The Explainer

Ireland was named the loneliest country in Europe, but how did we get here? This week on The Explainer, we’re looking at the scale and impact of loneliness in Irish society. From bereavement to social isolation, housing to remote work, our recent Your Stories piece highlighted just how many people are affected, and how deeply . Dr Joanna McHugh Power of Maynooth University and chair of the Lonelin...

It had all the makings of a Hollywood thriller — a dramatic high-seas chase, elite Army Rangers fast-roping onto the deck, and a massive cocaine haul hidden in plain sight. In September 2023, the seizure of the cargo ship MV Matthew led to the discovery of 2,000 kilograms of cocaine with a street value of €157 million euro.  It was the State's largest ever drug seizure. Since that dramatic da...

Irish travellers are facing new hurdles when applying for US visas, but what exactly has changed From students applying for J1s to families planning holidays, there’s growing concern over new entry rules for the US. Applicants are now being asked for years of social media history, and there are fears that people could be turned away. We speak to immigration lawyer Louise Corrigan to break down wha...

Israel and Iran are now trading direct military strikes, a dramatic and dangerous escalation after years of tensions simmering in the background. It goes beyond the proxy conflicts and raises serious questions about what could come next. Israeli officials have made no secret of their goal: they want regime change in Iran, but how likely is that? What does the current regime look like from inside t...

Tattle Life became notorious as a message board where anyone in the public eye — influencers, businesspeople and celebrities, many of them women — faced relentless criticism and often defamatory commentary from anonymous users. But now, after a lengthy and complex legal battle, the mysterious figure behind the site has been unmasked. Who exactly is he? What's his background? And just how toxic is...

We can all see that cars are getting bigger, but a new report shows just how much and the danger it creates. The average height of car bonnets is rising by half a centimetre each year, with some SUVs so tall that a small child standing in front of them is hidden from view. What are the real-world consequences for road safety? Are these designs putting pedestrians - especially children - at greater...

For years, Google was the go-to tool for sorting fact from fiction online, a way to find trusted information in the chaos of the internet. Now? Well, Google will often serve you up the misinformation immediately with an inaccurate AI summary. Users have found that search results are dominated by ads and low-quality content, and the platform isn’t what it used to be. We dug into this on The Journal...

Every year, thousands of badgers are killed under a State programme aimed at eradicating bovine tuberculosis. It’s a disease that can cause major disruption for farmers, but the strategy used to control it has become increasingly controversial. The Journal Investigates has uncovered that more than 80% of the badgers culled over the past five years didn’t have TB. There are also reports of oth...

From the €300,000 bike shed to the still-unfinished National Children’s Hospital, Ireland has a habit of letting public projects, big and small, drift beyond their budgets and original scope. Why does this keep happening? Is it a lack of oversight, political interference, or deeper flaws in how the state manages capital projects? And when things do go wrong, why is it so hard to fix them? We speak...

A €500,000 vandalism incident, months of protests, and a stately home at the centre of a controversy that drags on and on. Castletown House in Celbridge, Co Kildare has become the focus of a bitter dispute over land ownership and access to public heritage. A key entrance was closed after part of the estate was sold to a private developer, sparking a stand-off between the OPW, the landowners, and l...

Since the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, the Israeli government's response in Gaza has escalated into a prolonged and deadly campaign. Human rights groups and UN officials have described the actions of the Israeli Defence Forces as potential war crimes and, in some cases, genocide. Gaza has been under siege since early March, with severe shortages of food, water, and medicine pushing parts of t...

At just after midday last Monday, electricity grids across the Iberian Peninsula failed almost simultaneously, cutting off power to tens of millions. Trains ground to a halt, mobile networks dropped, hospitals switched to backup generators, and entire cities were plunged into darkness. The exact answer isn’t yet clear as to what the cause was, but there appears to have been a chain of ev...

