Explore every episode of the podcast Inside Politics with Hugh Linehan

As the day drew to a close in Israel on Tuesday, exit polls in the Knesset election suggested a lead for the bloc of parties opposing prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

As the sun rose and official counts were declared a very different picture emerged showing a slender lead for Netanyahu’s bloc.

On today’s podcast, Hugh asks our contributor in Jerusalem, Mark Weiss, to explain where things stand as counting continues.

That lead enjoyed by the prime minister “changes the entire political picture”, he says.

A strong performance by parties representing Israel’s Arab citizens has come at the expense of smaller anti-Netanyahu parties, making it harder for some opposition groups to clear the electoral threshold and enter the Knesset.

“This has played into Netanyahu’s hands”, says Weiss.

Another long protracted negotiation looks likely but the leading opposition figure, Gadi Eisenkot, has already ruled out forming a government with the Israeli Arabs.

The question is will Netenyahu secure enough support to begin another term, or might another election be looming?

The answer is unlikely to come anytime soon.

Presented by Hugh Linehan. Produced by Declan Conlon and JJ Vernon.

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It is one week out from US midterm elections with Democrats hoping to retake control of both the House of Representatives and the powerful Senate. Journalist and podcaster Galen Druke returns to Inside Politics to talk to Hugh Linehan about the state of play.

They look at the overall picture in the House of Representatives, which Democrats need just three seats to retake. Polls show that is likely but gerrymandering could limit their gains.

And they look at the contest for the governorship of Ohio, where one particularly egregious attack ad has drawn a backlash.

Plus: what the midterms can and can't tell us about the 2028 race to succeed Donald Trump, and how Galen's new podcast reunites a beloved old team.

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Pat Leahy and Sarah Burns join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

• The Dail was dominated this week by debate over the Government’s proposal to end the Triple Lock. It’s a substantial political row with contradictions and ironies on both sides of the argument.

• The attention of terminally online people all over the world was drawn to Ireland this week when a video published by the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre went viral. The ad, part of a campaign “aimed at informing, educating and engaging the public about all forms of consent”, depicted a girl’s discomfort at receiving a hug from her grandparents. Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan swiftly denounced it. Did he need to?

• Minister O’Callaghan is at the centre of this week’s other big story: the ongoing battle between the State and the legal profession over fees. as the consequences of the dispute for the functioning of the courts deepen, the stakes for O’Callaghan are high.

Plus the panelists pick their favourite Irish Times articles of the week including Kathy Sheridan on the enduring role of the Catholic funeral, Justine McCarthy on Andy Burnham “declaring war” on inconsiderate commuters and Fintan O’Toole on antisemitism.

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The scenes at Drumcree in recent weeks revived memories of one of Northern Ireland’s most enduring disputes between unionist and nationalist communities.

But while the immediate controversy centred on a short stretch of road in Portadown, loyalist activist Jamie Bryson, who has spearheaded the campaign to secure a return of Orange Order members to the largely nationalist Garvaghy Road, believes the implications reach much further than a single parade.

On today’s podcast, Bryson tells Hugh that the unionist tradition has been “under siege” for decades and argues that it is time to “go on the offensive”.

“We’ve constantly been on the defensive and, in my view, that has emboldened an ever more aggressive nationalist push in terms of advancing their culture and their objectives,” he says.

Bryson has long been at the centre of debates over identity and culture in Northern Ireland. He came to prominence during the protests that followed Belfast City Council’s decision to limit the flying of the Union flag at City Hall, demonstrations that were marked by significant unrest.

More recently, he has been a vocal opponent of Irish-language policies and the introduction of dual-language street signs in parts of Belfast, which he argues have been imposed on unionist communities.

The Drumcree controversy, he says, reflects a broader struggle over culture and identity. “We’re going to do to you what you have done to us,” he says.

Bryson insists the ultimate objective is not dominance by either tradition. “Nationalists are not going to dominate unionists, and unionists are not going to dominate nationalists” he says.

“Eventually we will all come to the table once we’ve fought each other to exhaustion in a culture war”.

Presented by Hugh Linehan. Produced by Andrew McNair and JJ Vernon.

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Democracy rests on the promise that political institutions should reflect the people they serve. But in an era of growing social diversity, persistent inequalities and political polarisation, that promise is being contested.

On today’s podcast, Hugh heads to the Royal Irish Academy to speak to Pauline Cullen, Professor of Sociology at Maynooth University and Tània Verge Mestre, former Equalities Minister in the Catalan government in Spain.

Verge Mestre highlights the gender quota’s introduced in Spain in 2007 requiring political parties to have no less than 40% of either gender represented in its candidates.

Cullen said “we have some of the most imaginative forms of governance across Europe”.

“When we think about diversity in an Irish context and we think about gender equality, migrant integration, or traveller rights, we silo them in different government departments and we give them different funding streams” she added.

“We don’t create the conditions to think about these things in a joined up way”.

So how can politics be more representative? And why is Ireland lagging behind international comparisons?

Presented by Hugh Linehan. Produced by Andrew McNair and JJ Vernon.

