Have you ever noticed that when ordering food for delivery on an app such as Deliveroo, the rider who delivers your food does not always match the photograph, or name, or gender, of the rider the app told you would be coming? If you have, you are not alone. Many food delivery couriers in Ireland's cities are living here on 'stamp two' visas, which means they cannot work legally for the big delivery companies. Instead they rent accounts from individuals who can legally register as self-employed. These accounts can cost riders anywhere between €50 and €150 a week.

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/social-affairs/2023/09/17/the-owner-just-disappeared-without-paying-me-my-earnings-unregulated-delivery-riders-face-exploitation/

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The iconic actor, director and producer Clint Eastwood is an avid rugby fan. Eastwood, who is still making movies aged 93, was entranced by the reality of a divided South Africa healing itself through the leadership of president Nelson Mandela. Mandela used the 1995 Rugby World Cup as a vehicle to reach out across his country's vast racial divide to hand the tall blonde Springbok captain, Francois Piennar, the William Webb Ellis Trophy and unite his people. Eastwood recalled that momentous triumph in his 2009 movie Invictus .

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/2023/09/16/rugby-world-cup-expect-more-of-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/

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Yes. Voters in Northern Ireland are getting an extra 'present' this year, an Assembly election. The most likely date is December 15th, so just 10 days before Christmas. Expect canvassers rather than carolers, polls rather than office parties, and lots of headlines about the ‘nightmare' before Christmas.You've been paying attention. It was on May 5th, less than six months ago, and delivered a historic result; Sinn Féin won the greatest number of seats and, with it, the right to the role of first minister – the first time in Northern Ireland's history that a nationalist has held such a position.

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-style/2022/10/29/why-is-northern-ireland-gearing-up-for-its-second-assembly-election-in-less-than-a-year/

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Erika O'Shea laughed – not the reaction you would expect from someone who had no vision in her left eye.The former All Star footballer from Cork, in the midst of her first season in Australia playing in the AFLW for the North Melbourne Kangaroos, didn't realise the seriousness of the injury, how a debut campaign that saw her play in all 10 rounds had just been cruelly cut short.Lining out against Richmond on October 30th, O'Shea was involved in a shuddering collision when chasing back in defence.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2022/11/20/oshea-still-focused-on-her-goals-despite-injury-nightmare/

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It was the day of the startled earwigs, Kerry's 1-24 to 1-7 annihilation of Dublin in the 2009 All-Ireland quarter-final felt in the moment like a fork in the road result. For all the hype and enthusiasm swirling around the capital at the time about Dublin's upward trajectory, the manner of this defeat seemed to confirm what the doubters still suspected, the Dubs just didn't have the stuff to cut it at the top level. Colm Cooper scored a goal in the opening minute and by half-time Kerry led 1-14 to 0-3.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2023/07/29/all-ireland-final-countdown-how-dublins-startled-earwigs-learnt-to-crawl-again-after-kerry-hammering/

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Hotels will be allowed serve meals indoors from June 2nd, but gastropubs and restaurants must wait...

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/restaurants-impatient-to-reopen-indoors-but-beware-of-blame-game-if-there-is-surge-1.4552603

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Sea freight lead times ---remain challenging--- due to the pandemic, group said on Monday...

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/energy-and-resources/revenue-at-irish-engineer-mincon-ahead-of-last-year-1.4560273

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CWU says new agreement overhauls pay and bonus arrangements...

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/work/eir-customer-care-staff-to-receive-earnings-increase-of-up-to-17-under-new-deal-1.4564109

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Described as 'an exemplar of conservation' in the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage, No 59 Francis Street is a Georgian gem in the Antiques Quarter of Dublin city. It could be described as the original of the species when it comes to antiquities. Built in 1820, it was formerly owned by antiques dealer Paul Cooke in the 1970s, who opened Cooke Antiques, the first antique shop on the street. Cooke employed some of today's noted antique dealers including Niall Mullen and Chantal O'Sullivan, who went on to have their own businesses here.

https://www.irishtimes.com/property/residential/2023/04/13/gallery-and-two-bed-apartment-on-francis-street-for-995000/

