Irish Americans say that support for peaceful Irish unification is the most important political issue for them, followed closely by two-way trade and investment between Ireland and the USA. The data comes from a new poll of 736 Irish Americans carried out for Glucksman Ireland House at New York University and Council for Irish American Relations. Read the analysis by RTÉ’s Seán Whelan here and by Ted Smyth and Brian O’Dwyer here .

The Economic and Social Research Institute think tank says in a new report that productivity levels in the two parts of the island were similar in 2000 but in the past 20 years they have diverged, with the South’s increasing due to ‘export intensity’ and the North’s ‘trending downwards’.