Newstalk Daily

Ireland is winding down one of the largest emergency responses in its history — housing more than 125,000 people fleeing war in Ukraine. Thousands have been living in hotels, guesthouses, and private homes under State-supported schemes. Now, the Government wants to scale it back.   Contracts with accommodation providers are ending, and payments to households are being reduced. But billions of...

More than 5,000 eviction notices in just three months. A 41% jump in a year. And a rental system that, for many, feels increasingly unstable. On today’s Newstalk Daily, Ciara Doherty examines the sharp rise in evictions — to their highest level since the Famine era — and what’s driving it.  The latest figures from the Residential Tenancies Board show more than 20,000 notices were issued in 20...

When Goodfellas hit cinemas, most people saw a gripping mob story. Neil Moran saw something else entirely — a car he and his team had bugged, sitting quietly in the background behind Robert De Niro. Because for Moran, this wasn’t just a film. It was his case.  A retired FBI agent with nearly 30 years on the job, Moran worked on some of the most high-profile organised crime investigations in N...

Meath County Council has taken possession of a sprawling €1 million home built without planning permission, closing the chapter on one of the longest-running planning disputes in Ireland. But this isn’t just a story about a house.  It’s a 20-year saga involving defiance, court battles, rejected appeals, and a family who openly admitted their decision to build was a “life-changing mistake,” ye...

In war, first reports are often confused and contradictory. On February 28th, early in the US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran, an elementary school in the town of Minab was hit by a devastating strike. At least 175 people were killed — many of them children — making it the deadliest single incident of the conflict so far. At first, no one claimed responsibility. The White House said it was i...

For decades, the identity of Banksy has been one of the art world’s great unsolved riddles. His stencilled images — a girl reaching for a red balloon, chimps in the House of Commons, riot police with smiley faces — have appeared overnight on walls from Bristol to Bethlehem. They’ve mocked politicians, skewered the art market and, occasionally, sold for tens of millions. But the man behind the mask...

Every St Patrick’s Day, Ireland’s Taoiseach travels to Washington to present a bowl of shamrocks to the US president, a diplomatic tradition that dates back to the 1950s. For decades it was a gentle ritual of Irish-American friendship. But in the era of Donald Trump, Oval Office meetings with foreign leaders have become far less predictable.  Last year, Micheál Martin avoided the kind of publ...

For decades, one question has hovered over the history of the Troubles: what role - if any - did Gerry Adams play inside the IRA? Now that question is before an English court.  A civil case in London’s High Court has been brought by three victims of IRA bombings in Britain. The plaintiffs argue that Gerry Adams, as a senior figure within the republican movement, bore responsibility for decisi...

This week much of Ireland is glued to the racing. But while punters here are betting on horses, across the Atlantic people are wagering on something far darker. Welcome to the strange world of prediction markets - online platforms where users gamble on real-world events like elections, wars, and even assassinations. Critics warn these markets could create perverse incentives, where insiders with p...

Fuel prices are climbing again, with motorists once more staring down the barrel of €2 per litre at Irish pumps. Heating oil has jumped even more dramatically, surgingby around 60 per cent in just a week, as markets react to escalating conflict involving Iran and fears about global oil supplies.  For many households, it feels like a familiar story. A war breaks out, markets panic, and prices...

For four days every March, the quiet English town of Cheltenham transforms into something that feels strangely familiar to Irish racing fans. The Cheltenham Festival has become one of the biggest moments in the Irish sporting calendar — drawing thousands of fans across the Irish Sea and millions more to televisions and betting apps.  Irish horses and trainers have dominated the meeting i...

It’s more than 30 years since homosexuality was decriminalised in Ireland, yet almost 1,000 men still carry convictions for simply loving who they loved. On today's podcast, Ciara Doherty speaks to Kieran Rose, co-founder of the LGBT Restorative Justice Campaign, about the decades of surveillance, public shaming, and imprisonment men faced under “gross indecency” laws.  They explore the human...

