Newstalk Daily

Ireland doesn’t lack ambition. But from the National Children’s Hospital to Metrolink to housing targets nobody seems able to hit, our record on major projects has drifted into farce. We plan big, talk big, promise big… and then somehow spend years in planning, appeals, disputes, overruns, and political hesitation.  It wasn’t always like this. Ireland once built boldly. Ardnacrusha powered th...

A row about renaming Herzog Park in Rathgar turned into a much bigger national conversation about how Ireland remembers its past. Do we keep the names we inherited? Do we change them for modern values? Or do we risk losing the clues that explain who we were in the first place?  Meanwhile, Dublin’s Liberties are having a moment — and not just because of their famous markets, traders, and...

December does strange things to us. One minute we’re “being good,” the next we’re knee-deep in tins of Celebrations, half a cheeseboard and someone’s leftover mulled wine. Christmas isn’t just a day — it’s an entire season of grazing, drinking, skipping sleep and drifting out of our routines.  And no matter how much we pretend otherwise, the festive sluggishness we blame on Christmas Day actu...

Gambling was once the quiet background noise of Irish sport — a fiver on a match, a flutter at the weekend. But new research shows the problem is far deeper, and far darker, than most people realise. GAA players are six times more likely to struggle with gambling addiction than the general public. Behind the roar of the crowd sits a hidden world of pressure, debt, secrecy, and shame.  On toda...

Across the water, the UK is swinging a hammer at one of the oldest pillars of the justice system — stripping thousands of cases a year of their right to a jury. Only the gravest crimes will still go before twelve citizens in a box. Everything else gets fast-tracked into judge-only hearings. Officials say it’s the only way to stop a court system collapsing under; critics say it’s the start of a ver...

Psychedelics are everywhere right now. From celebrity confessions by Conor McGregor and Miley Cyrus, to Silicon Valley productivity hacks, and cutting-edge Irish research labs. But are substances like psilocybin, LSD and ibogaine genuinely therapeutic… or just the latest wellness trend with a dangerous edge?  On today’s podcast, Tara Duggan plunges into Ireland’s fast-moving psychedelic...

Ireland wants one million extra tourists every year. The Government’s new tourism strategy promises a foodie revolution, year-round stays, and a far better regional spread of visitors. But the reality on the ground tells a different story: visitor spending has slipped, prices have soared, and many travellers say the céad míle fáilte now comes with luxury-hotel pricing.  On today’s podcast, Ta...

Volodymyr Zelensky is in Dublin at a moment of extraordinary pressure — both for Ukraine and for Europe. The Ukrainian president arrives amid huge security precautions, with Gardaí and Defence Forces on high alert. And according to Professor John O’Brennan, that level of protection isn’t theatre: it reflects real malign threats linked to Russia, from cyber-attacks to the probing of deep-sea cables...

Donald Trump has done something no US president has tried in more than three decades: he's pulled the plug on World AIDS Day. No federal statement. No public awareness campaign. And at the same time, global HIV agencies say American funding cuts have already left millions without access to prevention or treatment.  On today’s podcast Daily, Tara Duggan asks what this retreat means — and why W...

Ireland’s political landscape is changing fast. Nowhere is that more obvious than in the age profile of the Dáil. One year on from the general election, dozens of first-time TDs are settling into life as national lawmakers, including a cohort barely older than the century itself. On today’s podcast, Tara Duggan meets two of the younger voices reshaping Irish politics: Labour’s Eoghan Kenny, the 25...

Ireland was all set for a tap-and-go future - card-only cafés, vanishing ATMs, entire towns losing bank branches. Then things flipped. The Government has now introduced new rules forcing banks to keep cash physically available and is even advising households to store cash at home for emergencies. Europe is saying the same thing: cash isn’t old-fashioned; it’s crisis-proof.  On today’s podcast...

The British Covid Inquiry has released another huge report. Hundreds of pages, years of testimony, and a stark conclusion: tens of thousands of lives might have been saved with a faster response. Its public hearings, cross-examinations, and political fallout are all playing out in the open.  Ireland, by contrast, is taking a very different path. Our Covid-19 Evaluation has been operating behi...

Estate agents sit at the very bottom of the national trust rankings. On today’s podcast, Tara Duggan asks why. Are estate agents being unfairly blamed for a dysfunctional market? Or are some long-standing practices inside the industry contributing to mistrust, price inflation, and buyer frustration?  The average home in Ireland now costs eight times the average income. One in five homes sell...

