The Ambassador Theatre in Dublin is preparing to host a run of a play about a person its website describes as “one of the most compelling and polarising figures in modern Irish history”.
Sinéad O’Connor? Bertie Ahern? Roy Keane?
“It’s a working-class story,” said Rex Ryan, director, writer and star of The Monk, in which he plays Gerry Hutch, the veteran criminal and aspirant Dublin Central byelection candidate who is being pursued for almost €800,000 by the Criminal Assets Bureau and Revenue.
Ryan (35) and Hutch (62) this week spoke to reporters at the Ambassador in advance the play’s run from this Monday to Saturday. The director denied glamorising a man who in late 2024 was released on €100,000 bail after being arrested as part of a Spanish money-laundering inquiry.
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Ryan said he was offering an honest representation of Hutch’s life, beginning in the Special Criminal Court in 2023 just before he was acquitted of the murder of Kinahan organised crime group member David Byrne.
“Gerry bears witness to his lifetime of alleged crimes, triumphs and misdemeanours,” the blurb states.
Ryan said he consulted Hutch on aspects of the script but added the protagonist would not financially benefit from the production.
Hutch said he had not yet seen the play, which previously ran at the Glass Mask Theatre on Dawson Street, but planned to next week.
While he was happy to pose for cameras, Hutch was less enthusiastic about answering questions. When pressed on his links to crime, he snapped: “This is a play, I’m not going to talk about gardaí.”
Praise for Offaly man as Fianna Fáil centenary kicks off in Laois
Buckle up: the centenary of Fianna Fáil’s foundation will be upon us in May, and Taoiseach Micheál Martin last weekend kicked off a roadshow marking 100 years of the Soldiers of Destiny. The first stop: Laois.
In an address to hundreds of members in Portlaoise, Martin said the county has been “a bedrock” through the good times and bad for “what is one of the most successful parties in the history of democratic Europe”.
It can be hard to escape your neighbours, and Laois spent much of the past century shackled to Offaly as a single Dáil constituency. However, the counties were separated in 2024.
Martin reminded his audience of the old days early in his speech, offering warm words for none other than the man he in 2011 opted not to vote confidence in and later replaced as party leader, former taoiseach Brian Cowen, who was in attendance.
“Brian is one of the most famous sons of Offaly, and of course proud of this, but he was also proud to be TD for Laois as well as his native county for 27 years,” he said.
“Brian served his constituents, his party and his country with dignity and honour throughout his long career. It was a privilege to serve with and under him in government.”
To the relief of some present, Martin found kind words for some Laois representatives past and present, too.
These included the late Paddy Lalor, a former minister who in 1949 was the last man to captain Laois in an All-Ireland final (beating Offaly in a “Battle of the Bog” en route), and Laois TD Sean Fleming, described as “one of the most hard-working members of Dáil Éireann”.
Corruption ‘risks’ remain but Ireland at cleaner end of rankings
Transparency International this week placed Ireland at the cleaner end of its Corruption Perceptions Index, even if some still believe the brown envelope plays a role in public life.
Using a scale from zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean), the index ranks 182 countries and territories according to perceived levels of corruption.
With a score of 76, Ireland finished in joint 12th place, tied with Australia and ahead of Canada (75), the UK (70) and the US (64), which fell to its lowest ranking.
However, the watchdog’s Irish branch warned “the absence of daily headlines about corruption does not mean the risks have disappeared”.
“Corruption and illicit financial flows through Dublin pose threats to social cohesion, as well as economic integrity and democratic resilience,” said Transparency International Ireland chief executive John Devitt.
“This has always been the case, but is especially so given recent political developments on both sides of the Atlantic and corresponding rise of anti-democratic forces across Europe.”
The group called on the Government to enact long-promised reforms of the Ethics Acts, strengthen enforcement of political finance rules, and increase transparency around sources of lobbying funding.
The global average score in TI’s rankings has fallen to 42 out of 100, and 122 of the 182 countries assessed score below 50, indicating the organisation believes there are serious corruption problems internationally.
Denmark (89), Finland (88) and Singapore (84) were the cleanest countries, with Venezuela (10), Somalia (9) and South Sudan (9) regarded as the most corrupt countries.
Loss or theft of 150,000 Irish passports in five years ‘startling’
The Irish passport has long ranked among the world’s most prized travel documents due to the number of countries it provides visa-free access to and the strength of its security features.
But with more than 150,000 of them reported as being lost or stolen over the past five years, it seems a cohort of holders take its value somewhat for granted.
A total of 32,230 passports were reported lost last year, with a further 2,712 said to have been stolen, Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee said in response to a parliamentary question from Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly, who described the numbers as “startling”.
The 2025 figure was the highest since 2022, when applications surged as many were reintroduced to the concept of foreign travel after the down years of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The figures for passports reported as lost is startling,” Farrelly said. “However, I absolutely accept that people can misplace them or genuinely lose the document. But the figure for stolen passports, of over 14,000 stolen over seven years, is concerning.”
McEntee said Interpol was notified of the loss or theft of passports, which was “taken very seriously” as it “compromises the safety and security” of personal data and can result in fraud.
A ranking index compiled by Henley and Partners, which advises wealthy people on citizenship and residency, puts the Irish passport in a tie for the fourth most prized in the world, allowing holders visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 185 countries. Singapore tops the list (192 countries) and Afghanistan is at the bottom (24).
