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For generations, Irish speakers north and south of the Irish Border have fought to keep their language alive. And today, what was once dismissed as a fading tongue is undergoing an exhilarating and vibrant revival.
The Republic’s newly elected president Catherine Connolly has made it clear the Irish language will play a central role during her time in office and says she wants to see the native tongue of this island flourish.
Meanwhile, north of the Border, the Irish language is also making headlines. In October, attendees at the annual Oireachtas na Samhna Irish-language festival heard Belfast was “leading the revival” of the language. New Irish-medium schools are springing up across the city to meet a surge in demand and Belfast is now hailed by many as Ireland’s largest urban Gaeltacht.
However, beneath all this buzz lies a battleground. The Irish language remains highly politically charged across Northern Ireland, with unionist leaders pushing back against what they see as an erosion of their identity and traditions. They argue the language is being imposed, without consent, into on daily lives.
From bilingual street signs to Irish on council property – every word is a flashpoint.
So why does the Irish language stir such fierce resistance in Northern Ireland?
Claims that the language is being “weaponised”, are unhelpful and only create further divisions, says Linda Ervine, one of the leading activists and teachers of the Irish language in Northern Ireland and manager of the Turas Irish language project in east Belfast.
“I try to say to people if you don’t like the language, it doesn’t symbolise who you are, that’s fine, I totally accept that,” Ms Ervine tells today’s In The News episode. “Nobody is removing the English. All we’re asking for is a shared space.”
“The language is part of the family of Celtic language, it’s spoken throughout the British Isles,” she says. “No matter our history, we have these shared, familial and linguistic ties to each other and I think that’s something to be celebrated, not something to be frightened of.”
Today, on In The News, what’s behind the revival of the Irish Language in Belfast, and why is it controversial?
Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Andrew McNair.
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In hard hats and high-vis jackets, Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Simon Harris and Minister for Housing James Browne looked the part at Thursday’s launch of “Delivering Homes, Building Communities, 2025-2030″, the Government’s latest grand plan to tackle the housing crisis.
By 2030, it is committed to delivering 300,000 new homes. It’s an ambitious target.
But who is going to build these new homes and how can that target be met given successive governments’ failure to meet far more modest goals?
Will private developers be tempted to ramp up the delivery of apartment schemes? And given the acute skills shortage in the construction industry, where will the builders – the real hard-hat wearers – come from? And what about Ireland’s creaking infrastructure - the water and electricity needed to make building possible?
The shame of record-breaking homelessness figures means a move to solve this aspect of the housing crisis is a key plank of the new plan.
Irish Times Political Correspondent Ellen Coyne was at the plan’s launch. She joins In The News to discuss these issues.
Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey and Andrew McNair.
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Few conflicts have caused as much horror and devastation to people’s lives as Sudan’s civil war. And yet, the country’s ongoing death and destruction remains largely unnoticed, and often ignored, by the rest of the world.
An estimated 150,000 people have been killed, and 14 million people displaced, since the country was plunged into civil war in April 2023 after a power struggle broke out between the country’s army and a powerful paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Last month, the RSF captured the city of El Fasher, the last major urban centre in Darfur held by the army and its allies. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were left trapped in desperate famine-like conditions with no access to food, medicine or relief supplies.
The city’s civilians have also been subjected to mass killings, and ethnic and sexual violence, while pregnant women are giving birth on the streets after the last remaining maternity hospital was looted and destroyed.
Why do so many in the world continue to the turn a blind eye to the world’s largest humanitarian crisis?
And is a ceasefire even possible in a region plagued by decades of instability, mass displacement and destruction?
Today, on In The News, how Sudan became a killing zone.
New York Times chief Africa correspondent Declan Walsh discusses the devastating effects of Sudan’s civil war, the foreign powers funding the crisis and the measures needed to end this conflict.
Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Andrew McNair.
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Last Friday, two men appeared before Portlaoise District Court as part of a Garda investigation into an alleged terrorist plot by an extreme right wing group to attack Galway Mosque.
