In The News

After weeks of speculation, Dublin criminal Gerry Hutch has confirmed he will run in the upcoming general election. The 61-year-old, who was arrested in Lanzarote last month on suspicion of money laundering, was granted bail by the Spanish High Court last week to permit him to run in the election and released on a bond of €100,000. Mr Hutch, who is also known as The Monk, is hoping to take one of...

Rocky Elsom was a fearsome competitor on the rugby pitch, capable of winning matches almost single-handedly with his dominance in attack and defence. Ireland and Leinster great Brian O’Driscoll called the Australian “the best player I have ever played with”. But last month Elsom was handed a five-year sentence having being found guilty of forgery and embezzlement by a French court, in absentia. He...

After months of speculation Taoiseach Simon Harris finally announced that the general election will take place on November 29th. Later today he will travel to the Áras to ask the president to dissolve the Dáil. Once that happens, it’s every party for themselves with the Coalition partners, Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Greens fighting it out in the constituencies. But what are the key issues? Wil...

Donald Trump is an unpredictable and chaotic leader so what does his second term as US presidency herald? An interruption in trade between Ireland and the US could cost jobs and a loss to the exchequer. His apathy towards Ukraine could result in a new European border. And his climate denial may stymie attempts to limit global warming. Five Irish Times journalists explain key election promises made...

On Monday, Israel formally notified the United Nations of its intention to sever all ties with the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa). It follows the Israeli parliament’s vote last week to ban Unrwa from operating in Isael and Palestinian territories and prohibiting all Israeli state contact with the agency. The ban is not set to take effect for another three months but Israel has a...

US presidential election day has arrived and the counting of votes will being tonight. With the race a dead heat according to polls, the results will be a fascinating conclusion to an eventful, high-stakes contest. But the coming days could take a dark turn if former president Donald Trump decides to once again refuse to accept the results should they favour vice president Kamala Harris. So, what...

On the morning of August 31st, 2018, award-winning film producer Trevor Birney was arrested at his home in Belfast while the PSNI searched the house as his bewildered family looked on. They were searching, they said, for documents used in his powerful documentary, No Stone Unturned, that examined the 1994 Loughinisland massacre when the UVF shot six men dead as they watched the Ireland v Italy foo...

More than a year’s worth of rain fell in southern Spain in barely eight hours on Tuesday. It caused devastation. By Thursday the death toll had reached 155 with an unconfirmed number of people still thought to be missing. Valencia appears to be the worst hit city; the images of cars piled up on narrow residential streets and videos of torrents of muddy water sweeping away all before it were unprec...

Earlier this year, The Irish Times gained access to the bankruptcy files of Derek Quinlan, one of the most prolific Irish property investors of the Celtic Tiger period, who lost his fortune in the 2008-09 crash. Quinlan ended up with €3.5 billion euro of debts, making him the biggest debtor to Nama – the State agency set up after the crash to save the banking system. This major Irish Times investi...

Last week, the Government rushed through a number of priority Bills in a scramble to clear the decks before the next general election. Five Bills were considered and passed, all in under six hours, a process that normally takes weeks. But, are there any risks involved in rushing these Bills so quickly through the Dáil? And, what happens to the pieces of legislation, such as the Defamation or Menta...

Kyran Dirnan case puts spotlight on how schools and Tusla monitor children Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode was originally published in August 2024. Sales of EVs in Ireland collapsed in 2024 with the number of newly-licensed electric vehicles down by 24 per cent in the first seven months of the year. But why? The push towards EVs is a key plank in the Government’s climate strategy and the choice of EVs has never been wider. Early adopters worried about range anxiety but advances in technolo...

The Apprentice isn’t a movie about the reality TV series that made its presenter, New York businessman Donald Trump, a star. Instead it tracks the relationship from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s, between Trump (Sebastian Stan) as a young man desperate for acknowledgment, fame and wealth and the legendary lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), a whatever-it-takes fixer for a host of shady clients, inc...