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Pat Leahy and Jack Horgan-Jones join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

• Thursday evening in Brussels saw much wrangling over the EU’s proposed €1.6tn budget. As holders of EU presidency, Ireland has a neutral dealmaker role to play - but as one of the net contributors to the pot, will Ireland benefit given the greater focus on security and defence spending?

• Budget 2027 reaction has been pretty much unanimous, with many experts pointing to the precarious nature of the current corporation tax bonanza. But wielding all that cash can be difficult if nobody is certain how much the tax receipts will add up to month-to-month.

• And two candidates have emerged ahead of next month’s Seanad byelection for the seat vacated by Fine Gael’s Seán Kyne. Academic and lawyer Maeve O’Rourke is planning to run as an independent, while former Lord Mayor of Dublin Ray McAdam will run as Fine Gael’s candidate. An electorate made up of TDs and senators will vote.

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Leinster House today was filled with sympathy for Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport Patrick O’Donovan who took ill during an EU presidency meeting in Limerick on Tuesday.

On today’s podcast Hugh speaks to Irish Times political editor Pat Leahy and political correspondent Jack Horgan-Jones about the mood in the Dáil.

Fellow politicians “understand the stresses and challenges” of the job, Pat said.

They also discuss today’s public sector strike and the likelihood of another next Wednesday.

“Both sides have staked out their territory” said Pat.

“The government has shown its willing to let people go out on strike, the unions have shown their prepared to go on strike” he added.

Unions say the threat of larger scale walk outs in the dispute over the public sector pay deal aren’t off the table.

Jack Horgan-Jones said “generationally no one in politics or the unions has dealt with something of this scale before”.

He added, ”though we haven’t reached the point of confronting what a full scale public sector and civil service walk out would look like and the disruption it would cause”.

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In less than a month US voters will get a chance to express their feelings about the direction of the country in elections for seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate. While president Donald Trump is not on the ballot, his unpopularity is weighing his party down. Polls show a "blue wave" looks likely, with Democrats favoured to win back the House and possibly the Senate. But many races are still very close. Washington correspondent Keith Duggan has been visiting some of the key battlegrounds to find out about the candidates and the issues.

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Pat Leahy and Harry McGee join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

• The fallout from Budget 2027 has been minimal, save for Minister for Media Patrick O’Donovan’s eleventh-hour decision to cut State subvention to RTÉ by €20 million. Having seen his department pre-budget demands not being met, the Minister warned that the Government – not just his department - “will renege on the three-year funding deal agreed with RTÉ in July 2024”.

• Unlike O’Donovan, Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers saw his political capital augment this week. It took a giveaway budget of €8.5bn to avoid putting anyone’s nose seriously out of joint, but at least he kept to the 6 per cent spending margin for 2027.

• Public sector pay demands will see industrial action rather than negotiations in the short-term but perhaps the Government and the unions will sit down and talk before both sides become entrenched.

• And once lobbied by property developers like Johnny Ronan, former minister Simon Coveney now lobbies on his behalf. Ronan is redeveloping the former Irish Glass Bottle site in Ringsend with up to 3,800 apartments planned. Dublin City Council are now urging Coveney to honour affordable housing plans for the site, drawn up while he was housing minister.

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Ireland is politically and economically stable, as Simon Harris pointed out in his Budget speech yesterday. But keeping it that way is getting more expensive. Increased capital spending, increased day-to-day spending, tax cuts - yesterday’s Budget delivered the lot. Is this sustainable, with our reliance on multinational tax receipts? Or wise, with our healthy level of economic growth? To look at the big picture, Hugh and Pat are joined by Barra Roantree of Trinity College Dublin.

Barra Roantree is an Assistant Professor in Economics at TCD.

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Last year Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor co-authored an essay in The Guardian with a provocative title: The Rise of End Times Fascism. In it they argued that a new alliance was emerging on the political right, made up of Christian fundamentalists, Silicon Valley billionaires and hardline ethnonationalists, bound together by a vision of the end of the world as we know it in which only they would survive.

That essay has now become a book, End Times Fascism and the Fight for the Living World.

On today’s podcast Klein and Taylor talk to Hugh Linehan about their thesis and why they believe the term fascism is justified. What do they believe unites believers in the Rapture, cynical tech oligarchs and the far right? And how should the rest of us fight back against those whom Klein and Taylor call “traitors to creation”?

Naomi Klein is the author of many books including No Logo, The Shock Doctrine and Doppelgänger. Astra Taylor is a documentary filmmaker, co-founder of the Debt Collective, a union for debtors which emerged out of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and author of The Age of Insecurity.

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The mood music around Leinster House this week is one of “nashing teeth” ahead of what’s expected to be a difficult budget announcement on Tuesday.

On today’s podcast, Hugh speaks to our political correspondents Jack Horgan-Jones and Cormac McQuinn who describe a “cold hard reality” that may be to come as government ministers feel they may not get the money they were hoping for.

And its understood Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers has been “frosty” with cabinet colleagues asking for more money for their departments.

All this under the shadow of overrun budgets in education and health, and a failure to agree a public sector pay deal which threatens industrial action the likes of which we haven’t seen for 17 years.

