, some affection for ireland, an admiration for ireland, and an affiliation with ireland, and that is a tremendous experience for somebody like myself rem representing a smaller country in this wonderful colossus of a country. and it's not to be undervalued in any way because most embassies don't have the opportunity i have to connect with people who feel that way. i mentioned it last evening in philadelphia at the irish center. i spoke to a crowd of more than 200 people who turned up just to hear a discussion about brexit and the implications of brexit for ireland. so that for me is the thing i enjoy most of all, you know. you might have ideas of diplomats operating in the very refined kind of slice of society. of course we do get to meet senior people all over the place. that's true. i get to go to big events, you know, that happen, but i do genuinely most enjoy engagement with irish america, which to me is a phenomenon that doesn't exist anywhere else in the world, but it gives ireland a profile and a presence here we couldn't possibly hope to have anywhere else in the world becaus

ireland is a telling case study.st month's election left the country without a stable government. eoin 0 broin is a leading figure in sinn fein, the party that won the most votes, but failed to form a government. does political uncertainty now make ireland especially vulnerable? eoin 0 broin in dublin, welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much, stephen. you hoped that by now your party would be forming a government, would be the government in ireland, but it has not worked out that way so you have to respond to what the, in essence, the caretaker government led by leo varadkar is doing. he has initiated a host of emergency measures to respond to coronavirus, do you support him? we are and in fact a number of weeks ago we proposed to the taoiseach that there should be a very strong cross—party approach to tackling the virus. he accepted that and our regular meetings — there's one taking place today between the taoiseach, the ministerfor health, government advisers and the leaders of the opposition — to ensure that what

is that they've always described northern ireland as a failed state that. well if we're going to have a united ireland the people of the republic after a vote for change. what is attractive about it saying to those people will you vote to adopt 1800000 really high maintenance people half of whom don't want to be members of a united ireland some of them might even get quite violent abroad. and who live in a failed state. what school attracted to vote i want them as part of my country it's taken the republican 100 years to get comfortable in its own skin so why disrupt all out why turn all those tables over by adopting northern ireland under those circumstances from the vantage point of no moment the republican norm theocratic state a successful state no loose rather more attractive. so when i was growing up you knew you'd cross the border because the roads got worse and you were living in a state controlled by a church and these days the roads get better and you're going into a country that is much more progressive and you could argue than the northern irela

and one death. 20 is the latest figure for northern ireland. does not respect any border and the border is very porous with people crossing it many times per day for work and shopping. lots of social interaction across the border. there are questions for politicians in northern ireland asking why do we have different precautions here to the more drastic precautions here to the more drastic precautions south of the border in the republic? health officials here have said we are not in the same place. there has been no community cross infection here in northern ireland. keith, we will have to leave it there. thank you very much, keith doyle in belfast. good afternoon and welcome to viewers on bbc one. in the last half hour, scotland's first minister nicola sturgeon has said that a decision has been taken to move from the contain phase to delay phase in the coronavirus outbreak to try to reduce the numbers of people infected at any one time. the aim of this she said was to try and protect the elderly and those with other health conditions as much a

we've partnered with the national museum of ireland and northern ireland to bring great treasures from that revolutionly moment to philadelphia for the very first time. wolftone's pocketbook, henry joy mccracken's coat and wolftone's certificate in the society of irish great artifacts. definitely see them downstairs in the exhibition. here is something that many of you have not seen before. this has never been published before or exhibited before. this was discovered by myself and philip meade, phil, raise your hand, when we went to ireland to secure these loans and also walk on the property where st. george lived. we got a tip from the architectural historian. i met him last year for the first time in october, just about a year ago, he said that oh, i think i know of another portrait of richard st. george in ireland. and i said i'll believe it when i see it. i don't believe you yet. i asked for pictures. he never sent me pictures but we were going to go to ireland anyway to see it. going blind to ireland to see this, we happened upon this in the drawing room in the home of one of the

do you sometimes when you're seeing the political to be in the north of ireland. let's not do a names of politicians but do you you see supporters are saying something or doing something or making a list of you say. you have the right on the mark regardless of which passed the or which community do you do you see sometimes the spark or something that you have been waiting to to hear or is the political dialogue still trapped and old slogans i think everybody would say we have seen some really quite remarkable things here you know even those very early images of evolution there are all kinds of americans against the backdrop here these are people saying look our whole brothers not just martin mcguinness brothers. in paisley together i mean who could ever have predicted that from where we were 20 years before that nobody. when. a young constable was killed in. by a distant group. in about 10 years ago peter robinson went to the service and the g.a.a. carried the coffin of the young policeman those were both symbols to me of how that could happen before ga were wheth

