In The News

Earlier this Summer, a Netflix documentary, all about the hidden world of freediving, catapulted the sport in front of a global audience. The Deepest Breath, tells the story of Alessia Zecchini, a champion freediver from Italy and Stephen Keenan, an expert safety diver from Glasnevin in Dublin. It follows them as they rise separately through the ranks of the sport, before their lives eventual...

Co Laois man Brendon Deacy (58) arrived at the Burning Man festival in the northern Nevada desert prepared for heat and dust – not the heavy rain that fell on the last weekend of the nine-day counterculture jamboree. The artist and NCAD lecturer tells In the News about arriving in the camper van with his four grown-up children, how the festival lived up to his expectations, and more – and how the...

Ireland has a poor history in Rugby World Cup competitions but this year just might be different. Entering the tournament in France as the number one team in the world is no guarantee of anything – and the big question is whether Andy Farrell’s team can do what previous Ireland teams have never managed; progress beyond the quarter final. That’s if they get there – the way the draw has worked out t...

Chinese economic growth is faltering. The biggest drag on the economy is the tanking property market, with prices falling and developers defaulting. Domestic demand is dropping as nervous consumers opt to save rather than spend. That’s bad news too for the vital manufacturing sector. Add double-digit youth unemployment and the problems are piling up for president Xi Jinping. Beijing correspondent...

The net is closing in on members of the Kinahan Cartel. An investigation into the organised crime gang has been completed by An Garda Síochána and a file has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions. The focus of their investigation is the activities of cartel leaders Christy Kinahan and his two sons Daniel Kinahan and Christopher Kinahan Jnr. Now it is up to the DPP to decide if the...

It’s been a week of tragedy on Irish roads. Nine people lost their lives in just six days prompting an outpouring of grief, not only in the communities of those who died but across the country. It’s been a week also when the Road Safety Authority released its figures for road deaths for the year so far and, as Irish Times reporter Mark Hilliard tells In the News, they make for stark and concerning...

Spanish football federation chief Luis Rubiales spoiled the afterparty for Spain's Women's World Cup-winning team, first by giving one of the players, Jenni Hermoso, an unwanted kiss, and then by refusing to accept the consequences. As Rubiales clings to his job, the controversy has embarrassed Spain's football establishment, incensed Spanish women and brought on a national reckoning with old-fash...

When it comes to prices there’s no going back, Conor Pope, Irish Times consumer affairs expert and Pricewatch columnist tells In the News. Energy companies are promising some sort of reduction, not as yet revealed; supermarkets say they have dropped prices – but food inflation is still running well into double figures; and it’s a hard time to be both a borrower, with interest rates rising, and a s...

In late July, four relatives attended a family lunch at the home of Erin Patterson, a 48 year-old mother of two from Leongatha in Australia. Within days of the lunch, three of the guests were dead, with a fourth fighting for his life in hospital, where he remains today. A beef wellington that was served for lunch on the day is suspected to have contained poisonous death cap mushrooms. But why were...

Since the announcement of the deaths of two men – Meath native Brendan Wall (45) and Canadian Ivan Chittenden (64), during the swimming stage of the Youghal Ironman – there have been many reports from eyewitnesses and participants about the choppy conditions all 2,000-plus competitors faced. A key question is why the event was permitted to go ahead – or indeed if it went ahead with or without the...

Ryan Tubridy was nearing a return to the RTÉ airwaves, but it all fell apart in spectacular fashion last week after Mr Tubridy issued a statement that, in the eyes of RTÉ head Kevin Bakhurst, reopened some barely-healed wounds. Now there is a lot of figuring out to do. What will Ryan do next? How will RTÉ recover from this crisis? And could a reconfiguration of the Radio 1 schedule be the best way...

In April, it was announced that Trinity College Dublin would 'dename' its Berkeley Library, because of the links to slavery of its current namesake, the 18th century philosopher George Berkeley. The news sparked renewed debate about when it is right to change the historic name of a building or institution, with Irish Times columnist Fintan O'Toole arguing, for example, that the dozen or so GAA clu...

