Roy Keane continues to have a hold over Ireland. Dave Hannigan’s new book ‘We Need to Talk About Roy’ looks at how Ireland shaped Keane and how Keane changed Ireland. He talks to Dion Fanning about the Keane he observed growing up in Cork at the same time and the man he became.
A letter to Tony O’Reilly changed Kingsley Aikins’s life. His new book on networking looks at how human connection is fundamental to how we live well. He talks to Dion Fanning about the power of human connection, what we lost during lockdowns and his experience working for Tony O’Reilly.
The west of Ireland has proven itself a rich stage for Colin Barrett with the author winning international acclaim for his stories. Now writing his second novel, he talks to Michael Cogley about "getting into the skin" of his characters, movie rights, and why he feels "lucky" to be part of the Irish writing tradition.
Are Irish CEOs moving fast enough on AI?
PwC’s latest Irish CEO survey suggests ambition is not the problem. Almost half of business leaders are entering new sectors. More than two-thirds plan international investments in the year ahead — well above the global average.
But when it comes to artificial intelligence, the returns remain early. Just 17 per cent of Irish CEOs report revenue gains from AI. Only 23 per cent report cost reductions. Meanwhile, global companies that have embedded AI at scale are two to three times more likely to report meaningful financial returns.
The divide is opening.
In this episode of The Tech Agenda, Ian Kehoe speaks to Amy Ball, Reinvention Leader at PwC Ireland, and Kieran Little, partner at Strategy&, PwC Ireland, about what “tech-driven reinvention” actually means – and why pilots and experimentation are no longer enough.
Ball and Little discuss Ireland’s lower risk appetite, the execution gap between strategy and scale, the governance challenge boards are now demanding answers on, and why this may be “a time for big bets”.
Every March, St Patrick’s Day transforms Dublin — but few people know the man helping to turn a single parade into one of Ireland’s biggest cultural and economic events.
Richard Tierney is the CEO of St Patrick’s Festival, the organisation behind Ireland’s national celebration. In thispodcast with Ian Kehoe, Tierney explains how the festival has evolved into a multi-day, citywide programme — with free daytime events, night-time culture and thousands of participants — while still carrying the weight of national identity at home and abroad.
Coming from a background in live entertainment and major commercial deals, Tierney was brought in with a clear brief: make the festival financially sustainable without losing its cultural soul.
What drives Paul Murphy? Maybe not what you think. In this podcast, the People Before Profit TD talks to Dion Fanning about losing his father, why the left must not narrowly focus on class, and why it is important that he doesn’t care what people think.
James Joyce considered it the most Irish thing we had. It has been here for a thousand years and endured many dramas but there are many mysteries about the Book of Kells. Victoria Whitworth talks to Dion Fanning about what she has come to believe about the Book of Kells’s creation and why Irish monks might have nothing to do with it.
Donough Holohan is Director of Performance at the French football club St-Etienne. But he spent 13 years at Manchester City, most recently as Head of Physical Performance. He talks to Dion Fanning about the challenges of working for Pep Guardiola, why he is sometimes a salesman and his dream to work in Ireland.
When Ronaldo was cleared to play at the World Cup despite his sending off in Dublin, it told something of the modern FIFA and what it prioritises. Dion Fanning talks to Jonathan Wilson about his book on the history of the World Cup and why the tournament may be in jeopardy.
Irish business leaders are increasingly convinced that AI agents — autonomous systems capable of analysing information, making decisions and taking action — will reshape the workplace more profoundly than the internet did. Yet despite that conviction, adoption remains stubbornly slow.
In this episode of The Tech Agenda, Ian Kehoe explores the findings of PwC Ireland’s new survey on AI agents, speaking with Robert Byrne, Technology Data & AI Partner at PwC Ireland, and Laoise Mullane, Director and AI Adoption Lead in PwC’s Workforce Advisory practice. Together, they unpack the contradiction at the heart of Agentic AI among Irish businesses: soaring ambition on one side, cautious adoption on the other.
Byrne explains how Irish organisations are starting with back-office productivity gains but have yet to take the bigger leap toward rethinking process and operating model transformation. Mullane highlights the workforce dimension — the trust gaps, the mindset barriers and the cultural unease that arise when technology begins to act rather than simply assist.
The Tech Agenda with Ian Kehoe podcast series is sponsored by PwC.
What is the future for the BBC in a UK which is lurching further rightwards? In this podcast UK political commentator Peter Oborne talks to Dion Fanning about why the BBC is under an existential threat and how it is part of a broader attack on British institutions.
