12 h. ago Madame Lynch: how an Irish woman joined the ranks of Paraguay's heroes

Eliza Lynch was at her warlord partner’s side in a cataclysmic war and died in obscurity in Paris but is now being honoured – although not without controversyBy the time she turned 21, Eliza Alice Lynch had fled famine-stricken County Cork for Paris, married and left a French officer, become entangled with a South American warlord-in-waiting, and returned with him to Paraguay.Ten years later, her partner – by then, president and grand marshal Francisco Solano López – led Paraguay into a cataclysmic four-year war against Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. Half of Paraguay’s population was wiped out. López was cornered and shot on a jungle battlefield called Cerro Corá, along with their 15-year-old son. Continue reading...

Politics

38 h. ago Perfumed With Mint review – poetic Egyptian stoner flick reveals inertia of failed revolution

Debut from Muhammad Hamdy, who won an Emmy for his cinematography, features dramatic chiaroscuros and panning shots to rival AntonioniMuhammad Hamdy’s debut feature is what you might call an Egyptian stoner flick – if Cheech and Chong were a pair of exhausted, poetry-spouting revolutionaries roaming a broken-down necropolis. Hashish is the means of dulling painful memories and, apparently, preventing subcutaneous eruptions of mint, in this distinctive and stubborn-headed post-Arab-Spring reckoning which comes with magic-realist overtones.Bahaa (Alaa El Din Hamada) is a disaffected doctor who, on hearing a woman’s complaint about being unable to stop her dead son manifesting, passes her a joint. Wandering through a set of decrepit apartments in a becalmed nocturnal purgatory, pursued by sprinting shadows and bemoaning his lost love Dalal, it seems he and his friend Mahdy (Mahdy Abo Bahat) have joined the ranks of the ghosts themselves. These ruins are psychological as much as anythin...

Events

1 week ago ‘We’ve got to become an aggressively populist party’: Chris Murphy on the task facing Democrats

The Connecticut senator is urging colleagues to take risks to confront Trump and show voters a less judgmental facePete Buttigieg. Ruben Gallego. JD Vance. All are young politicians who sport facial hair, perhaps in the belief that it confers gravitas. One headline writer even suggested: “2028 Might Be The Year Of The Beard For Presidential Hopefuls.”Cue Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator who recently joined the ranks of the bearded. The 51-year-old’s is flecked with white, perhaps implying a warrior weathered by battle. Murphy is one of the most outspoken voices in the Democratic opposition to Donald Trump. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Irish woman ‘in fear’ ahead of release of Christian Brueckner

Hazel Behan, who has waived her right to anonymity, alleges she was raped at knifepoint by the German man, who was acquitted by a court.

Politics

2 w. ago ‘Send her home’: Son of Irish woman, 70, in Israeli detention pleads for her release

Exclusive: Activist Deirdre Murphy, who has a long-term health condition, was arrested last week in a West Bank village demolished by Israeli bulldozers

Politics

2 w. ago I traded boozy nights for a hiking club – could this be the future of socialising?

Niki Cottrell joins the ranks at a hiking club to find out why 2025 is fast becoming the year of the wellness social

Politics

2 w. ago Married Irish woman 'sexually assaults man at Magaluf spa hotel' where she was staying with her husband

The 37-year-old was hauled to court after being accused of touching her alleged victim's genitals without his consent.

Events

2 w. ago Woman wrongly held for years on US death row dies in Irish house fire

Sonia ‘Sunny’ Jacobs was exonerated of murder after 17 years and later married an Irish manAfter enduring hellish years on America’s death row for a crime she did not commit, Sonia “Sunny” Jacobs found an idyll, and healing, in rural Ireland. But in a final, cruel twist, her sanctuary claimed her life.Jacobs, 78, and her carer, Kevin Kelly, were found dead on Tuesday after a fire at her cottage near the village of Casla, in County Galway. Continue reading...

Events