In The News

Darling Duran, a 38-year-old digital marketing graduate from Bolivia was looking for a place to rent in Dublin when an ad for a one-bedroom apartment for €700 a month came up on her Facebook feed. When she met the man advertising the space, it turned out he lived in the apartment and she would have to share a bed with him. This offer of sex in exchange for rent is something she and her friends hav...

An 80 year alliance between the US and Europe has been upended in just one week. Donald Trump and other American officials have long felt Europe should not rely on US tax dollars for its defence. Now the US president and his administration has explicitly stated Europe needs to take responsibility for its own security, while simultaneously moving to end the war in Ukraine on Russia's terms. Excludi...

Over the last four weeks, the Omagh bombing inquiry has heard from the families of those who died, survivors, and the emergency service personnel who attended the scene. As the inquiry moves into the next phase, it will attempt to answer questions that have remained unanswered for more than 26 years - what happened on that day, and could this atrocity have been prevented? Irish Times Northern Edit...

Groups of Irish parents dotted around the country have unwittingly started a large-scale social experiment – they’re joining together and aiming, as a group, to delay giving their preteen a smartphone. These parents of soon-to-be first year students in secondary schools in Dublin, Cork and Galway hope they can hold out in the face of their children’s smartphone requests, social media’s addictive a...

The Garda investigatio n into the disappearance of Elizabeth Clarke, a mother of two from Co Meath, has been upgraded to a murder inquiry. She was officially reported missing in January 2015, though there have been no confirmed sightings of her since November 2013. She had previously lived in Portrane, Co Dublin, and Bettystown, Co Meath, as well as at another address in Co Meath. Irish Times crim...

Dublin will host Ireland’s first NFL regular-season game at Croke Park later this year. No date has been given but one side is known: the Pittsburgh Steelers, who will be the designated ‘home team’. It is believed the Government and Dublin City Council will contribute almost €10 million to stage the event. Sports Minister Charlie McConalogue says the American football game will attract 30,000 inte...

Luis Rubiales' infamous kiss on Jenni Hermoso during the Women’s World Cup celebrations in August 2023 provoked a global reaction. He swore it was consensual. She did not. But the subsequent behaviour of the former football association president, and three other officials, has since escalated into a full-blown criminal trial. If convicted on charges of sexual aggression, he could face two and a ha...

Consumer affairs correspondent Conor Pope joins In the News to discuss the rise in online romance scams, while Dublin woman Stacey* shares her own experience of losing more than €20,000 to an online fraudster, who pretended to be Coldplay's Chris Martin. Presented by Sorcha Pollak, produced by Suzanne Brennan. *Pseudonym used to protect interviewee’s identity  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/p...

Last November, in one of the most surprising stories of the general election, Gerard Hutch, the head of the Hutch organised crime gang, came close to securing the final seat in the Dublin Central constituency. The veteran criminal, better known as the Monk, had returned to take part in the election while on bail from Spanish authorities who were investigating money laundering. His surprise run for...

Take a five-minute walk in any direction in Dublin city centre and you’ll come across boarded-up, even cemented-over shopfronts, upper floors supported by steel struts and foliage growing through the roof. Properties in prime locations left to rot in the capital city, in the middle of a housing crises. It doesn’t make any kind of sense. In theory it should be easy to find out who owns these decayi...

When it comes to the political pecking order, Minister for Arts is way down the list. It’s been called the last seat on the bus. The newly-appointed arts minister is Patrick O’Donovan and quite how much interest or experience the Fine Gael TD has in the arts – or culture, also part of the job- is not clear. And his portfolio is massive – it includes communications, media and sport. Two tricky and...

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump promised he would end the war in Ukraine  in just 24 hours. Despite missing his own deadline, Trump has threatened Russia with high tariffs and further sanctions if Putin fails to end the war. But this week, Donald Trump announced he was “looking to do a deal with Ukraine”. In return for further US military aid, Trump wants access to Ukraines rare eart...

