Gript

It’s twenty five years on from the September 11th attacks. Most of us will remember where we were – I was almost five. Yet I vividly remember being outside with a child-minder playing on our climbing frame when the news broke. If you were old enough to be cognizant, you’ll remember. We still have a newspaper stashed away from the next morning, carrying the haunting image of the moment the twin towers fell.

A retired Garda Superintendent accused of facilitating a criminal organisation has been further charged with conspiring with a detective to deceive people out of money. Meanwhile, a former co-defendant, Garda Detective Inspector Brian Roberts (51), walked free from court on Friday after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) dropped the case against him.

MPs have voted against a Bill to legalise assisted suicide in England and Wales. 286 MPs voted against and 270 in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill – which would have allowed some adults with terminal conditions to end their lives through assisted suicide. There were cheers in the House of Commons from opponents and deflation from supporters of the Bill which MPs had initially backed last year.

As readers will be aware, a plan by a company called Townbe to use the former Crown Paints site in Coolock as a large IPAS centre was abandoned in May 2025. That came in the middle of a prolonged High Court case taken by Alan Croghan and others, and thousands strong protests that peaked in July 2024. This morning the owners, who are the Howard family, began to clear the site (see video below) and have announced that work proper is to commence on Monday, September 14.

Organisers say another wave of widespread demonstrations is very likely, warning that the state is failing ordinary citizens while actively reaping record tax revenues from fuel sales.

The protests are happening already, along with the tales of woe choreographed by the media, and the declamatory statements from the NGOs. But the proposal to move requirements away from the current ridiculous situation where, relatively speaking, we are handing citizenship out like smarties, is long overdue. Citizenship brings rights and privileges. It puts newcomers to the country on the same level as those whose people have lived here for generations  – even for centuries and millennia.

Planned increases to public transport fares have been strongly criticised by a Fianna Fáil councillor who said the decision “doesn’t make sense” ahead of the difficult winter period. Speaking in an interview with Gript this week, Ballymun-Finglas representative Cllr. Keith Connolly said that keeping costs “as low as possible is important”.

A Romanian court is seeking the extradition of a Romanian national who is wanted in relation to an outstanding prison sentence. Mr Justice Patrick McGrath, presiding over the Extradition Court in Dublin, heard that the man was arrested in Ireland on foot of an SIS (Schengen Information System) alert. This article is premium content Get unlimited access to Gript Support Gript and get exclusive content, full archives and an ad-free experience Subscribe Already a member? Sign in here

Further fuel protests are “very likely” this year, organiser James Geoghan has warned. In an interview with Gript this week, Geoghan said people “can’t keep going” at current prices and that there would be more demonstrations when “your back is to the wall and you’ve nothing to lose.” This article is premium content Get unlimited access to Gript Support Gript and get exclusive content, full archives and an ad-free experience Subscribe Already a member? Sign in here

A BBC presenter was left speechless after an expert she described as the ‘godfather of AI” said that a 10% chance of AI killing all humans seems not “an unreasonable estimate”. The issue became a hot topic of conversation after researchers who worked or had worked at the California-based artificial intelligence company, Anthropic, and at Open AI warned that AI is advancing so quickly that it could pose an existential risk to humanity.