DUBLIN, May 17 (Reuters) – Leinster won the Amlin Challenge Cup on Friday, twelve months after being crowned Heineken Cup champions, to deny Stade Francais a first piece of European silverware with an easy 34-13 victory.

Leinster, champions of Europe for three of the last four seasons, had to settle for a place in the second-tier of European rugby after failing to make it through the group stages of the Heineken Cup for just the second time in nine years.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland’s grand slam-winning captain Brian O’Driscoll ended months of uncertainty over his future on Thursday when he agreed to play on for one more year for province and country.

O’Driscoll, who will travel on his fourth British and Irish Lions tour next month, turned 34 this year and had said he would wait until July to decide on whether to call time on a glittering 14-year international career.

DUBLIN, May 16 (Reuters) – Ireland’s grand slam-winning captain Brian O’Driscoll ended months of uncertainty over his future on Thursday when he agreed to play on for one more year for province and country.

O’Driscoll, who will travel on his fourth British and Irish Lions tour next month, turned 34 this year and had said he would wait until July to decide on whether to call time on a glittering 14-year international career.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Elan stepped up its bid to keep its independence on Monday by agreeing a $1 billion deal to buy 21 percent of the royalty that U.S. company Theravance receives from GlaxoSmithKline for its respiratory drugs.

The Irish drugmaker last month rejected a $5.7 billion bid from Royalty Pharma and has made a series of moves to frustrate the bid, contingent on 90 percent acceptance, since the U.S. investment firm declared its interest in February.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Elan (ELN.I: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)(ELN.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) considered buying U.S. investment firm Royalty Pharma ROYPH.UL last year, six months before Royalty made its approach for the Irish drugmaker, the offer document for the bid showed on Thursday.

Royalty submitted its $5.7 billion bid on Thursday, standing by a reduced price in the face of Elan’s insistence it is worth more. Elan rejected the $11.25 per share bid last month and is determined to keep its independence.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Irish government ministers agreed draft legislation on Tuesday to allow for limited access to abortion where a woman’s life is in danger, including the threat of suicide, a proposal that has already divided the country’s ruling coalition.

Ireland’s two-decade-old debate over how the government should deal with a Supreme Court ruling that abortion be permitted when a woman’s life was at risk was re-opened last year following the death of a woman who was denied an abortion of her dying foetus.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland may spend any spare cash from future budgets rather than ease austerity measures, Finance Minister Michael Noonan said on Tuesday, after it left its plans to cut spending by 5.1 billion euro ($6.7 billion) for the next two years unchanged.

Ireland has consistently beaten deficit goals set under its EU/IMF bailout agreement, and the European Central Bank cut it some slack on future targets in February when it delivered savings on its debt servicing.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Leinster’s double Heineken Cup-winning coach Joe Schmidt was named as Ireland’s new coach on Monday, a popular choice who will be charged with picking up the Irish after their worst Six Nations in 14 years.

The New Zealander takes over from Declan Kidney whose five-year tenure that began with a first Six Nations grand slam in 61 years ended this month with his side narrowly avoiding a first wooden spoon since a whitewash in 1998.

DUBLIN, April 29 (Reuters) – Leinster’s double Heineken Cup-winning coach Joe Schmidt was named as Ireland’s new coach on Monday, a popular choice who will be charged with picking up the Irish after their worst Six Nations in 14 years.

The New Zealander takes over from Declan Kidney whose five-year tenure that began with a first Six Nations grand slam in 61 years ended this month with his side narrowly avoiding a first wooden spoon since a whitewash in 1998.

DUBLIN, April 28 (Reuters) – Readers of Ireland’s
largest-selling daily newspaper were confronted by an unexpected
front page headline this week when the Irish Independent
proclaimed the ‘End Of Austerity’.

In a country that began cutting spending and hiking taxes
almost five years ago, well before the scale of the euro zone’s
debt crisis was evident, weary Irish voters have more interest
than most in the fresh debate over Europe’s cornerstone policy.