What is the internet doing to us? Also, what is the internet today? Media entrepreneur Mark Little knows better than most. He talks to Dion Fanning about his new book The Last Good Day on the Internet, where it all went wrong and what we can do to make it right.
Siobhán Fenton went to work for Sinn Féin hoping to make a difference when they achieved power in the south. Instead, from 2020 to 2024, the party moved further from power. She talks to Dion Fanning about how and why it all went wrong.
What happens when a business suddenly can’t operate as normal?
It could be a cyberattack, a cloud outage, a critical supplier failing or some other major disruption. In that situation, you can’t necessarily keep everything running. So the crucial question is: what has to keep working?
That is the thinking behind PwC’s Minimum Viable Company framework — identifying the smallest set of capabilities that must remain operational to keep an organisation viable through severe disruption.
In this episode of The Tech Agenda, Ian Kehoe is joined by Moira Cronin, Digital Risk and Resilience Partner at PwC Ireland, and Rachel Higham, an experienced non-executive director and former FTSE 100 CIO, to talk about what genuine resilience looks like, how companies identify what is truly critical, and what boards should be asking before a crisis happens. The Tech Agenda podcast series is sponsored by PwC.
Ivan Yates is back with a book which he says is not about him but about you and how he can help in the game of life. He talks to Dion Fanning about leaving the Path to Power podcast, loyalty and why he has now embraced snowflakery.
Brian Cowen was considered one of Irish politics’s brightest lights. He was elected as a TD when he was 24, but by the age of 51, he had retired from office. Gary Murphy’s new biography looks at Cowen in the round. He talks to Dion Fanning about how Cowen feels about his time in office and the calamities that befell him and the country.
Danny McCoy has spent more than two decades watching Ireland’s economy from the front row, including 17 years as chief executive of IBEC. In this podcast with Ian Kehoe, he argues that Ireland is once again enjoying an extraordinary period of economic strength — but risks wasting it.
McCoy draws a sharp distinction between today’s economy and the Celtic Tiger era, pointing to the strength of household and corporate balance sheets and the State’s much-improved debt position. But he warns that the current flow of corporation tax receipts could encourage complacency and excessive spending.
He also discusses infrastructure, housing, defence, geopolitics and the prospect of public-sector strikes.
And there is a more personal conversation about leadership, where McCoy reflects on what 17 years at the helm of Ibec have taught him.
Carlo Gebler talks to Dion Fanning about his mother Edna O’ Brien and his new memoir about her final years. He wonders about society’s attitude to death and how we ignore this great terror we all must face.
David Gillick talks to Dion Fanning about how Irish athletics has transformed, why the focus on the Olympics was so draining and what he did to pull himself out of the darkness when he finished with sport.
Mark Zuckerberg’s purchase of Strancally Castle in Waterford made international headlines. But what does it tell us about the world we live in today when a Big Tech overlord purchases a castle? Is this simply a retelling of the days before independence when the community was dependent on the Big House for their livelihoods? Dion Fanning talks to Professor Terence Dooley about the history of the great houses and what might link the past to Zuckerberg.
Over many years, John Ware shone a light on some of the darkest practices during the Troubles. At Panorama, he was supported at all times by the BBC. He talks to Dion Fanning about Jason Arday, the British media today and why the BBC and RTE must be supported.
Who are the Healy-Raes? Do they represent all that is wrong with Irish politics or are they smarter and better at their job than most? A new documentary charts their journey from the time after the last election when Michael Healy-Rae became a minister to the astonishing days when he resigned from government. Dion Fanning talks to filmmaker Jerry Kennelly.
