In The News

Donald Trump's address at the World Economic Forum made the headlines yesterday as the US president appeared to rule out using force to take over Greenland. But It was Tuesday's speech by Canadian prime minister Mark Carney that may be remembered in the long run.

Carney’s used his address to tell allies that the "rules-based international order" is over and that "middle powers" like Canada and the EU needed to band together to resist great powers like China and the US.

Carney's message came after recent overtures to China, resetting relations with th...

If anyone thinks that the rioters who caused mayhem and destruction on the streets of Dublin in November 23rd, 2023 were a well-organised group motivated by strongly-held ideology, think again.

Of the 99 people arrested in connection with the Dublin riots, 82 have been charged with offences which range from attacking a garda and setting fire to a bus to stealing cigarettes and trainers.

The unprecedented scenes of mayhem, damage and looting in and around O’Connell Street, was sparked by an attack earlier in the day of three young children and a care worker by Ri...

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 endanger the US-EU trade deal that was agreed last August.

But some countries are calling for caution. Like Ireland, which has a lot to...

The amount of cannabis being smuggled into Ireland has risen significantly in recent years, with most the product for sale now coming from the United States.

So why have drug gangs here turned to overseas product aand why from the US?

In today’s episode by Irish Times Crime and Security correspondent Conor Lally explains how drug gangs attempt to get cannabis into the country - and how they are caught. 

Presented by Bernice Harrison, produced by Suzanne Brennan.

As we head into the New Year, The Irish Tim...

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 situation”.

But has he? Where is the evidence for that? And how receptive would an Irish audience be to the former White House strateg...

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 from a bunk bed in their Limerick home. He died three days later in hospital in his mother’s arms.

McGhee pleaded guilty to his murder a...

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 bus corridors that promise to make sense of the BusConnects route changes – Olivia Kelly, Dublin Correspondent, explains what is and isn’t getting...

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 country’s internet and phone lines - leaving the people of Iran cut off from eachother and the rest of the world. 

In today’s episode Irish Times producer Suzanne...

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 and create child sex abuse imagery.

Women have reported that their photos had been taken from the internet and digitally altered by strangers on X, to “nudify” them so they appeared...

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 should be possible to quickly reach a definitive conclusion as to what happened.

But as Rachel Leingang, Midwest political correspondent for Guardian US, explains...

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 take over the vast Arctic territory is unclear.

This week the White House said the use ‍of the US military is “always an option”; it als...

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 wanted to make his own decisions and that management were getting in his way.

On Monday it was announced that Amorim would be l...

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 president of my country”. 

But if Maduro is in New York, who is in charge in Venezuela? US President Donald Trump says, “we are” – but what does that really mean? In today’s episode, Tom Henni...

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 tried Hyrox before and hadn’t done any training for the event.

Manning - who isn’t even a member of a gym - decided to take on the gruelling challenge to find out why...

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”.

And while the launch of ChatGPT has undoubtedly lightened the workload of many, engineer, journalist and AI expert Karen Hao says the AI race for worl...

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 his millions of followers. So what image of Ireland is the billionaire being fed by these men and why does it matter that so much of what he sees, and...

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 then, there have been a dozen violent incidents, including pipe and petrol bomb attacks.

The Garda Emergency Response Unit now conducts nightly armed checkpoints in flashpoint areas. The gangs appear u...

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 under the stairs of their terraced Youghal home and buried her.

The Garda did look...

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 secret-oath-bound society of the same name was disbanded more than 100 years ago.

But in recent years, a new cohort has taken over the IRB name, turning it into a...

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?

Irish Times feature writer Laura Slattery has been teasing out the traditions that make an 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 water-cooler moments. Oasis played two triumphant Croke Park gigs, with all talk about eye-watering ticket prices forgotten in the blazing sunshine and general euphoria. And Kneecap’s front...

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 then the call came out of the blue on a cold December evening.

Robinson was planning a stunt in an hour’s time – to announce the date of hi...

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 into the future.

They include the meeting between Narendra Modi, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, a trilateral power meeting in China that said much about the re...

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 are hopes it will be signed off at this week’s two-day EU summit in Brussels; hopes at least on the part of the Eu...

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 moments – including surprise retirements – throughout the year that set records and pulses racing.

Irish Times sports writers Malachy Clerkin and Muirea...

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 tariffs to the highs and lows of the presidential election; and from Paschal Donohoe’s exit for a more glamorous job to the Government’s new housing...

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-profile court cases, including the trial of Richard Satchwell, who was found guilty of murdering his wife, Tina. And there was the case of former superstar...

This week, Australia became the first country in the world to impose a social media ban for children aged 16 and under.

Welcomed by parents there but criticised by big tech and some free-speech advocates, the ban will see companies such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok face massive fines if they fail to take reasonable steps to remove the social media accounts of Australian children. And to stop children getting such accounts in the first place.

Ireland is also taking steps to make children safer online, with a Government push to design a digital...

The M in M50 stands for motorway – multiple lanes, fast speed limits and easy access to a network of national roads. More than 30 years ago it was designed as a modern piece of infrastructure to get the country moving.