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The phrase 'a stone's throw' has rarely proved to be more apt in the case of the proximity of number 6 Prospect Terrace in Sandymount to the sea. My valiant attempt to get from front door to shore in under a minute was hampered only by the traffic on Strand Road.Swimmers will have a little farther to go to the Half Moon for dips, but for walkers and families with young children it's a perfectly positioned home, with the strand to the right and the urban village of Sandymount to their left, with its plentiful shops, lovely pubs and restaurants and abundance of sporting facilities, not to mention great schools, all within walking distance of this turnkey property.

https://www.irishtimes.com/property/residential/2022/09/22/versatile-victorian-in-sandymount-a-minute-from-door-to-shore-for-1495m/

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'Twelve days of hell.' This is Ian McEwan's succinct description of his recent run-in with Covid. The 74-year-old novelist and his wife, Annalena McAfee, were 'knocked out' by it. 'We tried to keep going, but there came a point where we just had to collapse.'He has, just about, recovered now, and the fact that he looks somewhat vulnerable on my Zoom screen may be less the illness and more that McEwan is devoid of his usual glasses, and looks small in the scale of the room in which he sits — in his Gloucestershire home — with a desk behind him piled high with books, another in front of him, and shelves across the back wall well stocked.

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/2022/09/15/ian-mcewan-i-feel-no-sorrow-that-white-males-of-a-certain-age-are-getting-a-harder-time/

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Sportswashing works on the principle that the grander the illusion, the more immune it is to criticism.By turning the summer World Cup into a winter World Cup, Fifa have done the unthinkable heretofore, all to appease the House of Thani, Qatar's ruling family that rose to power as Ottoman and then British influence waned in the Middle East.The emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, holds executive power. Commander-in-chief of the army, he appoints the judges and the prime minister. Sheikh Tamim also pays Lionel Messi's €41 million salary at Paris Saint Germain.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/2022/11/19/how-qatar-secured-the-2022-fifa-world-cup/

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There is delicious defiance in the location of Dónal de Róiste's home. He lives on Military Hill in Cork, opposite Collins Barracks, in a house originally built for British soldiers. Here in this two-up two-down of snooping shafts of sunlight, as he waited and worried and wearied in his quest to clear his name, the 77-year-old commissioned officer has revisited in his memory, over and over, the day nearly 54 years ago that his life turned into Ireland's version of the Dreyfus affair.It concluded, at last, this week when the State formally apologised to him and agreed to pay him compensation after a review of his case declared 'it is difficult to envisage how greater damage could be caused to the good name of an officer of the Defence Forces' than what happened to him when he was compulsorily retired from the Army by then president Éamon de Valera.

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-style/people/2022/12/10/donal-de-roiste-i-can-walk-with-my-head-high/

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'Before the war, I had a very successful business in travel and immigration services for Ukrainians. I didn't expect to use these skills in Ireland helping Ukrainians as refugees,' Tetiana Schevchenko says. She is speaking about her job as a duty manager at an accommodation centre for more than 300 Ukrainians in Co Meath.In August, after moving around different parts of Ireland three times with her 15-year-old son, Schevchenko met an Irish man who offered her a job at Gormanston Park, Co Meath, where rooms for two to 10 people are now being used to house Ukrainians fleeing the war.

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-style/people/2022/12/14/try-ireland-they-said-ireland-id-never-been-there-its-so-far-from-ukraine-i-said/

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This is the 20th anniversary of The Irish Times feeder school lists, which were first published in 2002. Writing at the time, the newspaper's then education editor, the late and much-missed Seán Flynn, said the 'education establishment', including teacher unions and school principals, were outraged.Critics of the lists said the data did not take account of the socio-economic advantages of schools in wealthier areas. They argued that the data was demoralising for schools in disadvantaged areas, or schools that worked hard for their students but had lower third-level progression rates because of factors outside the school's control.

