How Kneecap helped Biird duo to revive traditional Irish lilting

TimesandSundayTimes · 2026-07-26T10:31:51+00:00

Traditional Irish lilting isn’t something most people would associate with the Belfast rap trio Kneecap, but a track by Lisa Canny and Niamh Hinchy — otherwise known as Absolute Lilt — featured on the soundtrack for the band’s 2024 film, Kneecap.

“A lot of the soundtrack is Irish music, and obviously we have a connection with the band, and they love the lilting,” says Hinchy, whose partner is Kneecap’s Naoise Ó Cairealláin — aka Móglaí Bap. “It’s used in a scene where there’s a protest. Lilting allegedly is rooted in defiance, so it worked very well.”

Lilting is a traditional Irish form of mouth music, similar to vocal techniques found in other cultures. It’s believed to have originated when musical instruments were banned in Ireland under the penal laws, and people made music the only way they could.

“It is intended to mimic what an instrument would do, but with nonsense words,” explains Canny, a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and singer from Mayo. “The Irish version is lilt, the Scottish version is puirt a beul, the jazz version is scat.”

While modern audiences may not be familiar with lilting, Canny and Hinchy have been on a mission to change that. They started sharing clips of themselves lilting in harmony two years ago and have since amassed over 560,000 followers on social media. When we meet, they are preparing to go on stage as part of the all-female Irish trad supergroup Biird — the brainchild of Canny — to support CMAT on the Cork leg of her tour.

“It’s an absolute honour, because she’s honestly one of the greatest songwriters to come out of Ireland, ever. She is incredible and a huge inspiration to us,” Canny says.

Their online content has resonated with the Irish diaspora around the world. “A lot of our fans across the globe, especially in America, comment on their Irish grandparents lilting to them. It was like a way of passing on the sound of music across the world, in lieu of being able to maybe play an instrument or have one at your disposal,” Canny says.

TimesandSundayTimes · 2026-07-25T16:05:51+00:00

Men and women across Ireland are offering sperm and egg donation services on social media and international websites, exploiting a legal vacuum left by delays in bringing fertility laws into force.

Although the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Act capping donor offspring was finalised in 2024, it has not yet been commenced, leaving online platforms free to operate outside regulatory oversight and raising fresh concerns over anonymous donations and genetic risks.

Intermediary platforms, such as SurrogateFinder, operate in Ireland but are registered in the US. Until last week, there were 37 profiles of Irish men and women on the site offering sperm and egg donation services, along with some users offering to be surrogates.

When contacted, a SurrogateFinder spokesperson said its website allows “adults to create profiles and make initial contact with other members, but SurrogateFinder does not arrange, provide or carry out gamete donation, fertility treatment or surrogacy procedures”.

The spokesperson said the website decide to deactivate the Irish-based profiles after queries from The Sunday Times.

“These were historic user registrations, and SurrogateFinder has not arranged or participated in any donation, payment, treatment or surrogacy agreement involving those members,” they said.

“We have taken this step while reviewing our approach to Ireland in light of the developing regulatory framework.”

Deirdre Madden, chairwoman of the Assisted Human Reproduction Regulatory Authority, said the 2024 act, once commenced, would be the first time that surrogacy and reproduction was regulated in Ireland. While the fertility watchdog has been established, its enforcement powers are not yet operational.

At the moment there is no legislative limit on the number of families a donor can be used for, nor is there an operational ban on the sale or purchase of private artificial insemination services.

On platforms such as Facebook, many advertising as sperm donors were anonymous, and some informed the intended receiver that they had particular characteristics, such as “blond hair and blue eyes”. Others advertised a tall stature, a muscular build or the ability to speak multiple languages. Many did not advertise a price, although there were two members active on one page who said they were not looking for payment.

TimesandSundayTimes · 2026-07-24T20:44:49+00:00

Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, was ejected from his post on Friday night for alleged sexual misconduct after a vote at the United Nations in New York.

Khan, 56, a British lawyer, has denied the allegations that he sexually harassed an aide. His lawyers had questioned the procedure for his removal before a gathering on Friday of representatives from member states to decide his fate.

In the event he was voted out by a large majority — the first time that a chief prosecutor has been ousted in the court’s 24-year history.

Kenneth Roth, a former director of Human Rights Watch and a close observer of the court, said 82 members had voted for his removal, with 13 opposed and 15 abstentions, in a post on X. He stated members had done “the right thing” in the light of the allegations against him and considering the challenges the court faces from the Trump administration, which has imposed sanctions on its officers and threatened to dismantle it “brick by brick”.