At the White House on Tuesday US President Donald Trump announced an outrageous idea to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The US would seize control of the strip and turn it into “the Riviera of the Middle East”. Trump suggested Palestinians who had been living through "hell" could live in neighbouring Arabic nations like Egypt and Jordan, funded by wealthy countries. The declaration was made a...

During his last presidency Donald Trump slapped a tariff on Kerrygold butter; costing its parent company, Ornua, €50m in one year. A fortnight into his second presidency and it’s clear sweeping tariffs are now a core part of the agenda for his second stint in the White House. He's hit China with a 10% tax, while Canada and Mexico have been given a month before their US exports are levied with 25%...

When the parents of eight-year-old Elizabeth Struhs stopped giving her the insulin she needed to control her diabetes, they thought God would cure her. And when the little girl slowly died in their home in the Australian city of Toowoomba they and other members of the Saints, a religious sect stood by waiting for her to rise from the dead. The details that emerged at the trial in Queensland of the...

This episode was first published in November 2024. Veteran republican Marian Price initiated legal action against streaming giant Disney+ after the release of TV drama Say Nothing, based on a book of the same name by Patrick Radden Keefe, which her lawyers say depicted her as being involved in the murder of Belfast woman Jean McConville. Lawyers for Price, who was jailed for her part in the IRA’s...

Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht was one of the hundreds of prisoners who walked free thanks to a pardon from US president Donald Trump. His online marketplace facilitated the sale of everything from illegal drugs to weapons, hacking equipment to stolen passports, all delivered to your door at the push of a button. He had more than a million customers worldwide. The campaign for his release began a...

***Please note some listeners may find this episode distressing*** Seven babies, delivered since January last year at Portiuncula University Hospital in Galway, suffered a brain injury as a result of oxygen deprivation (HIE). Six were immediately referred to Dublin for a treatment known as neonatal cooling. The numbers are far in excess of what might statistically be expected which raises question...

The wealth of the world’s billionaires grew at roughly $5.7 billion (€5.5 billion) per day last year, according to Oxfam’s annual report on the financial affairs of the richest people on earth. Meanwhile, the number of people living in poverty has barely changed since 1990, according to the World Bank. Oxfam’s latest research reveals the number of Irish billionaires has risen from nine to 11 in th...

The worst storm to hit Ireland in decades, Storm Éowyn left over a million homes and businesses across the island without power. A new humanitarian group has been established as part of the National Emergency Coordination Group to help deal with the immediate hardship caused by the storm. But what measures need to be taken immediately to avoid similar large scale power outages as these extreme wea...

President Trump campaigned on immigration. He promised mass deportations, zero tolerance and border security. His first acts in office included several executive orders related to immigration, focused on the US’s southern border and giving officials the power to quickly deport migrants who came in under Biden-era programme. Deportations in his first week included rounding up migrants with criminal...

After 15 months of warfare, humanitarian aid is finally getting through to Gaza. By Wednesday, 2,400 trucks had crossed the border and aid agencies are ramping up delivery of essential supplies following the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel that began on Sunday. The need is enormous as are the logistical difficulties in delivering food and medical supplies in a region where there are no longer r...

Last summer a teenager walked into a children's Taylor Swift-themed dance class in a quiet Liverpool suburb, and murdered three girls under the age of ten. Axel Rudakubana also stabbed eight other young girls and two adults that tried to help them. This week the 18 year old pleaded guilty to the murderous rampage, as well as attempted murder and possession of terrorist materials and the bioweapon...

On Monday, Donald Trump stood before a packed Rotunda room in the US Capitol building and announced the beginning of a new “golden age” for Americans standing on “the verge of the four greatest years” in the nation’s history. Speaking after being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, Trump outlined his plans for a new era where the United States would “reclaim its rightful place as...

TikTok users across the United States breathed a sigh of relief on Sunday when US president Donald Trump pledged he would issue an executive order to allow the app to continue operating. The Chinese-owned video app temporarily went dark late on Saturday but has been given additional time to find a buyer before facing total shutdown. If the ban holds, business and technology journalist Ciara O'Brie...