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Keeping up with the News
Curious about current goings on in Ireland? Then take a trawl through what's below. There is one section for national news and then one each for the provinces in the Republic (at this stage, Ulster only contains news for Donegal). The provinces are historical divisions based upon those in ancient Celtic times and remain in the Irish consciousness as collections of counties: Connaught in the west; Leinster in the east Munster in the southwest; Ulster in the north (the majority of which forms Northern Ireland, a part of the U.K.).
In terms of layers government, provinces have no significance with county and city councils being the layer below the national one. However, provinces do have their place in the world of Gaelic games like hurling when the All Ireland Championships are in full swing with county teams emerging from the provincial championships to compete for the overall title. Even so, all allegiance is to the county where you live or grew up and the local press is organised along similar lines too. From all that comes the listings that you find below.
National News
If up to the minute news is what you are after, then the Irish state-owned national television and radio broadcaster is hard to beat. Here also are a selection of Irish national daily newspapers. Of these, The Irish Times and Irish Independent are Dublin-based while the Irish Examiner is published in Cork. The Irish Independent is the most widely read quality daily while The Irish Times is the most respected. The Irish Examiner has a strong following, especially among Corkonians like my own mother.
Local News: Connaught
Local News: Leinster
Local News: Munster
Local News: Ulster
The shortness of this section in part reflects the fact that only three out of the nine counties making up the historical province of Ulster are included here. Of these, only Donegal is featured for now, which reminds me that I need to go looking at what is there for Cavan and Monaghan too.