ireland orfrom the uk.china have 81,000 cases but only 11,000 new cases and seven new deaths and so things have switched now to outside of china which has triggered the decision to do the travel restrictions to —— in other areas besides china. it is important to recognise this because when this is over you will see a curve of how the coronavirus outbreak involved. it is not going to be a imo seen are starting to see it with career which brings us now to what we can expect in our own country, and if you look at the domestic cases, about 2200 including the repatriations, 50 deaths, 532 new cases, and nine new deaths, which means we have not reached our peak. we will see more cases and we will see more suffering and death, predominately amongst the vulnerable, in our society, the individuals with conditions that we spoke about and the elderly, but built in that is a challenge and the challenge is we still have the opportunity to influence the course of that curve so what we would like to see is that when this

and who she meets in ireland on a trip.o be compassionate depiction of her heartache for torment and her agonizing decision consolidated his reputation as a writer of women. where does his understanding of women come from. a woman i would say maybe could you just stop that making those exaggerated figures of women you know there are gay versions of it was i think in a very powerful am i was brought up by women and other words that they were my mother had sisters were in the house a lot i had to nurse siblings of a girl so were always well women talk and i was always very interesting what they were saying whereas the man could say i'm a very grumpy your tree man talk about some sport i was not if you're a 5 year old is nothing there's nothing in it for you in this or that women upstairs would matter what they say it would be all for us. it is for me. to be has written 2 books much of his work is autobiographical and ireland plays a major role. each artist in the great irish tradition has invented an island that's what you sa

again, americans in the uk or ireland can come home.idents can come home, but as the secretary will detail, they will be funnelled through specific airports and processed. what happens if your mum rejects you? that is going to hit me hard. what are little black girl is going to think of you for protecting world isa to think of you for protecting world is a unique series of films on the bbc, offering personal insights into global events. eight minutes ago, a sunbeam struck out into the fast vacuum of space. it did not bounce off course is so many others do, it was not absorbed. when it reached our atmosphere, it continued unfazed. this particular sunbeam came to you. and you were ready for it. to know what is coming, check the bbc weather app. as the coronavirus story develops, bbc news has global coverage. italians are struggling to come to terms with this new reality. one senior hill fog official said there could at some stage be thousands of cases in the uk. the travel ban is regarded by critics to be too late to be effective. see the

probably the most published academic in terms of reconciliation between the communities and northern ireland the good of course of you to expertise to help then to say drove in scotland what how do you get communities to stop distrusting. it's not a simple question and it goes back to so many different dimensions and i suppose actually for us it was trying to find practical ways into that right along the border so i mean everything in northern ireland is affected in some way by this division so you're talking about how to sort the police can you get the politicians to work together can you then get schools to start to educate people in a different way how do people at local level actually stop just walking past each other but start to run things together and a lot of our work was really just almost stepping i don't know that ice trying to find the practical ways forward on an interface you know in the trade unions in the workplace in schools and it was in many ways an experiment how do you do it i mean and we found quite a lot of different answers for that in different ways you see we who yo

again, americans in the uk or ireland can come home.t as the secretary will detail, they will be funnelled through specific airports and processed. vice president mike pence talking. the first and deputy first ministers of northern ireland have been meeting leaders from the irish government, including the prime minister leo varadkar, to discuss a plan for responding to coronavirus on an all—island basis. arlene foster told journalists there was agreement between the leaders both north and south of the border of what needed to be done to keep people safe. we have both moved from the contain phase to the delete face and in this new phase there are a number of staged actions, some of which we have taken, some of which will be taken in the coming period. 0bviously, all based on a scientific and medical advice. whilst these actions will have a significant impact for a period of time on our daily lives, they are designed with one objective, to save lives. it has been very good to hear the detail of the particular medical circumstances in both