The two men were arrested on Co Laois on Tuesday during a cross-Border antiterrorism operation and were charged with possession of explosives.
A video found by gardaí on one of the men’s phones revealed a ‘practice’ recording of what the extreme right wing group intended to release after its planned attack on Galway mosque.
A major inquiry is now under way to determine how long the alleged plot was in the planning, what role others may have played and to identify all four men who appear in the video.
Irish Times crime and security editor Conor Lally has the latest details.
Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.
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On Monday, the COP30 climate summit officially opened in the Brazilian city of Belém at the gateway to the Amazon rainforest.
Brazilian organisers have insisted this will be the “COP of implementation” where measures needed to combat the climate crisis will take precedence over more promises and never-ending negotiations.
This year’s global summit marks a decade since the highly lauded Paris Agreement – the landmark agreement signed by almost 200 countries and designed to avoid the worst consequences of climate change.
Its main goal was to limit future global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius above ‘pre-industrial’ levels. And while some progress has been made, ten years on from this legally binding agreement, emissions are still rising and UN secretary general António Guterres has acknowledged it is now “inevitable” that humanity will overshoot this 1.5 cap.
What exactly do world leaders hope to achieve over the coming fortnight?
How will the absence of a US-led delegation impact plans for cutting global emissions? And in a world deeply distracted by war, defence and ideological divisions, can China and the EU take the lead in pushing climate measures back up the list of international priorities?
Irish Times Climate and Science correspondent Caroline O’Doherty joins the podcast from Belém to discuss whether this year’s climate negotiations will move beyond plans and into concrete action.
Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.
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For most people, the process of buying a house can be quite disheartening. The lack of housing supply across the country means houses often sell for way above asking price and usually after an excruciating bidding war.
While the Government promises to address the supply issue, is there anything that needs to change about the way we buy houses?
In the UK, a major reform of the house-buying system has been proposed by the Labour Government. The plan aims to cut costs, reduce delays and make the whole process more efficient for buyers and sellers. Under the new plan, sellers would have to provide key information about the house upfront. Binding contracts could also be introduced earlier. It would cut the costs for first time buyers and speed up the process by up to four weeks - so should Ireland follow suit?
In today’s episode, Ciarán Mulqueen, who runs the social media account Crazy House Prices, takes a look at how the process works in other countries and whether something similar could be introduced here.
Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan
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Every November, Irish Times restaurant critic Corinna Hardgrave looks back at her year to produce a list of the top 100 restaurants across the country.
This year, with the help of the writer Joanna Cronin, readers are treated to a plethora of options for every occasion from new and quirky eateries to heritage restaurants which have stood the test of time.
It’s also an exciting period for the Irish dining scene.
In February, Dublin will host the Michelin star ceremony for the first time, the convention for unveiling new Michelin stars. And the speculation about awards in the Republic is electric.
Front and centre in Corinna and Joanne’s choices this year, they say, is supply. Those menu’s which utilise the best of home grown Irish produce.
So where are the top restaurants in Ireland, and what’s on the menu?
Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan and Andrew McNair.
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On Tuesday New Yorkers elected socialist and Democratic Party candidate Zohran Mamdani as mayor. Mamdani, the city's first Muslim and African-born mayor and the youngest in over a century, was harshly criticised by President Donald Trump throughout the campaign.
But his win, along with the election of several other Democrats in races across the country, has forced Trump to start taking seriously the threat of a Democratic resurgence in next year's midterm elections. And Democrats are starting to feel hopeful, even if Mamdani's election poses questions about what the party has become and exactly how it should take on Trump.
Keith Duggan reports from Washington.
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On Saturday, the story broke that broadcaster and former Fine Gael politician Ivan Yates had provided interview and debate coaching to Fianna Fáil presidential candidate Jim Gavin before he dropped out of the race.
This was at a time when he was co-presenting the political podcast Path to Power and doing stand in shifts on Newstalk radio.