Ireland is awash with cocaine, but how does it get into the country? Crime and Security correspondent Conor Gallagher explains the different methods used by gangs to import the drug into Ireland and what steps are taken by authorities to intercept it. Presented by Conor Pope, produced by Suzanne Brennan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the fourth time in as many months, former U.S. president Donald Trump is facing a criminal indictment. The indictment, handed down by the Fulton county district attorney on Monday, charges Trump and 18 others, including his former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and lawyer Rudy Giuliani, for their efforts to overturn the 2020 U.S. presidential election results in Georgia. The indictm...

Earlier this year, the case of Annie McCarrick’s disappearance was upgraded to a murder inquiry. In this episode, Conor Lally tells Bernice Harrison what prompted this development and whether the 30 year-old investigation could be significantly advanced or even solved. This episode was originally published in May 2023.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do teenagers today have it tougher than previous generations? In terms of how well they can develop emotionally and socially, the answer is yes, says Dr Colman Noctor, a psychotherapist who works with adolescents. He tells Irish Times journalist Jen Hogan about how the pandemic years have robbed young people of crucial opportunities for social development, driving them instead into the online worl...

Something strange is happening in the Irish gangland scene. After years of escalating violence, gun crime across the country has now reached record lows. What's behind the drop and will it last? Crime and Security editor Conor Lally reports. Hosted by Aideen Finnegan. This episode was originally published in March 2023. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Russian spy Sergey Cherkasov spent four years deep undercover as a politics student in Trinity College Dublin. His classmates knew him as Victor Muller Ferreira, a Brazilian national, eager to further his education and his prospects in Ireland. Five years on from his graduation, Cherkasov is in Brazil serving a 15 year prison sentence for several counts of fraud. And now, the Trinity graduate is f...

How did controversial landlord Marc Godart build his extensive portfolio of properties, owned and managed, in Ireland? Europe correspondent Naomi O’Leary followed the money back to the Godart family home in a leafy suburb in Luxembourg. Dublin correspondent Olivia O’Kelly explains what might happen next in the disputes between the prolific landlord and tenants who have lodged complaints against hi...

At first glance, many of the policies of Ireland First seem conservative rather than extreme. But a private, invite-only Telegram group paints a much darker picture of the party’s priorities. Conor Gallagher talks to Aideen Finnegan. This episode was first published in March 2023. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alice Coyle lost €10,000 in a matter of minutes in a Revolut scam. The Galway woman tells Bernice Harrison how the scam unfolded after she received a text from what she believed was Electric Ireland. We also hear from Irish Times consumer affairs correspondent Conor Pope, who explains what scams to look out for – from e-flow to Hey Mom – and what you should do if it happens to you. Presented by Be...

During the Troubles the IRA set up a unit to find informers within its organisation. Informally called the ‘nutting squad’, it was led by Freddie Scappaticci, the son of an Italian immigrant who grew up in the Markets area of Belfast. Scappaticci, who died earlier this year, was one of the highest ranking men in the IRA. He was also an informer in the pay of British intelligence, operating under t...

Ozempic is a drug, designed for diabetics, but which has a game-changing secondary use. It has the power to transform the lives of people with complex obesity. It’s only available in Ireland for people with Type 2 diabetes – and in very limited circumstances for those with obesity. In this episode Bernice Harrison heard from Belinda in Tipperary, who after taking the drug for five months, lost mor...

More than one in 10 teenagers in Irish secondary schools experience bullying. It can happen in school, or outside it, on social media or in person. For her summer-long series, Irish Times parenting columnist Jen Hogan talked to parents of bullied children, adults whose lives have been impacted negatively by school bullying and to the children themselves. For this podcast she also talked to an...

Last month a New York architect, Rex Heuermann, was arrested in connection with the deaths of three young women whose bodies were found buried in a remote location on Gilgo Beach in 2010. He is also the prime suspect in the death of a fourth victim. Prosecutors now believe they have found the Long Island serial killer. Maria Cramer, NYPD bureau chief at The New York Times has been following the ca...