Yes, we're talking about Christmas in September. Our reporter Ian Curran joins us to discuss the strains facing global supply chains and how it could result in some items being hard to find during the busy winter retail season. And it's not just Covid to blame - semiconductors, pallets, and our old friend the Ever Given are in the mix too.

Should we be ordering our Christmas presents now?

The Explainer is a weekly podcast from The Journal that takes a deeper look at one big news story you need to know about. What's the background?  Why is this in the news?  Get the facts behind the story from Ireland's biggest news website.

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Susan Daly talks with Noteworthy's Steven Fox and German reporter Swantje Furtak about the lack of preservation of bogs in Ireland and Germany. These were part of an extensive cross-border investigation with reporters based in Germany and Italy.

Steven focused on actions by two State companies — Coillte and Bord na Móna — and looked at the planting of forestry and development of wind farms on our precious peatland. This comes as Ireland has just been referred by the European Commission to the European Court of Justice over the State’s failure to halt industrial peat extraction.

By Noteworthy: Why are our peatlands still being exploited?

The Journal's Eoghan Dalton speaks to Laura Byrne about the State inquiry into the abuse of prolific child abuser, Bill Kenneally. It is examining how State agencies and organisations handled reports of his crimes from the 1980s onwards. During his appearance, Kenneally was unrepentant, causing upset to those in attendance, including his victims. So, what did we learn, if anything via this inquiry about the mindset of this abuser and the handling of his case by authorities over many years?

The Explainer is brought to you by The Journal. Providing open access to valuable journalism in Ireland has been the aim of The Journal for a decade. You can contribute to ensure we can keep questioning, investigating, debunking, explaining and informing at www.thejournal.ie/contribute/

The State inquiry into the Bill Kenneally case - what have we learned so far?

The European Union has a massive but often unseen impact on our day-to-day life here in Ireland. Despite that, how exactly it all works can remain a bit of a mystery for a lot of people. John O’Brennan, a professor at the Department of Sociology at Maynooth University, leaves the Brussels jargon to one side and focuses on what the core institutions are and how they all interact with each other.

The Explainer is brought to you by The Journal. Providing open access to valuable journalism in Ireland has been the aim of The Journal for a decade. You can contribute to ensure we can keep questioning, investigating, debunking, explaining and informing at www.thejournal.ie/contribute/

This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work are the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.

Everything you need to know about how the EU works but were too afraid to ask

Thousands of people in need of critical medical care but unable to access it in Ukraine have been sent to other EU states for treatment in a mammoth operation known as Medevac. On this week's episode, supported by the European Union’s Department for Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, we look at how this is organised and the impact it has for people on the ground in Ukraine.

What happens when people need medical attention in Ukraine?

We're joined by our Deputy Editor Christine Bohan and Assistant News Editor Rónán Duffy to look at the shock resignation of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. Did it really come out of the blue? And who is best placed to take up the mantel? What will his legacy be?

The Explainer is brought to you by The Journal. Providing open access to valuable journalism in Ireland has been the aim of The Journal for a decade. You can contribute to ensure we can keep questioning, investigating, debunking, explaining and informing at www.thejournal.ie/contribute/

Should we be ordering our Christmas presents now?

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