In The News

On Tuesday, gardaí and emergency services found the body of Anthony Maguire (36) in his Drogheda home, six days after he was arrested in connection with the disappearance of Kyran Durnin. He is believed to have had access to Kyran in the period before the last confirmed sighting of the boy as a six-year-old in the summer of 2022. He was a close associate of another suspect in the case. Gardaí had also been looking into whether he was involved in the presentation of a different child to Túsla, in an attempt to pass that boy as Kyran Durnin. Maguire's death is being treated as a suicide. Now as Conor Lally, Irish Times crime and security editor, explains Gardaí investigating the suspected murder of Kyran are working to determine if Maguire left behind any vital information on the disappearance of the child.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan and Aideen Finnegan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Israel’s move to close its embassy in Ireland means the diplomatic rift between our two countries is wider than ever, with potentially big implications for Ireland.Israel has called Taoiseach Simon Harris, as well as the entire country, anti-Semitic. He, however is holding firm, and insists Ireland will not end its criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza.President Michael D Higgins has also responded, saying it is “deep slander” to accuse the Irish people of being anti-Semitic because of criticisms of the Israeli government.Israel’s Ambassador to Ireland Dana Erlich has been at the forefront of her country’s criticism of Ireland and she spoke to Irish Times political editor Pat Leahy, who tells In the News what’s behind Israel’s move, why now – and how damaging it is – potentially – for Ireland.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Irish Times international correspondent Sally Hayden is the only journalist from any Irish media outlet to witness, first-hand, the dramatic scenes that have unfolded in Syria, in the days following the ousting of Bashar al-Assad. Hayden has spoken to ordinary citizens as well as members of the rebel alliance responsible for toppling the dictator on the 8th of December. The award-winning author has also visited the notorious Sednaya prison - dubbed 'the human slaughterhouse' - where she met families desperately searching for information on loved ones who were disappeared by Assad's secret police during his 24-year reign.Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Aideen Finnegan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Another report, another disturbing finding about governance at one of Ireland’s best known, and well-funded charities, the Peter McVerry Trust.Between 2022 and 2023, the charity paid near €1.7m to Lavelle Solicitors, whose managing partner Michael Lavelle is a brother of McVerry director Richard Lavelle.The finding is contained in a report from the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority (AHBRA), the supervisor of not-for-profit groups that receive public funds to provide affordable housing.Since 2023 when it was revealed that the charity – which provides essential services to the growing number of homeless people in the State – needed a €15m bailout, it has been subjected to heightened scrutiny. In addition to the AHBRA, the Comptroller & Auditor General and the Charities Commission have been asking questions. The answers when published have, since 2023, pointed to lax financial controls and poor board oversight.The findings have caused significant reputational damage to the organisation and runs significant risk of spilling over to the entire charity sector, impacting on much-needed fundraising.Current affairs editor Arthur Beesley has been following this unfolding story.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Irish house prices are overvalued by up to 10 per cent, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has warned, adding that an increasing number of households are carrying “elevated” levels of mortgage debt. That's not a large percentage when compared to the Celtic Tiger property bubble - so why is the think-tank cautioning it could still mean a 'painful correction'? Economics correspondent, Eoin Burke-Kennedy, explains why loan-to-income rates are creeping upwards, why house prices could come down but remain out of the reach of the average earner, and which global trends are preventing a price drop here.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Aideen Finnegan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Wednesday, December 4th, Brian Thompson (50), the UnitedHealthcare chief executive was murdered in cold blood outside a hotel in Manhattan.The manhunt to find his killer ended on Monday when the chief suspect, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, was arrested as he sat in a McDonald’s in a railroad town in Pennsylvania. He has been charged with murder.From the moment the CCTV of the shooting went viral, the police investigation began but so too did an onslaught of social media commentary: from amateur sleuths joining the manhunt; from infatuated posters who had become Mangione fans; and a deluge of online comments and memes either sarcastically or explicitly calling out the greed of private healthcare companies.Now that a suspect has been caught says Irish Times Washington correspondent Keith Duggan, the intense fascination has shifted from “who?” to “why?”.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lara Marlowe met Bashar al-Assad twice during his early years as president of Syria. The writer and journalist also interviewed the dictator's father, Hafez, who seized power in the 1970s and groomed Bashar to assume the presidency before his death in 2000. The regime collapsed on the 7th of December after 13 years of civil war, which claimed the lives of at last 560,000 Syrians and made refugees of six million more. Marlowe recounts her interactions with the totalitarian rulers, profiles the dynasty which includes Bashar's British-born wife, Asma, and explains why the their tyrannical regime crumbled so quickly and breathtakingly at the weekend. Prresented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Aideen Finnegan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Four years ago, Sinn Féin changed the landscape of Irish politics by securing the highest share of first preference votes in the 2020 general election and breaking Ireland’s two-party system.The question among many voters in those weeks before the pandemic hit was not if Mary Lou McDonald would become taoiseach of this country, but when.Jump forward four years, and the party has emerged from the 2024 general election with 39 seats, just two more than its 2020 haul. Sinn Féin TDs are now facing up to five more years on the Opposition benches, with disappointment and dismay palpable at different levels across the party.What went wrong for Sinn Féin in the 2024 election, how can they turn things around and what does this all mean for Mary Lou McDonald’s future at the party’s helm?Today, on In the News, after a year of disappointment, what’s next for Sinn Féin and its leader Mary Lou McDonald?Irish Times political correspondent Jennifer Bray discusses what lies ahead for the party.Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Declan Conlon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Veteran republican Marian Price has initiated legal action against streaming giant Disney+ over the TV series Say Nothing, based on a book of the same name by Patrick Radden Keefe, which her lawyers say depicted her as being involved in the murder of Belfast woman Jean McConville.Lawyers for Price, who was jailed for her part in the IRA’s London bombing campaign of 1973, said the allegation was “not based on a single iota of evidence”.On today's podcast we replay an interview with Patrick Radden Keefe, recorded when Say Nothing was published in 2018.Radden Keefe explains how he reached his conclusion that Marian Price was centrally involved in McConville's killing, along with her sister Dolours Price. The Disney dramatisation of Say Nothing has brought the stories of the Price sisters and Jean McConville to a new global audience. "Such allegations published on an international scale are not only unjustified, but they are odious insofar as they seek to cause our client immeasurable harm in exchange for greater streaming success. Our client has now been forced to initiate legal proceedings to hold Disney to account for their actions", Prices lawyers said. Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When a taxi driver told Irish Times economics correspondent Eoin Burke-Kennedy that there was a ghost train station under Terminal 1 in Dublin Airport he was intrigued. The architects who designed the terminal in the late 1960s were smart enough to future-proof it – to incorporate into their plan a vast underground train station because, surely it wouldn’t be long before a metro would connect the airport with the city centre. Their thinking was right – but they didn’t reckon with Ireland’s sluggish planning system and an endemic failure to plan and build. Area 14 is a metaphor for so much that is wrong with Ireland’s approach to key infrastructure projects, from housing to energy supply, transport to health.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Aideen Finnegan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.