Aug 24, 2026 · 47 min · 10 segments
As new data shows a 32% rise in wrong-way driving incidents on Irish motorways, pressure is mounting on TikTok and other social media platforms following the fatal M9 crash. With a rush for new…
John LeeHost
Alison O'ConnorGuest
Barra RoantreeGuest
Mick CliffordGuest
Alison, in the coverage, and it's a big news story that we're still talking about it, so...
But has there been, to your eyes, sufficient empathy for the five people who did lose their lives in the crash? Let's leave out what they were doing on the evening.
But do you feel in the so many words written and so much spoken about the issues that there has been an understanding of the fact that there was five human beings?
And I think you have to couch that when you're talking about it with the detail of what they were doing and of the consequences of that and of the three women and the child who were so badly injured.
But you have to say that these were, I mean, I have teenagers at home and I still consider them children.
We know that some of them had criminal records and were in the care of TUSLA.
But I think it's quite shocking how we have some of the response that a death notice had to be something that's kind of all our rituals around death in Ireland are quite sacred, but that a death notice had to be taken down.
that nobody, everybody is, I mean, as you say, we're still discussing it a week later, I think entirely legitimately, people are really shocked by what happened and the public have an awful lot of questions, particularly, I think, of politicians and relating to laws and that.
But the lack of sort of people looking at the wider context and where everything went wrong for these boys has left me shocked, yeah.
Mick, I was probably in the Hangham High camp myself for a while, but it's the value of journalism.
Alison, in the coverage, and it's a big news story that we're still talking about it, so...
But has there been, to your eyes, sufficient empathy for the five people who did lose their lives in the crash? Let's leave out what they were doing on the evening.
But do you feel in the so many words written and so much spoken about the issues that there has been an understanding of the fact that there was five human beings?
And I think you have to couch that when you're talking about it with the detail of what they were doing and of the consequences of that and of the three women and the child who were so badly injured.
But you have to say that these were, I mean, I have teenagers at home and I still consider them children.
We know that some of them had criminal records and were in the care of TUSLA.
But I think it's quite shocking how we have some of the response that a death notice had to be something that's kind of all our rituals around death in Ireland are quite sacred, but that a death notice had to be taken down.
that nobody, everybody is, I mean, as you say, we're still discussing it a week later, I think entirely legitimately, people are really shocked by what happened and the public have an awful lot of questions, particularly, I think, of politicians and relating to laws and that.
But the lack of sort of people looking at the wider context and where everything went wrong for these boys has left me shocked, yeah.
Mick, I was probably in the Hangham High camp myself for a while, but it's the value of journalism.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
