As a professor of economic history at Oxford University, and an Irishman, Kevin O'Rourke is well placed to explain how the different economic experiences of the UK and Ireland have led both nations to very different views of the European Union. His book on the subject, A Short History of Brexit, holds plenty of surprises for Irish and British readers. And Professor O'Rourke has a message for Taoiseach Leo Varadkar when it comes to the issue of the border. A Short History of Brexit is published b...
Feb 15, 2019•40 min
Amid apologies and ‘learnings’, the row over the massive overspend on the National Children’s Hospital rumbles on. Two big questions remain: What will the final bill be? And, which other projects will suffer as a result?Hugh is joined by Fianna Fáil deputy leader Dara Calleary, Pat Leahy and Jennifer Bray to discuss the controversy and how budgets on capital projects can be controlled better in the future.Later: the new SDLP-Fianna Fáil alliance, the nurses’ strike and Brexit. Hosted on Acast. S...
Feb 13, 2019•42 min
Simon Carswell has been investigating the potential impact of Brexit on people - their lives, their communities and their businesses. He talks to Hugh Linehan about what he has discovered, including the fear of the return of violence, the threat to trade and the concerns of children in border communities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Feb 08, 2019•34 min
First: A subtle but deliberate shift was noted in Theresa May's position on the Brexit backstop during a trip to Belfast yesterday. As the two-day Northern Ireland visit draws to a close today, is her strategy any clearer and what are its chances of survival?Plus: The blame game over the dramatic cost overrun on the proposed National Children's Hospital is lurching from controversy to full-blown crisis. What might it mean for the government?Guests: Denis Staunton, Pat Leahy, Jennifer Bray and Ha...
Feb 06, 2019•47 min
Theresa May has united Tory MPs behind her plan to go to Brussels to seek legally binding changes to the Brexit withdrawal agreement, exploring 'alternative options' to the Irish backstop. The trouble is, the EU won’t reopen the deal and they’ve said so time and again. The Guardian’s Brexit correspondent Lisa O’Carroll, Irish Times Europe editor Patrick Smyth and Irish Times deputy political editor Fiach Kelly join Hugh to cut through the spin to explain what happened in Westminster last night a...
Jan 30, 2019•37 min
Sunday is International Holocaust Remembrance Day and to mark it Hugh talks to academic and author Deborah Lipstadt about her new book Antisemitism Here and Now. They discuss the growth of antisemitism in Europe and the United State, what distinguishes antisemitism of the political left from the political right, and why she has a problem with an initiative in the Seanad to boycott goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Deborah Lipstadt is the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History an...
Jan 25, 2019•41 min
First: Pat Leahy on the comments yesterday by an EU Commission spokesperson suggesting that a hard border will appear in the case of a no deal Brexit, a suggestion flatly rejected by Simon Coveney. But what are our plans in the case of a no deal Brexit? Is a softening on the backstop being considered behind closed doors?Then: The Irish Times's Fintan O'Toole and Children's Rights Alliance CEO Tanya Ward join Hugh to talk about No Child 2020, an initiative of the two organisations to draw attenti...
Jan 23, 2019•56 min
Public meetings to introduce pro-life TD Peadar Tóibín's new, as-yet unnamed political party have been drawing decent crowds around the country in recent weeks. Already 1,400 people have joined the party. Who are they, and what will the party stand for beyond opposition to abortion? Peadar sits down with Hugh and Pat to explain. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 18, 2019•39 min
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan joins Hugh and Pat to consider last night's historic House of Commons defeat for Theresa May's Brexit plan. Has the likelihood of a 'no deal' crash out increased? And, how prepared is the Irish government for such a scenario? Also on the agenda: Fine Gael's "old-fashioned environmentalism", the carbon tax and the Green Party's ambitions for the local and European elections. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jan 16, 2019•40 min
As nurses prepare for days of strike action, our politics team consider the problem it poses for Minister Paschal Donohoe and how he is likely to respond. In part two the panel look ahead to the new political season and discuss the significance of upcoming European elections in an utterly changed European political landscape and the meagre legislative agenda. But as ever, it's all overshadowed by the B-word. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jan 09, 2019•40 min
Today, for the benefit of those who recently discovered Inside Politics, we're reposting a podcast with one of our favourite interviewees: American author, historian and academic Timothy Snyder. In November 2017 Hugh interviewed Timothy Snyder about his book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, in which he makes provocative and unsettling comparisons between today's politics and the rise of the Third Reich and suggests how we can avoid the terrible mistakes of the past.Timothy ...
