In The News

Former Scotland first minister Nicola Sturgeon spent Sunday in a police station being questioned as part of a criminal investigation into her party’s finances. The investigation concerns the whereabouts of about £666,000 in SNP donations collected after Brexit from supporters of a new independence referendum, which was never held. How has her arrest damaged her reputation, and how will it impact o...

Later today, former president Donald Trump will be arraigned at a Miami courthouse, in connection to the mishandling of hundreds of classified documents. Martin Wall, Irish Times Washington Correspondent, is in Miami to report from the court and he outlines the background to the case and whether it might hinder – or help – him in his bid for re-election in 2024. Presented by Bernice Harrison....

In 2017, Orla Tinsley’s life was saved when she received a double lung transplant at the age of 31. Today, she is awaiting a kidney transplant and must undergo dialysis treatment three times a week. An activist for cystic fibrosis and organ donation, Tinsley has campaigned for the Dáil to pass the Human Tissue Bill, which would introduce a 'soft' opt-out system for all adults in the country. In th...

Last weekend, senior Kinahan cartel member Liam Byrne was arrested while on a family holiday  in Mallorca, on suspicion of serious firearms offences. He now faces extradition to the UK and will be put on trial. If found guilty, the gang member could face a sentence of up to 20 years in jail. Crime and Security editor Conor Lally explains the significance of his arrest and how this will come a...

With all the good weather we're having, it can only mean one thing: it’s Leaving Cert season. This morning, around 60,000 students around the country will sit down to English Paper One. For many of them, this marks the beginning of a gruelling CAO points race and a scramble over coveted university places. But with lots of alternative routes into further education available, why is there so much em...

Love them or hate them, reality TV dating shows are one of the most enduring formats on the small screen. It seems like TV producers will take any concept and turn it into a dating show. But if they didn’t net big ratings for TV execs, they wouldn’t keep making them. So what keeps us going back for more? Self-appointed ‘hunk correspondent’ for The Irish Times, Patrick Freyne, loves to review these...

How dangerous is vaping? Outside every school and college there are clouds of watermelon or strawberry scented steam, while brightly-coloured toy-like used vapes litter parks and playgrounds Next month the Government will introduce legislation to ban the sale of vaping products to those under 18. ABC journalist Tom Lowrey explains how Australia already had some of the most restrictive vaping rules...

Phillip Schofield was TV royalty in Britain, an ITV star who presented the station’s flagship breakfast show, This Morning – as well as several other prime time, family-friendly programmes. His 40-year career imploded in recent weeks amid media headlines about an affair with a younger colleague. In this episode, London Editor Mark Paul talks us through the details of Schofield's spectacular fall f...

The results of Census 2022 are here. As usual it’s a mine of information, with figures detailing the state we’re in, from our religious affiliations to how many people smoke, how we get to work and the average age. Ronan McGreevy talks us through the headline figures , with vox pops from Catherine Mellett. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lara Marlowe spoke to Bernard Phelan, the Irish man who recently left Iran after being released from over six months in prison. He told her about life in a Tehran jail - with bad food, freezing cold temperatures and a dark atmosphere as beatings and executions took place. He also told her about the dramatic day of his release. Lara shares the story with Bernice Harrison. Hosted on Acast. See acast...

Lisa Lawlor was just 17 months old when her parents Maureen and Francis died in the fire at Stardust Ballroom in the early hours of Valentines Day 1981. Orphaned by the tragedy, she has been known throughout her life as the ‘Stardust baby’. In this episode, Lisa talks to Bernice Harrison about the anguish of losing her family and her 42-year search for answers. We also hear from Social Affair...

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...

Police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are currently searching a reservoir in Portugal, 50km away from the holiday resort where the toddler went missing in 2007. It is believed the area was visited by chief suspect Christian Brückner around the same time that Madeleine disappeared. But who is Christian Brückner, what is his criminal history and how exactly has he become linked...

The Data Protection Commission (DPC)  has hit Facebook owner Meta Ireland with a fine of €1.2 billion  – the largest such fine to date under GDPR rules - for its unlawful transferring of user data from the EU to the US. But the DPC didn't want to levy a fine at all - its hand was forced by European counterparts. How did it come to this? To find out Bernice Harrison talks to technology re...

It was recently announced that Trinity College Dublin will 'dename' its Berkeley Library, because of the links to slavery of its current namesake, the 18th century philosopher George Berkeley. The news has 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 c...

In the small townland of Inch, Co Clare, locals have blockaded the entrance to the former Magowna House Hotel, where 34 asylum seekers were sent on Monday. Protestors say they weren't consulted and the location just isn’t suitable. However, critics of the blockade say the alternative for the 34 men is homelessness. In this episode, we hear from Irish Times journalist Rosita Boland, who paid a visi...

The headline on the New York Times interview with the one-time darling of Silicon Valley, now convicted fraudster, said it all: “Liz Holmes Wants You to Forget About Elizabeth.” Writer Amy Chozick met Elizabeth Holmes, the former media darling, in San Diego where she now lives. Gone is the uniform of black polonecks, driven ambition, the austere manner and weirdly deep voice – done to ape her hero...

On May 22nd, 2019 Oisín Osborn was shot dead in Hamburg in his own home by German police, 10 days after he had become a father. On that fateful morning, his schoolteacher wife Nicole had called the police saying her husband had a knife, and within minutes armed police officers in protective gear burst into their home, raced up the stairs and shot the 34-year-old man dead on the landing. Osborn, wh...

The upgrading of the Annie McCarrick case from a missing persons inquiry to a murder investigation has occurred at the same time two men are being examined as suspects. The focus on those men is part of the Garda inquiry shifting from sites in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, and Glencullen, Co Dublin, back to Sandymount in Dublin 4. Conor Lally reports on what we know. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priva...

This week, a jury in a civil trial in New York found that Donald Trump sexually abused and defaming writer E Jean Carroll. It ordered that the former US president should pay a total of $5 million in damages to the woman – the bulk of the money in compensation for calling her a liar. The assault took place in the 1990s in the changing room of a department store. The jury found that he did not rape...

Consumer Affairs Correspondent Conor Pope explains why there has been so much controversy about how much we're paying for food in supermarkets recently and which way prices are headed after 18 months of inflation. He also looks at two other areas where consumers have been hammered: mortgage interest rates and energy bills. Is there any relief on the horizon? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy...

Since the 1950s, a hidden agreement between the Republic of Ireland and Britain has allowed the RAF to enter Irish airspace in the event of security threats that the Irish Air Corp, lacking advanced aircraft, is unable to deal with. It's a deal that has benefits for both sides - but raises questions about sovereignty, transparency and neutrality. Irish Times Crime and Security Correspondent Conor...

Irish Times media columnist – and diehard Eurovision fan – Laura Slattery is heading to Liverpool this week for the annual song contest. It’s hard not to feel upbeat in the face of all the positivity, giddiness and glittery glamour that comes with Eurovision but if the past several years are anything to go by, the odds are not in Ireland's favour. Our entry this year, We Are One by Wild Youth, wil...

Donald Trump was on his best behaviour as he visited his property in County Clare. Political reporter Jack Horgan-Jones was there to report on local attitudes to the former president. But then Mr Trump decided to drop the diplomacy. Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The stakes are high for Ed Sheeran this week in a Manhattan courtroom. The family of the late Ed Townsend claim that the singer’s 2014 hit song Thinking Out Loud infringes the copyright of Marvin Gaye’s 1973 hit Let’s Get it On – which Townsend co-wrote. Sheeran and his co-writer Amy Wadge reject the claim in its entirety. Music journalist Zara Hedderman teases out the prosecution’s case, the defe...