In The News

Groups of Irish parents dotted around the country have unwittingly started a large-scale social experiment – they’re joining together and aiming, as a group, to delay giving their preteen a smartphone. These parents of soon-to-be first year students in secondary schools in Dublin, Cork and Galway hope they can hold out in the face of their children’s smartphone requests, social media’s addictive algorithms and what many see as a failure by successive governments to regulate the dangers of the internet. Mary Lovegrove is one such parent who has spoken to Irish Times education correspondent Carl O'Brien.Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Declan Conlon and Aideen Finnegan.

The Garda investigation into the disappearance of Elizabeth Clarke, a mother of two from Co Meath, has been upgraded to a murder inquiry.She was officially reported missing in January 2015, though there have been no confirmed sightings of her since November 2013. She had previously lived in Portrane, Co Dublin, and Bettystown, Co Meath, as well as at another address in Co Meath.Irish Times crime and security correspondent Conor Lally explains why her disappearance never gained the sort of media attention given to other cases of missing Irish women, and where the investigation is at now.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.

Dublin will host Ireland’s first NFL regular-season game at Croke Park later this year. No date has been given but one side is known: the Pittsburgh Steelers, who will be the designated ‘home team’.It is believed the Government and Dublin City Council will contribute almost €10 million to stage the event. Sports Minister Charlie McConalogue says the American football game will attract 30,000 international visitors with an expected economic boost north of €60 million, plus €20 million to the exchequer.Other figures predict a far greater economic bump. And that’s not counting the massive US TV audience with the potential for tourism growth that that level of exposure brings.Ireland has become the latest pin in the map for the behemoth that is the NFL because the Dublin date is one of several outside the US this year signalling the global growth of the game.And with annual revenue of over $20 billion, the NFL is the richest and most profitable sports league in the world.Irish Times sports columnist Dave Hannigan, who is based in the US, explains just how massive the NFL is; the extraordinary amount of money swirling around the sport, and how the NFL has so successfully managed to monetise the appeal of the game.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey.

Luis Rubiales' infamous kiss on Jenni Hermoso during the Women’s World Cup celebrations in August 2023 provoked a global reaction. He swore it was consensual. She did not. But the subsequent behaviour of the former football association president, and three other officials, has since escalated into a full-blown criminal trial. If convicted on charges of sexual aggression, he could face two and a half years of jail time. But how realistic is a custodial sentence? And why is he also accused of coercion? As the trial concludes this week, Dermot Corrigan from The Athletic and The New York Times in Madrid, breaks down the legal battle surrounding Rubiales, outlines the testimony of Hermoso and explains the cultural fallout which led to #SeAcabó - Spain's #MeToo movement, and its subsequent backlash.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Aideen Finnegan.

Consumer affairs correspondent Conor Pope joins In the News to discuss the rise in online romance scams, while Dublin woman Stacey* shares her own experience of losing more than €20,000 to an online fraudster, who pretended to be Coldplay's Chris Martin. Presented by Sorcha Pollak, produced by Suzanne Brennan.*Pseudonym used to protect interviewee’s identity 

Last November, in one of the most surprising stories of the general election, Gerard Hutch, the head of the Hutch organised crime gang, came close to securing the final seat in the Dublin Central constituency. The veteran criminal, better known as the Monk, had returned to take part in the election while on bail from Spanish authorities who were investigating money laundering. His surprise run for the Dáil was made while Irish Times crime and security correspondent Conor Gallagher was working on a new RTÉ documentary called AKA The Monk. Gallagher joins the podcast to discuss the two-part documentary into the life, and career, of Gerard Hutch. AKA The Monk is available now on the RTÉ Player.Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Aideen Finnegan. 

Take a five-minute walk in any direction in Dublin city centre and you’ll come across boarded-up, even cemented-over shopfronts, upper floors supported by steel struts and foliage growing through the roof.Properties in prime locations left to rot in the capital city, in the middle of a housing crises. It doesn’t make any kind of sense.In theory it should be easy to find out who owns these decaying properties but it’s not. Nor is it straightforward to discover exactly why valuable properties have been left, sometimes for decades, as eyesores.For a new Irish Times series, Derelict Dublin, Olivia Kelly, along with colleagues Ronan McGreevy and Jack White investigated why the city is blighted by decay and what the council is doing about it.Kelly came into studio to explain.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon and Suzanne Brennan. 

When it comes to the political pecking order, Minister for Arts is way down the list. It’s been called the last seat on the bus.The newly-appointed arts minister is Patrick O’Donovan and quite how much interest or experience the Fine Gael TD has in the arts – or culture, also part of the job- is not clear.And his portfolio is massive – it includes communications, media and sport.Two tricky and pressing issues for O’Donovan are RTE’s ongoing funding problems and the soon-to-end basic income for artists programme. And there’s so much more.Hugh Linehan, who wrote a no-holds-barred column questioning O’Donovan’s suitability for the job, explains why in a country that prides itself on its arts and culture, the arts ministry is, in political terms, a low prestige role.And following the new Minister’s visit to Montrose to talk to RTE chief Kevin Bakhurst, Laura Slattery explores his peculiar obsession with the station’s programming - and why he’s got it wrong.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon and John Casey.

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump promised he would end the war in Ukraine  in just 24 hours. Despite missing his own deadline, Trump has threatened Russia with high tariffs and further sanctions if Putin fails to end the war. But this week, Donald Trump announced he was “looking to do a deal with Ukraine”. In return for further US military aid, Trump wants access to Ukraines rare earths, critical elements used in electronics, such as  titanium, lithium, graphite and uranium. So what will this development mean for the future of peace talks? And does Trump really have an interest in ending the war in Ukraine? Sorcha Pollak speaks to Irish Times Eastern Europe correspondent Dan McLaughlin from Kyiv.