she meets in ireland on a trip. to get compassionate depiction of her heartache for torment and her agonizing decision consolidated his reputation as a writer of. weirdness his understanding of women time from. a woman i would say maybe could you just stop that making those exaggerated figures women you know their versions of it was i think of a very powerful i was brought up by women and other words that they were my mother had sisters were in the house a lot i had to nurse siblings of a girl so were always well women talk and i was always very interesting what they were saying whereas the man could sit me very grumpy your 3 man talk about some sport i was not if you're a 5 year old is nothing there's nothing in it for you in this or that women upstairs would matter what they say it would be always fascinating. for me. to be has written 2 books much of his work is autobiographical and ireland place a major role. each artist in the great irish tradition has invented an island that's what you said in an interview wha

one thing we have in ireland is american border security in ireland. went through myself yesterday and they were asking the right questions. whether people had been to china, things like that. that's what's different -- president trump: one of the reasons u.k. basically has been -- it's got the border, very strong borders. they're doing a very good job. they don't have very much infection at this point and hopefully they'll keep it that way. reporter: mr. president, there are many european leaders who are upset that they weren't consulted about the travel ban. can you explain your rationale for not consulting with them first before announcing? president trump: we get along very well with the european leaders. but we had to make a decision and i didn't want to take time, it takes a long time to make the individual calls. we are calling and we have spoken to some of them prior to, some of the majors prior to. but we had to move quickly. when they raise taxes on us they don't consult us. i think that's probably one and the same. they've done things, the e

we've partnered with the national museum of ireland to bring some of ireland's great treasures from that revolutionary moment to philadelphia for the very first time. wolf tone's pocketbook, henry mccracken's coat, and wolftone's membership certificate and society of the united irishmen signed by james napertandi. really great artifacts, definitely see them downstairs in the exhibition. here's something that many of you have not seen before. this has never been published before, never been exhibited before. this was discovered by myself and phillip -- when we went to ireland in december of 2018 to secure some of these loans, also to walk on the property where richard st. george lived, and we got a tip from robert o'burn, the irish architectural histori historian. he said when i met him the last year for the first time in october, just about a year ago, he said that, oh, i think i know of another portrait of richard st. george in ireland, and i said i'll believe it when i see it. i don't believe you yet. so i asked you pictures. he never sent me pictures. we were going to go to ireland an

they were celebrating they would never go back to ireland but never forget ireland.1854. all of those had the names of people there and names from ireland but what county in ireland is listed. i thought that was in the last days when they were thinking how to be remembered. it wasn't enough to be from ireland. they had to be from cork and dublin. that connection to home was still as strong at the end of life as it was when they left. i am proud of that. i think the other thing they were doing that day, they were looking forward to what they would achieve because they had achieved a lot to get that far but they had a lot of work to do. the theme of this parade this year serving our communities, i think probably reflects the greatest achiev achievement of t community. that is what we do. that is the irish story in the city. the police in the city administration, politics, in the fire department, in the schools. marry mckeever is here, principal of saint phillips, or all of the people who take leading roles. our community serve. we should celebrate that for the next wee

very united ireland or looked like actually at the moment is a big up there because a lot of it has been rhetoric a lot of us have been talk it's been based on a loss that happened a 100 years ago rather than a plan for what's actually real in the european context no and i think for example some of the issues that are arising are people in the north who have lived through 40 years of conflict and 60 years before that a feeling that they were separated don't have the same experience or the same understanding of this as people who lived outside that and the irish conversation has to begin in a different way so everybody has chairs shifting here and there are bits going to have to rear or interior conversations and that is it possible for politicians of both communities to be fearful similar to mislead so it's not one is obviously losing what is obviously winning that both can actually be looking at the worst side of us and hopefully be if that's possible possible to be commuters look at the best side of where i think you're actually describing merely what we're seeing at this moment w

it's an honor to be with the prime minister of ireland. we've known each other now for quite a while and we have a great relationship. and a great relationship with ireland. we have a lot to discuss. we will be talking about the obvious and we'll also be talking about the virus that's hit the world. i see they've canceled big soccer games, championship games and a lot of other games. they've canceled a lot over in europe and all over the world. so this is a big world problem. we've taken some bold steps. we took the original boldest step of all when we closed very early with china. that helped us save thousands of lives. and we went very early with europe. i think that'll likewise be very good. and hopefully we can get it back together very quickly in terms of re-establishing with china. that's on track -- something happen fairly quickly because they've made a lot of progress over the past three, four weeks. and certainly with europe, we think we can can hopefully very quickly. they have some hot spots that are really bad. but germany i gu