We also ask how the row over an Orange Order parade permitted down the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road in Co. Armagh lays bare the political divisions which have been “frozen in time” since the Belfast Agreement in 1998.

And we pay tribute to our esteemed colleague and parliamentary sketch writer Miriam Lord who retired this week.

Plus, the panel picks their favourite Irish Times pieces of the week; A shift to the right in European politics; Mark Zuckerbergs cash gift to a GAA club in Waterford; and the fallout over Ireland’s nations league clash against Israel.

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Sinn Fein emerged from 2020's general election in pole position to challenge Fine Gael and Fianna Fail and potentially take power next time around. That didn't happen, with support ebbing away as a series of events, both internal and external, shook the party's confidence. That's the picture painted by Siobhán Fenton, a journalist who worked in Sinn Féin's press office from 2020 to 2024, in her book Ourselves Alone.

Hugh interviews Siobhán about why she joined Sinn Fein and what she learned about the inner workings of a cross-border party. They look back on a series of missteps made by the party and its leader Mary Lou McDonald, including the response to the 2023 Dublin riot and McDonald's gaffe when speaking to Pat Leahy on Inside Politics about reducing the price of houses.

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Today anxiety over how the digital world has evolved is greater than ever. Trust in information found online is low, the business models driving tech platforms reward outrage over wellbeing and vast power lies in the hands of a few oligarchs. The arrival of AI may bring even greater problems. But what can be done?

On today's podcast Hugh interviews Mark Little about his book The Last Good Day on the Internet. Little is a former RTÉ correspondent, the founder of Storyful and co-founder with Aine Kerr of Kinzen. He has also had roles with Twitter and Spotify.

Part memoir, part work of philosophy, part rethinking of how the internet has developed over the last 20 years, Little's thoughtful book prescribes some solutions for our current predicaments.

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Pat Leahy and Cormac McQuinn join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

• In the first Irish Times national poll since February, the lack of movement in party support points to an electorate not wholly enamoured by the incumbent Government but not exactly enthused about the alternatives either.

• One of the big contradictions arising from the poll is around the question of a united Ireland. A clear majority of 68 per cent feel the Government should begin preparations for possible Irish unity, but only a small minority of voters would consider changes such as a new Irish flag, national anthem or joining the Commonwealth to make a united Ireland more acceptable to northern unionists.

• The poll also reveals what voters want in Budget 2027 – with the cost of energy and home heating the top priority ahead of next month’s budget.

• And there is nothing like a premature sports capital grant announcement to stir animosity within the Coalition.

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Chinese leader Xi Jinping lands in Washington later this evening for a three-day state visit, his first to Washington since 2015. The Trump White House is rolling out the red carpet and laying on the full ceremonial treatment for a leader who currently still faces American tariffs, sanctions and export controls. Irish Times China correspondent Dennis Staunton joins Hugh from Hong Kong to explain what both men want out of the meeting and what it will tell us about the balance of power between the world's two superpowers. They also talk about the race for AI supremacy and China's economic challenges.

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Anthony Scaramucci is a successful Wall Street financier, a recovering Republican, a famously short-lived communications director in the first Trump administration and co-presenter with Katty Kay of The Rest is Politics US. His new book All the Wrong Moves chronicles his time within the Maga movement and diagnoses where America took a wrong turn. He talks to Hugh about three “catastrophic” policy errors he believes gave rise to the populist anger that propelled Trump to power.

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Ellen Coyne and Jack Horgan-Jones join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

• The unprovoked attack on Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae this week highlighted how vulnerable public representatives can be. But when did criticism of Irish politicians turn into abuse and physical violence? Is it the long tail of the financial crash or simply a shift from online discourse to something far more sinister?

• Donald Trump’s thoughts on a united Ireland grabbed the headlines during his visit last week, but the image of cheering golf fans at the Irish Open at his Doonbeg resort as he announced he was lifting tariffs on Irish whiskey, that he himself imposed, feels uncomfortable for a variety of reasons.

• European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen pitched the idea of Canada as an “associate member” of the EU during her annual State of the Union address on Wednesday – an idea roundly embraced by Canada PM Mark Carney who was in attendance.

• The Sinn Féin Bill to remove the three-day abortion wait looks like it will pass despite dissenting voices in Government.

• And Aontú and Independent Ireland are open to discussing a vote transfer pact.

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Derek Scally talks to Hugh about  the aftermath of two elections that have recently taken place: the Swedish general election and regional elections in the Gerrman region of Saxony-Anhalt. Each offers some fascinating insights into current trends and future directions in Germany and Scandinavia, and perhaps more broadly in Europe.  

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Left-leaning think-tank Tasc has published a new report to mark its 25th year.

the report (The State We Are In - Inequality in Ireland 2026) suggests that the redistribution of wealth via the tax system is struggling to keep inequality under control and argues for greater provision of services.

It also warns that the rapid development of artificial intelligence could deepen inequality in Ireland and around the world.

