In The News

In the heart of Limerick city sits a newly-built six storey landmark, offered as a gift by JP McManus to Limerick City and County Council. The billionaire businessman had a vision for an iconic tourist attraction in the southwest, offering a boost to the area and honouring Ireland's proud rugby tradition. The International Rugby Experience opened to great fanfare in May 2023, but was shuttered just 19 months later amid a bitter row between McManus and the local authority. The city's directly-elected mayor refused to take the gift. Now the red-bricked white elephant has become a metaphor for intractable local politics or a billionaire's vanity project, depending on who you ask. So what happened behind the scenes to collapse the scrum and what efforts are underway now to try and end the impasse? Limerick journalist and Irish Times contributor Brian Carroll tells the story of the ill-fated International Rugby Experience.Presented by Aideen Finnegan. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.

Seven years ago, in September 2018, the Government approached a company called Brimwood Ltd asking for help to secure extra accommodation in hotels and B & Bs for asylum seekers.While the number of international protection applicants arriving in Ireland was significantly lower at that time when compared with today – nearly 6,000 in 2018 compared with almost 33,000 in 2025 – the State’s direct provision system had reached full capacity and needed temporary additional beds.Brimwood Ltd, which is now unlimited and so does not have to publish financial accounts where it might show the profits it makes, is run by Séamus ‘Banty’ McEnaney and his two daughters Sarah and Laura. It is just one of a number of companies owned by the wider McEnaney family which provide accommodation for asylum seekers and homeless people.Before 2018, McEnaney’s name was synonymous with Monaghan GAA, but these days, the businessman is more likely to be associated with the State’s asylum system.How did McEnaney build up his property empire and how much have his family’s companies earned through the provision of emergency accommodation?And who is to blame for the lucrative contracts being paid to secure this accommodation – private operators or the Government?Today, on In The News, how one family earned millions from housing refugees and homeless people.Irish Times reporters Colm Keena and Sorcha Pollak discuss their investigation into the McEnaney family’s earnings and how the State has become so reliant on private operators to house refugees and the homeless.Presented by Aideen Finnegan. Produced by Suzanne Brennan, Andrew McNair and John Casey.

British socialite Constance Marten, 38, and her partner convicted rapist Mark Gordon, 51, prompted a 53-day police manhunt when they went on the run with their newborn daughter in the depths of winter two years ago.That hunt ended in tragedy after the decomposed body of their baby, Victoria, was discovered in a shopping bag buried under rubbish in Brighton; the couple were camping nearby.While no definitive cause of the baby’s death could be established, they were found guilty in July of her manslaughter by gross negligence.The scenes in the Old Bailey in London were as chaotic as their lives and the details that emerged of the birth and death of their daughter were harrowing.It is thought they went on the run when Marten was pregnant as their four young children had already been taken into care.Their sentencing is expected in September.In the second of two episodes on their case, BBC news correspondent Helena Wilkinson takes us inside the courtroom and explains why it "was the most extraordinary trial" she has ever reported on. Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.

British socialite Constance Marten, 38, and her partner convicted rapist Mark Gordon, 51, prompted a 53-day police manhunt when they went on the run with their newborn daughter in the depths of winter two years ago.That hunt ended in tragedy after the decomposed body of their baby, Victoria, was discovered in a shopping bag buried under rubbish in Brighton; the couple were camping nearby.While no definitive cause of the baby’s death could be established, they were found guilty in July of her manslaughter by gross negligence.The scenes in the Old Bailey in London were as chaotic as their lives and the details that emerged of the birth and death of their daughter were harrowing.It is thought they went on the run when Marten was pregnant as their four young children had already been taken into care.Their sentencing is expected in September.BBC news correspondent Helena Wilkinson takes us inside the courtroom and explains how the tragic case unfolded.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.

Kerry farmer Michael Gaine’s disappearance on March 20th was first treated as a missing person’s case.Soon though, it was upgraded to a murder investigation as the Garda searched for his body and explored multiple lines of inquiry.Then the farmer’s body was found – in the most grisly of circumstances. He had been dismembered with his body parts deposited into the silage pit on his farm.One such line of inquiry involved Michael Kelley, an American who lived and worked on Gaine’s 1,000-acre farm for the past three years.Kelley has identified himself to the media as having been arrested and questioned in relation to Gaine’s murder. He was released without charge.So is he and what was he doing in Kerry? How did he come to live and work on the Gaine farm? And why is he giving interviews?Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.This episode was originally broadcast in June 2025.

