In The News

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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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De réir mar a thagann coincheapa agus téarmaí nua chun cinn sa saol, tagann focail nua chun cinn sa chaint mar chur síos orthu. Ar nós gach pobal teanga eile, forbraíonn focail, nathanna agus téarmaíocht go nádúrtha i bpobal labhartha na Gaeilge. Uaireanta eile, nuair a thagann téarmaí iasachta isteach sa ghnáthchaint, cumtar focail nua Gaeilge mar chur síos orthu le cur le stór na bhfocal in focloir.ie.

Is samplaí iad Bingewatch, cryptocurrency, influencer agus mansplaining de fhocail nua a tháinig chun cinn sa Bhéarla le blianta beaga anuas. Ach cá as a dtagann na focail Gaeilge ar na coincheapa sin? Agus cén chaoi a gcuirtear le stór na bhfocal Gaeilge iad?

Labhair Eagarthóir Gaeilge an Irish Times, Éanna Ó Caollaí, leis an scríbhneoir Alan Titley agus le Cormac Breathnach, bainisteoir tionscadail foclóireachta le foclóir.ie, faoin gcur chuige.


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