It became famous as the most Irish political home on the planet but Southie, as in, South Boston, may be about to elect a Haitian American and one of two women over an Irish American in a key state senate race.

The Irish run The White House, even President Obama admits it. During the recent round of Saint Patrick's Day celebrations at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue the president made a point of acknowledging the common Irish heritage of key members of his second-term administration.

As part of their literature and humanities programme the Irish Arts Center will play host to two nights of political cabaret. The evenings will feature Irish economist David McWilliams, President Obama’s "Car Czar" and MSNBC Morning Joe economic analyst Steven Rattner and Executive Director of the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant's Rights Angela Fernandez as well as RTE's Late Late Show House Band front-man Paddy Cullivan.

Imagine alien economists landing from another planet to assess the state of the Irish economy. (Don’t laugh, for many Irish that is what the last few years have felt like, as troika economists – highly respected and capable but with very different frames of reference to most Irish people – have visited our shores). What would those alien economists say?
                   
The first thing they’d have difficulty understanding is why an island nation of 6.5 million people on the edge of Europe has been split into two separate tax, currency and legal systems.

President Obama believes a new immigration bill can be passed by June, but two leading political figures in immigration reform warned that Congress faces a "tough slog" to pass the new bill.

Independent deputy and police critic Clare Daly is under suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and faces a ban.

Nobel Prize for literature winner Seamus Heaney has said there will never be a united Ireland and that Loyalists should be allowed to fly their flag over Belfast City Hall.