Tasc director Dr Shana Cohen talks to Hugh about her organisation's history, the new report and the peculiarities that give rise to Ireland's high pre-tax inequality and its precarious wealth. They also talk about the impact of AI.

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President Trump and his vast, costly entourage have rolled through Dublin on the way to his golf course, meeting with the Taoiseach and President Connolly along the way. As with other recent encounters between representatives of the State and Trump, there were no major diplomatic incidents for Irish officials to worry about. But Trump did ruffle some feathers with his comments on Irish reunification. "The Weave", as Trump calls his signature style of oratory, was on full display, by turns baffling, witty and terrifying.

Pat Leahy and Jack Horgan-Jones were present at the various set-pieces and they join Hugh to recap on a colourful day.

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Pat Leahy and Harry McGee join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

• Green leader Roderic O'Gorman has proposed a one-off €2.5bn energy fund, split between targeted energy credits and investment in grants for solar panels and EVs. It is one of few genuinely good ideas that emerged from the political party think-in season. 

• Following Wednesday’s interview with Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers on the podcast, Pat assesses Chambers' political positioning in the run-up to Budget day. 

• Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan's tightening of naturalisation rules imposes a range of new requirements on those seeking citizenship. Are they fair? 

• The UK is now leading the way on sanctions against illegal West Bank settlements. The haste is in contrast with Ireland's slow progress since 2018. 

• Plus, what we now know about the timing and choreography of Donald Trump’s weekend visit. 

And finally the panel pick their favourite Irish Times pieces of the week. 

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Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers talks to Jack Horgan-Jones about pre-Budget negotiations, HSE overspending, childcare, infrastructure and more.

He reveals that he intends to strip power over day-to-day spending from four HSE regions in response to what he describes as a "really poor performance" when it comes to controlling costs.

He also responds to critical comments reportedly made by Cabinet colleagues over his unwillingness to grant their spending wishes.

Then Hugh and Jack analyse the Minister's comments.

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British journalist Paul Mason talks to Hugh about his new book Reds: A Global History of Communism.

The book traces communism’s story from early human egalitarian impulses to modern China’s controlled capitalist system. 

Mason talks to Hugh about what drew him to Trotskyism as a young man, his current politics as a left-wing social democrat and his concerns about democracy under threat. He explains his own break with Corbynism. 

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Pat Leahy and Cormac McQuinn join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

Labour’s annual think-in is happening in Galway and Pat is there to find out what the party is thinking up. The mood is positive. But with the rival Soc Dems riding high, Labour faces an uncertain future.

One new measure being proposed by party finance spokesman Ged Nash is a €100 “shopping supplement” targeted at families over the winter months. Expect many more such proposals between now and Budget Day.

Ireland’s skies and seas are being monitored by France and the UK while we hold the EU presidency. The Triple Lock, with legislation due to move through the Dáil, is a more pressing political issue - but the question of our meagre defence budget is another that will not go away. 

We still don’t have much detail on US president Donald Trump’s imminent visit to Dublin, but it seems the majority of his time will be spent at Trump Doonbeg or within the confines of the Phoenix Park. Opportunities for diplomacy may be limited by the fact that the trip is largely a US-taxpayer-funded marketing exercise for a golf course. But there are still risks and opportunities. 

Across the Irish Sea a Channel 4 News sting has exposed senior Reform UK officers allegedly scheming to get around campaign finance laws. The report dropped just in time to spoil the party’s conference and will add to the existing whiff of financial scandal around Nigel Farage’s political project. How much did Farage himself know and what impact will it have? 

Plus the panel pick their favourite Irish Times stories of the week.

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In his new novel A Nation Once Again, Paul Howard, best known for the Ross O'Carroll Kelly series, turns his satirical eye from wealthy South Dublin to an imaginary government department devoted to preparing for the reunification of Ireland. He talks to Hugh about how the concept allowed him to explore both the absurdity of the border's existence and the ridiculousness of trying to remove it

They discuss the book’s origins as a sitcom, how his experience as a child in Ireland with an English accent (Howard's family returned to Ireland when he was eight) helped him develop an ear for phonetic quirks and why Ireland's Call may be the perfect anthem for a United Ireland.

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Hugh, Pat, Ellen and Jack took to the stage at Electric Picnic on Saturday to discuss politics and take some uestions from the audience. They discussed UK prime minister Andy Burnham's controversial comments on the possibility of a border poll before moving on to take stock of the political positions and futures of the Big Three party leaders: Taoiseach Micheal Martin, Minister for Finance Simon Harris and Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald. Here's an excerpt of their conversation.

Thanks to Electric Picnic and MindField for having us.

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Ellen Coyne and Jack Power join Pat Leahy to look back on the week in politics:

·      All 27 EU foreign ministers will gather in Druids Glen in Wicklow next week for a “Gymnich” meeting. What is that you ask, it is characterised as a more informal chat with no expectation of any hard decisions being made. The lull of August will now give way to a hectic calendar culminating in difficult choices around the next seven-year EU budget.

·      Andy Burnham made his first visit to Northern Ireland this week as UK prime minister. He raised eyebrows with his assertion that a Border poll is “off the table”. This won’t please Sinn Féin given the money and energy they are putting into making a vote on a united Ireland a reality.  

