In The News

Mar 09 2025 773 ep. 23 mins 1.5k
In The News Podcast artwork

In The News is a daily podcast from The Irish Times that takes a close look at the stories that matter, in Ireland and around the world. Presented by Bernice Harrison and Sorcha Pollak.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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'No sympathy for him but huge sympathy for the family': Nathan McDonnell and the crime that shocked Tralee

Mar 09 2025 16 mins  
High profile Kerry businessman Nathan McDonnell was “committed to and invested in” a €32 million crystal meth operation by an organised crime group with links to the notorious Mexican Sinaloa Cartel.For his role in the scheme he has been jailed for 12 years.McDonnell, who had encountered “fierce financial difficulties” and racked up debts of €4 million, was to be paid �

Donegal cliff murder: How Alan Vial and Nikita Burns were convicted of killing Robert Wilkin

Mar 07 2025 32 mins  
Alan Vial (39) and Nikita Burns (23) have been found guilty of murdering 66-year-old ‘Robin’ Wilkin whose body was thrown over the cliffs at Sliabh Liag in Co Donegal almost three years ago.The trial lasted two-months. It was, the court heard, a grisly murder carried out by two people living a chaotic, alcohol fuelled life.It was eight days after the murder that Wilkin’s body

How new gambling rules will impact Irish punters

Mar 06 2025 20 mins  
The newly formed Gambling Regulatory Authority has, since Wednesday, taken control of the industry.The regulator will decide who in the areas of gaming, betting and lottery will get operating licences, and oversee the new regulations now in force under the long delayed Gambling Regulation Act.The underlying goal of the legislation is to protect children and problem gamblers.Measure

What Trump’s tariffs might mean for Ireland?

Mar 05 2025 23 mins  
US secretary of state Marco Rubio told Tánaiste Simon Harris it was a priority of the Trump administration to address the “trade imbalance” between Ireland and the US when they spoke by phone on Tuesday.By now it’s known what that means: tariffs.US president Donald Trump has already talked about a 25 per cent import tax on Europe so that phone call won’t have been a surpri

How a software update led to a murder conviction

Mar 04 2025 16 mins  
This week, Stephen Mooney pleaded guilty to murdering his wife, Anna Mooney, at their home in Kilbarrack, Dublin in June 2023.Mooney had been due to stand trial for the murder but circumstances changed last month following a “significant development” in the case.After two years of being unable to access the contents of Mooney’s phone, gardaí were finally able to extract vide

What should Micheál Martin do if his White House visit turns combative?

Mar 03 2025 25 mins  
Last Friday's showdown between Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Donald Trump in the Oval Office will have Irish officials on tenterhooks. Just hours after the Taoiseach accepted an invitation to the St. Patrick's Day shamrock ceremony at The White House, the Ukrainian leader's press conference with the US president turned into a shouting match. While Micheál Martin's visit is unlikely to b

Family of murdered backpacker Danielle McLaughlin seek Irish inquest

Mar 02 2025 24 mins  
Backpacker Danielle McLaughlin knew that her mother Andrea worried about her when she was away on her travels, so every day she’d text home to Donegal.Then one day in March 2017 there was no text and Andrea soon learned, from one of Danielle’s friends in Buncrana, that her 28-year-old daughter had been murdered in Goa.The friend had seen the news on Facebook and it was up to An

Who will win and who should win at this year's Oscars

Feb 27 2025 28 mins  
The run up to this year’s Oscars in Ireland has been quiet; for the first time in years there are no Irish contenders in the major categories.The movies named across several categories include Sean Baker’s Anora, Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance as well as Conclave and Wicked.It’s been a year when awards talk

‘My Irish friends are awesome’ says Elon Musk – who are they?

Feb 26 2025 27 mins  
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 ofte

Who is Alice Weidel, the unlikely leader of Germany’s far-right AfD party?

Feb 25 2025 25 mins  
She’s been described as the politician of contradictions.Alice Weidel is the leader of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party but is married to a Sri-Lankan born woman.A gay woman, she has two children with her partner, but is part of a political party which defines family as a father and mother raising children.She’s a German nationalist who spends most of her