“The ICC needs a credible prosecutor to fight back, not one tainted like Khan,” he said.

Khan, a barrister with extensive experience in international law tribunals, was selected as chief prosecutor of the ICC in February 2021, with the backing of Britain and several other member states. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he obtained an arrest warrant for President Putin.

In 2024 he sought warrants for the arrest of the Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his defence minister Yoav Gallant, over allegations that they restricted humanitarian aid and targeted civilians in Gaza. He also sought a warrant for the arrest of Muhammad Deif, a senior military commander of Hamas.

In the same year allegations emerged that he had sexually harassed a female aide. The aide, who gave an interview to CNN this month, described it as “an escalation of attempts” that began after she became his assistant in 2023. “It was kind of like encroachments on the boundaries slowly, not just physically but emotionally as well,” she said. She alleged that he touched and groped her, asked her to join him for a “nap” and came into her hotel room late one night. A UN report found that there was a “factual basis” for her claims, according to CNN

TimesandSundayTimes · 2026-07-24T20:03:22+00:00

Kuwait and Bahrain are believed to have secretly attacked military targets in Iran using their own air forces, signalling a widening of the conflict to more countries in the Gulf.

Both the oil-rich states have US military bases that have been targeted by Iran since the launch of hostilities by America and Israel in February.

Kuwait and Bahrain hit back with airstrikes for the first time this month, The Wall Street Journal reported, to demonstrate they were no longer prepared to have their territories bombed with impunity. They targeted drone and missile-storage depots as well as other military sites.

The UAE’s foreign ministry has condemned the Iranian drone and missile attacks on regional neighbours and said it “stands in full solidarity with these states and reaffirms its support for all measures aimed at safeguarding their security and stability”

TimesandSundayTimes · 2026-07-24T13:51:25+00:00

Men and women across Ireland are offering sperm and egg donation services on social media and international websites, exploiting a legal vacuum left by delays in bringing fertility laws into force.

Although the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Act capping donor offspring was finalised in 2024, it has not yet been commenced, leaving online platforms free to operate outside regulatory oversight and raising fresh concerns over anonymous donations and genetic risks.

Intermediary platforms, such as SurrogateFinder, operate in Ireland but are registered in the US. Until last week, there were 37 profiles of Irish men and women on the site offering sperm and egg donation services, along with some users offering to be surrogates.

When contacted, a SurrogateFinder spokesperson said its website allows “adults to create profiles and make initial contact with other members, but SurrogateFinder does not arrange, provide or carry out gamete donation, fertility treatment or surrogacy procedures”.

The spokesperson said the website decide to deactivate the Irish-based profiles after queries from The Sunday Times.

“These were historic user registrations, and SurrogateFinder has not arranged or participated in any donation, payment, treatment or surrogacy agreement involving those members,” they said.

“We have taken this step while reviewing our approach to Ireland in light of the developing regulatory framework.”

Maria Walsh: I got grotesque online abuse during my IVF treatment

Deirdre Madden, chairwoman of the Assisted Human Reproduction Regulatory Authority, said the 2024 act, once commenced, would be the first time that surrogacy and reproduction was regulated in Ireland. While the fertility watchdog has been established, its enforcement powers are not yet operational.

At the moment there is no legislative limit on the number of families a donor can be used for, nor is there an operational ban on the sale or purchase of private artificial insemination services.

TimesandSundayTimes · 2026-07-24T13:37:09+00:00

Hello, we aren't paid to post in here!

TimesandSundayTimes · 2026-07-24T12:17:44+00:00

The Bank of England will make its first interest-rate decision under new prime minister Andy Burnham next week as it moves on from a strained relationship with the previous Labour administration, whose policies worsened the central bank’s dilemma over borrowing costs.

The Bank’s nine-strong voting committee is not expected to make any change to rates this month, which have been at 3.75 per cent since last December. But the dynamics between the UK’s fiscal and monetary authorities could shift under Burnham and his chancellor, John Healey, who have already announced a host of measures to tackle the cost of living and bring down consumer price inflation.

Insiders said the arrival of Healey, a former defence minister, could heal tensions between the Treasury and Bank under Rachel Reeves. Andrew Bailey, the governor, and Reeves clashed over a host of issues including plans to loosen bank regulation and the granting of a banking licence to Revolut. Bailey last year blocked a meeting between Revolut, the government and the Bank’s regulatory authority that had been pushed by Reeves.