Jan 04, 2019•34 min
The second of two AMA episodes of Inside Politics. Answering your questions about politics and more are Pat Leahy, Fiach Kelly, Jennifer Bray and Harry McGee with host Hugh Linehan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 02, 2019•39 min
We invited you to submit questions for our politics team and we received a lot of responses, so today is the first of two episodes dedicated to answering them. Thanks to everyone who sent in a question! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 26, 2018•29 min
What did The Irish Times politics team expect to see happening in 2018 that failed to materialise? Which politicians impressed us? What disappointed us? Fiach Kelly, Jennifer Bray and Harry McGee join Hugh to look back on the year in politics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 19, 2018•38 min
This day 100 years ago, citizens (including, for the first time, women) across the entire island of Ireland voted together for the final time for a national parliament. To look back at that vote and its historic consequences, Hugh is joined by Diarmaid Ferriter, Irish Times columnist and Professor of Modern Irish History at UCD, and Dr Mary McAuliffe, a lecturer in Gender Studies who specialises in Irish women's history, also in UCD. But first Hugh shares some family history of his own. Hosted o...
Dec 14, 2018•42 min
Today's podcast focusses on Brexit and the Sinn Fein party's fortunes. London Editor Denis Staunton explains why UK Prime Minister Theresa May is unlikely to lose a confidence vote called by her own backbenchers and what the process means for Brexit, for The Tories and parliamentary politics in Britain. Sinn Féin's finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty is here to discuss his party's showing in the presidential election, the loss of TDs Peadar Tóibín and Carol Nolan over the abortion issue and why ...
Dec 12, 2018•44 min
With Hugh to appraise all this week's political news (including high drama in Westminster, the personalised abortion legislation debate, Peadar Tóibín's new political movement and the Fiscal Advisory Council's reprimand of the Government's budgetary policies) are UCC political scientist Dr Theresa Reidy and Pat Leahy and Jennifer Bray from our politics team. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 05, 2018•41 min
"Putin and his regime are going to become more hostile, malicious and deadly to the rest fo the world, and we need to understand this".Since the murder in Russia of his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, Bill Browder has been on a mission to highlight and punish corruption and crime in that country and beyond. He is in Dublin this week to push for the introduction here of a law to mirror the US Magnitsky Act that penalises Russian officials by targeting their assets. He talks to Hugh about Vladimir Putin,...
Nov 30, 2018•38 min
As we wait for UK parliament to vote on Theresa May's deal, Hugh talks to two people with thought-provoking and divergent ideas about what brought about Brexit in the first place: Irish Times columnist Fintan O'Toole and Professor Helen Thompson of Cambridge University. The conversation touches on everything from the Norman invasion to the nature of the EU single market, and even a fictional EU prohibition on prawn cocktail-flavour crisps. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informat...
Nov 28, 2018•51 min
Concerns are growing that the Government’s proposed abortion legislation will not pass through the Oireachtas in time for its planned introduction date in January. Was Minister Simon Harris naive in setting the deadline? Irish Times politics team new recruit Jennifer Bray joins old timers Hugh, Pat and Harry to talk about this and other matters including Brexit, Leo's tax cuts promise, and the national broadband scheme. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Nov 21, 2018•43 min
On the floor at the Fine Gael National Conference, the Inside Politics team interviews Tanaiste Simon Coveney about Brexit, what happens if the deal is not approved by UK parliamentarians and the role of the DUP. Plus: A major policy announcement has been made by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in his speech: a pledge to raise the threshold for the higher rate of income tax from €35,000 to €50,000 over five budgets. Huge if true. But is it wise? Fiach Kelly and Pat Leahy analyse the news. Hosted on Acast...