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/education/2022/12/16/whats-the-value-of-feeder-schools/

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A cursory look at both the third quarter and year-to-date property investment volume data would indicate that it's a case of 'steady as she goes' in the market but as always, the proverbial devil is in the detail. When you pull back the curtain on the statistics, the current institutional investment mantra of 'beds, sheds and meds' is reflected in the true underlying trends.At first glance, investment volumes for the third quarter show that offices hold the lead at 37.7 per cent closely followed by residential at 36 per cent.

https://www.irishtimes.com/property/commercial-property/2022/11/10/big-ticket-office-deals-mask-market-shift-to-beds-sheds-and-meds/

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Details of this year's sponsorship programme have been announced and angling clubs, groups and associations are being invited to apply for funding. The €30,000 fund will focus on initiatives aimed at beginners and young anglers, as well as events that promote sustainable angling tourism in rural areas.Throughout 2022, funding reached out to 50 events that included national and international competitions; festivals that showcased Ireland's angling resources; contribution to local economies; and coaching and juvenile outreach events.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/2023/01/10/angling-notes-funding-applications-invited-for-beginners-young-anglers-and-tourism/

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Big pharma was not always Deb Mangone's world. At one time, she was betting on building her career on the back of an ill-fated dotcom era VC-funded startup, called Kozmo. It was only when that came crashing down that Pfizer appeared on her radar. 'The dotcom went out of business and I was unemployed, living in Manhattan and needed a job,' she recalls. A trained engineer just two years out of college, she was looking at opportunities in a range of sectors when Pfizer came calling. 'My dad, who worked at IBM his entire career, said to me: ‘Deb, you know, [in] a company like Pfizer, you can have a ton of different careers.

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/work/2023/04/22/deb-mangone-interview-im-a-new-yorker-right-so-by-nature-im-fast-talking-im-fast-everything/

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The conversion of vacant office buildings to residential accommodation — which is being mooted as part of a Government plan to tackle the housing shortfall — can work. It has been facilitated in several countries, most notably in the United Kingdom and United States. It is usually incentivised by reducing or removing the need for planning permission to change the building's use from work to home, sometimes alongside ill-judged reductions in standards. Although theoretically a no-brainer — who could say no to re-using existing buildings? — like many ideas in housing, it is not quite as simple as it might look on paper.

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2023/05/25/housing-crisis-despite-difficulties-empty-office-blocks-could-be-adapted-to-house-our-people/

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Perched on a hill overlooking the bay, chef Tony Davidson and partner Lina Reppert have established Downings as a destination for the seafood lover. Every dish is a celebration of fresh seafood, including local mussels, oysters with spicy Bloody Mary granita, fish tacos or kimchi and prawn banh mi. There are seats indoors, but the best views are outdoors. Pets welcome. Joanne CroninCiarán Sweeney left Dublin for Donegal, and we all followed him for his incredibly original take on Irish food. His fermented potato bread, served with a copper pot of foaming bacon mousse, is a thing of legend, but you'll get some cracking fish and meat dishes, too.

https://www.irishtimes.com/food/restaurants/2022/07/28/ten-of-the-best-places-to-eat-along-the-wild-atlantic-way/

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Back in November 2017, when World Rugby was convening in a London hotel to decide which of the three bids would be successful in hosting the 2023 Rugby World Cup , well, the world was a different place. As ever, there was particular annoyance and disappointment among the unsuccessful bids, namely from South Africa and Ireland. Six years' work by both governments either side of the Border, and with the GAA supporting the IRFU's bid, and plenty of giddy optimism, yielded only a paltry eight votes and with that a first-round exit before the French bid was chosen ahead of South Africa's.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/2023/08/31/gerry-thornley-to-win-the-rugby-world-cup-ireland-must-overcome-history-and-a-harsh-draw/

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If you---re an Ulster Bank or KBC customer you might be wondering what to do with your mortgage...

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/personal-finance/stick-or-switch-what-to-do-with-your-mortgage-1.4552261

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Rates range from 2.40% to 2.99% and will be available for up to 90% loan to value mortgages...

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/financial-services/finance-ireland-to-offer-long-term-fixed-rate-mortgages-in-irish-market-1.4563959

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Insurer---s refunds to businesses closed by Covid-19 restrictions stand at ---4m this year...

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/financial-services/fbd-pays-average-premium-rebate-of-900-to-commercial-customers-1.4564420

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True scale of cyberattack and what, if any, data has been compromised is not yet clear...

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/rebuilding-hse-s-computer-systems-after-cyberattack-could-take-weeks-1.4565598

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Carbon emissions arising from data centres was 1.85% of Ireland---s total carbon emissions in 2020...

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/energy-and-resources/number-of-operational-data-centres-in-ireland-up-by-quarter-report-finds-1.4562274

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