The Explainer

Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers are expected to strike tomorrow in a dispute over pay. Schools will close, non-urgent hospital services will be cancelled, and courts, council offices and OPW sites will shut their doors. Union leaders rejected the government’s offer of last-minute talks at the Workplace Relations Commission this week, so the strike looks set to go ahead. So how did w...

Budget 2027 has something for almost everyone: income tax changes, a welfare increase, a higher fuel allowance, a bigger renter’s credit, an expanded Help to Buy scheme and lower childcare costs. But how much of it will actually make a difference to people’s pockets? Dr Emma Howard, economist at TU Dublin, joins us to examine who gains most from the budget, whether the measures are reaching those...

For almost 30 years, the violent confrontations that once defined the Drumcree marching dispute had disappeared from the streets of Portadown. But a procedural error by the Parades Commission and a series of court challenges have reopened the dispute, with protesters blocking a heavily restricted Orange Order parade from passing along the Garvaghy Road. So how did Drumcree become one of Northern I...

Women can develop serious mental health difficulties at any point in the year after giving birth. But new reporting from The Journal Investigates has found that five of Ireland’s six specialist perinatal mental health hubs have stopped accepting new referrals after six months postpartum, while women outside major cities can face major barriers to accessing care. So why are services tightening acce...

Music and politics have always shared a stage, but the fallout from Macklemore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s United States tour has made clear how that can be an uneasy relationship. Zara Hedderman, music and arts journalist and author of the Bad Arts newsletter, joins us to examine who gets to decide what can be said on stage, and what happens when artists stand together and say no. Hosted on Acast...

The far-right Alternative for Germany party won almost 44% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday, more than doubling its support and delivering its strongest ever result in a German state election. The result has shaken Chancellor Friedrich Merz's CDU and brought the AfD closer than ever to taking power at state level. Who is voting for the party, why is it particularly strong in eastern Germany,...

The Journal is releasing a six-part series of The Explainer podcast through Irish, focusing on some of the biggest stories affecting the language and the Gaeltacht areas. In this final episode, journalist Laura Ní Aoidhne joins us to break down new cross-border surveys, exploring whether attitudes toward the Irish language are truly warming North and South and what role the language might play in...

More than 14,000 hectares of Ireland’s coastline are covered by applications to commercially harvest seaweed, with four companies seeking to take almost 51,000 wet tonnes a year if their licences are approved. At the same time, the maritime regulator is investigating claims of potentially unauthorised harvesting in protected areas, while traditional harvesters and environmental campaigners are rai...

The Journal is releasing a six-part series of The Explainer through Irish, focusing on some of the biggest stories affecting the language and the Gaeltacht areas. This week, commentator Cárthach Bán Breathnach joins us to explore the deep relationship between sport and the Irish language, and how Irish commentary found its place on our screens and airwaves. Ní haon breág é go bhfuil muintir na hÉi...

Last autumn, RTÉ’s unscripted hit took the country by storm, drawing over 800,000 viewers, turning retired prison officers into household names, and proving that psychological deceit makes for irresistible television. Now, twenty-four new players are stepping into Slane Castle under the watchful eye of Siobhán McSweeney for season two of The Traitors Ireland. But what happens when a new cast arriv...

This summer, The Journal is releasing a six-part series of The Explainer podcast through Irish, focusing on some of the biggest stories affecting the language and the Gaeltacht areas. This week, we look at the state of Irish language education in Ireland, including calls to reform the school curriculum to focus on spoken Irish, the lack of government plans for new all-Irish schools, and the rising...

Five teenage boys were killed when the BMW they were travelling in was driven the wrong way on the M9 in Kildare and collided with a car carrying three women and a seven-year-old boy. It came just over a week after a similar wrong-way crash on the M50 injured nine people. Videos have meanwhile spread on social media of teenagers in stolen cars driving at speed. What is behind this behaviour, why a...

The US midterm elections are still months away, but attention is already turning to the 2028 presidential race. Speculation about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has grown after the New York congresswoman said she was not ruling out a run and topped an early poll of Democratic voters in New Hampshire. Could AOC win the Democratic nomination, would she stand a chance in a general election, or would a run...

