In The News

US President Donald Trump is not giving up on Greenland. On Saturday he announced tariffs on France, Germany, the UK and others, after those nations sent ⁠military personnel to the island at Denmark’s request. On Monday UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer responded to the threat, describing it as “completely wrong”. And how is the EU responding? Potentially, with tariffs of its own - and that could end...

As we head into the New Year, The Irish Times wants to hear listener feedback on our two news podcasts;  In The News  and our more recently released sister podcast  Early Edition . This survey is open to anyone who has listened to either  In The News  or  Early Edition - whether you listen regularly, occasionally, or have listened in the past. This survey should take...

Eddie Hobbs , once a fixture on RTÉ, says, “The mainstream media is the North Korea of Europe”. He was speaking on Steve Bannon’s popular War Room podcast and it was a meeting of minds between one of the architects of Maga and the financial adviser-turned podcaster and campaigner. Bannon recently said he has been helping to form an Irish “national party”, working “behind the scenes” on “the Irish...

The devastating cruelty endured by four-year-old Mason O’Connell-Conway, who was murdered at his home in Limerick in 2021, was laid bare during the trial of his father’s girlfriend, Tegan McGhee (32). Doctors reported that the child’s injuries were similar to those suffered by car crash victims. McGhee and the child’s father, John Paul O’Connell, had told paramedics that the little boy had fallen...

The installation of traffic cameras at junctions in Dublin city to catch motorists who break red lights has been shelved. It’s a puzzling decision given that cameras were proven to work in a 2025 trial. And what about congestion charges? They’ve been talked about, but would they work and are they fair? As work on new elements of the Dublin City Transport Plan is set to begin – including one of the...

For more than two weeks, anti-government protests have taken over the streets of Iran.  The regime has responded to the demonstrations with a heavy hand. According to various human rights agencies, more than 650 people are believed to have been killed by security forces.  The violence towards protestors has only intensified in recent days, with the regime shutting down access to the coun...

An app that allows millions of users to create sexualised images of children has brought the dangers of Artificial Intelligence into sharp focus – and shown how ineffective governments are in implementing safeguards on digital behemoths. A new feature of Elon’s Musk’s AI tool, Grok – available to users of his X platform – allows people to create intimate photographs of people without their consent...

The killing of Renee Nicole Good (37) in her car on the streets of Minneapolis by an immigration officer has been witnessed by millions of people around the world. Countless bystanders took videos on their phones from all angles on the snowy suburban street as the mother and US citizen drove by, was surrounded by armed Ice (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents and was shot dead. So it shoul...

On Sunday US president Donald Trump said he needed Greenland “very badly”. It’s a sentiment he expressed during his first term, but what then sounded like something of a fantasy wishlist has now hardened into policy. Reaction to Trump’s intentions has taken on some urgency following his removal by military force of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, last weekend, Quite how he might move to tak...

Since he took over as head coach at Manchester United Ruben Amorim has been outspoken, dishing up post-match commentary that frequently centred on how poor he felt his players had performed. On January 4th, after a desultory 1-1 draw with Leeds, he took aim, not at his players but at United’s top brass – his bosses. He was, he said, the manager, not the coach; the heavy implication being that he w...

On Monday, captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores appeared in a court in New York City on charges including drug-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine-importation conspiracy, and possession of machine guns and destructive devices. The pair pleaded not guilty to all charges, with Maduro telling the court, “I’m innocent. I am not guilty … I am a decent man. I am still preside...

When Hyrox came to Dublin’s RDS last November, it was a completely sold out event. The tickets for the fitness race were snapped up in minutes of going on sale, with organisers adding extra dates just to meet demand.  But one person who was able to get their hands on a ticket was Irish Times sports writer Gordon Manning. The only problem? He'd never tri...

This episode was first published in August. In the space of a few short years, generative AI has exploded into our daily lives, impacting the way we learn, work and understand the world around us. Open AI, the American artificial intelligence company cofounded by Sam Altman and Elon Musk in 2015 which runs ChatGPT, claims its non-profit “mission” is to ensure these systems “benefit all of humanity...

