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Justice Minister Dermot Ahern has signed new gun control legislation into law. The act bans handguns in Ireland and also introduces a requirement for referees, background medical checks and standards for the safe keeping of guns in the home for all firearms licence applicants. It also makes it an offence to brandish a realistic imitation firearm in public. Mr Ahern says the legislation is designed to halt the emergence of a gun culture in Ireland.

According to the linked page: "Unnamed freelance journalist has the goods on Obama and Rezko"

Substantial election returns showed Friday that Ireland's voters have rejected the European Union reform treaty, a blueprint for modernizing the 27-nation bloc that cannot become law without Irish approval. Several senior Irish government figures conceded defeat for the treaty, which would be a major blow to the EU. An EU constitution failed after French and Dutch voters rejected it in 2005. Ireland was the only member that subjected its would-be successor, the Lisbon Treaty, to a national vote. The Irish constitution requires all EU treaties to be ratified by referendum. Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said he expected all other 26...

Ireland vote rejects EU treaty Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern has said substantial referendum returns show that Ireland has rejected the European Union reform treaty. Electoral officials expect to confirm the result later. Mr Ahern based his conclusion on tallies of votes produced nationally by election observers as well as early official returns. They showed the "no" camp ahead in the vast majority of Ireland's 43 electoral constituencies, while pro-treaty voters were clearly ahead in only a few. The expected result will send shock waves throughout the EU. Ireland was the only member to subject the Lisbon Treaty to a...

DUBLIN, Ireland — Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern has announced he will resign over a cash-payments scandal. Ahern has told reporters outside his government office he will step down May 6. He has been Ireland's leader for 11 years, but his hold on power has steadily weakened since investigators alleged he secretly received cash payments from businessmen in the 1990s. Investigators say they have uncovered more than $150,000 in undocumented cash deposits to Ahern.

Sweden’s Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern in Berlin last night to discuss how to resurrect a new constitution for the European Union. Reinfeldt expressed his support for the Germans’ efforts to come up with a draft that all 27 EU countries can accept, after voters in the Netherlands and France rejected the proposed constitution in 2005. After the meeting he said Sweden’s views were heard, and the meeting was part of efforts to get Sweden to play a more constructive role in EU affairs. Germany has held the rotating...

Today President Bush had a meeting with former Senator Bob Dole and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, co-chairs of the President’s Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors. (Transcript) Later, the president was joined once again by Bertie Ahern, the Prime Minister of Ireland, for a St. Patrick’s Day ceremony in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. (Transcript) President and Mrs. Bush then traveled to Camp David, where they will spend the weekend. Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island

The slings and arrows of a "pretty nasty" campaign have included an online onslaught of name-calling. There are dirty politics, and then there are nasty politics. Just ask the candidates ... As the election grows near, the race's normal debating and sign posting has been overshadowed by requests for restraining orders, allegations of slander and libel, the airing of arrest records, criminal investigations and an online war of words. It all started with a debate this month at a Club 20 meeting in Grand Junction. Incumbent 58th District Rep. Ray Rose, R-Montrose, startled the crowd when he asked his opponent...

The race to represent part of southwestern Colorado in the state Capitol is getting a little rough. Republican Ray Rose is the incumbent in House District 58. In a debate this month, he brought up the arrest record of his opponent, Telluride Democrat Brian Ahern. Ahern was arrested in June after an argument with his fiancé. He allegedly slashed her picture with a knife and broke the windshield of her car. He was also arrested last year after arguing with a woman from Texas in Telluride but the charges were later dropped.

Polish Prime Minster Jaroslaw Kaczynski said Sunday he has cleared the air with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and they would meet again in Berlin on Oct. 30. He told reporters in Helsinki that a short meeting between the two was "very nice" and had allowed him to explain misunderstandings, which he claimed had been created by false media reports. "We've managed to clarify some issues that were just a matter of misunderstanding. I noticed that the chancellor had learned something from the press that was complete nonsense." He was referring to media reports that junior coalition partner — the League...

The Taoiseach's office has refused to release any information it has about the CIA's 'extraordinary rendition' flights, on the grounds that to do so may compromise the security, defence or international relations of the state. The Council of Europe this weekend said that CIA jets travelling through Irish airports should be searched by gardai to ensure that prisoners are not being carried. A report published by the Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC) last month had recommended that Gardai (Irish National Police) board such flights. Extraordinary rendition involves the abduction of suspected militants from foreign countries by members of the CIA...