The story gained momentum in the days that followed as news emerged that senior Fianna Fáil politicians, including Taoiseach Micheál Martin, also received media training from Mr Yates.
How has this steady trickle of revelations played out in Leinster House? What does this controversy tell us about the entanglement of Ireland’s media and political elites?
And how does the Irish media handle commercial and political conflicts of interest?
Today, on In The News, how Ivan Yates’ links to Fianna Fáil have landed him, and the party, in hot water.
Irish Times media columnist and host of Inside Politics podcast Hugh Linehan discusses the political fallout from this controversy and how it might impact public trust in the media.
Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Andrew McNair and Suzanne Brennan.
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On Monday afternoon, in a packed courtroom at Dublin’s Circuit Criminal Court, former Kilkenny hurler DJ Carey was sentenced to five and a half years in prison for fraud.
In July, the disgraced sportsman pleaded guilty to ten counts of deception involving thirteen individuals.
It’s a stunning fall from grace for the Kilkenny man, who was once the most celebrated hurler in the country.
For years, Carey spun a web of lies, convincing friends, acquaintances, and even strangers that he was battling terminal cancer and needed large sums of money for life-saving treatment.
At times, his stories were meticulously crafted, rich in detail. Sometimes they were just spur of the moment pleas for cash.
In today's episode journalist and author of The Dodger, Eimear Ní Bhraonáin maps out Carey’s decade long deception and explains how he got away with his crimes for so long.
The Dodger: DJ Carey and the Great Betrayal published by Merrion Press is out now.
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There are many things An Garda Síochána know about the woman whose skeletal remains were found in 2021 during the construction of a greenway in Co Cork.
They believe the woman was 70 years or older when she died, that she was 157cm tall and had a large frame. They think she wore dentures made in the 1960s while she also suffered from arthritis. Carbon dating suggests she died between 1985 and 1987.
What they don’t know is her name.
They commissioned Prof Michelle Vitali, a director of the Institute of Forensic Sciences at Pennsylvania Western University and a specialist in forensic illustration, to draw an image of the dead woman. She works pro bono for police forces in the US and provided her services free in the Cork case.
Vitali explains to In the News the process she used to create an image from the woman’s skull which might help jog memories. It is not, she stresses, a portrait of the dead woman, rather a way to illustrate her features. But could it really identify the dead woman and has it worked in the past?
Irish Times southern correspondent Barry Roche gives the background to this sad case.
Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon and Andrew McNair.
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Saipan: it’s the one word that can, even 23 years later, cause a row and Irish football fans still divide into two camps.
When it comes to events in Saipan where the Irish team were acclimatising before heading to Japan for their first game in the 2002 World Cup, everyone has an opinion. You’re either Team Roy or Team Mick.
A new movie that captures the simmering tension and eventual blow up between Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy and team captain Roy Keane will hit our screens on January 1st. But already Saipan has been seen on the international film festival circuit, garnering glowing reviews.
Keane is played by Éanna Hardwicke and McCarthy by Steve Coogan – a challenge given how familiar both men are in the public mind. Does it work? And does it capture the tension and the shock waves that Keane’s decision to walk out on the team caused.
Irish Times consumer correspondent Conor Pope got a preview and says that going in to the cinema he knew he’d be traumatised by Saipan – and he was.
Pope tells In the News why the film will open old wounds for many people and how he left the cinema “feeling shaken and sad and weighed down by what might have been”.
Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey and Andrew McNair.
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In the early 1970s Mary ‘May’ and Seamus ‘Shay’ McGee were parents to four young children. On her second and third pregnancies, May had experienced complications so severe that her doctor advised that her life would be in danger if she had any more children.
The GP prescribed a diaphragm and spermicidal jelly to help prevent pregnancy. These had to be imported and were seized by customs with the couple told that if they attempted to import contraceptive devices again, they could be prosecuted.
The couple went to the High Court in 1972 in an attempt to overturn a 1935 ban on the importation of contraceptives.
It was struck out and amid a tide of publicity, the couple appealed to the Supreme Court.