·      The Dáil sat briefly on Friday, where, among other topics of debate, it decided to vote against fuel price increases. The Government now further defers clawing back the cuts in excise taxes it announced earlier in the summer for two more months. Can it continue to shield the public from increasing fuel costs beyond November?

Plus, the panel picks their favourite Irish Times pieces of the week:

·      The unifying power of the late Dolly Parton, Scouting Ireland’s future, and CIA chief visits Moscow to urge a Ukraine war deal.

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Pat Leahy is joined by Ellen Coyne and Liz Carolan to talk about the response to the circumstances around the recent fatal M9 motorway crash. They examine Coimisiún na Meán’s response and the powers it has under the EU Digital Services Act, and the refusal of Tiktok to appear before a Dail committee. They consider proposals like making joyriding videos illegal and weigh up concerns about free speech and enforceability. 

In part two: the Government has u-turned on whether to pay for Skyclarys, a drug that treats Friedreich's ataxia, a rare neurodegenerative disease. Why did it take so long? 

Liz Carolan is a journalist, author and consultant. She writes The Briefing, a newsletter about technology and politics.

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Harry McGee and Jack Horgan-Jones join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

• Today the Government announced that it will stall the planned increase to fuel excise duty that was due to come into effect at the start of September. The increases for September and October 1st will no longer go ahead. A recall of the Dáil next Friday to pass this measure is looking likely. The decision comes after the Government faced pressure from Coalition backbenchers as well as members of the Opposition. On Thursday night Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald wrote to Taoiseach Micheál Martin demanding the Dáil be recalled for a vote to delay the planned reversal of excise duty cuts.

• Sunday’s tragic collision on the M9 motorway left five teenagers dead and three sisters and a 7-year-old child in serious condition. The tragedy raises questions about Garda pursuit capabilities and training and the responsibility of social media platforms like TikTok to respond to footage of dangerous driving and joyriding shared on the platform.

• An aide for Tánaiste Simon Harris has come into the spotlight after The Irish Times reported on social media posts where he mocked teachers for being work-shy and deemed the public “racist”. John Kelly is Harris’ constituency director who deleted his X account after he was questioned about numerous posts. Comments that are now deleted refer to Britain’s Prince Harry as a “snowflake” and call US president Donald Trump a “moron”.

Plus, the panel picks their favourite Irish Times pieces of the week, including the decline in number of Catholic baptisms in Ireland, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) candidate leading the polls in Saxony-Anhalt election and the ridiculousness of “Woke 1.0”.

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There is deep support in Ireland for the Palestinian cause. But why? And is Ireland truly an outlier in its attitudes to Palestine and Israel? 

Academics Miceal Canavan and Liam Kneafsey surveyed over 1,500 people to gauge attitudes, investigate the origins of this support and ask whether anti-Semitism plays a role. 

Their findings include that Irish people have the highest pro-Palestinian sympathy in Western Europe and that we assign unusually high importance to the conflict despite no direct ethnic, economic or military link. 

They test explanations for this, including ideology, party support and perceptions of Irish historical oppression as a heuristic and emotional framework. 

Anti-Semitism is also examined. It exists, but does not explain our outlier sympathies, their data suggest. 

They talk to Hugh Linehan about their paper and how they interpret what they’ve discovered. 

Miceal Canavan is a lecturer in Politics & International Studies at Ulster University. Liam Kneafsey is an assistant professor in Political Science at Trinity College Dublin.

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Jack Horgan-Jones and Ellen Coyne join Hugh to look back on the week in politics:

• Simon Harris has lobbied the European Commission over the prospect of Ireland's Central Bank once again being responsible for approving Israeli state bonds. Opposition parties have said the bonds are used to raise money for Israel's military campaigns. Ultimately, aside from some political messaging, it's an issue the Government can do little about.

• Excise cuts implemented in response to last spring's fuel protests are due to start tapering next month, just as fuel prices are beginning to rise again. With the disruptive protests still a painful memory and the Budget coming into view, Jack Chambers and Simon Harris are in an unenviable position. How will they play it?

• News that the Department of Children and Equality will spend money on a campaign to warn about the misogyny of the “manosphere” and “tradwife” influencers who “promote restrictive, stereotypical roles for women and girls” has enraged culture warriors and prompted a debate on the socioeconomic pressures that make working and caring in the home an impossibility for many families. Should the Government stay out of such debates and focus instead on structural issues that hold people back from living their lifestyle of choice?

• The Government's recent lack of transparency around two reports, one on Aughinish Alumina and another on data centres, left a lot to be desired.

• Entertaining documents released to The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act have cast light how two prominent pols - Mayor of Limerick John Moran and Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan - go about their business.

• And finally the panel pick their favourite IT stories of the week.

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Hugh Linehan and Pat Leahy close their series on the PDs. In 1997 the party runs a disastrous campaign, falling from 10 seats to four. But they still enter government with Fianna Fáil, with Mary Harney their sole cabinet minister.

