In The News

The savage and unprovoked attacks on an American tourist Stephen Termini, from Buffalo, New York, and the Ukrainian actor Oleksandr Hrekov in Dublin’s city centre made headlines – prompting debate around safety on the streets of the capital. Various reasons have been put forward for the ever-present sense of danger many say they feel in the capital’s centre, ranging from lack of gardaí on the beat...

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez has a good chance to form a new left wing coalition following a surprise result in last weekend's general election. The result left Spain's right wing parties, who polls suggested should win, wondering where it all went wrong. The ultimate outcome will be hugely consequential, not just for Spain but for all of Europe. Guy Hedgecoe reports from Madrid on how the...

On a family holiday to the Greek island of Corfu, Irish Times reporter Ronan McGreevy got an unexpected front row seat to one of the big stories of the summer: catastrophic wildfires, to which experts say climate change is a major contributing factor. On Corfu and Rhodes, thousands of tourists have been forced to evacuate. Will the increased frequency and intensity of such events force a rethink o...

Hollywood is on strike. It’s about money of course, but at its heart is changing technology: the way streamers, such as Netflix and Apple TV have altered the way actors and writers work and are paid, and how AI is set to curb the income potential of many in the film and TV business. Irish Times chief film correspondent Donald Clark explains just why the industry is on the picket lines, what it mea...

The story of teenager Ann Lovett, who concealed her pregnancy and died shortly after giving birth alone in a grotto in Grandard, County Longford, is a defining tragedy of 1980s Ireland.     The circumstances of Ann's pregnancy and death were cloaked in silence for decades.   Three months after Ann died, her younger sister Trisha took her own life.   In a series of rep...

The Women's World Cup kicks off in Australia and New Zealand this week and for the first time ever, the Irish National team will be taking part. Football pundit and former women’s international Karen Duggan has the low down on the Irish team, its star players and strengths and how the controversy around manager Vera Pauw impacted the team before they left for the southern hemisphere. Presented by...

Extreme weather events have been taking place this month all over the globe – from flooding in South Korea to record heat in parts of the US and China. In Europe, a third heatwave in a month is expected to hit Spain, Italy and much of the Mediterranean and to last until Wednesday. Scientists are clear why this happening – climate change. UN Human Rights chief Volker Turk at a recent UN council deb...

Finbar Cafferkey (45) died while fighting in Ukraine, in a battle in the now destroyed city of Bakhmut. The Mayo man has been described as a “veteran activist” and once the war broke out, his family in Mayo knew that it would only be a matter of time before he travelled there to fight against Russia. His family have now been told that his remains have been found and will be returned to them for bu...

Lucy Letby stands accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill ten others while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Manchester. The deaths took place in 2015-2016 when Letby was a young nurse on the neonatal ward. The 33-year-old has denied all charges. BBC reporter Dan O’Donoghue has attended the trial at Manchester Crown Court every day since it began last October. In this...

Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly appeared at two Oireachtas committees yesterday to answer questions about the RTÉ payments saga. Tubridy was fighting for his reputation and his career at the national broadcaster. How did it go and what did we learn? Jack Horgan-Jones reports. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At his sentencing this week a Dublin court heard that retired Christian Brother Paul Hendrick  felt 'extreme remorse' for his sexual abuse of Kenneth Grace, who in the early 1980s was a vulnerable schoolboy in Hendrick's care. Mr Grace is suing the congregation of the Christian Brothers over the abuse he suffered from Hendrick, but the congregation has adopted a legal strategy that has been d...

Last month saw a spike in temperature in Irish waters, an “unheard of” marine heatwave which raised sea temperatures by four to five degrees. Hotter seas have already brought previously unknown species to our shores - and driven away the fish that our fishing industry relies on. And that can only get worse as the seas heat. Environmentalist and activist Saoirse McHugh explains why warming seas is...

The Late Late Toy Show is Ireland's most popular TV show every year by a distance. But an ill-fated attempt by RTÉ to exploit its valuable 'IP' has ended up the subject of discussion and dissection in multiple Oireachtas committees as a controversy over payments and governance continues to grip the broadcaster. We learned this week that Toy Show: The Musical lost €2.2 million in its first year. Ho...

Irish teenagers Andrew O’Donnell and Max Wall died in separate incidents on the Greek Island of Ios last weekend. Both were students of St Michael's College in Ballsbridge, Dublin and had recently completed the Leaving Cert exams. Irish Times Reporter Jack Power, who is covering the story from Ios, explains how this tragedy unfolded. Presented by Bernice Harrison. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pr...

The killing by a police officer of a teenager of Algerian and Moroccan descent plunged France into a week of chaos. Rioting, looting and destruction of property spread from the Parisian suburb of Nanterre across France and even to remote Reunion Island. The violence has subsided, leaving France with a huge task to reckon with the underlying tension and dissatisfaction that fuelled it. Lara Marlowe...

The Government hoped that the Consultative Forum on International Security Policy would prompt a national conversation on Ireland’s security and foreign policy. However, the nation was more than a little distracted by events in Montrose and the RTÉ secret pay deal scandal and the forum may have passed many people by. Not everyone; there were protests that brought attention to the forum in Dublin C...

On Wednesday RTÉ's first of two appearances before a Dáil committee did not quell the scandal enveloping the organisation. On Thursday they were back. What went down? Did the broadcaster's top brass finally manage to provide more answers than raise new questions? Bernice Harrison and Jennifer Bray listen back. Correction: in this episode, remarks made in the Public Accounts Committee by Colm Burke...

Why did mercurial warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin start an armed rebellion against Russia's military leadership - and then give up after only 24 hours? And where do the bizarre events leave Russian president Vladimir Putin? Dan McLaughlin reports from Kyiv. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Political reporter Jack Horgan-Jones discusses how this hidden payments debacle unfolded, the damage it has already done and what happens next. Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cocaine has overtaken heroin and other opioids to become the most common problem drug in Ireland, according to the Health Research Board (HRB). Consumption of the drug crosses all age demographics, with people presenting for treatment from as young as 15. In this episode, we hear from Conor Harris, who began taking cocaine at 17 and within two years was seeking treatment for his addiction. Psychia...

This episode includes discussion of sexual exploitation and abuse. A recent study by UCD’s School of Social Policy has revealed that vulnerable girls in State care are being groomed and coerced into sex acts with multiple men, in exchange for goods such as clothes and jewellery, or at the instruction of older men they viewed as their boyfriends.  For Irish Times reporter Jack Power, the harro...

George Nkencho was fatally shot by gardaí on December 30th, 2020, in the front garden of his family’s home in Clonee, Dublin 15. The 27-year-old was killed after a stand-off developed between him and armed gardaí when the deceased refused to put away a kitchen knife. The incident occurred shortly after an altercation involving Mr Nkencho and a shop assistant at a nearby shop. The killing has been...

In her recent column Una Mullally pulled no punches about the state of Dublin city centre. It is once again, she says, a dirty old town. She writes: “It hasn’t rained much recently, so the streets are filthier than normal. I’m not talking about your standard litter here. I’m talking about grime. As the grime piles up, layer by layer – the urine, the bird poo, the chewing gum, the cigarette butts,...

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...

Housing experts Rory Hearne and Phil Murphy believe they have the answers to Ireland’s housing crisis. The solution as they see it, is the establishment of a State-owned sustainable home building agency. But what exactly would it do and how would it work? And is the political appetite there for such a plan. Rory Hearne talks through the details with presenter Bernice Harrison.  Dr Rory Hearne...