Saipan: Will 2002 World Cup movie open old wounds for Irish football fans?
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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Remembering May McGee: The ‘hero housewife’ who fought to make contraception legal in Ireland
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. This podcast was edited to amend a reference to Seán MacBride. He was a member of the IRA, not the Provisional IRA. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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How Russia’s hybrid war is spreading fear across Europe
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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Inside Afghanistan: What is life really like under Taliban rule?
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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Bloody Sunday: Not guilty verdict in Soldier F murder trial
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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In The News is a daily podcast from The Irish Times that takes a close look at the stories that matter, in Ireland and around the world. Presented by Bernice Harrison and Sorcha Pollak. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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