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Jan 11, 2025 | 
thetimes.com | Patrick O’Donoghue
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Nov 23, 2024 | 
thetimes.com | Patrick O’Donoghue
An Irish singer who has found success on the country music scene in Nashville in the US has said converting to Christianity helped to guide her on her musical journey and avoid the industry’s darker pitfalls. Last month Clare Cunningham, who hails from the village of Collon, Co Louth, was voted female entertainer of the year at Nashville’s Josie Music Awards, which honour independent music artists.
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Nov 23, 2024 | 
thetimes.com | Patrick O’Donoghue
Nikita Hand was closely flanked by her boyfriend and a sexual assault worker from the Rape Crisis Centre as courtroom 24 of Dublin’s High Court filled up last Friday evening for a verdict in the civil rape case that has created headlines around the world. The mother of one and former hair colourist shook in her seat and looked at the floor as she braced herself for the outcome, as Gary Foy, her boyfriend, put his arm around her and stroked her shoulder reassuringly.
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Nov 23, 2024 | 
thetimes.com | Patrick O’Donoghue |Rosamund Urwin
For Nikita Hand, a six-year nightmare may finally be over. This weekend, the Dublin hair colourist was being hailed as a heroine after she won a civil case against the mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor, whom she had accused of raping her in December 2018. Hand, now 35, had been so black and blue after the assault that a paramedic who examined her said she had not seen “someone so bruised” in a long time.
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Nov 16, 2024 | 
thetimes.com | Patrick O’Donoghue
Conor McGregor, the mixed martial arts fighter, took the stand last week in the High Court to deny claims that he raped a hairdresser in a hotel room six years ago. McGregor and James Lawrence, his friend, are being sued in a civil action by Nikita Hand, a 35-year-old hair colourist, for allegedly raping her in a penthouse suite at the Beacon hotel in Sandyford, Dublin, on December 9, 2018. Both men deny the claims.
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Nov 16, 2024 | 
thetimes.com | Patrick O’Donoghue
The Nigerian ambassador to Ireland has said there is “no doubt” that Nigeria is a safe country, piling pressure on Helen McEntee, the justice minister, to include it on the government’s list of safe countries. Nigeria is the country with the highest number of international protection applicants (IPAs) in Ireland.
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Nov 9, 2024 | 
thetimes.com | Patrick O’Donoghue
Robert Fisk, the award-winning foreign correspondent, would have believed that Ireland was “on the right side of history” with its stance on the Israel-Hamas war, his widow has said. An archive spanning 50 years of Fisk’s journalistic career was submitted to the library of Trinity College Dublin last week.
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Nov 9, 2024 | 
thetimes.com | Patrick O’Donoghue
Conor McGregor, at one time the highest-earning sportsman in the world, made international headlines last week as he faced accusations in a civil action that he “brutally raped and battered” a hairdresser in a hotel room in 2018. Nikita Hand, 35, is suing the mixed martial arts fighter and another man, James Lawrence, at the High Court, claiming they both raped her in a penthouse at the Beacon hotel in Sandyford, Dublin, on December 9, 2018.
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Nov 9, 2024 | 
thetimes.com | Patrick O’Donoghue |Julian Osbaldstone
Heath Jones, a detective in Hawke’s Bay on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island, has twice been honoured for his bravery in the line of duty: once for rescuing cyclone victims and once for tackling a gunman. Then, in 2018, the seasoned officer took a call which would put him at the heart of an international inquiry into one of the world’s worst paedophiles.
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Nov 2, 2024 | 
thetimes.com | Patrick O’Donoghue
An Irishman living in Valencia has told of his “deep sadness” at discovering that a number of his neighbours died last week as a result of the devastating floods in the eastern Spanish province. Michael Gallagher, a 48-year-old English course co-ordinator who lives in the neighbourhood of Benetússer with his wife, Silvia, and their two-year-old son, Owen, missed the last train home last Tuesday evening.
