Prime Time - 14th May 2013
HELPLINES
For anyone affected by issues raised in tonight’s programme on suicide, there are a number of helplines and websites which can be contacted for both immediate and longer-term help.
The Samaritans offer a 24 hour listening service and can be contacted on 1850 60 90 90 or
0845 790 90 90 in Northern Ireland.
Console offers 24 hour help for anyone bereaved or affected by suicide and can be contacted on
1800 201 890
1Life is a free 24 hour Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1 800 24 7 100
Reach Out is a service dedicated to helping young ...
Read More »Bethany - The home the State forgot
Tanya Sillem blogs ahead of tonight's programme from RTÉ's Investigations Unit:
135 children died in less than 10 years while in the care of the Bethany Home in Dublin, in the middle of the last century. Bethany was a protestant run Mother and Baby home. Many of the children who died there are buried in unmarked graves in Dublin’s Mount Jerome Cemetery. Seventy-two year old Derek Leinster was born in Bethany just as the death rate peaked. State Inspectors found neglect, and babies dying from diseases linked to malnutrition. Derek believes it was only a long stretch ...
Read More »Magdalen Laundry Fund
The Minister for Justice has said that with effect from tomorrow, people can contact the Department in order to seek benefits and supports from funds which have been allocated to the survivors of the Magdalen Laundries.
People can contact the Department by writing to:
Magdalen Laundry Fund, C/O Department of Justice and Equality, Montague Court, Montague Street, Dublin 2
Tel: 01 4768649
Email: info@idcmagdalen.ie
Read More »Helpline numbers - Magdalen Laundries Report
Connect counselling: Freephone: 1800 477477/ from NI & UK: 00800 477477
www.connectcounselling.ie
Lines open until midnight tonight
The Samaritans: 1850 609090 or from NI & UK 0845 7909090
www.samaritans.ie
Lines open 24 hours
Prime Time - 7th February 2013
A done deal, although that was almost lost in translation. The ECB Governing Council, said President Mario Draghi, “took note” and did so unanimously.
Tonight, Prime Time will take stock of what that deal means in an extended programme. The promissory notes are torn up and replaced with a “basket” of government bonds; essentially an interest only loan. Is it the game-changer we were promised?
However, fiscal consolidation will have continue apace – so what difference will it make to us? Minister Noonan says it means a billion less cuts and taxes in the 2014 and 2015 budgets (although that still ...
Read More »Prime Time - 5th February 2013
Tonight’s Prime Time, which is live before a studio audience, looks at the big story of the day – the report into the Magdalen Laundries which has found a “significant” level of State involvement in sending women to these “lonely and frightening” places.
More than a quarter of the 11,500 women who passed through ten institutions between 1922 and 1996 were sent there by the state or court order.
The stories of the experiences of the women who lived and worked in these laundries have been well-documented by Prime Time and elsewhere, and the report confirms a harsh environment ...
Read More »Prime Time - 4th February 2013 (VIDEO)
Kevin Burns blogs about his report on how unprovoked assaults, and even one punch, can have fatal consequences:
As far as I know David Dorr and Treasa Walsh have never met, but if they did they would find that they share a lot of qualities. They are both very strong parents who have become inspirational figures for others through their own personal pain. But if it wasn’t for the intervention of tragedy only their families and friends would have known about their strength. They are both enduring every parent’s nightmare, their sons went out one night and never ...
Read More »Prime Time - 10th January 2013
On tonight's programme:
The issue of abortion has, perhaps more than any other subject, divided this country for more than three decades. Recent events have again brought the debate back into sharp focus but one thing is clear; the Fine Gael/Labour Government is committed to making provisions for the X Case Supreme Court ruling through a combination of legislation and regulation.
The last three days have seen medical and legal experts, representatives from churches, faith groups and other interested parties on both sides of the debate make their submissions to the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children. Regardless ...
Read More »Prime Time - 8th January 2013
On tonight’s programme:
Last night saw the fifth consecutive night of rioting in East Belfast, where anger among loyalist communities over the Union flag controversy has refused to subsidise. Barry Cummins has the latest on the disturbances and Miriam O’Callaghan will be presenting live from Belfast, joined by Willie Frazer of the Ulster People’s Forum and (via link from London) Alliance Party MP Naomi Long.
