https://tortoiseshack.ie/feed/podcast/

Stephen R. Millar is Lecturer in Anthropology and Ethnomusicology. His research and teaching focuses on music, conflict, and cultures of resistance, with an emphasis on Britain and Ireland. Stephen's first book Sounding Dissent: Rebel Songs, Resistance, and Irish Republicanism (University of Michigan Press 2020) explores how Irish republicans have used rebel songs to resist against the hegemonic p...

We all witnessed the scenes yesterday outside the Dáil and if you're a regular listener to us you won't have been surprising. But how has this happened? Who are the enablers? What can we do about bystanders? And has the left got a plan or vision to help? A very, very member-only podcast  Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/tortoise-shack-live-tickets-698299581847?aff=erelexpmlt Promo Code SHACKFA...

In this Reboot Republic, Rory talks to a panel of very special guests form Finland, Scotland and Ireland, who all work in the area of youth homelessness and housing. Joining him are Hilma Sormunen, from NAL, which builds and rents youth affordable housing in Finland (they talk about the Finnish experience of successfully reducing homelessness and their approach to housing as a social right and hou...

Longtime listeners would know journalist and friend of the pod, Hannah McCarthy, for her previous podcasts with us from Afghanistan, Lebanon and Ukraine. Well this time in a rare treat she was back in Dublin and joined me in the tortoise shack to tell us all about her recent trip accompanying Tanaiste Micheal Martin in Israel and Palestine.  Hannah, as always, spoke to some great sources and has g...

In this Reboot Republic podcast, Rory talks with Assistant Professor in Economics from Trinity College, Dr Barra Roantree about the reality of income inequality in Ireland. We discuss what is inequality, wealth and income inequality trends, and look at what can be done about it through taxation.  Barra outlines the main findings of the ESRI report that he co-wrote, 'Poverty, Income Inequality and...

This week we were 6 years old. That's about 137 in podcast years. So before we get into what we got into I just want to say thank you to you all. We really wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you! By way of a thank you I have 4 pairs of tickets for the Sugar Club on Thursday 28th available now here: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/tortoise-shack-live-tickets-698299581847?aff=erelexpmlt Max 2 per member...

This week RTE went back into the Oireachtas to answer more questions about the malfeasance and dodgy work practices that have plagued them and broken the trust many people had for the national broadcaster.  Martin sat down with musician Matt McGranaghan, who is himself in a dispute about his employment status, to discuss what was said, what was misrepresented and what it means for RTE, its workers...

Eilish Rooney is Emeritus Scholar in the School of Applied & Social Policy Sciences and at the Transitional Justice Institute (TJI) in the School of Law at Ulster University. As an academic and social activist from Ballymurphy, West Belfast her pioneering work at University of Ulster on the Transitional Justice Grassroots Toolkit and cross-community dialogue has garnered respect across the sec...

Lough Neagh is one of the largest lakes in Europe and provides 43% of the drinking water for Northern Ireland. Yet it is in such a terrible state ecologically that wildlife are dying from drinking from it. So what gives? We spoke to journalist Tommy Greene, who covered this slowly unfolding disaster before it became BIG news. He tells us about the strange ownership structure of the lough, the reas...

John Barry is Professor of Green Political Economy at Queen's University Belfast School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics. In this episode of Shrapnel the lads talk to John about his research on loyalism, encouraging self-discovery and organic intellectualism, agonism, Britishness in a new Ireland and generous majorities.

Joining us in the tortoise shack is Sinn Féin TD and his party's spokesperson for Mental Health, Mark Ward. We discuss his accidental route into politics, his treatment for MS, what he believes can be done now to improve access to mental health services and what he thinks Sinn Féin would do if they were in government. 

In this Reboot Republic, Rory talks with Gráinne Loughran, Senior Policy & Advocacy Officer with Alone, the national older person's charity, about the housing crisis facing over 60s in Ireland. The Census showed an 83% increase in numbers of renters over 65 - who face into homelessness if they are evicted. We discuss the hidden housing crisis facing older people and the impact on their health...