Elon Musk seems particularly taken with the opinions of three Irish men active on X: far-right activist Michael O’Keeffe; Barry O’Driscoll, whose idea of calling the US’s new cost-cutting agency DOGE was seized on by president Donald Trump’s right-hand man, and Keith O’Brien, a white nationalist who goes by the name Keith Woods on X. Musk interacts with these men and often amplifies their posts to...

This episode was first published in June 2025. In the early hours of May 8th, two  masked men  in a stolen Audi staged a drive-by shooting, firing nine shots indiscriminately at houses on  Limerick’s  Hyde Road, including at April Collins’s home. More shots were fired at a Collins-owned home on the Hyde Road in November 2024, and in two separate attacks in January 2025. Since t...

This episode was first published in May 2025. From the moment he reported her missing in 2017, Richard Satchwell stuck to his story that his wife Tina had run off. His many media appeals begged her to come home. But as the jury heard during his five-week trial in the Central Criminal Court for her murder, she was indeed home and she had been all along . Richard had killed her in 2017 , dug a hole...

This episode was first published in August 2025. For years the Irish Republican Brotherhood – the IRB – was remembered annually in a curious ceremony at Dublin’s Mansion House when its self-styled president Billy McGuire conducted a ritual that involved turning a golden harp to reaffirm the sovereignty of Ireland. The existence of an IRB will come as a surprise to historians who consider that the...

It’s Christmas Eve and so much about this time of year is about the things we do and eat – not because we particularly want to do them or even enjoy eating them – but it’s traditional. So what are the traditions we’ve clung to and what are the new ones that have crept up on us? Who sends Christmas cards anymore? And why have Poinsettias, once such an exotic seasonal plant, fallen out of favour? Ir...

At a time when there are media think pieces galore about how atomised entertainment is, how people don’t talk about TV like they used to; how the music industry is fractured beyond repair; and how young people are too stuck to their screens to engage in real-life politics, 2025 proved all that wrong. RTÉ’s smash hit reality TV show Traitors Ireland was a ratings juggernaut that dished up endless w...

British far-right activist Tommy Robinson is the UK’s most notorious anti-Muslim activist. At 43, he is the street leader of the radical right-wing nationalist upsurge gripping Britain. An estimated 150,000 like-minded protesters turned out in London in September for his “Unite the Kingdom” march and for months Irish Times London correspondent Mark Paul has tried to get an interview with him. And...

2025 was a year of global upheaval, from the activities of the Trump Administration to instability in the Middle East and the reshaping of power politics as China continues its rise. But what will it be remembered for in the long run? Irish Times foreign correspondents Denis Staunton, who is based in Beijing, and Europe correspondent Naomi O’Leary, each picked two events whose impact will be felt...

After 25 years the Mercosur deal is reaching crunch time. The trade deal which would permit free trade between the EU and the South American countries that make up the Mercosur bloc has a deadline of December 20th. It allows the EU to export more cars, wines and spirits to South America, with goods including meat coming the other way – and that’s what worries Iris, but also French, farmers. There...

The 2025 roll call of Irish sporting heroes is long and notable for the variety of sports that saw stunning feats of excellence. Golfing great Rory McIlroy made history at The Masters ; a new athletics star was born in Kate O’Connor ; and Troy Parrott made football fans of us all with his stellar performance against Hungary to keep our World Cup dreams alive. And there were so many more sporting m...

What were the big political stories of 2025? Were there issues we were obsessed with at the time and now can’t quite remember why? And were there any laughs to be had around Leinster House? For a look back on the year in Irish politics, Irish Times political correspondents Ellen Coyne and Jack Horgan-Jones came into the studio with their standout stories – from the fretting about the threat of US...

One of the most shocking stories of the year was the disappearance of Kerry farmer Michael Gaine, whose dismembered body was found on his farm almost two months after he went missing. This murder remains unsolved. In June, Evan Fitzgerald (22) walked into a busy shopping centre in Carlow and opened fire. He then turned his weapon on himself and ended his own life. The year also saw some high-profi...