Michael O’Leary is focused on Ryanair growth and tackling the GovernmentTHOSE hoping that Ryanair’s outspoken chief executive Michael O’Leary will go quietly into retirement are in for a surprise. While the headlines suggested that 2008 would see his departure, O’Leary has other ideas. “In 2008 I will have done 20 years in Ryanair, I will be 47. I think it is getting closer to the day when I am going to go. Is it going to be 2008? No. It might be 2007 or it might be 2009. I will go when it is a natural time for me to...

work to do to see it fully put into effect, Ahern said. "A number of recent incidents involving paramilitary activity and criminality - including the brutal murder of Robert McCartney on the 30th of January - would suggest that some people have yet to fully embrace the agreement's requirements for peace and democracy," Ahern said. "The issues of paramilitary capability and activity, including all forms of criminality, will have to be conclusively dealt with if there's to be any prospect of restoring partnership government in Northern Ireland," he said. "For our part, my government will continue to make every effort...

The British prime minister, Tony Blair, and Ireland's taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, will meet in London on February 1st to discuss ways to safeguard the Northern Ireland peace process in the wake of the collapse of the latest round of talks at the end of 2004. The meeting comes just days after Mr Blair issued a stark warning to Northern Ireland's largest nationalist party, Sinn Fein, that it would be excluded from future peace talks unless its paramilitary wing, the Irish Republican Army (IRA), ceases all criminal activity. Following the breakdown in December of the latest round of talks aimed at...

IT WILL cost millions of pounds, lead to the consumption of much fine food and wine, preoccupy much of Ireland’s police force and focus worldwide attention on the relationship between the world’s two biggest power blocks: the EU and US. But even though it will last only two and a half hours, European Union officials admit it is a “waste of time”. The 2004 EU-US summit taking place tomorrow in the isolated 16th-century Dromoland Castle in west Ireland will bring together George Bush, the US President, with Bertie Ahern, the Prime Minister of Ireland, who holds the rotating presidency of...

Blair and Ahern in NI assembly talks October 4, 2003(19:05) The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, has held a brief meeting with the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to review progress in the the intensive series of talks on Northern Ireland. Speaking afterwards, on the margins of the European Council session in Rome, Mr Ahern said they want to see elections before christmas, and to see an executive with cross community support up and running. The Toiseach added that he wants to hear David Trimble say that he will work the executive positively if these matters happen. The Sinn Fein and...

IRELAND'S economic and political interests were best served by not abandoning "our friends" in Britain and the United States, government leaders told the Dail yesterday. During an often heated six-hour debate in which it was accused by the Opposition of supporting "illegal action" by George Bush and Tony Blair, the Government strongly defended its stance in continuing to allow the use of Shannon facilities for landing and overflights. Though coming under fierce Opposition attack for "facilitating" war with Iraq, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and his ministers strongly defended their handling of the situation. No coalition backbenchers broke ranks as the Government...

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern is poised to take the biggest gamble of his political career by supporting the US military's continued use of Shannon airport - even for an American-led invasion of Iraq. With all the opposition parties now united in calling for facilities at Shannon to be withdrawn because of the "go-it-alone" stance of the US coalition, the Government looks set to finally face a decision on the crisis. Yesterday, Mr Ahern and Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen assessed the latest developments for 30 minutes before they attended the GAA club finals at Croke Park. The Cabinet will consider the...

LAST week, the Taoiseach twice signalled that Ireland would continue to give the US military landing facilities at Shannon, with or without a second UN resolution authorising war in Iraq. And he did so first in the Dail, and later in remarks after his brief White House meeting with President Bush. On Wednesday, before he left for the US, Bertie Ahern refused, formally, to declare what the Government response would be to American military action against Iraq taken outside the UN framework. But the Taoiseach laid the ground for a continuation of US access to Shannon, by citing past precedents,...

IT'S not easy to watch a generation being torn apart by this war. But any foreign war like this, a war which involves unequivocal moral questions, becomes of necessity a civil war. We are all finding ourselves in disagreement with people whose opinions we largely respect. Some of this generation are confused and wavering. If we were the first generation to grow up free of the shackles of civil war politics, now we have found our own civil war to divide us. This is our Vietnam. While it has politicised and galvanised us, it has created deep divisions that will...

On Thursday I shook the hand of the world’s most reviled man. No, not Saddam Hussein but George Bush. The occasion was the St Patrick’s Day reception in the White House. It was a very small affair compared with the days of Bill Clinton. Only about 60-80 people were present and of that number probably less than a quarter were Irish. The fact that Bush turned up at all was a minor miracle. The previous day he had cancelled all engagements to muster support for a further United Nations resolution and it was entirely possible that he might have done...