We’ll also be examining the delay that has left thousands of third level students still awaiting their grants. With many now relying on food donations just to get by, is the ...
Read More »America Decides
Robert Shortt blogs ahead of tonight's coverage of the US Presidential Election:
It’s quiet, cold and the sun is shining. Washington DC is eerily calm. It’s a professional city, full of ambitious people caught up in the cut and thrust of politics and all of its attendant courtiers in the lobbying and policy worlds.
But the two tribes of American politics have migrated to the seven or so battleground states where this closest of elections has been fought. Some think they may even stay there for a while longer, if a close vote leads to challenges over ...
Read More »Prime Time - 30th October 2012
On tonight’s programme:
With just over a week to go until the Children Referendum, Rita O’Reilly examines the arguments from both the Yes and No campaigns, speaking to both advocates and legal experts, as well as hearing from abuse victims who have strong reason for taking their respective positions. In studio, Richard Crowley will chair the debate, with solicitor Catherine Ghent making the case for the Yes campaign and former MEP Kathy Sinnott putting representing the No side.
Recent high-profile and tragic teen suicides have again brought the issue of online bullying, and bullying in general, back into ...
Read More »Prime Time - 4th October 2012
Robert Shortt blogs ahead of his report tonight on buy-to-let mortgages:
Our property boom and bust is a saga with many chapters: Anglo, the Bailout, the travails of Family Quinn and the ongoing diplomatic machinations surrounding our legacy of bank debt. One chapter only partially opened is the buy-to-let sector.
Back in the boom, it was hard to hop into a taxi without emerging with information on the property portfolios of a nation in thrall to the wonders of upward only property prices.
At the height of the boom, investors big and small piled into buy-to-let property. Sweetners like interest ...
Prime Time - 27th September 2012
Paul Maguire blogs ahead of his report tonight examining the controversial and divisive issue of assited suicide and right to die legislation. Also tonight, after a very difficult week for the coalition, Prime Time looks at the aftermath of Róisín Shortall's decision to resign as junior minister, we'll also be joined via satellite link from New York by Tánaiste and Labour Party Leader Eamon Gilmore.
Right To Die/Right To Live
It’s almost 20 years since suicide was decriminalised in Ireland.
However, under the Suicide Act 1993, it is still a criminal act to ...
Read More »Prime Time - Magdalenes
Tanya Sillem blogs ahead of her report on the Magdalene Laundries on tonight's Prime Time:
Mary Merritt’s husband sobbed all the way through her interview for Prime Time. Bill Merritt is the sole witness to the years of misery suffered by his wife since leaving the Magdalene laundry at High Park in 1960. Now 81, Mary says that even now she wakes up crying: "My husband will tell you I wake up at night crying, thinking about what my life was. I should have forgotten about it after the years, but I can’t."
It was only after ...
Prime Time - 18th September 2012
On tonight’s programme:
It could be said that one profession guaranteed to thrive in a recession is that of the Opposition TD. The Government of the day is tasked with making the unpalatable decisions to rescue the country’s economy and the hurlers on the ditch can score political points without needing to break much of a sweat. With the Dáil resuming today after the summer break, the Fine Gael/Labour coalition can look forward to a winter of discontent blowing from the opposition benches, as the other side of the house reacts to the €3.5 billion ...
Read More »Department of Justice statement on the release of Malcolm MacArthur
Mr MacArthur was approved for reviewable temporary release under the supervision of the Probation Service from Monday 17 September, 2012.
While it is not the policy of the Department of Justice and Equality to comment on individual cases this can be merited as in this case where the particular circumstances and the public interest in a case which shocked the nation so many years ago.
In 2011, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, Mr Alan Shatter TD, approved a structured programme of temporary release for Mr Malcolm MacArthur who was convicted of murder in 1982.
Mr MacArthur has now ...
Read More »Prime Time - 11th September 2012
Barry Cummins' blog on tonight's programme
Last weekend, the so called Real IRA gave a show of strength on the streets of Donaghmede in north Dublin.
A volley of shots was fired as the coffin of murdered Real IRA man Alan Ryan was being brought from his home at Grange Abbey Drive to the nearby church.
Four men and two women dressed in paramilitary uniforms marched in front of the coffin.