In 1973 they won, with the judge overturning the 1935 Act which prohibited the importation of contraceptives, with the ruling paving the way for vastly improved reproductive choice for women.
The case has been seen as a turning point in society’s perception of the separation of the roles of church and State.
May McGee, was 81 when she died peacefully at Beaumont Hospital in Tuesday surrounded by her family. Shay died in January 2024.
Irish Times journalist Ellen Coyne explains the impact of the couple’s brave decision to take on the State in a very different Ireland.
Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.
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In early September, worshippers gathering for dawn prayers at several locations across Paris discovered a gruesome and spiteful scene – bloodied pigs’ heads discarded on the doorsteps of their mosques. A deeply offensive act, Muslims are forbidden from eating pork and consider pigs to be unclean.
Soon after, a farmer in Normandy in northern France, who had seen news reports of the dead animal heads appearing around the city, contacted police to say two people driving a vehicle with Serbian number plates had purchased ten pigs heads from his farm.
Further investigations by French authorities found the pigs heads had been placed outside the mosques by foreign nationals with the “clear intention of causing unrest within the nation”.
This provocative stunt was just one of a range of bizarre and potentially lethal incidents over recent months that have been linked to a Russian campaign to inflame divisions and spread fear across Europe. Other incidents tracked back to Russian intelligence include the burning of a Warsaw shopping centre and a warehouse in London; exploding parcels in Leipzig and Birmingham and the recent disruption of airports with drones and smuggler balloons in Norway, Denmark and Lithuania.
Who is carrying out this wide array of sabotage-style stunts and do the criminals responsible even know they’re being hired by Russian officials?
What is Russia’s long-term goal in fostering instability and discord across Europe?
And how is Russia targeting Ireland as part of this strategy?
Today, on In The News, how Russia’s hybrid war is sowing chaos across Europe.
Irish Times Europe correspondent Naomi O’Leary discusses Moscow’s campaign of sabotage and espionage, which has steadily intensified since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Andrew McNair.
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Journalist Khadija Haidary left her home in Afghanistan in October 2024 after spending three years trying to survive as a working woman in a Taleban-controlled country.
When universities closed to women in late 2022, Haidary joined an underground “resistance” network teaching maths, physics and English to girls.
Ms Haidary, who is editor of the Zan Times, now reports from her new home in Pakistan. She talks to Sorcha Pollak about the oppressive reality facing women inside Afghanistan. But while the situation is grim, some are pushing back.
Plus: Stefan Smith, spokesperson for the UN’s assistance mission in Afghanistan, on international efforts to engage with Taliban rulers.
Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Andrew McNair.
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A Belfast court delivered a not-guilty verdict on Thursday in the trial of a former British Army paratrooper accused of the murder of two young men in the Bloody Sunday shootings in Derry 53 years ago.
It was the first-ever trial of a former British soldier accused of killing unarmed civilians during the massacre.
The veteran, referred to as Soldier F for legal reasons, was accused of the murders of James Wray and William McKinney during a civil rights march in the city on January 30th, 1972.
By the end of that dreadful day, 13 unarmed civilians had been shot dead by the Parachute Regiment while 17 were left with injuries.
So how was the verdict received in the packed courtroom, particularly by the Bloody Sunday families whose fight for justice has endured for more than a century. A UK public inquiry had already found that the army unlawfully killed 13 people in Derry on that day, so why did the prosecution against this former paratrooper fail?
Irish Times Northern editor Freya McClements was in court for the verdict.
Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Andrew McNair and John Casey.
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Crimes carried out by a loose syndicate of about 60 teenagers spread across north and South Dublin, who are more interested in capturing their joyriding escapades on social media than making money, are on the rise.
Known as the Lucky Dip Gang, these groups of young, low-level criminals focus on burglaries and vehicle theft. These often failed and haphazard attempts to steal bikes and cars contrast starkly with the other side of the burglary trade, which is dominated by tight-knit, dangerous organised gangs known for their forensic and meticulous planning.
