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The Pat Kenny Show

Sunday Papers Review

21 Jun 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What stories are highlighted from the Sunday newspapers?

0.031 - 6.943 Pat Kenny

We want to kick off the show with Gabia Gatavaskaita, the BBC's Dublin correspondent, who's going to take us through the Sunday newspapers. Gabia, good morning.

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7.023 - 7.644 Gabija Gatavecaite

Good morning, Pat.

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7.925 - 20.166 Pat Kenny

Now, I suppose the Sunday newspapers are always in danger of being gazumped by unfolding events. And we have really two, one very sad story from Ireland and one political story from the UK, which have broken.

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20.146 - 34.666 Gabija Gatavecaite

Yes, of course. Well, the Donegal rally taking place this weekend and a teenage boy has died and two others were injured following a crash during the rally. And the accident happened during the 12th stage of the motorsport event, which is close to the village of Kilmacrennan.

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34.786 - 49.915 Gabija Gatavecaite

And it is understood, as RT reported yesterday, that one of the competing cars veered close to the edge of a section of the road. on the Garton stage of the rally and collided with a number of spectators. So three people were injured and transferred by ambulance to Letterkenny University Hospital.

50.336 - 57.392 Gabija Gatavecaite

One was pronounced dead a short time later and it is understood he was in his mid-teens and from County Donegal. So very sad news.

57.372 - 75.617 Pat Kenny

And the rally has been called off as a result, the rest of the proceedings of the weekend. Going to Britain now. And we saw what happened when Andy Burnham got himself elected and returned to the Commons. And we knew there'd be implications. And, of course, Keir Starmer said, I'm going to fight on. I'm going to contest. If there is a candidate in the ring, I'm going to fight.

Chapter 2: What tragic event occurred at the Donegal rally?

76.018 - 77.119 Pat Kenny

He's not, it might appear.

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77.099 - 94.045 Gabija Gatavecaite

Well, we're looking at Sky News here on the monitor and it says Sky News understands ForeignSec tells PM to resign and seems that the House of Cards is very much so falling for Keir Starmer. He's expected to announce on Monday that he will step down as Britain's Prime Minister. I think it was The Observer that first reported this yesterday.

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94.025 - 114.97 Gabija Gatavecaite

There's overwhelming pressure from Labour MPs to make way for Andy Burnham, for him to become leader. So it was Business Secretary Peter Kyle who was doing the rounds this morning and he said that Starmer is spending the weekend, quote, making time to reflect on the political realities he faces. I mean, the writing's all there, isn't it really, Pat?

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114.95 - 128.158 Pat Kenny

Game over. It's interesting. I mean, people are saying, you know, Britain's going to be like Italy with 10 prime ministers in as many years, that kind of thing. And I would say to Andy Burnham, be careful what you wish for. This may not be a bed of roses.

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128.378 - 147.709 Gabija Gatavecaite

Well, certainly, if you look at the... The time that previous other UK prime ministers have had, Boris Johnson, Theresa May, Rishi Sunak, they have not been there very long and they've had a very tough time. And I think as a result of all these things, the root issue of all these things is what we're all celebrating, 10 years of Brexit.

147.789 - 152.276 Gabija Gatavecaite

So whoever is a step from next to the plate, they have their work cut out for them, I think.

152.356 - 157.123 Pat Kenny

And Brexit is memorialised in some of the papers. But let's go through what stories have caught your eye.

157.508 - 175.527 Gabija Gatavecaite

Yes, well, look, there's a lot of it in the papers today. I want to start off with the Mail on Sunday, who is leading off with the newly appointed junior minister, Catherine Ardagh. And the Mail is reporting that a legal firm co-owned by the minister acts as a debt collector for one of the country's biggest private nursing home providers.

176.108 - 197.879 Gabija Gatavecaite

Now, Fianna Fáil TD Catherine Ardagh, she was promoted to fill in the space left vacant by independent minister Michael Healy-Ray yesterday. And she is a solicitor and she has been for a while. And now she's supposedly, you know, she's finishing off her stake and she's dissolving her role in the business. But the Mail has done quite a deep dive on it.

Chapter 3: What political implications arise from Keir Starmer's leadership?

