl aged five was left hospitalized in a critical situation in the aftermath of the attack, but the woman, who was in her 30s, was left seriously wounded. Two other children, a five-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl were less severely injured. The perpetrator, a man in his 50s, is also being hospitalized in hospital but not in a serious state.

The unrest in Dublin on Thursday night was fuelled by a "complete lunatic faction fueled by far-right ideology," according to police, after a knifeman assaulted a group of children outside of a school. After rumors of the attackers' nationality surfaced online, the brutality erupted. The rioters had 'brought shame' on Ireland, according to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. Conor McGregor, an Irish mixed martial artist, stepped into the debate, criticizing the police and the government's response on X (formerly Twitter). The 35-year-old attacked "people who should not even be in Ireland in the first place" in a series of tweets and chastised the police and authorities' reaction. In the meantime, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said she had "no confidence" in Irish justice minister Helen McEntee and Ireland's police commissioner.

In protest over the attack, which also wounded two adults, including a woman and the accused knifeman, thugs fought running battles with riot cops, looted stores, and torched a double-decker bus. In the worst protests in the city in years, police in riot gear stood guard on the streets in Dublin's capital as crowds booed them with chanting and fireworks. Flames soared from a vehicle and the bus near O'Connell Bridge over the River Liffey, while crowds transformed into shops and looted one of the city's main shopping streets. The uprising came after a five-year-old girl sustained serious injuries in a reported stabbing on Parnell Square East, which is located in north-central Dublin. After the incident around 1.30 p.m., two other children, as well as the mother and the suspected perpetrator of the assault, were admitted to the hospital.

On Saturday, Michelle O'Neill and other Northern Ireland party leaders, including DUP chief Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, attended the ceremony in Westminster Abbey. Her presence at the Coronation is seen as another sign of the rapidly improving links between the Irish republican movement and the Royal Family that have existed since the peace process. Ms O'Neill said at the party's 2023 local election manifesto launch in Newry that diverging political views should be respected. Pictured: Michelle O'Neill after the King's Coronation ceremony

The Taoiseach's adverts in Sinn Fein newspapers (left) calling for an Irish unity referendum in US newspapers, including the New York Times and Washington Post, have been described as "unhelpful." According to the advertisements, the British Government has disregarded its obligations under Good Friday Agreement to cause referendums on unification. They also urged US politicians to hold the UK accountable for the crisis and further urge Ireland's government to'plan, prepare, and advocate' for Irish unity. During what he described as a 'critical moment' in efforts to recover powersharing in Northern Ireland, Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar (bottom right) expressed worry at the ads. It comes as Sinn Fein founder Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O'Neill (top right), as well as Mr Varadkar and DUP chief Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, are among those in Washington this week for St Patrick's Day activities.

RUTH DUDLEY EDWARDS: On Wednesday night, an old friend from Omagh, an ex-member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) - the predecessor of Northern Ireland's Police Service - called me to inform me of Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell's attempted murder. It came from the same friend who first heard about the Omagh bombing in the afternoon of August 15 1998 - yes, in the same town, by the Real IRA, a splinter group that condemned the IRA's ceasefire and the Good Friday Agreement, which was signed the same year. DCI Caldwell, an outstanding policeman lauded by his colleagues for tackling high-profile murders, was shot by masked gunmen in the presence of his son and two other young students in this latest assault.

In this midst of increasing rumors over a deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol within days, Mr Sunak and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris will visit politicians near Belfast this morning. According to newspaper reports, the Prime Minister may brief his Cabinet on the proposal to settle the trade border and declare it in Parliament on Tuesday. However, he is already facing criticism from the Democratic Unionist Party and his own hardline backbenchers over the initiative, which is expected to continue to have a hand in determining the legislation. Northern Ireland was not isolated legally from the rest of the UK, according to DUP MP Sammy Wilson, who said it was "fundamental" that it was not.

Sinn Fein President Mary-Lou McDonald expressed excitement today that a solution to the Northern Ireland crisis could be found soon. Ms McDonald referred to a "flurry of activity" in recent weeks, saying that "a deal can be done...very quickly" to bring an end to the UK's dispute with the EU over post-Brexit trade laws. Stormont's power-sharing has also broken down as a result of the bitter conflict over the Northern Ireland Protocol. As part of the Protocol's resistance, the DUP is boycotting Stormont's institutions. Since the 1999 general election in Northern Ireland, there has been no way to ensure the establishment of a functioning Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly. Despite optimism elsewhere, it was revealed last night that the DUP does not expect a deal to end the Protocol row before the Good Friday Agreement was signed in April. By BBC Newsnight, unionists were claiming that an intervention by former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who signed the Good Friday Agreement, could break the deadlock. It comes as the latest in a string of deadlines to restore power-sharing in Northern Ireland is set to be missed at midnight. This will place a lethal pressure on the UK government to call fresh elections at Stormont, although Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has stated that he would not take such action right away. Rather, he is expected to wait for more developments from the ongoing talks between the UK and the EU over the Protocol issue.

Vicky Phelan, an Irish cervical cancer activist, died today, aged 48, after uncovering one of the country's biggest medical scandals in recent years. After taking a Supreme Court lawsuit over how her cervical smears were treated, the mother-of-two of Limerick gained national attention, sparking a string of research into Ireland's cervical cancer screening service CervicalCheck. Ms Phelan filed a lawsuit against the US lab that analyzed Irish smear tests, Clinical Pathology Laboratories, and the trial was settled for €2.5 million. Dr. Gabriel Scally, a public health specialist who reported on the controversy in 2018, found that at least 221 women diagnosed with cervical cancer who were not previously warned of missed smear tests, and may have been alerted to the early stages of cancer. She later founded CervicalCheck Patient Support Group, which helps the victims of the CervicalCheck screening scandal. In 2018, the mother-of-two was also listed as one of the BBC's Top 100 Women, and she wrote an essay titled Overcoming in 2019 that chronicles her ordeal, which became the An News Book of the Year. She died early this morning at Milford Hospice in Limerick, and her husband Jim and her children Amelia and Darragh were both 16 and 11 respectively.

On Friday afternoon, a gas explosion at the Applegreen Service Station in Creeslough killed four men, three women, two teenagers, and a five-year-old child. Father James O'Flaherty, 48; designer Jessica Gallagher, 49; and shop worker Martina Martin, 49; and five-year-old daughter Shauna; and talented rugby player Leona Harper, 14, have been dubbed the ten victims today. The Garda Sochána said in a tweet on Thursday that a male in his 20s remains in a critical condition at St James Hospital in Dublin, while a further seven casualties are receiving medical attention at Letterkenny University Hospital and remain in stable condition.

Maya Jasanoff, a Harvard University professor, said in an article hours after the Queen died that the assassination of her cousin Lord Mountbatten by the IRA was 'karmic.' During Her reign, the essay added that Her Majesty' helped to obscure a bloody history of colonization.' Lord Mountbatten was killed after the IRA blew up his fishing boat off the coast of Mullaghmore, County Sligo, as he set sail with family members.