I SEEM to recall that I may have written somewhere recently that I would never have another bad word said about Bongo. You see, recently I had a bit of a road-to-Damascus experience where I witnessed first hand his extraordinary and rather inspiring generosity. I'm not one for breaking my promises, so I hope that Bongo will regard the following as a bit of friendly advice. As a demonstration of my good faith, I will even call him Bono for the rest of the piece. I think the basic problem is that poor Bono gets carried away. He has so...

PRESIDENT George W Bush will urge the IRA to renounce all forms of paramilitary activity and to support the police in a speech he will give in Washington on Thursday. The American president is also expected to support the British and Irish governments’ push to restore Northern Ireland’s power-sharing administration and to impose sanctions on any party that breaks its commitment to peace. Sinn Fein representatives, including Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, Pat Doherty, Gerry Kelly and Martin Ferris, will be in the audience for Bush’s speech. Hugh Orde, the PSNI chief constable, will become the first Northern Ireland police chief...

THOSE sitting either side, or indeed even on the fence, can agree on one thing and that is that the defining moment is approaching on Iraq. As has been the case for the past 12 years the fate of Saddam Hussein rests in his own hands. He has led the world a not so merry dance of defiance. Consequently there has been discord: Splits between the Atlanticists, Old Europe, the unilateralists, the multilateralists, the doves, and the hawks. Instead of concentrating on the differences it might just be useful to look at what can actually be agreed upon. The tyrant...

Senior politicians in the Irish Republic's parliament have launched a stinging attack on Sinn Fein accusing the party of hypocrisy during a debate on neutrality.During a Private Member's Bill to preserve Irish military neutrality, members asked how could Sinn Fein talk about neutrality when it was linked to the IRA which still held Semtex, had purchased tons of arms from the Libyans and collaborated with the Nazis? Sinn Fein, which has four members in the Dail, is strongly in favour of military neutrality for Ireland. But the Progressive Democrat Liz O'Donnell, a former foreign affairs minister, accused the republicans of...

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern says Ireland made a significant contribution to the shaping of the agreement reached by the European Union on Iraq. European leaders have warned Iraq that it faced a 'last chance' to disarm peacefully. In a strongly worded declaration last night, EU leaders also affirmed solidarity with the US. "Baghdad should have no illusions. The Iraqi regime alone will be responsible for the consequences if it continues to flout the will of the international community," 15 EU leaders said in a joint declaration. Bertie Ahern says Ireland's position is very much in line with the rest of the...

Brendan O'Connor posits that Ireland's mystifying level of anti-Americanism is because they've done us so many favours WELL, folks, we've had our fun. Now it's time to wake up and smell the coffee. And you know what? It's Starbucks coffee and it comes with a slice of Mom's apple pie. The small minority of anti-American so-called "peace protesters" in this country have had their few weeks of running around and imagining it's the Sixties. But the psychedelic dreamland of alleged neutrality is over now. Reality is kicking in and it's time for us to get off the fence. The Pythonesque...

Former First Lady Clinton calls on Ireland's support for military action to disarm Saddam Hussein in 'a war that involves all of us' HILLARY CLINTON has called on Ireland to back the US in a war against Iraq, declaring: "The war against terrorism is a war that involves all of us." The former First Lady, who is tipped as a future US Presidential candidate, urged the Irish government and people to get off the fence and support America's efforts to rid Saddam Hussein of his weapons of mass destruction. She said: "The people of Ireland will, as they have done...

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Cowen, said security at Shannon airport will be stepped up following this morning's attack on a US military aircraft. Mary Kelly Charged with causing damage to US plane A 50-year-old woman appeared at Killaloe District Court this afternoon charged with causing damage to the US Navy plane. Mary Kelly, with an address at the Peace Camp at Shannon, was charged with causing damage to a US Navy 737 airplane, belonging to the US government, without lawful excuse. The Court was told that when she was arrested by Gardaí on the airport tarmac at 5am,...

One wonders whether any of the European leaders rushing to hail Ireland's "yes" to Nice has actually read the treaty. Across the Continent, commentators have described the result as a vote in favour of enlargement. Yet Nice barely mentions enlargement. It is true that a small part of the text deals with the number of MEPs and Commissioners which each applicant country would get, but these clauses will in any case have to be rewritten as part of the accession treaties when the new states join. Three previous EU enlargement rounds were agreed without triggering an Irish referendum. The reason...

