In The News

A man once regarded as one of the most feared loyalist paramilitary commanders of the Troubles now lives a largely quiet life in Scotland. But the legacy of Johnny Adair remains one of violence and intimidation. At the height of his power in the 1990s, Adair was blamed for dozens of killings and viewed by both the British and Irish governments as a serious threat to peace. Feared by republicans, n...

Ammi Burke, a young solicitor from Castlebar, Co Mayo, was dismissed by Arthur Cox Solicitors in November 2019 and is now on her third legal challenge to her dismissal. In the Labour Court in Dublin this week, her former employer s laid out its reasons for the dismissal and the events that led up to it that action . Burke rejected Arthur Cox’s assertions , and more will be heard from her when the...

Bestselling author Sally Rooney has announced that her publisher will no longer supply her books to the UK market. Why? Books editor Martin Doyle explains. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Tuesday morning, the country awoke to news that a house fire in Waterford had claimed the lives of four members of the same family. Within hours of the blaze, Gardaí ruled out an accidental cause and upgraded the investigation to a murder inquiry. Though the investigation is at an early stage, detectives believe the attack was related to a drug debt. It’s thought a petrol bomb was thrown at the...

US president Donald Trump announced on Sunday that Ukraine and Russia had agreed an “energy ceasefire” effective immediately, warning either side against breaking the deal. The only problem was that the warring neighbours, who have made attacking each other’s energy plants a key plank of their attack strategy, appeared not to have even heard of the agreement. The statement came after another torri...

On Wednesday Ireland is facing the biggest coordinated public sector strike since 2009. To find out what it is about, why it hasn't been averted despite the Government's offer to talk with unions and whether it still could be called off, we talk to Irish Times work correspondent Emmet Malone. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Before the summer court recess George Gibney (77), former Irish Olympic swimming coach, was found guilty of sexually abusing four girls in the 1970s and 1980s. The jury found him guilty of 39 counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted rape of children. One of Ireland’s most notorious paedophiles, he was extradited from Florida last year where he had escaped justice for decades. Due to r...

For years Victor Spaggiari was a familiar sight on the streets of Galway. A homeless man, he lived in the Cope Hostel and spent his days sitting on a bench in the city. He spoke little, caused no trouble and seemed content. When he died in 2024 aged 65, his funeral was small and he was buried in the city, far from his Italian birthplace. Then, when his will went to probate it emerged that Victor w...

It’s a story that could have come straight out a John le Carré thriller. The retired German spy chief accused of selling classified information amounting to thousands of secret documents; an alleged act of treason that continued for years and was only uncovered during a kidnapping investigation involving a steakhouse heiress and ex-Israeli spies. August Hanning, head of the BND foreign intelligenc...

Jack Horgan-Jones has the latest on a row that has blown up in the aftermath of Tuesday's Budget, reopening RTÉ's rolling funding crisis and leaving questions unanswered about why Minister for Media Patrick O'Donovan "reneged" on a funding commitment to the broadcaster. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Over the past two weeks, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Spain to protest the country’s worsening housing crisis. The demonstrations were triggered by the eviction of an 87-year-old woman, Maria del Carmen Abascal, from her home in Madrid. Known in Spain simply as Maricarmen, she had lived in the same apartment for more than seven decades and was evicted after it was sold...

Christa Pike spent 30 years in jail in Tennessee on death row, waiting for the day the state would kill her. When that day finally came, last week, she was first given a lethal injection, then a second one when the first dose failed. She survived that too and the 50-year-old convicted murderer was taken to hospital where she was placed on life support. So who was Colleen Slemmer, her teenage victi...

Ministers Simon Harris and Jack Chambers have been explaining how the Government will tax and spend in the year ahead. They have promised to deliver changes we will feel in our daily lives. But will you really feel a difference in your daily life? Consumer affairs correspondent Conor Pope has been listening. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wicklow businessman Brendan Kavanagh (61) has an entrepreneurial skill for building connections and seeing gaps in the market. That has led him to set up multiple businesses including the successful education-technology focused Olive Group. But what happens when some of his high profile business relationships turn sour? TV sports pundit and psychotherapist Richie Sadlier has a tale to tell; so too...

At the Labour Party conference last week, British prime minister Andy Burnham surprised delegates by putting the prospect of rejoining the EU firmly on the political agenda. In a rousing speech he said the Brexit vote in 2016 had left the country weaker and failed to allow Britain to “take back control” of its borders and rules, as promised by the Leave campaign. “Brexit has done more harm than go...

Premier League football club Manchester City has been found guilty of boosting its coffers by more than €1bn by arranging “sham contracts” with big name commercial partners. The infringements to the league’s funding rules were found by an independent commission to have taken place between 2009 and 2018 – a time when the club experienced unprecedented success. So what did the club do with the money...

Irish citizen David Anderson (45) is charged with the premeditated murder of his ex-wife, Megumi Anderson, who died in January 2025 aged 43. Megumi died in a fire in her apartment in Budapest. The Japanese woman was found on the sofa with a cigarette nearby, surrounded by candles and empty wine bottles. Police initially believed the fire was a tragic accident, but five days later they arrested And...

Since early Sunday morning, 35 members of the Orange Order have been waiting at Drumcree Church to parade down the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown. It is a march that, in the 1990s, sparked tension and violence in Drumcree, and with the result that the Protestant loyalist organisation has been refused permission to march through the Catholic area for nearly 30 years. So why was it gi...

When property developer Paddy Shanahan built Buckingham Village, a scheme of 125 apartments in north inner-city Dublin in 1991, hopes were high that it would help rejuvenate this socially deprived part of the north inner city. But by 1994, Shanahan was dead; he had been fatally shot as he left a gym in Crumlin and the development’s connection to the Dublin underworld was cemented. It regularly fea...

A comprehensive 3-0 away victory for the Republic of Ireland should have cause for celebration. Instead, it has been overshadowed by unprecedented crisis within Irish football. In the days before Ireland's Uefa Nations League fixture against Israel, players faced mounting calls from politicians, celebrities and activists to boycott the match over Israel's genocide in Gaza and its continued...

After more than a decade living openly in Dubai, Christy Kinahan snr’s visa has been cancelled and he has been told to leave the United Arab Emirates before September 29th . The founder of the Kinahan drugs cartel moved to Dubai when it was considered a safe haven for criminals, insulated from extradition treaties and where it was possible to live a life of considerable luxury with no questions as...

Since the fixtures were announced earlier this year, the voices calling for the Republic of Ireland to boycott its Nations League games against Israel have grown progressively louder. They come from all quarters: from former Ireland players to diehard green jersey fans and from politicians to big names in other sports. The two soccer games are going ahead, behind closed doors and with minimum cove...

This episode was originally published in July 2026. Employees of three key State agencies use a computer programme called Passwork to generate and protect their passwords. It’s a cybersecurity measure. But what they didn’t know, before it was revealed by The Irish Times, is that Passwork, which purports to be EU-based, has extensive links to a Russian company licensed by Russia’s security service....

The scenes of violence and rampant destruction on the streets of Belfast on June 9th  were reminiscent of disorder we’ve seen before. But these were not sectarian-motivated attacks, instead they were race riots, with mobs of young men attacking migrants. When calm was restored, at least 88 migrant families had been made homeless, either because their home had been attacked or burned out, or b...

Today we're sharing the opening episode of a three-part series by Róisín Ingle that tells the untold origin story of U2. We hope you enjoy it. The full series can be found on irishtimes.com, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for Drummer Seeks Musicians: The Making of U2. It is 50 years this month since 14-year-old drummer Larry Mullen stuck a note on a school noticeboard looking for f...