As Bosnia marks thirty years since the signing of the Dayton Agreement, a chilling allegation has resurfaced - one so grotesque it sounds almost unbelievable, yet one now being examined by prosecutors in Milan.  During the siege of Sarajevo, according to claims emerging from Italian journalists and newly contacted whistleblowers, wealthy foreign visitors may have paid Bosnian Serb fighters to...

Line of Duty, one of the most-watched TV dramas of the century, is officially returning. After four years off air, the BBC has confirmed a brand-new six-part season, with filming in Belfast beginning next spring and the iconic AC-12 trio back together: Martin Compston, Vicky McClure and our own Adrian Dunbar as Ted Hastings. The announcement has detonated across the fandom. But Newstalk Daily’s Ta...

The ‘Great Resignation’ has reached Irish politics. Paschal Donohoe is the latest big name to walk away from Leinster House — departing immediately for the World Bank in Washington and joining a fast-growing list of high-profile exits that already includes Simon Coveney, Leo Varadkar and dozens of TDs and Senators from the last election.  On today’s podcast, Tara Duggan asks why so many mid-c...

Ireland is in the middle of a masculinity reset. Andrew Tate’s influence hasn’t faded. The Conor McGregor civil rape verdict rattled classrooms where he’d been idolised. BBC Three’s Men of the Manosphere aired this week. And “parasocial” has just been named Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year — a perfect description of the strange, intimate bonds teenage boys form with influencers they’ll neve...

The release date for Grand Theft Auto VI has slipped again — it’s now not expected until late 2026 — and the fallout is ricocheting far beyond gamers. When the world’s biggest entertainment franchise hits pause, stock markets wobble, hardware makers rewrite sales forecasts, and governments even start talking. Poland’s parliament debated the delay; analysts are re-running their 2026 projections; an...

Weight loss injections were supposed to be for “other people” — the Hollywood elite, the super-rich, the anonymous “before and after” photos in newspaper health pieces. But what happens when your own GP prescribes one… and suddenly the miracle drug is in your fridge?  On today’s podcast, Shane opens up about starting a new injectable weight-loss treatment earlier this year, the dramatic impac...

President Catherine Connolly wants to do something no Irish president has tried in a serious way before: make Irish the actual working language of her presidency. Not just the cúpla focail at a podium, but real-life emails, meetings, memos, and day-to-day business conducted as Gaeilge. It sounds inspiring, slightly terrifying, and raises a simple question: could anyone else pull that off?  In...

Another housing plan. Another set of promises. Another “urgent” response to a crisis that’s now shaped more than a decade of Irish life. Today, Government will unveil its latest plan to fix Ireland’s housing emergency. Titled ‘Delivering Homes, Building Communities,’ it’s expected to include around €100 million for long-term housing list families, new powers for the Land Development Agency, a...

A Garda–PSNI investigation into an alleged terror plot has led to charges against two men and a warning that violent far-right extremism is no longer confined to the online fringe.  On today’s Newstalk Daily, Shane Beatty speaks to Cormac O’Keeffe, Security Correspondent with the Irish Examiner, about the group calling itself the “Irish Defence Army” — the small, secretive network at the cent...

For decades, Irish football has survived on crumbling terraces and rusting floodlights, but change may finally be in the air. Dublin City Council has finally approved the long-awaited redevelopment of Dalymount Park, home of Bohemians FC, while just up the road, Shelbourne have secured a 250-year lease on Tolka Park, ending years of uncertainty over their spiritual home.  On today’s podcast,...

Tomorrow, the red carpet will be rolled out at Dublin Castle as Catherine Connolly takes the oath as Ireland’s tenth president in a room once used to celebrate royal rule. In today’s podcast, Shane Beatty is joined by journalist and author Flor MacCarthy, who’s been watching the final preparations unfold in St Patrick’s Hall, from the chandeliers polished crystal by crystal to the presidential cha...

When Kim Kardashian tells her 364 million followers she doesn’t believe in the moon landing, it’s tempting to roll your eyes. But in 2025, conspiracy thinking isn’t just a fringe obsession — it’s mainstream entertainment.  From claims that aliens built the Pyramids to the wild theory that birds aren’t real (they’re government-controlled drones, apparently), these ideas spread faster than ever...