How alumina from a Limerick refinery enters Russia’s weapons supply chain

Dublin City Council is keeping up the pressure on the Government to legislate for a tourist tax administered by local authorities.The level of the tax, also called a bed levy, city tax or accommodation tax, has not been pinned down but €5 per room, per night has been mooted. There could be a sliding scale depending on the standard of accommodation.With 21 out of 27 EU member states having such a tax, why is Ireland stubbornly resistant to what would be a boost to local authority coffers?Dublin editor Olivia Kelly explains the background to the tax.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The scale of the fake medicines in Ireland has been made worryingly clear with the latest figures from the State’s drugs watchdog.The Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) seized more than 750,000 units of illegal and fake medicines over the course of 2025.As has been in the case in previous years, anabolic steroids top the list of fake imported drugs, with erectile dysfunction medication next.But what has alarmed the watchdog is the 180 per cent rise in individual consignments year on year – people going online and ordering these bogus products – with a “significant proportion” being presented as GLP-1 products, also known as weight-loss drugs.So why do people seek out these particular medicines online; are they aware they may be fake despite their apparently authentic packaging and appearance; and is there an understanding of the health risks involved?Irish Times health correspondent Shauna Bowers explains the ever-increasing rise in fake medicines reaching Ireland.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Clifton Collins (55) had a thriving business growing cannabis in rented houses around the country.The Crumlin man and expert beekeeper was known for his award-winning honey but his real earner was the fortune he made from years of dealing drugs.He operated under the radar so when gardaí came across him parked in the Wicklow Mountains one night, they had no idea their search would eventually result in of the most lucrative seizures in the history of the Criminal Assets Bureau.Collins had amassed 6,000 bitcoin around 2010. The problem for the Garda was they didn’t know the code to unlock the wallets; it was, Collins said, lost.His bitcoin stash had by 2026 rocketed in value to €360 million.Seven years after gardaí seized the wallets they have finally been able to open one of them and have released €30 million. There are 11 more wallets to be opened.Irish Times crime and security editor Conor Lally explains the background to this extraordinary case.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stephen McCullagh (36) thought he had created a cast iron alibi for himself when he planned the murder of his pregnant girlfriend Natalie McNally (32) in December 2022.An avid gamer he was, he claimed, at home playing a video game live at the time she was killed. But as the PSNI was able to prove, he had in fact pre-recorded hours of himself playing the game. Police found that when he hit “play”, he set off to his girlfriend's house in Armagh where he savagely murdered her.The case against McCullagh was built on circumstantial evidence, so for Natalie’s devastated family, conviction was not certain.Seanín Graham is Northern Correspondent of The Irish Times and she was in court in Belfast for the trial.She tells In the News she has never before witnessed such emotional scenes in court as when the guilty verdict was handed down on Monday.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon and Suzanne Brennan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A new investigation has shown the supply chain link between Russian missiles – ones used to deadly effect in Ukraine – and a factory in Limerick.Aughinish Alumina was built near the Shannon Estuary in the 1980s to make alumina using raw bauxite from Guinea and Brazil.A major employer in the area, it changed hands in 2006 when it was bought by a company called Rusal which at the time was controlled by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaskaa.It has become one of the Europe’s biggest sources of the vital raw material. Alumina is a key part of the car and aircraft industry. It is also the bedrock of much of the weapons industry.As part of an in-depth investigation, Irish Times crime and security editor Conor Gallagher traced the exports from the Limerick factory and explains why when the EU looked to sanction any industry which might be helpful to the Russian war machine, Aughinish Alumina was given a pass.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon and Andrew McNair.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The newly-formed Women’s Coalition on Immigration is calling on the Government to publish crime statistics broken down by country of origin and ethnicity. It argues – without supporting evidence – that there is a link between the increase in reported incidents of sexual violence against women in Ireland and immigration. The coalition was established in December by The Countess, a campaigning group led by barrister Laoise de Brún. It was initially set up in 2020 to campaign against “gender identity politics”. But why has it pivoted from trans issues to immigration? What data has it put forward to support its claims? And who are the political representatives giving this small anti-immigration group their support? Irish Times political correspondent Ellen Coyne explains.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Aideen Finnegan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Three victims of the IRA’s bombing campaign in Britain have spent the past four years building a legal case in an attempt to prove that Gerry Adams was a leading member of the IRA during the Troubles.The former Sinn Féin leader spent two days in the witness box in London, maintaining he was never a member of the republican paramilitary organisation responsible for the injuries of John Clark in the Old Bailey explosion in 1973, Jonathan Ganesh at Canary Wharf in 1996 and Barry Laycock a few months later in Manchester.The 77-year-old appeared, according to Irish Times Ireland and Britain editor Mark Hennessy, frail but he was robust in his denial of the claims.So what happens next? Why might the judge rule that the case should never have been brought? And why did Adams wear a bulletproof vest on the first day of the hearing?As the court prepares to sit for its final day, Hennessy explains the background to the case and the evidence presented.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon and John Casey. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Michael and Rose Murray were refused planning permission for a substantial dormer bungalow in 2006 on land they owned in Co Meath, they went ahead with more ambitious plans anyway. They built a detached house that was twice the size of the one denied permission at scenic Faughan Hill. Shortly after they moved in, a complaint to Meath Co Council kick-started an epic legal battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court as the couple sought, to no avail over two decades, to be granted retrospective planning permission for their house. The process culminated this week with the council seizing the property. Irish Times science correspondent Caroline O’Doherty, who has been following the case over the decades, gives the background; while Irish Times legal affairs correspondent Mary Carolan explains what happened in court this week – and why it might not be the last the courts have seen of this saga.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Aideen Finnegan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you got an invoice you’d been waiting for from your builder for work done, you’d get ready to pay it, wouldn’t you?And if, a couple minutes after that, you got another invoice from the builder saying that actually he’d made a mistake and he’d given you the wrong bank details, you’d think nothing of it and proceed to pay.Well that’s exactly what the reader who contacts our consumer affairs correspondent Conor Pope did. She sent the requested €30,000 to her builder and thought nothing more of it – until a week later when her builder contacted her politely wondering if where the payments was.She is tech savvy, has been made aware through her work about all kinds of fraud, and is cautious by nature yet she had been the victim of payment redirection fraud – also known as invoice fraud.Conor Pope came into the studio to explain how this scam worked and why this particular case should be a lesson to everyone who believes invoice scams are only targeted at big business.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To keep Irish alive as a language for the modern world, new words are added all the time.Bingewatch (craosfhéachaint), cryptocurrency (criptea-airgeadra), influencer (tionchairí ar líne) and mansplaining (fearmhíniú) are among the relatively recent English words that now have Irish translations.It's great for communication, but who decides on these new translations – and how?Irish Language Editor Éanna Ó Caollaí, writer Alan Titley and Cormac Breathnach from Focloir.ie are here to explain how new Irish words are born. This podcast is available in English and Irish.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.