How much of the news here is about each issue today, and how it sounds, compared with the past 4 weeks. From 1,121 articles by the country’s own news sites today. How we read the news

Share of the coverage

1. Jobs and work More than usual
   4.9% of the news · usually 1.3% · 3.7× usual · 55 articles
   • New Public Sector Pay Deal Negotiated (todayfm.com)
   • Murray accuses Harris of being out of touch (midwestradio.ie)

   Survey · Apr 2026 3% name “Unemployment” among the two most important issues facing the country (Standard Eurobarometer)

2. Health
   1.8% of the news · usually 1.4% · 20 articles
   • New brain imaging tool distinguishes between Alzheimer's disease and SuperAgers (irishdentist.ie)
   • Maura Higgins secures place in DWTS US semi-final (q102.ie)

   Survey · Apr 2026 17% name “Health” among the two most important issues facing the country (Standard Eurobarometer)

3. War and security
   1.7% of the news · usually 1.1% · 1.6× usual · 19 articles
   • Waterford's Blue Plaques: In Memoriam - The Lost Boys - Community (waterford-news.ie)
   • Armistice Day: The young doctor who went to war as Ireland changed around him (irishcentral.com)

   Survey · Apr 2026 15% name “The conflict in the Middle East” among the two most important issues facing the country (Standard Eurobarometer)

   Survey · Apr 2026 6% name “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine” among the two most important issues facing the country (Standard Eurobarometer)

   Survey · Apr 2026 2% name “Security and defence” among the two most important issues facing the country (Standard Eurobarometer)

4. AI
   0.9% of the news · usually 1.6% · 10 articles
   • If Jensen Huang's lover was a Chinese spy what does it mean for the AI race? – The Irish Times (irishtimes.com)
   • Dublin's Akara raises $5.5m to accelerate hospital AI tech (siliconrepublic.com)
5. Climate
   0.9% of the news · usually 0.6% · 10 articles
   • Contract signed for €9m retrofit project in Mayo - news (westernpeople.ie)
   • Athlone student wins major Rotary recognition | Westmeath Independent (westmeathindependent.ie)

   Survey · 2023 69% Worried about climate change (Climate Change Opinion Survey (Meta, Yale), survey of Facebook users)

   Survey · Apr 2026 4% name “The environment and risks related to climate change” among the two most important issues facing the country (Standard Eurobarometer)

6. Cost of living
   0.7% of the news · usually 0.5% · 1.6× usual · 8 articles
   • New public sector pay deal may embed Celtic Tiger level of inflation into economy, expert says (breakingnews.ie)
   • Soaring housing, energy and fuel costs drive Irish inflation to three-year high of 4.3% (irishtimes.com)

   Survey · Apr 2026 59% name “Housing” among the two most important issues facing the country (Standard Eurobarometer)

   Survey · Apr 2026 46% name “Rising prices / inflation / cost of living” among the two most important issues facing the country (Standard Eurobarometer)

   Survey · Apr 2026 6% name “The economic situation” among the two most important issues facing the country (Standard Eurobarometer)

7. Democracy and elections
   0.2% of the news · usually 0.9% · 2 articles
   • President Dan to attend Summit of European Political Community, informal European summit (stiripesurse.ro)
   • Izetbegović sa šefom Misije OSCE-a u BiH: U fokusu formiranje vlasti na svim nivoima (avaz.ba)

   Survey · Apr 2026 3% name “Threats to democracy (for example through information manipulation)” among the two most important issues facing the country (Standard Eurobarometer)

8. Immigration
   0.2% of the news · usually 0.4% · 2 articles
   • Home Office carried out over 60 raids a day in 'campaign of fear' against migrant communities, charity says (voice-online.co.uk)
   • Eurostat: Bien me 47% kërkesat për azil të shqiptarëve në vendet e BE-së (24-ore.com)

   Survey · Apr 2026 14% name “Immigration” among the two most important issues facing the country (Standard Eurobarometer)

How the news sounds

• Tone−0.1positive minus negative words per 100usually −0.3The GDELT Project
• Anxiety0.9× usual2.7 words per 1,000usually 2.9The GDELT Project
• Fear1.0× usual0.9 words per 1,000usually 0.9The GDELT Project
• Anger1.1× usual6.1 words per 1,000usually 5.5The GDELT Project
• Sadness0.9× usual6.2 words per 1,000usually 6.5The GDELT Project
• Happiness1.0× usual5.4 words per 1,000usually 5.4The GDELT Project
• Financial uncertainty0.9× usual6.1 words per 1,000usually 6.7The GDELT Project

Also in the news

• Economic policy uncertainty180.0from newspaper coverage; 100 = long-run averageJul 2026 · −19.0 since Jun 2026Zalla (2016), PolicyUncertainty.com · CC BY 4.0

News coverage in more than 100 languages, machine-translated and counted with English word lists, from The GDELT Project.