Ireland

Third and final match starts at 12.30pm BST in BristolCounty cricket – live | Get in touch! Mail or tweet Tim5th over: England 65-0 (Salt 42, Jacks 22) Time for a bowling change, Paul Stirling reckons. On comes Craig Young, who has one job: to stem the flow. And he does, cramping the batters for room and going for just a run a ball. Miserly stuff.4th over: England 60-0 (Salt 39, Jacks 19) Does Jacks settle for playing second fiddle? He does not. He has a gleam in his eye and he flicks Little’s first ball for six, then pulls for six more. Just for a change, Salt plays a straight drive for four. Alas, poor Little – when he does induce a top edge, it lands safely at short fine, and then Salt adds another four. That’s 23 off the over! And the fastest 50 in England ODI history. Continue reading...

The podcast presenters have a book and tour to peddle, so have agreed to answer anything you want to ask. Fire awayThe Football Weekly crew have decided that the time (and money) is right to finally commit their wisdom to paper. Their debut book – imaginatively titled Football Weekly Book – is filled with trivia, filler, too much about Cambridge United and the odd insightful remark.In a bid to promote the book and their upcoming live tour of UK and Ireland, Max Rushden and Barry Glendenning have agreed to tackle any questions you want to ask. Within reason. Continue reading...

Storm to hit UK and Ireland on Wednesday, with winds of up to 75mph disrupting power and travelThe Met Office has issued weather warnings before the arrival of Storm Agnes, with the possibility that strong winds and heavy rain could lead to floods, power cuts and falling trees.The first named storm of the season is expected to hit the UK on Wednesday with winds of up to 75mph and dangerous conditions along coastlines. Continue reading...

First named storm of the season will affect western regions of the UK and Ireland on WednesdayStrong winds and heavy rain are set to batter the UK as Agnes, the first named storm of the season, sweeps across the country later this week, the Met Office said.The storm will affect western regions of the UK and Ireland on Wednesday, with the most powerful winds expected on the Irish Sea coasts. Continue reading...

The assortment of conspiracists who blockaded parliament was laughably incoherent. Yet change is coming that could awaken dark forcesThe biggest challenge posed by the far right in Ireland is convincing yourself to take it seriously. It must be done but it’s not easy. There is even a strange comfort that one of the two Irish novels shortlisted for this year’s Booker prize, Paul Lynch’s gripping Prophet Song, imagines an Ireland of the near future in which a far-right party has taken power. Comforting because the book demands quite an effort of the imagination. Lynch makes this possibility chillingly real, but it is a reality that, as of now, only a very good novelist could create.Last week, 200-odd (some very odd) demonstrators in effect blockaded the seat of parliament in Dublin for most of an afternoon, preventing members from entering or leaving. They erected a mock gallows bedecked with pictures of leading members of all the main Irish political parties. The effigy hung from it had pictures of both the commissioner of police and the minister for children, equality and integration, who is particularly hated by the far right because he is both Green and gay. They shouted racist abuse at people of colour passing by, threw plastic bags filled with urine at two women, and a young American on her first day as a parliamentary intern had her phone stolen.Fintan O’Toole is a columnist with the Irish Times and author of We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern IrelandDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Headteachers need more support if they are to persuade reluctant pupils to come back Pretty much everyone with a stake in schools is worried about the current high rate of absenteeism: politicians, school leaders, academic researchers and many parents. The pattern has been clear for a while. The proportion of pupils classified as persistently absent (missing more than one in 10 lessons) has more than doubled in England since the pandemic. From 10.9% in 2018-19, it rose to 22.3% in 2022-23. Data in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales is collected separately because education is devolved, but indicates a similar trend. This week’s report from the research agency Public First, probing attitudes through discussions with focus groups, called the situation a “full-blown national crisis”.The concern is justified. As the teacher and writer Lola Okolosie observed recently, school is “an anchor to society”. As well as providing lessons, school is where children learn to be with other people. Since the pupils most likely to be absent include those on free school meals and with special educational needs, low attendance is a form of social exclusion. Continue reading...

Updates from the Pool B match in Nice; 4.45pm (BST) kick-offGet in touch! Email Dominic with your comments or tweet himHappy Sunday! Goodness, it feels like a long time since Scotland played a game in this Rugby World Cup, doesn’t it?Well that’s because it is; a fortnight to be precise since they were beaten 18-3 by South Africa in rather tame fashion. In that time, the Sprinboks and Ireland have ascended to the top two in Pool B – playing out a thriller in Paris on Saturday night – and Gregor Townsend’s side can afford no further slip-ups if they’re to make the quarter-finals. Continue reading...

Updates from the World Cup warmup in IndoreAny thoughts? Email Tanya here.2nd over: India 14-0 (Shubman Gill 1, Ruturaj Gaikwad 8) Back of a length immediately from Josh Hazlewood, sprinting in with an orange flannel hanging out of the back of his banana trousers. And on the money he remains.Interestingly, or not, depending on the strength of your morning coffee, to add to the link with yesterday’s ODI between England and Ireland and today’s India v Australia warm-up ,Ruturaj Gaikwad has the highest List A average in the history of the sport but Sam Hain, who made 89 for England yesterday, is breathing down his neck. Continue reading...