But if the Lucky Dip Gang is running riot across the Greater Dublin Area, and organised burglary gangs are so active across the country, why have burglaries fallen by almost 65 per cent in a decade?
Today, on In The News, Irish Times crime and security editor Conor Lally discusses the TikTok inspired crime trend among young offenders in Dublin, the reasons some teenagers are pushed into joining more serious gangs and the significant drop in burglaries nationwide over the past ten years.
And what measures should homeowners take to protect their home to deter burglars and avoid from break-in?
Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Declan Conlon and Andrew McNair
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In chaotic and violent scenes reminiscent of the street riots in Dublin city centre two years ago, around 1,000 protesters outside the Citywest IPAS centre in Saggart threw missiles, set fires, used fireworks as weapons and roared racist chants on Tuesday evening.
They had gathered in response to news that a man had been arrested in connection with the alleged sexual assault of a 10-year old Irish girl outside the centre, which is home to mostly Ukrainians but also international protection applicants.
The man, a failed asylum seeker in his 20s, has been in the State for six years and is the subject of a deportation order since March 2025.
There had already been protests by locals throughout the summer following news that the Government intended buying the hotel – Ireland’s largest with more than 750 bedrooms – and turning it into a State-run, permanent asylum centre. The sale, for €148 million, has now been finalised. But Tuesday’s protest was very different, not least because many of those present were not local.
So who were they and what did they want?
And how did the Garda manage and then diffuse such an incendiary situation? Has the force learned from the Dublin riots two years ago?
Irish Times crime and security editor Conor Lally was at Citywest and he reports on how events unfolded.
Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Andrew McNair.
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On Tuesday, almost six months after she took her own life, the posthumous memoir of Virginia Giuffre went on sale. ‘Nobody’s Girl’, which was completed by Giuffre before her death, details how she feared she might “die a sex slave” at the hands of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Giuffre also says she was made to have sex with Prince Andrew on three occasions.
Prince Andrew, who has always denied any wrongdoing, and who reached a financial settlement with Giuffre in 2022, announced last week he would voluntarily no longer use his titles, including the Duke of York. He said he had made the decision following a discussion with King Charles, his family, and in consultation with Prince William.
Meanwhile, MPs in Britain moved on Tuesday to lodge a parliamentary motion to strip Prince Andrew of his dukedom, with pressure also mounting on the British government to address the prince’s luxury residence in Windsor. It was recently revealed the King’s younger brother has not paid rent on the Royal Lodge for more than two decades.
The House of Commons, which is not permitted to discuss issues that reflect badly on Britain’s royal family, has maintained an uneasy silence as the Prince Andrew scandal continues to grow legs.
Why are UK politicians not allowed to debate Royal scandals, or any issues that reflect badly on Royals, in Westminster? And is that about to change?
Irish Times London correspondent Mark Paul discusses the latest revelations from Giuffre’s memoir and examines the steps needed for Westminster to take stronger action against the disgraced prince.
Presented by Sorcha Pollak, produced by Suzanne Brennan and Andrew McNair.
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Shortly after 9.30am on Sunday, when the Louvre in Paris had just opened its doors to visitors, alarm bells started to ring out through the halls of the world-famous museum.
Four thieves had managed to access the building via the first floor balcony facing the river Seine. Seven minutes later they escaped on motorbikes carrying priceless French crown jewels.
The robbery has sparked outrage across the French political spectrum – the country’s president Emmanuel Macron called the raid “an attack on our history”, while the leader of the far-right National Rally party Jordan Bardella said it was an “intolerable humiliation”.
The heist has also prompted serious questions about the security needed in high profile museums and art galleries, and the increasingly brazen nature of criminal art robberies.
How exactly did these thieves manage to steal priceless artefacts from one of the most secure museums in Europe in broad daylight? And why are the French authorities now racing against the clock to track down the missing items?
BBC Paris Correspondent Hugh Schofield discusses how this audacious heist was pulled off and whether the jewels will ever be seen again.
Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Andrew McNair.
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