It’s the biggest game in Irish Football for a decade and if we win it it will be followed quickly by an even bigger game.

The prize is a place at World Cup 2026.

But with Trump and Infantino and the war in Iran overshadowing the whole event do we even really want to be there?

Ciara is joined by Off The Ball’s Cameron Hill and Eve Conway

Ireland is winding down one of the largest emergency responses in its history — housing more than 125,000 people fleeing war in Ukraine. Thousands have been living in hotels, guesthouses, and private homes under State-supported schemes. Now, the Government wants to scale it back.

Contracts with accommodation providers are ending, and payments to households are being reduced. But billions of euro have already been spent. A handful of private companies were paid a sizeable chunk of that money. And as the State pulls away, it faces a new problem — large legal bills from developers heavily invested in projects that were later cancelled.

Meanwhile, the wider housing system remains under intense pressure. Rents are high, supply is tight, and the question at the heart of it all is: if State support is reduced… where are people supposed to go?

On today's podcast, Ciara Doherty talks to Niall Sargent, Current Affairs Correspondent with The Currency.

🎧 If you want to understand how we got here… it’s worth going back to an earlier Newstalk Daily — Profiting from Protection: Who’s Made Millions from Refugee Housing?

That episode digs into the money behind the system — the companies, the contracts, and the billions in public spending that built what we’re now trying to unwind.

You can find it now on GoLoud:
https://www.goloudplayer.com/episodes/profiting-from-protection-whos-m-NWY4YzVmMDg3NDQyNzkwZGY4MDNjM2EzNmEyOWFhZmE=

📰 And if you want to stay across this story, Niall Sargent’s reporting is essential reading. You can follow his work here:
https://thecurrency.news/

More than 5,000 eviction notices in just three months. A 41% jump in a year. And a rental system that, for many, feels increasingly unstable. On today’s Newstalk Daily, Ciara Doherty examines the sharp rise in evictions — to their highest level since the Famine era — and what’s driving it.

The latest figures from the Residential Tenancies Board show more than 20,000 notices were issued in 2025. In many cases, tenants aren’t being evicted for wrongdoing, but because landlords are selling — reducing supply and ramping up pressure on renters.

At the same time, new rental rules have come into force, aimed at stabilising the market. But the Government’s own analysis warned they could lead to higher rents and more “economic evictions” in the short term.

Ciara is joined by Michael Clifford, special correspondent with the Irish Examiner, to explore the policy choices, the market shifts, and the real-world impact on tenants. Because in Ireland, eviction is never just about housing.

You can email the podcast at newstalkdaily@newstalk.com.

When Goodfellas hit cinemas, most people saw a gripping mob story. Neil Moran saw something else entirely — a car he and his team had bugged, sitting quietly in the background behind Robert De Niro. Because for Moran, this wasn’t just a film. It was his case.

A retired FBI agent with nearly 30 years on the job, Moran worked on some of the most high-profile organised crime investigations in New York, from the infamous Lufthansa heist to the undercover world that inspired Donnie Brasco. Along the way, he crossed paths with real-life mob figures, wiretaps, surveillance ops, and the kind of split-second decisions that don’t always make it into the movies.

In today’s podcast, Ciara Doherty speaks to Neil about the reality behind the Hollywood versions: the risks, the injuries, the long hours — and the moments that nearly ended his career.

Neil Moran’s memoir Stories is out now.

Meath County Council has taken possession of a sprawling €1 million home built without planning permission, closing the chapter on one of the longest-running planning disputes in Ireland. But this isn’t just a story about a house.

It’s a 20-year saga involving defiance, court battles, rejected appeals, and a family who openly admitted their decision to build was a “life-changing mistake,” yet kept fighting to save their home right to the bitter end.

Today's podcast traces the full story — from the first planning refusal in 2006, through years of legal setbacks, to the dramatic moment Gardaí arrived to enforce a High Court order. And asks the bigger question: in the middle of a housing crisis, does knocking this house make sense?

Ciara Doherty is joined by Amy Molloy, News and Investigations Correspondent with the Irish Independent.

In war, first reports are often confused and contradictory. On February 28th, early in the US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran, an elementary school in the town of Minab was hit by a devastating strike. At least 175 people were killed — many of them children — making it the deadliest single incident of the conflict so far.

At first, no one claimed responsibility. The White House said it was investigating. President Donald Trump suggested Iran itself might have been to blame. But thousands of miles away, a team of journalists began piecing together the truth.

Using satellite images, online videos, missile analysis, and old military imagery, reporters from The New York Times reconstructed what happened that morning. Their investigation pointed to a chilling conclusion: a precision American Tomahawk cruise missile struck the school while US forces attacked a nearby naval base.

One of those was Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Malachy Browne, working from Limerick as part of the Times’ Visual Investigations unit. On today’s Newstalk Daily, Malachy explains to Ciara Doherty how open-source evidence allowed reporters to locate the exact building that was hit, identify the weapon used, and challenge official claims about one of the most controversial strikes of the war.

For decades, the identity of Banksy has been one of the art world’s great unsolved riddles. His stencilled images — a girl reaching for a red balloon, chimps in the House of Commons, riot police with smiley faces — have appeared overnight on walls from Bristol to Bethlehem. They’ve mocked politicians, skewered the art market and, occasionally, sold for tens of millions. But the man behind the mask has always stayed hidden.

Now a detailed investigation by Reuters claims to finally put a real name to the most famous anonymous artist on the planet. So how did a street artist with a spray can become a global cultural phenomenon? Why did Banksy’s graffiti start getting preserved instead of painted over? And if the mystery really has been solved… does knowing the name change anything?

Ciara Doherty is joined by broadcaster and producer Eoin Sweeney to talk about the legend of Banksy, the investigation that may have unmasked him, and why the world has been so fascinated by the artist who refused to show his face.

📖 Read the Reuters investigation here:
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/global-art-banksy/

Every St Patrick’s Day, Ireland’s Taoiseach travels to Washington to present a bowl of shamrocks to the US president, a diplomatic tradition that dates back to the 1950s. For decades it was a gentle ritual of Irish-American friendship. But in the era of Donald Trump, Oval Office meetings with foreign leaders have become far less predictable.

Last year, Micheál Martin avoided the kind of public clash that had erupted days earlier between Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. This year’s visit comes at another tense international moment — and with criticism from Ireland’s president Catherine Connolly over US-Israeli strikes on Iran. So what kind of reception might the Taoiseach face this time?

Ciara Doherty is joined by Newstalk’s political correspondent Seán Defoe, who has been inside those Oval Office encounters, to explain how the shamrock ceremony works, why the stakes feel higher now, and what Micheál Martin could be walking into this St Patrick’s Day.