Sports memorabilia is big business in the United States.  Exceptional athletes can attain God-like status very quickly there, and everybody wants a piece.  The baseball that Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers hit for his 50th home run last season, recently sold for $4.3 million. And if you are into buying sports memorabilia, chances are at some point you logged on to a website called Mister Man Cave, which boasts one of the largest football, baseball and basketball autograph inventories on the web. That’s what it looked like, but all wasn’t as it seemed. During an investigation into fraud and counterfeiting at Mister Man Cave, its owner 45-year-old Brett Lemieux took his own life.  Host Bernice Harrison is joined by Irish Times contributor and America at Large columnist Dave Hannigan, who explains that before his death, in a Facebook post, Lemieux spelled out for investigators and sports fans how he had flooded the market with hundreds of thousands of fraudulent sports-related items over two decades, generating hundreds of millions of dollars for his company. Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey.

Last week, hundreds of Ukrainians took to the streets across the country protesting a government move to slash the independence of two anti-corruption agencies.Volodomyr Zelenskiy faced the first street protests against his presidency since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 after he signed a controversial law that would curb the independence of Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau and Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.Two days later, Mr Zelensky backtracked on the controversial changes after European officials warned the bill threatened to undermine Ukraine’s ongoing bid to join the union. Mr Zelensky also said he had “heard the public opinion”.However, is this U-turn enough to end the controversy? And why did the Ukrainian president introduce the bill in the first place?Today, on In The News, is Zelensky losing the trust of the Ukrainian people?Irish Times eastern Europe correspondent Dan McLaughlin discusses the fallout from Ukraine’s anti-corruption scandal, relations between Zelensky and Donald Trump and the latest on the front line of the war in Ukraine.Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Declan Conlon and Andrew McNair. 

On Tuesday, after weeks of warnings, and growing reports of young children dying from malnutrition and starvation, a famine alert was issued for Gaza.UN-backed hunger experts announced that the “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip”.The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC) said the latest evidence of widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease indicated famine thresholds had been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip.The UN’s world Food Programme also warned the disaster unfolding in Gaza was reminiscent of the famine seen in Ethiopia in the 20th century. On today’s In the News podcast, Dr Morgan McMonagle, an Irish trauma and vascular surgeon who has travelled to Gaza twice since the war began, describes how life in the strip has become “worse than hell on earth”.Video footage and pictures “do not do justice to the destruction” playing out in Gaza, he said. Children are undergoing surgery “for the most horrific injuries from the most sophisticated million dollar war machines,” he added.“What Gazan people need right now, more than a ceasefire, is food. Food and water. They don’t even need medicine, because medicine is no good without food and water.”Today, on In The News, an Irish surgeon on the reality of violence and starvation in Gaza.The Irish Times contacted the Israeli government and Israel Defence Forces requesting that they respond to the points raised by Dr McMonagle in this podcast but they did not reply.Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Andrew McNair and Declan Conlon. 

On Sunday, shortly after playing a round of golf at his luxury Turnberry resort in Scotland, US president Donald Trump agreed to a trade deal with the EU commission president. It followed months of tension and shifting deadlines over a threatened 30 per cent tariff and all-out trade war, which would have been devastating for the Irish economy.And while 15 per cent avoids the worst case scenario, business leaders here like IBEC chief executive Danny McCoy claim “Europe has capitulated” by accepting the deal.Sow how exactly will these tariffs affect Irish businesses and what are the longer term implications?Was Ms von der Leyen correct in agreeing to it or should the EU have followed French president Emmanuel Macron’s call to hit back hard against US trade threats with a more aggressive response?Irish Times acting Europe Correspondent Jack Power and economics and finance writer Cliff Taylor join the podcast to discuss the fallout.Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Declan Conlon, Aideen Finnegan and Andrew McNair.