The UK elections has delivered a hammer blow to the Tories after fourteen years in power. Kier Starmer is the new British Prime Minister but what needs to change and what will change. Also, what will the result mean for Northern Ireland after the DUP suffer further losses and Sinn Fein marches on? Author and columnist Seamas O’Reilly is this week’s…

Bertie Ahern, Roy Keane, the Saipan controversy and the great Tommie Gorman. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The recent successes of Irish athletes in the European championships have nicely teed up the forthcoming Olympics for most sports fans. Rashida Adeleke and Ciara Mageean among others have done the country proud. But is the success that they and others are enjoying a result of a the kind of well funded, structured system that exists in comparable co…

Some had billed the Euro and local election the most important in a generation. Others said they all say that. One way of the other there were shocks, surprises and a few very interesting takeaways. Irish Examiner Political Editor Elaine Loughlin gives the run down on all that went on all it tells us about what to expect in the coming months. Hoste…

One of the most fascinating personal stories to emerge from the decades of violence in the North is that of Kevin Barry Artt. He was wrongly convicted of murder, on the word of a supergrass. He was part of a huge breakout from the Maze prison even though he wasn’t a member of the IRA. And he eventually became the focus of a concerted effort by the …

With European elections coming over the horizon next week we got political scientist Dr Theresa Reidy to tell us just what exactly we will be voting for. She outlines the job of an MEP, who is the best kind of person to send and what we should know about and expect from what is our parliament. Theresa also runs the rule over the novel mayoral elect…

This week’s guest on the podcast is Irish Examiner editor, Tom Fitzpatrick. Tom talks about the challenges in today’s media world, from attempting to provide a fact based and balanced newspaper, both in print and online, to protecting journalists who are often targeted by those intent of creating divisions and hatred. He gives an insight into the j…

This week’s guest on the podcast is one of Ireland’s leading criminal law solicitors, Frank Buttimer. With over forty years in practice Frank Buttimer has represented clients in some of the most high profile trials over the decades. He also has some interesting insights in the type of crime that is coming before the courts these days, particularly …

The fiftieth anniversary of the Dublin Monaghan bombings falls on 17 May. Thirty four people died in the four bombings in what was the worst tragedy in the state since the Civil War. Families were marked for life by the killings but beyond the human tragedy there was also a state scandal associated with the day. Over the years it has emerged that b…

A new study into how teenage boys are drawn down rabbit holes online to content that is misogynistic and possibly have a traumatic impact on their development was published recently by DCU. The research shows that social media companies are now drawing teenagers towards influencers who are spreading all manner of negative material simply to make mo…

One of the most tragic figures from the revolutionary period was Roger Casement, global humanitarian, Irish rebel, hung as a traitor. A new biography Broken Archangel – The Tempestuous Lives of Roger Casement provides a fascinating account of this complex figure and the times he lived in. It also answers definitively the questions around whether hi…

After forty three years the families of the forty eight young people who died in the Stardust fire in Dublin in February 1981 have finally received a form of justice. The longest running inquest in the history of the state returned a verdict of unlawful killing in all forty eight deaths. How did it get here, what did the inquest here and where can …

Michael Lynn is currently serving a prison sentence for crimes of fraud committed at the height of the Celtic Tiger years in this country. A solicitor by training, he conned banks out of tens of millions of euro, went on the run and ended up in Brazil where his wife gave birth to their first child. He thought that would save him from extradition bu…

We have long since developed in a nation of foodies in this country in terms of the range of foodies that people enjoy and how it is consumed. But what of our food system? How far now is the journey from farm to fork? Why do we no longer, for the greater part, know the precise distance and route taken by the food we buy? And why is this country tha…

The bustling town of Killorglin in Co Kerry is one of the most unlikeliest places imaginable to have a connection with one of the biggest drug cartels on the planet but that is the case. One of the senior figures in the Sinaloa cartel is allegedly Morris O’Shea Salazar who spent a decade of his formative years growing up and into adulthood in Killo…

The death was announced earlier this week of Rose Dugdale, the English aristocrat who became a member of the IRA, served time in prison and was subsequently involved in perfecting bomb technology for the Provos. She also featured in attempts to rid inner city Dublin of drug dealers in the 1980s. Sean O’Driscoll has written a biography of Ms Dugdale…

Leo Varadkar’s announcement that he was stepping down as Taoiseach and leader of Fine Gael took the whole country by shock. Why now and who is in line to succeed him? Irish Examiner Political Editor Elaine Loughlin looks back on Varadkar’s career and looks forward to who might replace him and what it will mean for the government, the country and th…

One of the perks of the job of being Taoiseach is apparently the invite to the White House for St Patrick’s Day, a privilege that is afforded few foreign leaders. Leo Varadkar is over this year but he has a lot on his mind. He has to step lightly around hosts whose stance on Israel and Gaza is at odds with that of most of the world, including Irela…

Through the years of the violence in Northern Ireland one distinctive voice was frequently heard across all airwaves. Eamonn Mallie didn’t speak with a typical South Armagh accent but it was from there he was sprung and he went on to be one of the leading reporters of the conflict in the North. Now he has written a book about his experiences, the s…

This week Mick sat down with a group formed a few years ago from descendants of those who were involved in signing the Anglo-Irish Treaty. And it wasn’t just those who were on the pro-treaty side that were part of this group, but also a grandson of Cathal Brugha and a grand nephew of Harry Boland. The group is pushing hard for a national day of rec…

Press photography may be a dying art but one of its great practitioners over the last forty years was Denis Minihane. Recently retired after forty seven years working for the Irish Examiner, he talks about his career, the art and the craft and the historic events at which he had a front row seat. Denis is this week’s guest on the podcast. Hosted on…

People who have served a prison sentence for a criminal offence are entitled to believe that once the sentence is completed they have paid their debt to society. That does not appear to be the case. New research shows that there are huge barriers to ex-prisoners finding employment and that the past simply won’t leave them alone. Damien Quinn was on…

Mike O’Donnell is one of the only if not the only court artists currently plying his trade in this country. He covers high profile trials and draws defendants, lawyers, judges, the public, all to give an insight and flavour of the environment of a court where serious, and usually tragic, drama takes place. He currently has an exhibition in which on…

Last week the Bishop of Kerry announced that the church in the diocese was facing further challenges this year with more retirements of priests scheduled. So where stands the Catholic church in this country now in terms of serving its community? Will, for example, congregations be expected to travel further to attend mass and confession? Will there…

Ian Bailey’s death this week has reawakened debate on whether or not he should have been put on trial for the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier. He was the chief suspect and was arrested twice but never charged. In 2019 he was convicted of murder in abstentia in Paris. But should he have been charged with murder in this jurisdiction. Nick Foster …