Politicians, regulators and technology leaders gathered in Dublin this week for the AI Summit, one of the landmark events of the Irish presidency of the Council of the EU.
The questions raised by the acceleration of the technology are real, and potentially existential. For Europe, the prospect of being left behind once more is particularly pressing after years in which the EU’s economic growth has stalled and slipped ever further behind the US and China.
Then there is the looming prospect of mass job displacement and the social dislocation that could follow in its wake. Above all of this hovers the prospect, promoted most vociferously by some AI companies themselves, that these systems are advancing so rapidly that they may soon escape human control and threaten the survival of our species.
Meanwhile, the industry’s seemingly insatiable appetite for ever more computing power is driving a data centre construction boom across the world.
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Ireland has been among Europe’s most enthusiastic hosts of those centres. But while the Government argues that their continued construction is essential if Ireland is to retain multinational investment, there are stirrings of local dissent in communities next to proposed sites for new centres.
Kilmeaden in Co Waterford was once known for its eponymous cheese. Now, the site of its defunct dairy plant has been earmarked for a 108-hectare data centre. Cian O’Connell meets the village residents who are following the example of towns in the US and resisting the development.
Minister for Culture Patrick O’Donovan was in the news last week when he took ill at a meeting of EU telecoms ministers in Limerick. It came just hours after he had criticised colleagues for anonymously telling journalists that his illness – O’Donovan has epilepsy – could make it difficult for him to continue as Minister. Jack Horgan-Jones and Pat Leahy look back at a dramatic week.
The severe effects of cuts to aid funding from the United States and elsewhere on Irish agencies working in the developing world – and, as a result, on those they assist – has been under-reported over the past two years. Some of the facts and figures reported by Paul Colgan in his review of the funding crisis, including staff cuts of more than one-third and the closure of country offices, are eye-opening.
Public sector workers in Ireland went on strike last Wednesday. A second stoppage planned for next week has been called off pending talks. In France, meanwhile, a row over education funding has pitted students against state authorities, leading to confrontations on the streets of many cities. Naomi O’Leary, our correspondent in Paris, has a revealing story on an obscure line in French teachers’ payslips and what it tells us about the state of modern France.
In the same section, Derek Scally writes about how Germany is losing patience with Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Keith Duggan in Michigan reports on the remarkable rise of Abdul el-Sayed, who is fighting for a senate seat for the Democrats in the Midwest.
Vincent Browne, a celebrated journalist who edited Magill when the news magazine broke some of the biggest stories of the day, has written a biography of former taoiseach Charles Haughey. Browne was one of the most tenacious journalists in pursuing Haughey in the 1980s, but he befriended him in the years before Haughey’s death – a relationship that Browne draws on in his new book. In a fascinating interview with Colm Keena, Browne concludes that “on the balance of his [Haughey’s] achievements and his depredations, I’m afraid the depredations win”. Keena also asks Browne about his own management style - he had a reputation as an employer for being intimidating and a bully – but Browne is much less keen on talking about that. It’s worth a read.
Patrick Freyne and Nick Bradshaw travelled to Alicante in Spain to report on a week-long holiday with a group of mostly retired Irish tourists, six former Eurovision winners and one Marty Morrissey. Read here to find out what goes on during a “Marty Party” package break.
Orla Poole – a survivor of abuse by paedophile swimming coach George Gibney - spoke with enormous courage outside court on Monday, after her tormentor was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Another brave woman, Karen Leach, suffered similar abuse as a child at the hands of swimming coach Derry O’Rourke. She writes here about the day her happy childhood ended.
Elsewhere in Opinion, David McWilliams points out that the Gaeltacht is dying because its people cannot find houses there; Rachel O’Dwyer writes about shopping without spending money; and Pat Leahy explains why some public servants need a pay rise more than others.
There are some strong interviews across the site this weekend, including conversations with Ger Loughnane, David Byrne and Elif Shafak. I also enjoyed Denis Walsh’s piece on the flourishing of GAA comedy and Karl McDonald’s minute-by-minute analysis of Mark Zuckerberg’s unconvincing attempt to drink a pint.
Finally, Irish Times journalists this week secured 33 nominations for the 2026 Irish Journalism Awards in categories ranging from investigations and foreign reporting to video, business journalism and arts criticism. All of that work is made possible by subscribers like you.
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