DUBLIN, Feb 5 (Reuters) – Wales will have to improve
if they are to take advantage of an exhilarating win over
Ireland on Sunday and challenge for the Six Nations
championship, captain Sam Warburton said after a game slightly
marred by weak kicking and dangerous tackling.

Wales, who repeated their quarter-final victory over Ireland
from last year’s World Cup with a nailbiting 23-21 win, face
Scotland in Cardiff next weekend before travelling to Twickenham
for a possible triple crown showdown with England.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Leigh Halfpenny’s last-minute penalty gave Wales a 23-21 win over Ireland in an enthralling Six Nations see-saw battle Sunday as the hosts failed to avenge last year’s World Cup quarter-final defeat.

Wales, missing several first-team players, were well on top in the early exchanges of their championship opener.

DUBLIN, Feb 5 (Reuters) – Leigh Halfpenny’s
last-minute penalty gave Wales a 23-21 win over Ireland in an
enthralling Six Nations see-saw battle on Sunday as the hosts
failed to avenge last year’s World Cup quarter-final defeat.

Wales, missing several first-team players, were well on top
in the early exchanges of their championship opener.

DUBLIN, Jan 30 (Reuters) – Ryanair raised its
profit forecast on Monday, saying higher ticket prices were more
than making up for expensive fuel and reduced capacity,
underlining the resilience of its low-cost sector as legacy
carriers struggle.

The Irish low cost carrier, Europe’s largest, increased its
full year profit forecast by 9 percent to 480 million euros
after posting revenue growth of 13 percent in the three months
to Dec. 31.

DUBLIN, Jan 25 (Reuters) – Ireland’s government on
Wednesday announced plans to slash the time it takes to be
discharged from bankruptcy to three years from 12 and proposed a
new non-judicial route for struggling mortgage holders to
discharge their debt.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan said the non-judicial
schemes would not increase bad loan costs to banks as they would
allow more flexibility and make it easier for lenders to avoid
the costly process of bankruptcy and foreclosure.

DUBLIN, Jan 25 (Reuters) – An unemployed Irish artist
has built a home from the shredded remains of 1.4 billion euros
($1.82 billion), a monument to the “madness” he says has been
wrought on Ireland by the single currency, from a spectacular
construction boom to a wrenching bust.

Frank Buckley built the apartment in the lobby of a Dublin
office building that has lain vacant since its completion four
years ago at the peak of an ill-fated construction boom, using
bricks of shredded euro notes he borrowed from Ireland’s
national mint.

DUBLIN, Dec 20 (Reuters) – Europe should consider
additional support for Ireland to ensure the success of its 85
billion euros EU-IMF bailout in the face of a deepening euro
zone crisis, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.

Europe’s financial woes are jeopardising Ireland’s ambition
to return to market funding in 2013 and the IMF suggested a
range of options to help the country’s banks and improve its
appeal to private investors.

DUBLIN, Dec 16 (Reuters) – Ireland’s economy
contracted at its fastest pace in over two years in the third
quarter after a global slowdown hit export growth, casting doubt
over Dublin’s ability to transform itself into the euro zone’s
comeback kid.

Gross domestic product slumped 1.9 percent on a seasonally
adjusted basis, compared to a Reuters poll forecast of a 0.5
percent fall, making Ireland the worst euro zone performer in
the third quarter apart from Greece, which no longer publishes
seasonally adjusted figures.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – After the Celtic Tiger died, Anthony Slattery quit his job as an accountant and bought some cows.

With food and drinks exports rising by close to a billion euros a year and food firms among the best performers on Ireland’s bruised stock market, agriculture beckoned as one of the few sectors to survive a devastating property collapse.

DUBLIN/LONDON, Dec 14 (Reuters) – Ireland warned on
Wednesday its financial services industry may be at risk from
Britain’s opt-out from closer EU integration but the damage for
Dublin could go a lot deeper without its closest neighbour at
the European negotiating table.

The Irish government is scrambling to limit the diplomatic
damage after Britain last week refused to join the European
Union’s other 26 countries in working towards a new fiscal
union, leaving Dublin more exposed to German and French calls
for tighter financial regulation.