Tag: Ireland

BANGALORE - England captain Andrew Strauss wants his side to build on their thrilling tie with co-hosts India when they face Ireland in a potential banana-skin World Cup clash on Wednesday. Strauss, who has admitted in the past that England tend to up their game against better teams, saw his side make a sluggish start to the tournament with an unconvincing six-wicket win over the Netherlands.
A rare England highlight in that match was the left-handed opener's 88 and Strauss was

BANGALORE - Ireland captain William Porterfield has urged his side to be "cricket-smart" when they face England in a World Cup clash here Wednesday. The Irish, who knocked Pakistan out of the 2007 World Cup, were on course for another victory over a Test nation when they held Bangladesh to 205 runs in their opening match of this tournament.
But a batting collapse saw a side featuring several players with English county sides, of whom opener Porterfield is one, lose by 27 runs.

DUBLIN - Ireland's ruling Fianna Fail party suffered a crushing defeat in the general election and the opposition Fine Gael party is set to lead the next government, according to an exit poll on Saturday.
Fine Gael, led by former teacher Enda Kenny, won 36.1 percent of the vote on Friday, its best result since November 1982 but not enough for a parliamentary majority, the Millward Brown Lansdowne poll for the RTE broadcaster showed. By contrast the Fianna Fail party of Prime

DHAKA - Bangladesh will bank on spin to outwit Ireland in Friday's World Cup match, with skipper Shakib Al Hasan warning the visitors they will struggle in Dhaka. "I don't think Ireland like to play in these conditions," Shakib said of the leading non-Test nation ahead of the day-night match at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium.
"This is not to say we will take them lightly. Ireland have been playing good cricket. But in our conditions, which suit slow bowlers, we are a good bowling

NAGPUR - Andre Botha and Kevin O'Brien hit resolute half-centuries to carry Ireland to a final over, four-wicket victory in a World Cup warm-up game against Zimbabwe on Tuesday. Botha top-scored with 79 and O'Brien hit an unbeaten 62 as Ireland chased Zimbabwe's competitive 244-8 with three balls to spare in the thrilling match at the Vidarbha Cricket Association stadium in Nagpur.
The duo upstaged Zimbabwe skipper Elton Chigumbura, who slammed eight fours and three sixes in an

NAGPUR - New Zealand posted a 32-run win after surviving a scare from a feisty Ireland in their high-scoring World Cup warm-up match on Saturday. Martin Guptill struck a fine 130 off 134 balls as New Zealand racked up 311-6 in the day-night game at the Vidarbha Cricket Association stadium in Nagpur before bowling out Ireland for 279 off 48.2 overs.
Ireland enjoyed a flying start to their chase, with captain and opening batsman William Porterfield hammering a 74-ball 72 containing

DUBLIN - A commuter plane crashed and burst into flames as it tried to land at Cork airport in southern Ireland on Thursday, killing six people and injuring another six, officials said. The accident happened as the turboprop aircraft travelling from Belfast City Airport in Northern Ireland with 12 people on board made its third attempt to touch down in fog.
"I can confirm that we have six fatalities and six people are in hospital," Cork County Council spokesman Tom O'Sullivan

DUBLIN - Ireland's parties held crisis talks on Monday after the ruling coalition collapsed, with the opposition demanding that the government quickly pass a crucial finance bill and bring forward elections.
Opposition parties gave embattled Prime Minister Brian Cowen a deadline of Friday to comply or to face a no-confidence vote, following the dramatic withdrawal of the Green party from the coalition on Sunday. Finance Minister Brian Lenihan was leading the talks over calls for

DUBLIN - Pressure mounted in Ireland on Sunday for an election to be held before the planned date of March 11, after Prime Minister Brian Cowen quit as leader of the ruling party but vowed to stay in office.
Four candidates have thrown their hats in the ring to replace Cowen as Fianna Fail leader in a vote Wednesday, but opposition lawmakers condemned the situation as "complete madness" and demanded an immediate election. The Green party, which shares power in Fianna Fail-led

BELFAST - Anger mounted in Northern Ireland on Thursday as ministers prepared to hold a crisis meeting to discuss why tens of thousands of people have been without water supplies for more than a week.
Doctors warned the continued shortages could spark a public health crisis as engineers struggled to repair thousands of pipes which sprang leaks following some of the coldest weather in the British province for decades.
Some 34,000 people were still without running water on

BELFAST - Some 40,000 people were struggling to cope on Wednesday without water supplies in Northern Ireland, where frozen pipes have burst, leaving some without fresh water for eight days.
Tens of thousands of homes and businesses across the province are affected, with people forced to join long queues for bottled water. Parts of the capital Belfast are among the hardest hit. "At the latest count, 40,000 people are without running water," a spokeswoman for Northern Ireland

DUBLIN: Ireland's government was on a knife-edge on Tuesday with damaged Prime Minister Brian Cowen challenging the opposition to let an austerity budget pass and trigger an EU/IMF bailout before early elections.
Amid public fury over the way he handled the rescue, Irish media said Cowen may face calls to resign immediately or turn over leadership of his Fianna Fail party before the next election at a meeting of party lawmakers. A delay in adopting the budget would almost

BRUSSELS: A financial aid plan to help Ireland cope with its battered banks will be unveiled next week, EU sources said on Friday. However, experts warned that a rescue may not be enough to prevent contagion in the single currency bloc.
The rise in euro and investors demand to buy Irish and other peripheral euro zone debt instead of benchmark German bonds narrowed in a sign of optimism that an aid deal for Dublin will be sealed soon. However, a poll of participants at a