Ireland

Ireland has already legalized divorce and same-sex marriage. Will abortion be next? In a May referendum, voters will weigh in on whether to allow unrestricted abortion up to 12 weeks into a pregnancy.

Mary Lou McDonald represents a new generation and could appeal to a wider range of voters in Ireland — but critics warn she's still inextricably tied to many of her party's hard-line policies.

In a video posted by Birdwatch Ireland, a murmuration of starlings dips and dodges a predator with grace. The scene was just one of many such spectacles filling the skies of southern Ireland lately.

Dublin's Guinness Storehouse is a cross between a museum and a marketing campaign, and an homage to the history and taste of the world's best-known stout.

The biggest stumbling block had been whether the U.K.'s Northern Ireland and the independent Republic of Ireland would have a "hard border" post-Brexit. The sides agreed to keep an open border.

The U.K. is facing a deadline ahead of a Brexit trade summit next month to find a solution to the Irish border, which has been fluid since Northern Ireland made peace with the Irish Republic in 1998.

The remnants of post-tropical cyclone Ophelia hit parts of Ireland with wind gusts of more than 90 miles per hour. The storm knocked out power to some 360,000 customers.

"If, contrary to this obligation [to celibacy], a priest fathers a child, the wellbeing of his child should be his first consideration," the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference said in its guidelines.

As leader of Ireland's governing party, the 38-year-old son of an Indian immigrant is also the country's youngest-ever taoiseach, or prime minister.

The unusual arc of Martin McGuinness's public life culminated in his 2012 meeting with Queen Elizabeth II; both of them called it an important moment for peace.