Ireland has emphatically endorsed the European Union's expansion plan just 16 months after rejecting it, it became clear last night. The scale of the Yes vote will not be known until later today, but returns from seven constituencies which had used electronic voting early this morning showed a massive increase in support for the Treaty of Nice and a significant rise in voter turnout. The margin of victory was more than 70-30 in some constituencies while in Dublin South West, which had recorded the largest No vote in the previous referendum, an 18-point swing saw a comfortable 57 per cent...

The Celtic economic miracle has a wilted look in Irishtown by the River Liffey, where the Irish Glass Bottle Company has laid off hundreds of workers this year. Building projects stand idle as the 1990s boom unwinds and government cuts start to bite. The posters in the windows bark "No 2 Nice: No To A Bosses' Europe". It is Sinn Fein territory. Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour, all in favour of the treaty, are too posh these days for the working class. Street after street of poky terrace houses gave Gerry Adams a rock star welcome as he charged...

Ireland goes to the polls on Saturday in the country's second referendum on the Nice Treaty, which paves the way for the European Union to accept new members from central and eastern Europe.Not really. There could be individual treaties of accession. What this treaty does is expand the powers of the EU. - Ivan Ireland voted no to the treaty in an earlier referendum last year, and the government has argued strongly for a yes vote this time. This is what is most outrageous. Ireland voted no in a free and fair referendum. What part of "No" don't these blighters...

As the process of expanding the European Union reaches a critical stage, all eyes are on Dublin and The Hague this week. If Irish voters reject the Nice Treaty for a second time on October 19th, the enlargement timetable could be at risk. The collapse of the Dutch government is likely to complicate matters further CRITICS say it’s a case of the tail wagging the dog. Europe’s small countries certainly have a habit of wrecking carefully prepared plans for European integration. The Danes did it in 1992, when they voted against the Maastricht Treaty. In June last year, it was...

The last opinion poll before tomorrow's Irish referendum on the Nice Treaty showed its supporters widening their lead, but low turnout and anger at having to vote twice on the same question could still lead to a dramatic upset.> Bertie Ahern, the Irish prime minister, implored Ireland's 1.6 million voters yesterday to look beyond self-interest and think of their duty to the less lucky nations hoping to join the European Union. And save his job in the process - Ivan "I say to the Irish people that Saturday is a date with history, not only for us but for Europe...

It is no longer cool, alas, to write articles bashing Brussels. My Nasty days are over. New Toryism is with us, in which scepticism is balanced by a strenuous moderation, a painful, tight-grinned reasonableness. That's fine Boris, you keep your mouth shut - meanwhile the party faithful will be screaming their dissent - Ivan Some of my most joyous hours have been spent in a state of semi-incoherence, composing foam-flecked hymns of hate to the latest Euro-infamy: the ban on the prawn cocktail flavour crisp; the billions spent to export unsmokable Greek tobacco to the Third World; the European Commission's...

The European Union's ambitious plan to take in 10 more member countries is hanging on the verdict of voters from Ballinskellig to Dundalk, as Ireland prepares for its second referendum on the Nice Treaty on enlargement next weekend. The latest opinion poll, published today by the Irish Sunday Independent, gives the Yes campaign a solid majority with 41 per cent in favour and 27 per cent against. The large number of undecided voters - 24 per cent - gives hope, however, to the treaty's opponents and leaves Yes campaigners nervous. Two weeks before the first referendum in June 2001, opinion...

Ireland's Minister for Foreign Affairs has insisted there was "no truth" in reports of a secret deal between himself and Bertie Ahern over the leadership of their Fianna Fail party.For the uninitiated, Fianna Fail is sort of like the Democrats of Ireland. And about as corrupt. - Ivan Brian Cowen denied reports of an agreement that he would take over as leader of the party when the time came for Mr Ahern to gave up the post. Mr Cowen, speaking at a Nice Treaty news conference in Dublin, said he did not believe such rumours were distracting the public from...

BERTIE AHERN is not being investigated by the Flood tribunal about an IR£80,000 bribe, nor is any member of his cabinet. Shades of Clinton, impeachment but with an Irish tinge -Ivan Sources close to the taoiseach acknowledged that allegations published last weekend that a serving cabinet minister took the corrupt payments were directed at Ahern. However, the allegation, reportedly made by Tom Gilmartin, the property developer, is not contained in his affadavit to the inquiry. He is due to testify about planning corruption within weeks. The tribunal is not investigating the allegations that a serving member of the cabinet took...