Country at risk of losing consultant heading up only genetic testing service for rare foetal abnormalities

Ireland is at risk of losing the consultant who heads up the only genetic testing service for babies with rare foetal abnormalities, just a year after the service was introduced.

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‘Everybody should have the same opportunity’ – parents of miracle baby Isaac on the cutting-edge technology that saved his life

A couple who had their “miracle baby’s” rare condition diagnosed with cutting-edge technology have said it is “essential” that every other parent in Ireland have the same opportunity as them.

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‘He’ll never be able to say he loves me unless he gets help’ – mum’s fight as time runs out for her little boy

If Grayson Adams spends 12 more months without specialist therapy, he might never talk or walk.

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Concern over State’s inaction on drug known to have caused birth defects

Major concerns are being raised about the State’s failure to set up an inquiry into a drug that caused serious birth defects and developmental delays in at least 1,200 Irish babies.

Ellen Coyne Opinion ‘Regulating international surrogacy would not only help protect women from exploitation, it also better protects the rights of Irish children’

I was abroad last week and met an old friend who told me that they are going through the process of adopting a child. I listened to them describe how officials and state agencies have taken a forensic interest in their life, their relationship, their past, their home, their job and even their dog. Plug sockets have been stuffed and covered, window blind cords have been cut.

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Ellen Coyne Opinion Long after his sentence is served, I hope everyone in the country recognises Paul Moody for who he is and what he has done

Some men care more about their reputation than they do about women’s lives.

Steep drop in assessments of need for children carried out by HSE this year

There has been a dramatic drop in the number of assessments of need (AON) carried out on children this year, after the HSE was caught “cutting corners” by a High Court case.

What is coercive control? Expert says it ‘is a liberty crime... takes away people’s equality and dignity’

The Paul Moody case was a textbook example of coercive control, according to the leading global authority on the crime.

Hopes number of coercive control cases brought before courts will soar after this week’s high-profile convictions

Campaigners hope the number of coercive control cases brought before the courts will soar after high-profile convictions helped to raise awareness of the crime.

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Taxi crisis: Only 29pc of drivers in Ireland working at night as fears over safety grow

Late at night, when the pub windows have gone dark and the doors are locked, Michael O’Donovan starts to make his way home.

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Ellen Coyne Opinion Natural contraception apps claim to give us control over our bodies, but they’re sewing distrust between women and medicine

What do you call people who use the rhythm method? Parents.

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Ellen Coyne Opinion Our poor grasp of Northern affairs should not be an excuse for us to tolerate plain bigotry

It’s been many days now since people pretended to string up and burn women, for fun.

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Special investigation: Parents of children with autism vulnerable to exploitation by unregulated psychologists as waiting lists can take four years

Children are waiting up to four years for an autism assessment, with thousands more across the country losing valuable time going without life-changing interventions.

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‘Don’t let our beautiful children be forgotten’ – mother has paid €16,500 for private autism assessments

Rebecca McDermott says her three-year-old son George would now be non-verbal had she not paid for private autism assessments and therapies.

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Ellen Coyne Opinion Wedding preparation fails the only test I have for treatments that change your appearance, which is that you should be doing it for yourself

The wedding invites came like a flight of swallows. This summer has brought with it a glut of nuptials — some which had been postponed by the virus, others which were the fruit of much shorter engagements. Many have found their own good reasons over the last few years not to risk waiting for rescheduled flights to famous skylines or watercolour horizons to ask their lover an important question. Plenty of humble kitchen floors have hosted bended knees. And plenty of newly betrothed couples have rightly interrogated the sense in waiting a long time to wed.

Call for 2023 vote to replace reference to ‘woman’s place in home’

Ireland should hold a referendum next year to repeal and replace the reference to a woman’s place in the home from the Constitution, an Oireachtas committee has said.