More than 70,000 people crossed from Morocco into Ceuta last week, overwhelming the small Spanish territory on the North African coast. Dozens died, while thousands remain, and questions are mounting about the online rumours that fuelled the rush and Morocco’s role in the breakdown of border controls. How did it happen, why does Spain have territory in Africa, and what does the crisis mean for Eur...

This summer, The Journal is releasing a six-part series of The Explainer podcast through Irish, focusing on some of the biggest stories affecting the language and the Gaeltacht areas. This week, we look at why so many people in Ireland still can't use the síneadh fada in their own names, from banking systems to booking forms, and whether a new bill could change that. Cé go bhfuil cosaint ann don s...

Wildfires have burned across Tipperary, Wicklow, Cork and Kerry over the past fortnight, during one of the driest spells in years. Almost none start naturally. But how far a fire spreads depends on what's growing on the land, and how wet or dry the ground is. More than half the land burned here over the past decade overlapped protected nature sites, according to analysis by The Journal Investigate...

This summer, The Journal is releasing a six-part series of The Explainer podcast through Irish, focusing on some of the biggest stories affecting the language and the Gaeltacht areas. This week, we are examining the issue of housing in Gaeltacht areas. An tseachtain seo, táimid ag déanamh imscudú ar cheist na tithíochta sna ceantair Ghaeltachta. Is cearta daonna í an tithíocht, ach tá gearchéim ti...

Britain has a new prime minister (again): Andy Burnham, the "King of the North", its seventh in ten years and the first to take office openly Catholic. What kind of leader is he, how did he get here, and what does his rise mean for Ireland? Dominic McGrath, UK correspondent with the Business Post, joins us to break it down. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This summer, The Journal is releasing a six-part series of The Explainer podcast through Irish, focusing on some of the biggest stories affecting the language and the Gaeltacht areas. This week, we are taking a look at artificial intelligence and Irish. Cloistear faoi bhogearraí intleachta shaorga cosúil le Chatgpt agus Anthropic go minic. Ach i gcomhthéacs na Gaeilge, tá an intleacht shaorga anoi...

Last autumn, the old Joint Policing Committees were replaced with new Local Community Safety Partnerships. All 36 are now up and running, and the first public meetings are happening. Are they any more open than the structure they replaced, and are they actually making communities safer? This week, The Journal's Eoghan Dalton takes stock of what's working, what's stalling, and what still needs to b...

For decades, George Gibney was one of the biggest names in Irish swimming. The 77-year-old was convicted this week of 40 counts of sexually abusing four girls in the 1970s and 80s, after an 11-day trial at the Central Criminal Court. The Journal's Jane Moore takes us inside the courtroom. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ireland has taken over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, but does that mean we're suddenly in charge of Europe? Over the next six months, Ireland will have to broker deals among 27 governments on some thorny issues, from a contested €2 trillion budget to big tech regulation and children's online safety, all while holding onto our traditional stance on military neutralit...

If you're caught speeding in Ireland, you'd be forgiven for assuming a fine and penalty points are all but inevitable. But a new investigation by The Journal Investigates has found that almost one in every two speeding cases before the District Courts doesn't result in a conviction. we're joined by Patricia Devlin, journalist with The Journal Investigates. Patricia’s reporting on this topic was su...

For years, the conversation around problem drug use in Ireland centred on heroin. But on the streets of Dublin and beyond, a different drug has taken hold. Treatment demand for crack cocaine rose by 31% in a single year - and by more than 900% over the last decade - according to the latest figures from the Health Research Board. Those working on the frontline say the drug's cheap price and sheer a...

Alumina is the fine white powder needed to make aluminium, and Ireland is home to Europe's largest producer of it. Aughinish Alumina's ownership by Russian giant Rusal has put the Limerick plant under intense scrutiny, with a recent investigation tracing its product all the way to the Russian military. Niall O'Connor, News Correspondent with The Journal, joins us to explain who owns the refinery,...