In The News

The devastating cruelty endured by four-year-old Mason O’Connell-Conway, who was murdered at his home in Limerick in 2021, was laid bare during the trial of his father’s girlfriend, Tegan McGhee (32).Doctors reported that the child’s injuries were similar to those suffered by car crash victims.McGhee and the child’s father, John Paul O’Connell, had told paramedics that the little boy had fallen from a bunk bed in their Limerick home. He died three days later in hospital in his mother’s arms.McGhee pleaded guilty to his murder at the trial in November and on Wednesday she was jailed for life. The boy’s father has already been jailed for seven years after pleading guilty to neglect and impeding the prosecution of McGhee, knowing or believing she had murdered his son.Mason’s mother Elizabeth Conway gave a powerful and heartbreaking victim impact statement in the Central Criminal Court which court reporter Eoin Reynolds describes here.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The installation of traffic cameras at junctions in Dublin city to catch motorists who break red lights has been shelved.It’s a puzzling decision given that cameras were proven to work in a 2025 trial. And what about congestion charges? They’ve been talked about, but would they work and are they fair?As work on new elements of the Dublin City Transport Plan is set to begin – including one of the bus corridors that promise to make sense of the BusConnects route changes – Olivia Kelly, Dublin Correspondent, explains what is and isn’t getting the city moving.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For more than two weeks, anti-government protests have taken over the streets of Iran. The regime has responded to the demonstrations with a heavy hand. According to various human rights agencies, more than 650 people are believed to have been killed by security forces. The violence towards protestors has only intensified in recent days, with the regime shutting down access to the country’s internet and phone lines - leaving the people of Iran cut off from eachother and the rest of the world. In today’s episode Irish Times producer Suzanne Brennan talks to Bel Trew, chief international correspondent with the Independent about the background to the unrest and whether this latest uprising could signal the fall of the regime Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An app that allows millions of users to create sexualised images of children has brought the dangers of Artificial Intelligence into sharp focus – and shown how ineffective governments are in implementing safeguards on digital behemoths.A new feature of Elon’s Musk’s AI tool, Grok – available to users of his X platform – allows people to create intimate photographs of people without their consent and create child sex abuse imagery.Women have reported that their photos had been taken from the internet and digitally altered by strangers on X, to “nudify” them so they appeared naked or in a bikini.As Irish Times political correspondent Ellen Coyne explains there are few consequences for those who use the AI model to create illegal sexual images of women and children.Meanwhile Musk initially responded to the avalanche of international criticism of his AI tool with crying face emojis but since then the platform has reportedly moved to restrict access to the feature.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The killing of Renee Nicole Good (37) in her car on the streets of Minneapolis by an immigration officer has been witnessed by millions of people around the world.Countless bystanders took videos on their phones from all angles on the snowy suburban street as the mother and US citizen drove by, was surrounded by armed Ice (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents and was shot dead.So it should be possible to quickly reach a definitive conclusion as to what happened.But as Rachel Leingang, Midwest political correspondent for Guardian US, explains the killing instantly became politicised in a city where tensions were already on a knife-edge, with armed Ice officers swarming neighbourhoods as part of the Trump administration immigration crackdown.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.