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Ellen Coyne Opinion By demonstrating clearly that it believes inclusivity and desirability are mutually exclusive, Victoria’s Secret is proving its detractors right

When I was a teenager, what I knew about Victoria’s Secret was scant enough that it could have been written on one of their teeny thongs and I’d still have plenty of lace to spare. This cocktail of ignorance and mystique was potent stuff. When I was fortunate enough to make friends with a girl from New York in secondary school (the glamour!), my limited exposure to Victoria’s Secret became an entirely olfactory experience. Alluring body mists, pulled from bags fresh from transatlantic flights, produced sickly sweet bouquets which I imagined must be just what the bedroom of Regina George smelled like.

Lives are at risk as survey finds asylum seekers continue to cook meals inside their rooms in direct provision centres

Hundreds of people risk being killed in fires at a number of direct provision centres where residents have been found to be cooking in their rooms due to a lack of independent facilities.

Primary and secondary school children to be taught about consent and abusive relationships

Primary and secondary school children will be taught about consent and abusive relationships as part of a landmark plan to end violence against women.

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‘We just want people to know about Ukrainian culture. I’d love for Irish people to be able to say, ‘This is my favourite Ukrainian movie’

The first day of the war felt like a week to Nastya Kharytonova. The Ukrainian native usually lives in Dublin, but happened to be in Georgia when Russia attacked her home country. But as she watched the war break out, she knew her mother was living alone in Kharytonova’s home town of Lviv. “We pushed her to get out right now. She woke up, heard sirens and alerts. She went to get petrol, water, packed her car and just went to the border,” Kharytonova says.

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Ellen Coyne Opinion The ideology that underpins the US abortion bans is riddled with the misogynistic notion that women are very stupid

It didn’t take too long after Roe v Wade unravelled for the usual myopic nonsense to rear its ignorant head. It is very clear that the ideology that underpins the abortion bans that swept through a number of US states last week is riddled with the misogynistic notion that women are very stupid.

Justice Minister Helen McEntee says she wants Irish escort websites offering Ukrainian women for sex shut down

Irish escort websites, which saw a surge in searches for Ukrainian sex workers after the war, could be shut down or banned.

‘Zero tolerance’: Domestic violence sentences will double under new laws

Ireland will double criminal penalties to 10 years for domestic abusers and double the number of refuge spaces under a €360m plan to try to end domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.

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Perfect storm of Covid violence and slew of high-profile lethal cases nudged domestic abuse plan to fruition

The Government’s domestic, sexual and gender-based violence strategy is the product of 18 months of work. In fact, the five-year plan to enforce “zero tolerance” for rape, sexual violence and domestic abuse is the primary thing the Department of Justice has been working on since late 2020.

Ireland ‘can be world leader’ by recognising international surrogacy, landmark Oireachtas report says

Ireland should become a world leader by regulating and recognising international surrogacy, a landmark Oireachtas committee report has said.

Mums steal the show in Riverdance dance-a-thon fundraiser for LauraLynn charity

Two weeks ago, Monika Cwiok had never attempted Irish dancing . Yet on Thursday night, the mother of one was starring in the iconic finale of Riverdance in front of a packed Gaiety Theatre audience.

Census 2022: Ireland’s population passes the five-million mark for the first time since 1851 – here’s what we learned

THE first results from the 2022 census are out. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) published the preliminary results of the first population-wide survey since 2016 this morning. The official results of the 2022 census will be released next April.

Travellers racially abused by gardaí and treated like ‘lowest of the low’, according to report

Travellers have been called k****ers by gardaí and dismissed while trying to report crimes, research into the institutional racism against Travellers in Ireland’s criminal justice system has found.

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Ellen Coyne Opinion There’s a lot to celebrate at Pride — but there’s still plenty to agitate for, too

There’s a coffee shop right by our creche that’s a shameless mam trap.

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Three-day wait, 28-day rule and 'ground c': Why Irish women are still travelling to Britain for an abortion

Three years on from the referendum on the Eighth Amendment, who still needs to travel for an abortion?