Their real influence comes through Charlie McCreevy, effectively a PD inside Fianna Fáil, whose close friendship with Harney drives a tax-cutting agenda during the boom years.

Facing wipeout in 2002, Michael McDowell rescues them with a Ranelagh lamppost stunt and an ingenious slogan. But the next term in government is less successful.

McDowell takes the leadership in 2006 just as the Mahon Tribunal investigates Bertie Ahern. Why does he choose to stay in coalition rather than pull the plug?

The 2007 election reduces the PDs to two seats. Does the party have another fightback in them? 

Finally Pat and Hugh deliver their verdict on the Progressive Democrats and ask where that centre-right energy now resides in the Irish political scene. 

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In the second of three episodes on the rise and fall of the Progessive Democrats, Hugh and Pat pick up the story on the eve of the 1987 general election with the PDs riding a wave of energy and Fianna Fail's Charles Haughey chasing the overall majority that always eluded him.

The party's first outing at the polls is a triumph: 12 per cent of the vote, 14 seats and third place ahead of Labour, much of it carved out of a collapsing Fine Gael. Haughey falls two seats short. Without O'Malley's new party, would he finally have had his majority?

Instead, a minority Fianna Fáil government, propped up by Fine Gael's "Tallaght Strategy", embarks on savage spending cuts and commits to tax cuts, policies the PDs demanded.

The PDs' successes bring a problem: when your opponents adopt your programme, what are you for? By 1989 the party is squeezed from both sides and in the next election it slumps to six seats. But again, no party wins a majority. This time the solution brings the PDs to power, changing Irish politics forever.

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Today Hugh and Pat embark on a deep dive into the history of a political party that, despite its small size, had an enormous and lasting impact on Ireland.

Born of the dire economic and political realities of 1980s Ireland, the Progressive Democrats, or PDs, spent half of their 23-year existence in power despite never having more than a handful of TDs - and sometimes far fewer. Under successive leaders Des O'Malley, Mary Harney and Michael McDowell, the party used that power to fight for lower taxes and economic liberalisation, reshaping the Irish political landscape along the way. But despite their outsized impact, the PDs could not survive.

In the first of three episodes Pat traces the birth of the party to the misery of mid-80s Ireland, the enmity between Fianna Fail leader Charles Haughey and prickly, clever Des O'Malley, a natural leader and a Fianna Fáil TD for Limerick. 

In a controversy emblematic of 1980s Ireland, O’Malley was expelled from Fianna Fáil over the issue of contraception, ridding Haughey of a problem - or so he thought. But what followed was the emergence of a new political force that would threaten Ireland's sclerotic two-and-a-half party system.

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Ellen Coyne and Jack Horgan-Jones join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

• It was revealed this week that the planned Dublin Metrolink could cost up to €19 billion. The last Metrolink estimates from 2022 suggested €9.5 billion as the midpoint of a “credible” cost range of between €7.16 billion and €12.25 billion. The increasing cost echoes the National Children’s Hospital and its umpteen budget increases – a saga that damaged the public’s trust in the State’s ability to deliver large necessary projects in a timely and cost-effective manner.

• The latest data from the Climate Change Advisory Council suggests the Government’s target of 400,000 heat-pump installations by 2030 is all but impossible at this stage. They are calling for a twentyfold increase in the pace of delivery, plus a surge in general home retrofits.

• The German chancellor Friedrich Merz was welcomed to Dublin by Taoiseach Micheál Martin on Tuesday where he delivered a speech on the need for a more austere approach to the common EU budget. The decision to speak entirely in German was not helped by malfunctioning translation devices given out to the Taoiseach and those present.

• The State has been urged to buy the lands of former Bessborough mother and baby home to create memorial park. This comes after planning permission was granted for more than 100 apartments on the Cork site.

• And more than 300 former members of the Christian Brothers will be summonsed through an advertisement in a national newspaper. The move was prompted by the fact that the Christian Brothers is an unincorporated association, meaning there is no legal entity that can be directly sued by people taking it to court.

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Narendra Modi’s 12 year rule of India has never looked so fragile.

Weeks of protests have engulfed the country following the leak of a medical entrance exam paper, which forced nearly two million students to resit the test. Protestors hailed victory from the resignation of the education minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday.

On today’s podcast, Hugh asks our contributor in New Delhi, Rahul Bedi, to explain the significance of the movement.

What had fanned the flames, he said, was the description of unemployed young people as “cockroaches” by one senior government minister.

Then, out of the ootheca hatched the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a satirical movement that has channelled the frustrations of millions of young Indians who, in the words of Bedi, believe the country is increasingly dominated by corruption, privilege and vested interests.

They’re not alone.

Farmers have again been protesting at the state of the rural economy. And another campaign has emerged against the government’s ethanol-blended fuel policy, with some motorists arguing that petrol containing 20% ethanol reduces fuel efficiency and may damage engines.

Bedi explains what these large movements mean for the strength and future of the Narendra Modi administration. 