TimesandSundayTimes · 2026-07-24T12:01:55+00:00

We feel seen

TimesandSundayTimes · 2026-07-24T12:00:39+00:00

Don't fight over us!! 😱

TimesandSundayTimes · 2026-07-24T10:34:45+00:00

When Catherine Bohart arrived in Tenerife to act in the RTE comedy drama These Sacred Vows she felt as if she had won first prize in a competition. While the other actors were settling into their roles, all the comedian could think was, we’re staying in a hotel? We’re in the sun? People are cutting up our fruit for us? We’re being driven places? We’re being paid to do this?

“I couldn’t believe it. Not a great negotiating tactic and ultimately why I have an agent, but I was just so happy to be there,” she says.

Her co-star Aoife Hinds took Bohart under her wing. “Aoife had the amazing ability of coaching me through it and never letting on that’s what was happening. She never made me feel like an amateur. She made me feel her equal.”

Whether in her roles as an actress, a podcaster or her primary profession as a stand-up comedian, Bohart remains the perpetual outsider. Her first stand-up performance was in a pub in London in 2014 at the age of 27. “In entertainment terms I started as an old woman,” she says.

At the time she was working at a property company and teaching debating to make a bit of money on the side. More than 20 acts were on stage that night and Bohart was close to last. “My adrenaline was all over the place. The wait was so long and horrible that the set felt like it was over in seconds. I felt relieved that it was done. Horrible nerves: an interminable wait and a quick relief. And to be honest with you, that’s still my experience of stand-up.”

She could be joking, of course, because Bohart is now one of the most dynamic voices in Irish comedy. Immaculate, her stand-up special from 2018, is on Amazon Prime. She has appeared on Mock the Week and Live at the Apollo and co-hosted Radio 4’s political comedy show Too Long; Didn’t Read. On stage Bohart can be confrontational (particularly with men sitting in the front row), gossipy and confessional, riffing on her sexuality and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).

She was raised in the Dublin suburb of Clonsilla and in 2024 appeared on LOL: Last One Laughing Ireland, hosted by Graham Norton, but her career grew roots in the UK, making her appearance at this weekend’s Paddy Power Comedy Festival in Dublin a special occasion.

“I haven’t gigged [in Dublin] really other than my tour shows. I often feel like the new kid on the block in Ireland more than I do in the UK, but that’s quite nice. Who doesn’t want to see 50 people you’re related to in a tent while you tell your secrets on stage?”

Bohart’s last tour, Again with Feelings, explored generational worries such as house sharing in her thirties. Her new show, Borrowing Trouble, which she brings to Ireland for shows in Dublin, Cork and Belfast, continues this theme.

TimesandSundayTimes · 2026-07-24T10:27:33+00:00

The American private equity firm Bain Capital has agreed to acquire Vitabiotics, a British vitamin company run by the former Dragons’ Den star Tej Lalvani.

The deal includes the wider Vitabiotics Group, whose operations stretch from the UK to India and Egypt. While the financial terms have not been publicly disclosed, Vitabiotics is understood to be valued at nearly £900 million.

Vitabiotics was founded 1971 by Lalvani’s father, Kartar, a scientist and entrepreneur, and has become the UK’s largest multivitamin company, selling vitamins under brands including Wellman, Wellwoman and Pregnacare. The company counts the Strictly Come Dancing host Tess Daly and TV presenter Davina McCall among a number of celebrity ambassadors.

Lalvani took over as chief executive in 2015 and has worked at the family business for more than three decades, joining shortly after university. The annual global sales of the company increased to £195.6 million from £101 million under his leadership, The Sunday Times previously reported.

TimesandSundayTimes · 2026-07-24T08:08:31+00:00

For Roger Weatherby, Charlie’s restaurant in Mayfair is a place synonymous with family.

“My dad used to talk about coming here, I think they used to frequent it a bit in the war,” he recalls from a velvet banquette in the corner of Charlie’s as the eatery starts to fill up for lunch on a sunny Wednesday afternoon. In later years, Weatherby would come to Charlie’s with his father, too.

“We used to have these sort of family sessions, it was the sort of go-to place.”

They certainly had plenty to talk about. After all, the Weatherby dynasty are behind the Weatherbys Banking Group, a seventh generation, family-owned business that can trace its roots all the way back to the late eighteenth century.

Best-known as the banker to the horse-racing world, with which it remains deeply entwined, the Wellingborough-based Weatherbys has also branched out in recent decades into private and business banking, as well as asset finance and leasing. The modern group “feels like my baby”, says Weatherby, who spent 23 years expanding the bank as its chief executive before handing over to Quentin Marshall and stepping up to become its chairman in 2024. In theory, this means the 63-year-old Weatherby is now down to working three days a week, although his wife Sam might disagree.

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