Now for many motorists for long stretches of the day - it’s a car park.

So are there any quick fixes? Are more roads the answer, more tolls? Better public transport certainly is the key, but why is our infrastructure so dire that people who live in the ever expanding Dublin commuter belt have...

The Department of Housing is an unexpected source of top tips for young adults on how to behave. “Help out around the house”, it advises, “Set house rules” and “Communicate with your family”.

All generally sound advice but widely perceived as tone deaf as it is in an information campaign aimed at young people forced to move back into their family homes, to once again sleep in their childhood bedrooms.

The housing crisis with its high rents and lack of choice has meant many young people stay living with their parents for far longer than...

Gardaí have opened a double murder investigation after a young boy, Tadhg Farrell (4) and his great-aunt Mary Holt (60) were killed in a suspected petrol bomb attack on a house in Co Offaly.

Tadhg’s grandmother, who was also in the house on Saturday evening, is in critical condition in hospital having suffered extensive burns in the blaze at Castleview Park, Edenderry.

The house has been attacked before, in one incident all its windows were broken in what is believed to be an ongoing drug debt feud.

Gardaí suspect a criminal gang...

A leak of documents, including photographs, from the regime of Bashir al Assad has laid bare the bloody inner workings of his regime.

More than 33,000 photographs of detainees, mostly believed to have been taken in 2015-2024, show the extent of the degradation and torture inflicted on them by Assad’s regime.

For some families, the leak to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), finally gives the tragic answer to what happened to their loved ones.

Assad presided over Syria during the country’s 13-year civil war during which about half...

The latest round of Ukraine-Russia peace talks have been the most complex and lengthy since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia began in February 2022.

The latest round of talks started two weeks ago with a leaked 28-point draft peace proposal which alarmed Ukrainian and European officials who said that it was weighted too much in Moscow’s favour. The proposal would have seen Ukraine cede territory to Russia, Russia readmitted to the G8 and Ukraine banned from joining Nato.

There followed a 20-point plan, and then a 27-point plan. The talks – with the...

Uniformed gardaí are being issued with Taser guns as part of a six-month trial.

It has long been a point of pride in Ireland that the police force are not armed unlike their European counterparts. And while these guns fire electric shocks and not bullets, this is change in how the gardaí police the streets.

So does this move bring closer the day when the Garda will be an armed force? How will it change the way the gardaí interact with the public? And why now?

Irish Times crime and sec...

In a major military operation that began in September, the US administration continues to put pressure on Venezuela with navy warships massing in the Caribbean Sea.

US president Donald Trump claims the air strikes on boats in the region are not acts of aggression but enforcement operations to prevent alleged drug trafficking.

To date it is estimated that 83 people have been killed but it has not been made clear by the administration the intelligence that led up the attacks proving the boats were indeed carrying drugs.

So is this a “wa...

New figures from the Residential Tenancies Board are stark: the number of eviction notices issued by landlords in the third quarter of this year increased by 35 per cent on the same period last year.

This at a time when rents have never been higher.

The reason given most frequently by landlords is that they are selling up. Why?

New rent regulations which improve the rights of long-term tenants are set be introduced in March 2026. Could this be the reason landlords are getting out of the market?

And...

Gerry Hutch, also known as The Monk, is eyeing up the Dáil seat left vacant by the resignation of Paschal Donohoe.

Already it is believed that the convicted criminal, encouraged by his near success in last year’s general election, is using what will be a long build-up to next year’s byelection to get his campaign in order and to register hundreds, even thousands, of new voters in Dublin’s north inner city.

So will his €800,000 tax bill from the Criminal Assets Bureau put a stop to his political ambitions and could the...

By Friday, the death toll in the Hong Kong apartment complex inferno had reached 128 with many more people unaccounted for.

A blaze that began in one 32-storey apartment block on Wednesday quickly spread to seven of the eight towers in the densely populated complex. So how did one of the city’s deadliest ever blazes spread so quickly.

The Kwong Fuk Estate, a public housing development, was undergoing refurbishment and the buildings were covered in bamboo scaffolding and netting. New cladding had been installed and now that the rescue operation is over, attention is...

Ireland has been slow to name its airports after people. Streets and housing estates, yes, but as Ronan McGreevy points out, the State is more inclined to honour those who died for Ireland rather than those who lived for it.

A Bill to rename Dublin Airport after former taoiseach Seán Lemass has been brought forward in the Dáil.

It is not the first time the suggestion has been made; four years ago Taoiseach Micheál Martin proposed it, but talk of it fizzled out.

For McGreevy, an Irish Tim...

Heart disease is the leading causes of death of women in Ireland but yet, many of us still consider it a male illness.

Cardiovascular disease claims more women’s lives than breast cancer, while women are more than two times more likely than men to die after a heart attack. The risk of heart disease substantially increases during menopause and yet, women and their doctors often underestimate the severity of their symptoms.

Why is that?

Years of poor research into women’s cardiac health, combined with the perception often promoted through film...