News

Newspapers

The two leading national newspapers are The Irish Times and The Irish Independent. The Irish Times (paid for website) would be considered more highbrow journalism whereas the Irish Independent (free website) would be more mainstream but not tabloid. The Irish Examiner (formally the Cork Examiner) is also national newspaper but is more successful in the southern part of the Republic. On a daily basis we also have a set of tabloid papers including the Star, the Sun and the Mirror that are essentially the same as their English counterparts.

The Sunday newspapers are a big tradition in the Republic. Big scandals and news worthy events usually break in the Sunday papers including the Sunday Independent, Sunday World (tabloid), Sunday Times, Sunday Tribune and the Sunday Business Post (the leading Sunday business newspaper).

Radio

As with Republic TV the Irish radio stations were for a long time dominated by RTE (RTE 1, 2FM) but now there is more choice via the national radio stations Newstalk (only news/discussion) and Today FM (young/fun radio). There is also a vast number of local radio stations especially in Dublin including 98FM, FM104 and Phantom 105.2 which are all degrees of the same ‘young/fun’ offering).

Sport

The national sport of Ireland is Gaelic football or Gaelic hurling under the control of the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association). Gaelic games are played at a county level and at a league level with the main national stadium being Croke Park in the north side of Dublin.

Soccer is also another big sport in Ireland via the domestic league and international soccer games that are both under the control of the FAI (Football Association of Ireland). Additionally rugby is a huge sport in Ireland with a national league and a national team (representing both Northern Ireland players and the Republic of Ireland players) under the control of the IRFU (Irish Rugby Football Union).