At an event this week, an all-male panel led by Taoiseach Simon Harris, went through the Dublin task force’s 10-point plan. Irish Times Dublin editor Olivia Kelly was there to find out if the task force’s 10 “big moves” offered a new vision for the city – and one where the words might translate into action. She tells In the News what the 10 “big moves” are and how – after she shook off the felling...

Kinahan gang leader Liam Byrne (43) has been sentenced to five years in prison for weapons charges, while Thomas “Bomber” Kavanagh (57) has been sentenced to six years for similar offences. Both pleaded guilty to the charges, while Kavanagh had also admitted perverting the course of justice. Their co-accused, Shaun Kent (38) from Liverpool, was also sentenced to six years. Observers in the court n...

Sending Irish prisoners to jails in eastern Europe and letting some sex offenders out early with electronic tags are just two of the 16 recommendations put forward by an expert group to solve the overcrowding crisis in Irish prisons. These two proposals are not being considered by Minister for Justice Helen McEntee but most of the measures in the Prison Overcrowding Response Group’s new report are...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has finally presented his long-awaited victory plan to the world. It’s his blueprint on how to end the war with Russia and achieve a just peace for Ukraine, but as he outlines in this five-step plan, Ukraine cannot do it alone.     Will Zelenskiy be able to sell his proposal to Western allies, and what would really happen if it gets off t...

Pop star Liam Payne was just 31 when he died but he had been famous for half his life. As a member of One Direction – the mega successful boy band that emerged from the X-factor TV show – he experienced the sort of high-octane, global fame that’s packaged and controlled in a way only the pop industry can create. He grew from his One Direction persona as a cheeky chappie boy next door into a compli...

Gardaí suspect a missing child – now believed to have been murdered – may have died months before his disappearance was reported in August. Kyran Durnin (8) from Drogheda, Co Louth, is missing presumed dead and a formal murder investigation has now begun. The boy was reported missing in August along with his mother Dayla Durnin (24). She has since been located in the UK. To date there has been no...

Even when Interpol slapped a “Red Notice” on Sean McGovern, the Irish career criminal hiding out in Dubai was probably not too concerned. That Red Notice came about because the DPP in Ireland directed that McGovern, Daniel Kinahan’s closest and most trusted lieutenant, should face charges relating to the 2016 murder of Noel Kirwan (62) as part of the Kinahan-Hutch feud and the notice requested pol...

It’s nearly four weeks since Israel detonated explosions in the pagers belonging to members of Hizbullah, the Iran backed Lebanese-based militia. Since then the conflict in the Middle East has escalated. Israel has been striking inside Lebanon with missiles and has now sent ground troops into the country and Hizbullah has been striking back at targets in Israel. The death toll is mounting. A key d...

From GAA superstar Jack Lynch who became taoiseach to RTÉ journalist George Lee whose political career was brief – for decades Irish voters have been presented at the polls with a range of well-known names. If the recent celebrity-filled European elections are anything to go by, the candidate list for the next general election will include a sprinkle of high profile names which the parties hope wi...

Anti-female genital mutilation advocates expected high-profile speakers at a packed Dublin conference – they found a small room in a hotel with 25 people and were left with large bills. Last February, the Cycle of Life Global Forum was billed as an international conference to help eradicate FGM. In exchange for large sums of money, attendees from as far away as Kenya and the US were expecting to h...

With the appointment this week of Cork-born Morgan McSweeney as his chief of staff, British prime minister Keir Starmer must be hoping for some calm after a turbulent first 100 days in office. As the brains behind Starmer’s leadership campaign, McSweeney (47) is credited with having brought the prime minister to power. After a landslide win in July, Starmer’s first three months should have been sp...

Sinn Féin would likely be taking every opportunity this week to lambast the government in the wake of the budget and with a general election on the cards. Instead, it's being hounded for answers about a child sex abuse controversy in the north. It centres around former press officer, Michael McMonagle, who last month pleaded guilty to 14 counts in a Derry court, and who was given employment refere...