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Ellen Coyne and Cormac McQuinn join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

• Budget season has already started with the Summer Economic Statement pointing to less cash being available for new spending measures in Budget 2027. Minister for Finance Simon Harris and Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers have announced that Government spending on infrastructure and services will increase by €7 billion next year to €125.5 billion. It seems that Government commitment of a maximum of €200 per child per month will have to wait a little longer.

• And while the Government stopped short of an outright ban on e-scooters, there will be new regulations coming into effect as early as next month that will extend the existing ban for under-16s to a ban for under-18s, and the mandatory wearing of helmets and high-visibility vests for everyone using an e-scooter.

• The end of private maternity care in publicly funded hospitals might be arriving sooner than expected with news this week that about 150 women have been turned away for private care by consultants at the National Maternity Hospital over the last six weeks.

• And it is all change in the annual RTÉ salary top ten as the on-air talent have been largely replaced in the list by ‘faceless executives’, with RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst occupying top spot. Who will think of the poor radio presenters?

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Returning to the podcast today is UK political commentator, broadcaster and author Iain Dale to talk to Hugh about the arrival of Andy Burnham as prime minister and the death of Iain's friend Ann Widdecombe.

Burnham's excellence as a communicator and a political salesman means there's a strong contrast between him and his predecessor. But after being swept to office unopposed, it's not yet clear what he is offering to the British public. How will he handle issues like immigration, defence and the economy, and what have we learned from his cabinet picks?

In part two: The killing of Ann Widdecombe has shaken British politics. Despite disagreeing with many of her convictions, Iain and the former Conservative MP had a close relationship. He talks about her life, her views, the growing threat politicians perceive to their safety and the role of social media in coarsening political debate and encouraging extremism.

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Michel Barnier is best known in Ireland for his central role in the EU's negotiations with the UK over Brexit almost ten years ago. But Barnier has also played a central role in French politics for decades, including a brief stint as prime minister. Today he is a member of the French parliament.

Last week he was in Dublin for a series of political meetings with Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee and other senior figures, and on Wednesday Hugh interviewed him at Europe House, the European Commission's Dublin base, in front of an audience.

Their conversation ranged from Barnier's first political awakening as a teenager in the 1960s through to his verdict on Brexit 10 years after the referendum, figures like Nigel Farage who led the UK out of the EU, the rise of France's far right and the prospects for the French presidential election which takes place in April of next year.

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Harry McGee and Cormac McQuinn join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

• The Government’s report into Aughinish Alumina is expected to say that material produced there may or may not have been used in Russia’s war machine, citing a lack of evidence either way. Half of the alumina produced in the plant in the first quarter of this year went to Russia, up from 43 per cent last year. Will the Limerick plant’s days be numbered eventually?

• The calls to ban e-scooters grew louder this week with Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly saying society would be “better off” without them. On Tuesday Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he is “leaning towards” a total ban on e-scooters as the Dáil discussed the issue following incidents resulting in deaths and serious injuries.

• The high cost of deportation flights was laid out in figures supplied by the Department of Justice to the Public Accounts Committee. They showed that the State paid more than €1 million for a single deportation flight when returning 42 adults and children from Ireland to South Africa in June.

• Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan shows no sign of backing down in the row over legal aid solicitor fees. Now more than 100 solicitors have made it known that they intend to resign from the criminal legal aid panel, with solicitors continuing to refuse to provide advice to suspects detained for questioning in Garda stations.

• And it is goodbye to Keir Starmer as the UK prime minister defended his record and offered his support to Andy Burnham who succeeds him as Labour party leader.

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As the Dáil shuts down for the summer it's time for Hugh, Pat and Jack to take stock of the term gone by. But the biggest political event of the year didn't happen in Leinster House. The April fuel protests left their mark on Irish politics as few other events of recent years have.

In part two: How have the various parties navigated the term? Has Mary Lou McDonald steadied the SF ship, and could a forthcoming book by a former party insider cause renewed problems? Can the Social Democrats maintain their recent momentum? Has Simon Harris dialled down his high-energy approach to politics? And when Harris rotates back into the taoiseach's office next year, will Micheal Martin still be the man he’ll take over from? 

Finally: Martin has repeatedly said this Government will be about results, delivery and substance. But will there be enough of that to satisfy voters? On the cost of living issue in particular, the challenge is steep - even with the next election a long way off.

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Last week an appeals court opened the way for Marine Le Pen of French far-right party National Rally to stand in next year's presidential election. If the far right comes to power in Paris it will be the culmination of a long journey that is outlined in The Dark Side of France: A History of the Far Right, a new book by Irish journalist Enda O’Doherty. 

Hugh talks to O’Doherty about his book and what a Le Pen victory would mean. They discuss tensions within National Rally between economically liberal conservatism and its working-class base and trace the far right’s roots from the Dreyfus Affair and antisemitism through Action Française, Vichy collaboration, the Algeria crisis and how Marine’s father Jean-Marie Le Pen built up National Rally, then called Front National.

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Ellen Coyne and Cormac McQuinn join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

·       Sinn Féin’s Planning for Constitutional Change Bill, which obliges the Government to draft and publish a Green Paper on unification within 18 months, failed to win support from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, or independents.  