again, americans in the uk or ireland can come home., but as the secretary will detail, they will be funnelled through specific airports and processed. our north america correspondentjane o'brien gave her reaction to the us travel ban extension to include the uk and ireland. it seems that the us is really coming into line, that the week started very badly for the white house and for congress in general, the president being criticised for underplaying the severity of the crisis, forgiving mixed messages, and we saw the effect on the markets. a lot of confusion over the last week and the us really seemed to be ona last week and the us really seemed to be on a back foot and scrambling to be on a back foot and scrambling to get ahead of the curve. this press c0 nfe re nce , to get ahead of the curve. this press conference, i got the impression all the agencies seem to be working together, there is an admission that more tests need to be carried out and those tests are now being made available. we are going to be hearing more updates about h

and there will be some showers coming on as well, mainly to scotland and northern ireland.some showers making their way into england and wales but further south it may well be dry with some sunshine. those temperatures are back down to around eight to 11 celsius on thursday. now let's look at the longer range forecast. got some city forecasts for you here. the main thing you notice, dry. second thing, not that warm and overnight as well, perhaps the risk of some frost around too. high pressure, that's going to be dominating for the outlook. now, for a while there may be a few showers coming down the north sea and they could continue in a cool wind down the south—east of england if we end up with the area of low pressure over continental europe. the main thing is high pressure is going to be around, it's going to dry things off but it won't be particularly warm. this is bbc news, i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at ten. ten more patients have died in england after testing positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number of deaths in the uk to 21. president trump is extend

and jim who she meets in ireland on a trip back. ignat compassionate depiction of her heartache for torment and her agonizing decision consolidated his reputation as a writer of. where does his understanding of women come from. fiber a woman i would say maybe could you just stop that making those exaggerated figures of women you know there are gay versions of it was i think in a very careful i was brought up by women and other words that they were my mother had sisters were in the house a lot i had to nurse siblings of a girl so were always women talk and i was always very interesting what they were saying whereas the man could sit me very grumpy your 3 man talk about some sport i was not if you're a 5 year old is nothing there's nothing. in this earth that women upstairs would no matter what they say it would be always fascinating. for me. to be his written books much of his work is autobiographical and ireland plays a major role. each artist in the great irish tradition has invented an island that's what you said in an interview w

it doesn't respect borders, is this an all ireland, the island of ireland problem?e republic of ireland, one death, i'm in belfast at the moment, 18 cases. but in northern ireland there's been no community transfer, which the politicians here have said it means we are not really in the same place as the republic of ireland but of course, the border is practically nonexistent, people walk across it, people cross it every day many times, for schools, shopping, work. really, to say we should be one measure on one side and another measure on one side and another measure on one side and another measure on the other side, some people here are saying really, that isn't going to work. leo varadkar said he will be discussing or has been discussing after this announcement made some hours ago with his counterparts in northern ireland and britain. they will be briefed. but clearly this was something that was implemented before, by the sounds of the statement, before there was any negotiations or with briefing northern ireland and the republic of ireland. he did say this would b

still fairly cloudy for scotland and northern ireland.rth—west. could even brighten up here. but there will still be some splashes of rain elsewhere in scotland and northern ireland to take us through the day. temperatures still could get close to 16—17 degrees for england and wales. to take us into thursday, there will be a bit more mist and fog around across parts of scotland, northern england, with lighter winds. plenty of sunshine, though, for most across england and wales. still fairly cloudy for scotland, northern ireland. but most places will be dry by this stage. it's starting to turn colder from the north. and that trend continues towards the end of the week. this weather front here is just basically a zone of cloud which will work its way southward and, as high pressure starts to build in behind it, well, that's when we start to see the winds switch round into a northerly direction, potentially bringing some of the coldest air we've seen for a while. that, though, will be offset by the strength of the march sunshine. but, either

and ireland and they have a 24 hours later he did because the number is in the u.k. as well as in ireland are up in fiction numbers and maybe somebody told the president that you were citizen you can go to the u.k. still decide for exit and leave the u.k. towards the u.k. then from there so that. maybe is the reason he doesn't really get clearer today telling us this and that and that is my rationale behind this decision just announced it and some some people or some observers saw it coming after he was grilled yesterday and didn't have a good answer yesterday in his press conference either why he would exclude the u.k. and ireland you have it there included now president trump and himself has been tested for the krona virus at least according to him why did he do that and when are we expecting the results. that's another 24 hour development. for all of us who have watched yesterday's press conference of the roast god and the president was really really under pressure and pummeled by journalists like ok so you were in close proximity to somebody who tested positive f

