In The News

This episode was first published in February 2026.

On the night of his second birthday in May 1991, Seamus Daniel Howell’s mother Lesley was murdered by his father, Colin Howell, and his father’s lover, Hazel Stewart.

The pair also killed Stewart’s husband Trevor Buchanan.

They left the two bodies in a garage in Castlerock, Co Derry, staging the scene to make it look as if they had taken their own lives.

The pair had committed the perfect murder so they could be together. And they had got away with it.

That is until 2009 when Colin Howell, a respected dentist and devout evangelical Christian, walked into a police station out of the blue and confessed to the killings. He and Stewart were convicted of the murders and jailed for a minimum of 21 years and 18 years respectively.

Seamus grew up being told that his mother had killed herself, until the truth came out. By then he was a medical student in England. Now a doctor in New York he tells In the News what it was like growing up in the Howell house and how his discovered that his father was a murderer. He explains how it impacted on his life, and how it has made him acutely aware of injustice which now for him includes advocating for Palestine.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Aideen Finnegan and Suzanne Brennan.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Betting on the results of an election is not unusual but Polymarket is not a typical bookies. It allows punters to take and then change their position on all manner of events, from when the Strait of Hormuz might open to whether Taylor Swift will be pregnant before she gets married.

So when Irish Times investigative reporter Conor Gallagher noticed almost €1 million had been wagered on the upcoming Dublin Central byelection on Polymarket, it raised enough red flags for him to delve deeper.

Bets on Gerry Hutch accounted for the bulk of the spend by punters. And while the amount of money involved is significant, it was the activity of the Polymarket users once they’d placed the bets that was unusual. And where did all this money come from?

Gallagher explains how Polymarket works, why the Dublin Central byelection has proved such a magnet and what experts say the activity around the bets on Hutch point to.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Donald Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday night for a two-day visit that both the United States and China hope will stabilise their relationship and prolong a truce in the trade war that began over tariffs last year.

The state visit – with all the pomp and ceremony that entails – had been scheduled for April but was deferred because of the war in Iran.

There is a lot on the table and, in the shorthand favoured by analysts, they are: the three Ts (Taiwan and Tehran and trade) and the three Bs (beans, Boeing and beef).

On day one, Trump flattered Xi Jinping but was that reciprocated? And what about the two superpower’s key interests outside trade and tariffs: Trump wants China to help open the Strait of Hormuz; Xi considers Taiwan as the most important issue in the relationship between China and the United States?

Is the fact that the meeting happened at all the real win for the two countries following a period of fraught relations.

Irish Times China correspondent Denis Staunton is in Beijing.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Dubliners first saw the multi-tiered, gleaming white, iron and glass shopping centre on St Stephen’s Green in the late 1980s, it was quickly nicknamed “the Mississippi showboat” and “the wedding cake”. And in a city that prides itself on its Georgian heritage and its historic buildings, it was seen by some as kitsch, an architectural pastiche and a bit embarrassing. But it grew on others.

Now that plans have been approved by Dublin City Council to knock the shopping centre and replace it with a new scheme, a campaign has begun to save the centre.

So what is planned to replace it? Why are objectors so against it? And why do so many people have a new appreciation for this “historic” building?

Dublin editor Olivia Kelly isn’t one to sit on the fence when it comes to how the city is shaping up and she explains her reservations about the plans.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

British prime minister Keir Starmer is clinging to power after scores of Labour MPs – and several ministers – called on him to resign or at least plot a clear path for a change in leadership.

The immediate prompt is the collapse of the Labour vote during the local elections which saw more than 1,500 councillors lose their seats.

Add the party’s losses at the devolved elections in Scotland and Wales and the turnaround in Labour’s fortunes since its landslide general election win couldn’t be more stark.

But do the roots of dissatisfaction with the solid, steady and uncharismatic Starmer, and the party, go much deeper than a few bad days at the polls?

And while he says he is going nowhere and that he will stay and fight Reform UK for “the soul of Britain”, is his position really tenable? Is there a contender in the wings, waiting for the chance to oust him from Number 10, someone who would be more popular with Labour voters?

Irish Times London correspondent Mark Paul reflects on a dramatic day in Westminster.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.