The author of a new novel, A Nation Once Again, has some questions about the prospect of Irish unity. “What can we live with? We don’t like it, but what are we prepared to live with to live in peace?” Howard says Ireland's Call would make for a perfect new national anthem "because nobody likes it, but nobody vehemently hates it. And anyone who tells you they hate it, they’re exaggerating. It’s a song written to inspire absolute indifference.”
He says he grew up in an era when events in Northern Ireland were "the first three items on the news", but the reality for people under 35, “especially in this part of the island", is entirely different. "They don’t really have any connection to the Troubles or any memory of the Troubles. It’s so remote from their experience, you might as well be talking to them about the Boer War as talking to them about the Troubles."
He started out at Hot Press after knocking his UCD law degree on the head, knowing he was on the side of right, because he had heard God Save The Queen by the Sex Pistols at full blast in his front room while his fellow students were busy attending dinner parties. That time in his life shaped Declan Lynch's worldview and his new book about journalism in the glory days is full of stories that illustrate not only the sense that mavericks were at work, but that working with them was the best job in the world.
As companies across the world implement AI, it is clear there are some emerging as early winners. PwC’s most recent AI performance survey has found that three-quarters of the economic gains derived from AI have been generated by just a fifth of businesses.
For Joe Atkinson, PwC’s global chief AI officer, it is the companies that are embracing AI for growth – not just efficiency – who are performing best.
In a wide-ranging discussion, Atkinson talks about how businesses can communicate the implementation of AI to their teams, why the days of tech jobs and non-tech jobs are at an end, and how more jobs are being created in industries that are facing the most disruption from the breakthrough technology. The Tech Agenda podcast series is sponsored by PwC.
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.