·       All Government TDs also voted against a PBP Bill to ban hare coursing. The Bill presented an issue where the party whip could have been spared in favour of a free vote, given the public’s clear support to outlaw the practice. The Bill was overwhelmingly defeated by 125 votes to 24.

·       And this week saw Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and far-right French leader Marine Le Pen take the biggest political gambles of their respective careers.

Plus, the panel picks their favourite Irish Times pieces of the week:

·       Graham Platner crashes and burns, dwindling swag bags for visiting journalists, and the derelict ‘Carlton’ site on O’Connell Street is snapped up by MetroLink.

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For Germany, football is often a reflection of the nations’ stability.

“When Germany is going well, things are going well on the pitch” Irish Times Berlin correspondent Derek Scally tells the Inside Politics podcast.

Following another premature exit from a world cup tournament they won only 12 years ago; in football, as in German politics, the future is uncertain.

Host Hugh Linehan asks where the major fault lines are in the upcoming federal elections in September. Elections, Scally explains, that are likely to be won by the far-right party Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) bar any major shifts.

“Establishment parties are seen as lacking ideas and energy” Scally says. “The sense of a government exhausting its political potential seems to be a general agreement around Berlin”.

Europe’s biggest economy is vulnerable on a number of fronts. It relies on Chinese manufacturing for its automotive sector, while facing major competition from increasingly popular, often cheaper, Chinese car makers.

Though the Christian Democrats’ Fredrick Merz has only been Chancellor for a year, “frustration” and “fatigue” are already creeping into public sentiment, Scally says.

Could his 34-point plan announced last week, including pension reforms, tax cuts, and business deregulation, turn things around? 

Produced by Andrew McNair

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British MP Nigel Farage has resigned as an MP triggering a by-election in the constituency of Clacton-on-Sea which he says he will stand in.

It comes amid a row over his financial support, after The Sunday Times reported he had not declared benefits, including staff and security, received from his ally George Cottrell, who was convicted of fraud in the US.

“I’ve done nothing wrong” Farage said on a live stream provided by his UK Reform party and broadcast on British news channels.

Hugh speaks to our London Correspondent Mark Paul in the moments after the speech about what this move represents for British politics, and what happens next.

Produced by Andrew McNair. 

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Pat Leahy and Jack Horgan-Jones join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

·       Ireland’s presidency of the Council of the European Union got off to a slightly awkward start at the opening ceremony at Dublin Castle on Wednesday when guest Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned against “material emanating from a plant in Ireland” being used in Russia’s war effort. The Ukrainian president didn’t name Aughinish Alumina, but his feelings were clear.

·       Dozens of solicitors walked out of District Court rooms on Wednesday in protest against a new pay system for legal aid. This marked an escalation in tensions with Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan who has pushed the reform through.

·       The Government are not going to act on Oireachtas committee recommendations on the decriminalisation of the possession of drugs for personal use.

·       And as the United States celebrates its 250th birthday, how has the country lived up to the principals and aspirations of its founding fathers?

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Hugh Linehan is joined by Alex Kane to discuss the double life of disgraced politician Jeffrey Donaldosn and its broader impact on the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) as well as Ulster unionism overall. 

Alex Kane is an Irish News columnist and a political commentator as well as a former director of communications for the Ulster Unionist Party. The pair discuss a recent wave of stories that reveal the hypocritical behaviour of self-professed christian Donaldson over the course of his career; from projectile vomiting on the Mayor of Beijing to swigging from a wine bottle in the House of Commons and being spotted entering a gay sauna.  

Kane says it seems as if no one in the DUP attempted to address this highly inappropriate behaviour. He also highlights a growing conspiracy theory among unionists who believe the British government may have used this information to blackmail Donaldson to return to the Northern Ireland Assembly.  

In today’s episode, they discuss what all of this spells for the future of unionism in Ulster.  

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Last week Pat Leahy sat down with former Labour leader Pat Rabbitte for an interview about his life in politics. 

Rabbitte is now retired but for decades he was one of the most recognisable faces and voices of centre left politics in Ireland. 

As a minister in the 2011 Fine Gael-Labour coalition, he witnessed first hand the events explored in our recent mini series on the subject.

He talked about the decisions he made as party leader and as a minister, as well as his formative years in the west of Ireland and 1960s America, and what he thinks of today’s splintered centre-left.

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Harry McGee and Cormac McQuinn join Pat Leahy to look back on the week in politics:

All anyone can talk about this week is the weather. While the country enjoys the warmth, the Government still has to find balance between spending to prevent climate change and spending to mitigate the impact of change that has already arrived. 

Keir Starmer may be gone but the UK's biggest problem remains: the lack of growth in their economy.

Proposed “reform” (read: scrapping) of the “triple lock” restriction on Irish overseas military deployment has run into trouble due to disquiet among Fianna Fail backbenchers. If not a rebellion, there was certainly “a renewed amount of grumbling” over the issue. But will it be a real problem for Taoiseach Micheal Martin? 

Plus the panel pick their IT stories of the week including a plea for underground bins, Michael McDowell’s bold predictions and the divestment of Catholic church patronage.

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