that has been announced in ireland.ore pressure on the nhs because they have families as well. you cannot underestimate the wider impact of closing schools and nurseries. all of those children have parents. nurseries. all of those children have pa rents. if nurseries. all of those children have parents. if they are not in school, the parents need to look after them. i'm not anticipating that today we are going to be told that today we are going to be told that schools will cause because all the talk has been the scientific evidence is not there. i'm prepared to be told i'm wrong in a couple of minutes, but as far as we know, we are not going to see school closures. partly that's because the impact of closing schools is not necessarily as big as you think it might be. and what to do children do if they are not in school? if they all go to the friends house to play, they will still spread the virus as before. explain the advice to the public about what they can do, individual responsibility in fighting this virus. the res

a bill to add ireland to the e-3 nonimmigrant visa program. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from pennsylvania, ms. -- ms. scanlan, and the gentleman, mr. armstrong, will each control 2340eu7bs. the chair now recognizes the gentlewoman from pennsylvania. ms. scanlon: thank you. i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. scanlon: i yield smife such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. ms. scanlon: i rise in support of h.r. 2877, a bill to add ireland to the e-3 nonimmigrant program. in 2005, soon after the united states and australia finalized the australia-u.s. free trade agreement, congress created the e-3 visa program. that program provides up to 10,500 temporary visas for australian nationals who are pre-approved by u.s. citizenship and immigration services to work in a specialty occupation for a spo

so far thatis italy and ireland in dublin.r that is the only game to have been called off in this year because my competition. but of course they could change. that's the six nations — but what about one of the most famous meetings in the horse racing calendar, the cheltenham festival? the racecourse has reiterated on monday that the event, which is set to start next week, is going ahead as scheduled. our reporter laura scott has more. cheltenham is the biggest four days in the racing calendar, and horses like these are having their final preparations. but the looming large over the racing industry is the threat of coronavirus which threatens to derail the whole festival. and for trainers like nikki, there is a palpable concern about what could be decided over the coming days. it is frightening because it is the combination of a whole years work goes into four days. it is the biggest and financially for the industry, the most important four days in that whole year. some sports have been held behind closed doors in recent weeks

as well for northern ireland and scotland, but with shelter from the mountains and hills, to the south—eastf northern ireland, across eastern scotland, hopefully we will see a little sunshine as the day wears on. whereas the cloud could drift a bit further south, turning the sunshine a little hazy in northern england and western wales, with the odd spot of drizzle. where we have the best of the sunshine will have the highest temperatures, so across a central slice of uk, highs of 15 or 16 degrees. through wednesday evening and overnight into thursday, it almost looks like it's not moving, doesn't it, this weather front, but it's slowly sliding south. by the end of the night, i think clearer skies for the north—west of scotland, so the risk of a patchy frost here. to the south of the front, though, with clear skies and light winds to take us into thursday morning, i think we're going to see a frost across mainly parts of southern england, particularly towards the south—east and other parts of wales too. here's thursday, and there's our front still sitting in place straddling, scotland and no

some ice around here and perhaps into northern ireland as well.asingly windy weather coming into scotland and northern ireland. further south, some sunshine and a few fleeting showers. could stay dry in the midlands, and in the afternoon, there's temperatures are nearer what they should be at this time of year. as we move into friday, the wetter weather should be moving out of the way. we are waiting for this pressure to come m, waiting for this pressure to come in, and we had a ridge of high pressure on friday. the wins should ease by morning. it should start off a little bit silly, but it shouldn't ta ke a little bit silly, but it shouldn't take too long for the cloud bubbles up take too long for the cloud bubbles up and spreads out. later on, we are likely to find some of that rain from that low pressure arriving in northern ireland, western wales and the south—west of england. that rain lives eastwards on friday night, clearing by saturday. it is not too bad this weekend. we identified some wet weather coming into the north—west on saturday. w

ireland or across scotland would know that it is quite windy, to put it simply.having a large bridge, it would be 22 miles between the two countries, kind of rattling away in the wind and severe weather we have seen in the last couple of months. realising it's probably impractical. so i tunnel, which according to alistairjack is cheaper to build and actually sounds a lot sort of saviour. so this more realistic suggestion, whether we will actually sit in the current parliament remains to be seen. you look at the cost of the channel tunnel and how long that's a. the uk doesn't have a great record on building these kind of infrastructure projects even though it is only 22 miles long. we don't know how long it would take to build. in the meantime, we don't know what kind of bridge there will be as far as economic ties are concerned in the future with so much still undetermined as far as brexit is concerned. well if this gets the go—ahead we will end up talking about that redline in the sea is between those two countries from an export perspective. there will be inter

