In The News

A cringey segment on Saturday Night Live went viral earlier this week ahead of the Oscars; lampooning the Irish accent and playing into the drunken, fighting Irish stereotype. Jimmy Kimmel also relied on the cliché twice during his presenting of the Academy Awards. Eyes rolled all over Ireland. But can we really get offended by the stereotype when our collective drinking habits are baffling to so...

Gary Lineker will return to present Match of the Day on BBC this weekend. While it appears the story is reaching it’s conclusion, many questions still remain about how future issues around impartiality will be handled by the broadcaster, how political interference impacts decision making and how the Illegal Migration Bill, which was the focus of Lineker's original tweet, is progressing through the...

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 talks to Belinda from Tipperary, who after taking the drug for five months, has lost...

The idea that Covid-19 emerged from a lab in Wuhan was broadly dismissed as a conspiracy theory in the early stages of the pandemic. But experts have examined the possibility the virus escaped - accidentally or otherwise - from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Now the head of the FBI says that's the "most likely" scenario. The scientific community is divided on the whether the virus has an animal...

This week marks 100 years since the Ballyseedy Massacre, arguably the worst atrocity of the Irish civil war. On that fateful night, nine Kerrymen were rounded up by the Free State army to be murdered in a revenge killing. The ruthless act saw them tied together around a bomb. Except one man, Stephen Fuller, managed to escape the deadly blast. While the circumstances of that night were covered up b...

The concept of the "15 minute city" is pretty straightforward: designing urban areas so that most of what an individual needs is within a short walk of home. So why is the idea angering thousands of protestors in the UK, some of whom believe it is a part of a plot to deprive them of their liberty? Olivia Kelly and Patrick Freyne talk to Aideen Finnegan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for m...

Mari Steed was just five months old when she was subjected to an experimental vaccine trial at Bessborough mother and baby home in county Cork. She was administered a ‘4 in 1’ inoculation, without her mother’s consent. Four decades later, when she gained access to her medical records, she discovered the horrifying truth. Now, survivors just like Mari are looking for answers and for compensation fr...

Bertie Ahern is back. But why did he ever leave? New polling about Mr Ahern, conducted by Ipsos for The Irish Times, suggests there are plenty of people who don't remember much about the former Taoiseach's legacy, either as a contributor to peace in Northern Ireland or as someone whose finances came under scrutiny at the Mahon Tribunal. So what happened back then? Reporter Colm Keena tells the sto...

Are our sentencing laws too harsh or too soft? Any opinion offered depends on who you ask. International research shows people tend to think sentencing is more lenient than it actually is. Judge Martin Nolan is no stranger to controversy over some of his decisions. Social media users frequently criticise the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court judge for opting to fine some offenders while jailing others...

Dan McLaughlin was in Kyiv on Monday morning when US President Joe Biden arrived for a surprise visit, pledging to support Ukraine against Russia's invasion "for as long as it takes" But how long will that be? Dan updates us on the military, political and economic situation in Ukraine as the first anniversary of the beginning of the war approaches. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more i...

Niger is one of the world'd poorest countries. Like many other places in Africa, it is suffering from the worsening impacts of climate change. On a recent visit, Sally Hayden found poverty and other problems including an enduring culture of child marriage. But there were also moves underway to tackle those problems by the people of Niger themselves. And despite their relative lack of resources, th...

Last night the US president said he would make "no apologies" for taking down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the east coast of America earlier this month. Joe Biden told reporters the country is developing “sharper rules” to track, monitor and potentially shoot down unknown aerial objects. But many questions remain about the massive surveillance device, and three other smaller balloons, shot...

A former leading GAA star has been accused of taking large sums of money from people to pay for cancer treatment - treatment that some of those who gave him money now say they believe never took place. The prominent ex-player, who cannot be named, has been targeted in a Garda search as part of a criminal inquiry that is now under way. Aideen Finnegan talks to Simon Carswell about the story. Hosted...

On Friday, January 27th, Nicola Bulley dropped her two children to primary school in a Lancashire village. She walked around the corner to a popular local riverbank where she was in the habit of walking her dog, Willow, after school drop off. And then she disappeared. While the official police search continues, there is a parallel – unofficial - investigation. The puzzling disappearance has prompt...

The weekend marked an important anniversary for Mary Lou McDonald, having been handed the reins of Sinn Fein this time five years ago. In her time as party president, it has faced electoral wipe-out and unprecedented success. But how has she changed in that time? And in a party that so tightly controls dissent, what do her troops really think of her? Political Correspondent, Jennifer Bray, looks b...

The deadly earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria in the early hours of Monday morning – along the border of those two countries – has mobilised governments and humanitarian agencies worldwide to respond. But all week, politics – not need – has dictated aid delivery, with life-saving help arriving in Turkey from around the world within hours, while it took until Thursday for the first UN aid convoy...

'Golden visas' give wealthy non-Europeans the right to live in Ireland in exchange for an upfront investment or donation. The scheme enacted in 2012 has since become dominated by Chinese applicants, even though many are not taking up their right to reside here. Irish organisations benefitting from some of the €1.7bn raised include universities, social housing charities and even sporting organisati...

The man who inspired Steven Speilberg’s 2004 movie The Terminal, died last year at what is believed to be the age of 77. Mehran Karimi Nasseri, or Sir Alfred as he later became known, was an Iranian refugee who spent the guts of two decades, living in Terminal 1 of Charles De Gaulle Airport in France. Despite the global interest in his peculiar living circumstances, much of his story remains uncle...

Love them or hate them, reality TV dating shows are one of the most enduring formats of the small screen. It seems like TV producers will take any concept and turn it into a dating show. They run the full gamut, from the earnestness of First Dates to the artifice of Love Island and the questionable 90 Day Fiancé. But if they didn’t net big ratings for TV execs, they wouldn’t keep making them. So w...

Last weekend up to 300 people gathered outside the historical Lismore House Hotel in Co Waterford, protesting over plans to use the vacant building as a temporary emergency accommodation centre for asylum seekers. Amongst the protestors were local residents expressing their concern over the lack of guidance from the Government, a group welcoming refugees and a small cohort, who weren't from the ar...

A number of men with dogs, sticks and a baseball bat attacked a migrant camp in Ashtown, north Dublin, on Saturday, telling the multinational group of men who were living there in tents to move on - which they did. Irish Times Social Affairs Correspondent Kitty Holland was there at the time, reporting on the homelessness crisis. She talks to Bernice Harrison about what she witnessed. Hosted on Aca...

After 52 days, 140 witnesses, 10 hours of secret audio recordings, phone call data, hours of CCTV footage, eyewitness testimony from 27 National Surveillance Unit officers and four closing speeches, judgment will be delivered in the trial of Gerard Hutch and his two co-accused on April 17th. One star witness dominated the trial: former Sinn Féin councillor and convicted criminal Jonathan Dowdall,...

This week, the Irish film industry earned an impressive 14 Oscar nominations. The biggest haul in any one year. But what next? When a film has an Oscar nomination in the bag, it’s not time to sit back and wait to see if it wins. It’s just the start of an intense campaign to win support from the voting Academy members. So what does the road to the Oscars look like? To find out Bernice Harrison talk...

This week the Mental Health Commission released its interim report on the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs). It made for damning reading, painting a picture of a vital service that is not fit for purpose. For many, access to care is a postcode lottery. Two mothers talk to In the News about their experience with Camhs and how they feel it failed their children. Kitty Holland, Iris...