264.023 - 281.79 Gabija Gatavecaite

Well, I wanted to touch on Veronica Guerin because on Friday it'll be 30 years when she was killed. You know, she was driving in her car, as of course we know. June 26, 1996, she was shot and killed when she was driving her car. She was actually up in court that morning.

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282.291 - 300.138 Gabija Gatavecaite

And yesterday I actually spent quite a bit of time looking back on Veronica Guerin because Matt Cooper's podcast, Path to Power, has a whole episode dedicated to it. She's one of the reasons I think myself and many other young reporters got into journalism. I watched the interview that she did with none other than yourself, Pat Kenny, on Kenny Live sometime before she died.

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300.239 - 319.307 Gabija Gatavecaite

But there is a number of tributes to her in the Sunday Independent and also in the Business Post too. But it's Jimmy, her brother, and his sisters Marie Therese Branigan and Claire O'Brien and his wife Luanne. They're paying tribute to Veronica, what she was like as... a daughter, as a sister, as a mother.

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320.048 - 338.769 Gabija Gatavecaite

One interesting tidbit, Marie Therese recalls a childhood memory of the family sitting in the television room looking at a film and the scary part, Veronica jumped up and ran out. She put her head back in a few minutes and said, is it over yet? Is that finished? Is that part finished? And then she came back and sat down to look at the rest of it. So it just shows the kind of person she was.

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338.829 - 345.516 Gabija Gatavecaite

She was not mad into scary films or seeing scary things, but she was, of course, extremely courageous and very, very brave in her work.

345.496 - 368.267 Pat Kenny

And I remember the person who was being fingered for her murder was a man called Dutchie Holland. And I was sent over to interview the aforementioned Dutchie Holland in London, in Jury's Hotel in Kensington, it was, where we met. And we didn't tell anyone we were going. But lo and behold, the Director General got a phone call from the guards telling the Director General what we were at.

368.287 - 385.624 Pat Kenny

And we got a phone call from the Director General saying, no matter what you've got, you're not broadcasting it. So... Anyway, there's a lot of intrigue and all of that undercover stuff surrounding the death of Veronica Geeran. I'm not sure if it's ever been resolved satisfactorily what the entire plot was all about.

385.664 - 394.858 Gabija Gatavecaite

Not really. And I think the way that I would think about it is what would Veronica think if she was here today and how would her life have indeed unfolded? And so Niamh Warren asked.

394.838 - 412.028 Gabija Gatavecaite

to Jimmy Guerin 30 years after her murder what would Veronica think of the scale and influence of Ireland's underworld today and Jimmy was silent and he said look I think she'd look around and say what an awful price to pay for nothing because her life was taken and we missed opportunities to bring about change And we didn't bring about that change.

Chapter 4: How is Catherine Ardagh's ministerial role under scrutiny?

755.203 - 761.029 Pat Kenny

This is Peter Kyle, business secretary, being interviewed by Sky News. Trevor Phillips this morning.

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761.498 - 765.942

Do you think that he thinks it is now in the interest of the country that he should stand down?

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767.023 - 786.923

All I think is that he, all I know for a fact is that he has been engaging in conversations with a wide range of people, including myself, and that he is, as well as working really hard over this weekend, I think he is making time to reflect on the political realities, challenges and opportunities that he finds himself in.

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787.523 - 791.434 Pat Kenny

And what is that, an object lesson and how not to answer a question? What do you think, Peter?

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791.795 - 792.717 Gabija Gatavecaite

I'm not telling you.

793.378 - 795.081 Pat Kenny

I'm telling you what he's thinking, but not me.

795.282 - 812.295 Gabija Gatavecaite

Look, I think if he's sitting back to think about his future, that's pretty clear in fairness. I mean, the issue is for political leaders. Once they say their authority is in any way in doubt or that perhaps they're not hanging on for as long as they should, they basically, that authority totally dissolves and they best make a move for it.

812.393 - 828.158 Pat Kenny

Gavin mentioned the Sunday World, by the way. The front page is entirely Barbie gets the boot. Sex offender Barbie Kardashian faces eviction for using council flat for prostitution. She admits to filming clients during sex work, but claims she was the perfect tenant.

828.408 - 835.946 Gabija Gatavecaite

Yes, and we have seen many reports about Barbie Kardashian ever since she came out of prison. And of course, you know, she's done a few media interviews and so on as well.

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