Nov 17, 2018•38 min
With a Brexit deal agreed between Britain and the EU, now all eyes turn to Westminster. Will Prime Minister Theresa May be able to bounce her cabinet, the Commons and the EU into a deal that nobody likes and many despise? And ultimately could the markets scare the Commons into accepting anything to avoid No Deal? Meanwhile in Dublin, all focus is on whether the wording of the border backstop will be sufficiently resistant to 'interpretation' down the line. Plus: Confidence and Supply negotiation...
Nov 14, 2018•40 min
Author Michael Lewis (Moneyball, The Big Short, The Undoing Project)talks to Hugh about his new book 'The Fifth Risk'. The book concerns the Trump Administration and what Lewis says are astounding levels of cronyism and corruption in the appointments it has made in key government organisations with responsibility for everything from nuclear weapons to weather forecasting. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Nov 12, 2018•35 min
New Yorker staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe has written a book about the killing of mother-of-ten Jean McConville by the IRA in 1972. As well as uncovering new facts about the circumstances around McConville's killing, and making a new allegation about the identities of those who killed her, the book is a valuable outsider's view of the enduring legacy of The Troubles and the roles of republican leaders like Gerry Adams.On today's podcast Patrick Redden Keefe talks to Public Affairs Editor Simo...
Nov 09, 2018•49 min
First: Washington Correspondent Suzanne Lynch on a night of mixed results for both parties and President Trump in the US Midterms. What message will Democratic Party take from this when selecting a presidential challenger to Donald Trump for 2020?Then: economist and Irish Times columnist David McWilliams joins Hugh and Fiach to talk about his new book Renaissance Nation, the success of political centrism in Ireland, what divides the generations and how the property problem ("the primacy of feuda...
Nov 07, 2018•52 min
RTÉ political correspondent Martina Fitzgerald has written a book about the experiences of the small number of women - 10% of the total - who have sat at the cabinet table in Ireland. Madam Politician features interviews with all "the living members of this exclusive club". She's here to talk about what she found with Pat Leahy and Harry McGee. They are also joined by Labour councillor Rebecca Moynihan who shares her own experience at the local government level, and discusses what the Labour par...
Oct 31, 2018•42 min
The official numbers are not yet in but the result is clear. Kitty Holland, Pat Leahy and Fiach Kelly are here to talk about the reelection of Michael D Higgins to the presidency, the surge in support for Peter Casey, who today denied the growth in his support was due to his comments about Travellers, and the disappointing showing from Sinn Féin's Liadh Ní Riada. Has this election exposed a flaw in the party's broader strategy? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Oct 27, 2018•40 min
There’s still one more live debate left to endure in this presidential campaign, but last night’s on RTÉ’s Prime Time was the final one to feature all six would-be presidents. Did we learn anything new about the candidates? Director of the Institute for Future Media and Journalism at DCU, Jane Suiter, joins Hugh and Pat to discuss their performances, whether there were too many contestants in the race and how the blasphemy referendum might play out. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mor...
Oct 24, 2018•40 min
In this bonus podcast, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald explains why her party is working “might and main” to ensure there is a Brexit backstop. She also speaks to Hugh and Fiach about her belief that a Border poll will happen in the next 5-10 years and why a hard Brexit would in fact speed that process up. Asked whether she regretted criticising former Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald following her exoneration in the Charleton report, McDonald said it is her job to challenge the govern...
Oct 22, 2018•40 min
Could Brexit be "one of those historic circumstances where you end up with something only a hardcore of loopers really wants", asks Fintan O'Toole?Fintan joins regulars Hugh and Fiach to talk about the carnival of diabolical scheming, treacherous backsliding and barmy brinkmanship that is Brexit, as Theresa May meets EU leaders in Brussels. After that they discuss the presidential election and what Fintan has called social housing snobbery in the pages of The Irish Times. Hosted on Acast. See ac...
Oct 17, 2018•49 min