As Britain watches a deeply volatile conflict between Israel, the United States, Iran and other parts of the Middle East, Keir Starmer finds himself in a major foreign policy test, and his instincts are as closely scrutinized as his domestic polling. Starmer has taken a quite cautious legal approach, refusing to commit the UK to offensive strikes on Iran and insisting that British military action...

A Midlands garda detective’s simple act of kindness during the first Covid lockdown spiralled into a national story. He loaned a dusty, unclaimed bike to a local farmer with a knee injury, and ended up suspended for more than several years, investigated by the NBCI, and facing a disciplinary board. The farmer told of feeling “like a criminal” as officers searched his home and retrieved the €50 bic...

It was meant to be private. Instead, it’s all over YouTube. Newly released recordings of depositions given by Bill and Hillary Clinton to the House Oversight Committee have thrown fresh political fuel onto the long-burning fire of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.  What was supposed to be a closed-door hearing quickly turned combative. A photo from inside the room was leaked online. Lawmakers veer...

A row is erupting over the cost of criminal legal aid — and it’s about far more than legal fees. The State spent more than €115 million on criminal legal aid last year, a jump of over a third, even though case numbers fell. Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan wants to scrap the current payment system in the District Court and replace it with a flat fee per client. He says it will simplify things and...

The war on Iran continued today, following the killing of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, over the weekend. In Lebanon, Hezbollah has entered the war. Oil tankers are stalling in the Strait of Hormuz as global markets brace for impact.  In this bonus edition of Newstalk Daily UCD’s Dr Edward Burke tells Ciara Doherty we are facing the most dangerous regional moment in de...

For generations, going to university in Ireland was a defining rite of passage. A few intense years of independence, late nights, lifelong friendships, and a campus culture that felt alive. But for many students today, that picture looks vastly different.  On today’s Newstalk Daily, Ciara Doherty asks whether the traditional Irish college experience has been quietly reshaped — or ho...

They’ve been mythologised, dramatised, and targeted by assassins for more than six decades. Still, the Kennedy name refuses to fade.  On today’s podcast, Ciara Doherty is joined by broadcaster Ryan Tubridy, author of JFK in Ireland: Four Days That Changed a President, to explore why America’s most famous political family continues to grip audiences in 2026.  The conversation be...

This week, France banned online influencers from promoting cosmetic surgery and extreme makeover hacks. Looksmaxxing started on obscure message boards. Now it’s in memes, targeted ads, and TikTok feeds. It promotes the idea that male success is determined by physical appearance — sometimes through extreme grooming, supplements, cosmetic procedures, and risky “optimisation” techniques.  With i...

Gardaí have completed this phase of their search of a disused quarry in Co Wicklow, a search that reopened two of Ireland’s most haunting unsolved cases. More than 30 years after they disappeared, the names Jo Jo Dullard and Deirdre Jacob remain etched into the story of the so-called “Vanishing Triangle” — a cluster of missing women cases across Leinster in the 1990s. A new line of inquiry led inv...

On the 24th of February 2022 Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation to “demilitarise and denazify” Ukraine.  A full-scale invasion and a major land war in Europe had begun.  It was a scenario that seemed unimaginable for so long. Four years later, the geopolitical landscape seems utterly changed.  But in 2022 there were experts warning that the invasio...

Content warning: This episode contains discussion of sexual abuse and rape.  For years, Gisèle Pelicot was unknowingly drugged by her husband and raped by dozens of men he invited into their home. When the case came to light, she refused anonymity and chose to face the trial publicly — a decision that stunned France.  Now, with the publication of her memoir A Hymn to Life, her story retu...

A heated Cabinet row, a leaked digital strategy, and one big question: should Ireland limit access ban social media for under-16s?  As tech giants face court battles in the United States over alleged harm to children, the Irish Government considering its options. Instead of an outright ban, Ministers want to trial a state-backed “digital wallet” to verify age online — promising protection for...

Britain's former prince Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, a younger brother of King Charles, was arrested today on suspicion of misconduct in public office and is in police custody. On this special edition of Newstalk Daily, Ciara Doherty gets the latest from Tom Sykes, European Editor at Large with The Daily Beast and host of the @TheRoyalistChannel on Youtube. Tom's substack is here: https://theroyali...