And gardaí did not intervene, citing concerns for public safety.
So what now, as gardaí investigate the brutal murder of Alan Ryan and also seek to investigate the ...
Weapon Of Choice
Barry Cummins blogs ahead of tonight's programme:
There are more pipe bombs on our streets now than any time over the last 30 years.65 viable devices have been found in ten different counties so far this year. 11 of those devices have actually exploded, the other 54 were found and made safe before they had the chance to explode.
Not since the 1970s and the height of the Troubles have as many Improvised Explosive Devices either exploded or been made safe by Army Bomb Disposal Teams. Where once it was paramilitaries planting these devices, now it’s largely ...
Read More »Taken For Granted
On tonight's programme:
“There is a general view shared by many people including myself that the present system is not as fair as it could be. If we can get that fairer system, well let’s go and get that fairer system, making sure that it actually works properly."
So said Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn TD, on the News At One yesterday while discussing the “pressure” his coalition partners are under from farmers and the self-employed in relation to proposed reform of the €400 Million grants system.
If a student applies for a grant and their parents are ...
Read More »Prime Time - 9th August 2012
On tonight's programme:
Katie Taylor today took gold in her historic boxing victory over Russia's Sofya Ochigava and London 2012 has been an Olympic Games to remember for Ireland's athletes, with a medal haul that is currently our best since 1956, and may yet even eclipse that. With the exceptional performance of the boxing team, Prime Time asks just what they're doing right and what it would take for our other sports to yield similar returns. Team GB have jumped up the medals table this time but after spending hundreds of millions. In our time of ...
Read More »Prime Time - 5th July 2012
Donogh Diamond blogs ahead of tonight's report on property prices:
“Anecdotal evidence” is an expression that pops up a lot in discussions of property prices, which it probably shouldn’t, since it’s almost a contradiction in terms. An “anecdote” is a tale to tell in an after-dinner speech or to your mates in the pub. It is, at best, one step up from a “shaggy-dog story”. It is not far from the antithesis of “evidence”; something tangible, something checkable, something that in other circumstances might be the basis for taking away someone’s liberty.
But in discussions of ...
Prime Time - 5th July 2012 (Part 2)
Barry Cummins blogs ahead of tonight's programme:
Just over four months ago, a major piece of criminal legislation was found to be unconstitutional. The ramifications have been far reaching, with many murder investigations and other serious criminal investigations being affected.
For 36 years, Gardaí had the power to issue their own search warrants. It was a simple process, if you were a Garda and believed you might find evidence relating to firearms or explosives in a particular place, you could go to your Superintendent and get him or her to sign what was called a Section 29 search warrant ...
Justice Delayed (VIDEO)
On last night's programme, Barry Cummins reported on one very brave man who suffered catastrophic injuries in a knife attack in 2003. Over the last few months, Prime Time has spent time with Daniel O'Haire as he waited to finally see his attacker being brought to justice. Now that has happened we can finally tell Daniel's heart rending story which shows how victims of crime suffer long after the crime itself.
See below to view the report.
Read More »Prime Time - 28th June 2012
On tonight's programme:
Parts of Ireland have once again found themselves underwater, as heavy rain in Belfast and Cork overnight left roads closed, and homes and businesses submerged. With the country's flood defences again in sharp focus, Donogh Diamond will be live from Cork to bring us the latest on the chaos and damage caused, and to ask if any lessons have really been learned from similar incidents over the past three years.
Also tonight, Oonagh Smyth reports from Brussels from the EU leaders summit, as the Euro crisis enters a crucial phase. Minister for European Affairs Lucinda ...
Read More »The Deal In Dublin
On tonight's programme:
Yellows . . . Blueys . . . Zimmos . . . Gear . . . Juice . . . Brown . . . Dollys . . .Qs . . .
Street-level drug dealing in Dublin City exists in its own world, its own language.
Every day in 100sq metre area around O’Connell Street, Dublin drugs are openly bought and sold with the public oblivious to what’s happening.
It’s a cat and mouse game between Gardaí and Dealers, say local shopkeepers.
Dealers know they have a captive market, though. Within walking distance of O’Connell Street, there are numerous drug treatment clinics operating.
An “absolute killer”, one drug addict states about the fact he takes 100km ...
