Seanin Graham

6 days ago | irishtimes.com | Seanin Graham

In his lifetime, public health specialist Gabriel Scally has observed life expectancy rates on either side of the Border flip. People in the Republic are now living longer than those in Northern Ireland. “It used to be the other way round,” Scally says. “The switch has been amazing. It came together about 20 years ago, but since around 2012 or so, the Republic’s just shot away.”Today, a child born in 2021 in the South can expect to live for 82.4 years compared to 80.4 years in Northern Ireland.

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Seanin Graham

Undisclosed MI5 intelligence was not deliberately withheld from a £40 million (€46.6 million) investigation into the activities of the British army’s top spy in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, a report has found. A review was carried out between last October and January to determine how the failure arose after it emerged that hundreds of confidential files were not shared with the Operation Kenova team.

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Seanin Graham

Television camera crews arrived at Holywood golf club in Co Down from sunrise on Monday and set up in a corner devoted to Rory McIlroy. “We call it the Rory Corner ... it’s like a shrine with all his photographs and cabinet of trophies,” says Ruth Watt, the club’s lady captain.

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Seanin Graham

At the top of the stairs in a whitewashed cottage in Creeslough, Co Donegal, Áine Flanagan unlocks the door of her late daughter’s bedroom. It is the first time she has gone into the room in two months. Pink curtains remain drawn and an enormous fluffy unicorn covers the floor. Beside a neatly made child’s bed are two delicately carved wooden urns; a silver butterfly glitters on top of the smaller one, in which the ashes of Flanagan’s five-year-old daughter, Shauna, are held. She was her only child.

3 weeks ago | irishtimes.com | Seanin Graham

Blocking a BBC audio streaming service to listeners outside the UK has been branded a “slap in the face” for audiences in the Republic of Ireland. The move is set to take place within weeks and will lead to the removal of BBC Sounds, the app which allows free access to the corporation’s radio stations and podcasts, to those tuning in from overseas. The broadcaster is making the change to boost its commercial income.