Pope Francis leaves behind a complex legacy. He championed the poor, clashed with conservatives, and opened new conversations about the role of the Church in a world where fewer and fewer people are devout followers of religion. Now, attention turns to the future, and names like Pietro Parolin, Luis Antonio Tagle, and Fridolin Ambongo, one of whom could be the next leader of the Catholic Church. B...

There has been a lot of talk in recent weeks about the online world and its effects on the minds of young children. A new The Journal Investigates series has found that these concerns are not without merit when it comes to the use of pornography. The investigation came on the back of concern raised by judges in this country over the number of minors appearing before courts on serious sexual o...

Donald Trump has followed through on his threats to impose tariffs on many countries in the world, promising rapid economic prosperity for the US in the process. In the days since, the global markets have threatened to unravel and political leaders around the world are scrambling to coax Donald Trump back to the negotiating table, mostly to no avail. What can global governments do to stand up...

Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) is a vital treatment for many women navigating perimenopause and menopause. In recent years, public understanding of menopause and its complex symptoms has improved dramatically, as have the treatments available to women — so too has access to that HRT, with more GPs and menopause clinics offering personalised plans to women across the country. Last year, the...

New Netflix drama Adolescence has gripped viewers globally with its uncompromising look at the influence of toxic social media on young, teenage boys. It delves into the ‘why’ of this violent crime, asking the uncomfortable questions about how a seemingly ‘normal’ boy from an ‘ordinary’ family could be brought to such hate and violence — under their noses, their child has come to identify with tox...

For the modern driver who wanted to signal their willingness to go green, Elon Musk’s Tesla was the brand to drive. But now, as he becomes a powerful figure in Donald Trump’s White House and implements deep public sector job cuts, is he in danger of sacrificing his car company in the process? In recent weeks, we have seen everything from declining sales for Tesla as well as protests against the br...

Syria has seen weeks of relative peace since the fall of the decades-long Assad regime, with a newly formed caretaker government overseeing the end of the country's bloody civil war. But the country hasn't been able to start completely afresh. In recent days, members of the Alawite minority were executed, followed by attacks on security forces by gunmen still loyal to Assad. An estimated 1,400 peo...

The world is watching anxiously as the United States moves to introduce tariffs on key trading partners. But what exactly is a tariff? What are the pros and cons, and is there an end goal that Trump has in mind? And to what extent could it shock the world's economy? We're joined on this week's episode by Sharyn O'Halloran, the SALI professor of Political Economy in the Economics and Political Scie...

Pope Francis has been in the headlines in recent days as he battles pneumonia. He has since rallied, but this latest illness has brought the issue of choosing a new Pope into sharp focus again. How does this work? How does the Vatican and its cardinals go about voting on and anointing a new pope? We're joined by The Journal reporter Diarmuid Pepper. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...

It’s not even a month since Trump took office, and already his actions are starting to reshape — or at least unsettle — the global order. First came the news that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin had spoken on the phone, signalling a massive departure from the US government’s policy of Russian isolation. Then, US Vice President JD Vance went as far as saying that the US believes Europe needs to tak...

Is a simple injection really that effective a treatment for obesity? Ozempic has already taken the medical world by storm, and now another is about to become available on the Irish market. But how do these drugs work, who are they for, and are they even that new at all? Professor Francis Finucane, a consultant endocrinologist at Galway University Hospitals, joins us to look at why these drugs are...

Storm Éowyn exposed how vulnerable modern Irish society is to widespread disruption. What lessons can be learned to help us deal with not only storms, but other systemic shocks? David Korowicz, a systemic risk consultant, joins us to examine ways in which Ireland can become more resilient at an individual, community, and national level. What can be learn from countries who better prepared? And jus...

Vaping has rapidly grown to become a part of modern life, with shops selling vapes popping up almost on every street corner. But what is actually being sold, and who are the companies behind the massive industry? The Journal Investigates team — Maria Delaney, Patricia Devlin, and Conor O'Carroll — went undercover to expose the sale of illicit vapes in Ireland, and found numerous retailers are flou...