, wales and northern ireland were also suspended.pril's london marathon also cancelled on a day when world sport went into meltdown. the start of the f1 season suspended until may, with four races f1 season suspended until may, with foui’ races cancer. f1 season suspended until may, with four races cancer. golf, the prestigious masters tournament due to start in april was called off. on a chaotic day, tomorrow's six nations between england and wales was off and then on. we thought from the point i made from other sporting events, for us to be the only sporting event to be going on when other people were mindful of the seriousness of the situation. i think wejust took seriousness of the situation. i think we just took into account supporters, players, our staff. and what of the biggest event of total? today the torch relay cancelled over mounting concern over tokyo 2020. despite questions over whether it should have taken place, the cheltenham festival concluded today, with 69,000 fans present. this last action major sport could see f

milderfor overnight for scotland and northern ireland.der for england overnight for scotland and northern ireland. milderfor england and wales where we have that band of cloud and rain which will be heavy for a while, that will move in the morning through the midlands, lincolnshire into the west country then into the south—east of england. some shine follows behind and showers, though showers become fewer in scotland and northern ireland but the wind changes tomorrow. it will feel cooler, temperatures will be dropping away to eight or 10 degrees, it will be constructed monday, a frost in many places, we will see the wind picking up in scotla nd will see the wind picking up in scotland and northern ireland, some cloud and rain pushing in. england and wales likely to stay dry during the day with some sunshine out of that frosty start and temperatures 10-12dc. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: ten more patients have died in england after testing positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number of deaths in the uk to 21. (00v) presid

living northern ireland and scotland with showers and sunny spells. some of us in northern england, things to brighten up by the cloud and rain still with us for the midlands, east anglia even at the end of the afternoon. these are the average wind speeds, feeling colder in north wales and the north of england but mild in the far south east with more sunshine to be had. going through this evening and tonight this area of cloud and rain is sticking around across many of the same areas. for north wales, north england, northern ireland and scotland quite a sharp frost to come in the colder rural spots but tomorrow morning plenty of sunshine. starting to cloud over again in north wales and the north of england but to add insult to injury it is feeling culture here is an easterly breeze starts to pick up. most of us on friday it will be dry. some showers coming into the east and the crowd and patchy rain beginning to edge awake from south—west england. more dry weather around by friday but remember that chilly breeze kicking and especially across the south

in scotland, there are 16, seven in northern ireland and two in wales.ite small numbers, compared with other countries. in europe, for example, italy, i think it is now up to 4,000 but, nevertheless, it is progressing. and i think as professor whitty said to the health select committee last week that, really, the chances of the uk missing an epidemic now are slim to nil. there are a few anecdotal reports of panic buying. certainly, sales of hand sanitiser seem to have gone up, but retail experts say there is absolutely no need. stock will only run down if people start to unnecessarily buy in bulk. it now seems that, one way or another, coronavirus is likely to have an impact on the lives of all of us. it's worth pointing out that, for the vast majority of those who are unlucky enough to be infected, most of them will experience very mild symptoms and will make a full recovery. so, how is all of this affecting the behaviour of shoppers here in manchester on a saturday afternoon? has it changed the way i live? yes, the way you go about things? not really,

let's talk to our ireland correspondent in our belfast newsroom.ing, the taoiseach announcing he is in washington for st patrick's day, announcing that in the early hours of the morning, how much pressure was there on him to do this?” of the morning, how much pressure was there on him to do this? i don't necessarily think it was a case of pressure. there had of course been 20 of speculation over the last 2a, 48 hours 20 of speculation over the last 24, 48 hours just as the number of covid—19 cases in the irish republic increased. 43 cases now. yesterday the first death in the irish republic was announced. the top team of public health experts in the republic advising the government met yesterday, according to mr varadkar, then they change their advice to the government, so that is what has prompted him to make this decision. so it's not completely unexpected, the irish government has a sub—committee of ministers looking at its coronavirus response, and that wasn't due to meet until tomorrow so people thought perhaps after that meeting tomorrow you