If you're listening to this now and aren't a member, please have a look around. There's nearly 1,400 podcasts and lots of extras available right now. It's the easiest bit of activism you can do! 4 new constituencies and the creation of some place called Fingal? Joining us to nerd out on the Electoral Commissions recommendations are Mr Election Projections, Harry McEvansoneya and the fella behind I...

Note: This is the patron-extended version of the podcast that contains the listener Q&A in the last 20 minutes Beano Niblock is a playwright, poet and former loyalist prisoner. His current play, The Man Who Swallowed A Dictionary, charts the life of former PUP leader the late David Ervine. In this episode of Shrapnel Beano talks to the lads about how he came to write the play, what his friends...

Settle in for a long but very good one. The Irish-Russian Denver Colorado based Prof of Economics, Constantin returns for a chat about Housing and the Banks. But because it's Constantin and us it goes a lot broader than that. We talk climate change playing out in front of our eyes, NAMA 2.0, Bidenomics and the Presidential 2nd place nominee competition, his local Trumpometer and the media revision...

In this Reboot Republic, Rory talks to Paula Kearney, a community worker in the North East Inner City about the community response to the recent proposals around armed gardai, the reality of life for young people and communities in the inner city, the structural violence of inequality and exclusion that is done by the state to these communities, issues around police violence against young people,...

This is either a quiet reflection on the work of Descartes and how it influences hipster IPA brewing techniques... ..or a very Martin  and Tony member-only podcast on why this Government hate single mothers, how fossil fuel companies are getting $13m per minute from national governments, why the banks are allowed treat customers like shit, the national shame that is the normalising of homelessness...

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has provided an explanation for political donations that exceed the what is legally permissible to the Standards In Public Office (SIPO) that have been contradicted by the company said to have made the donation. Hmmm Joining us on the tortoise shack to discuss this, other donations from now attorney general, Rossa Fanning and what the implications could be are the two journa...

You might have seen the reports on Monday that Saudi Arabian border guards/soldiers had killed hundreds of Ethiopian asylum seekers who were trying to cross the border from Yemen.  Read: https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/08/21/saudi-arabia-mass-killings-migrants-yemen-border The lead researcher and author of the report, Nadia Hardman, joined us on the tortoise shack to discuss what the 15 month report...

In this Reboot Podcast, Rory and Tony are joined by award winning writer, political commentator and host of the Guardian's Politics Weekly podcast, John Harris, for a long overdue catchup. They discuss the general state of the UK's politics as it moves beyond the various crises of recent years, the struggles of working class communities (and the hope in them), Tory meanness, the fear of Labour to...

It's a few weeks since we talked South and Latin America, but with a Presidential election candidate assassination in Ecuador, an aspiring dictator making moves in El Salvador and a far right mad man on the rise in Argentina, we had to get our friend in the area, journalist with El Pais, Nicholas Dale Leal, to bring us up to speed. So much, both good and bad, happening. But mostly bad... 

This week Martin has decided that he's on Team Tubridy and Tony is on Team Everyone Else. Well, maybe not. But you're about to hear about Schrödinger's Bogus Self Employment.  Short one of them forever-behind-the-paywall podcasts. We talk Trump and his anti-charisma opponents, the government firing guns at our neutrality, Paschal Donohoe's "bank somewhere else" outburst, dodgy twitter accounts, Le...

We are years hearing that landlords are fleeing the market and we've been constantly told that any criticism of the rental market is "demonising mom and pop landlords." But that's not really true, is it. Joining us is the Dublin Inquirer's Laoise Neylon and she tells us about her report that contradicts the narratives above and why it's not as simple as we're often told. tickets for September: htt...

In this Podcast, Rory talks to Róisín McCashin, a primary school teacher and member of the Education Coalition Dublin West. Róisín explains how the housing crisis and pay and conditions inequaliteis for younger teachers is impacting on teachers and schools - with a generation of younger teachers being locked out of housing. She tells of teachers living out of cars, couchsurfing, and living as she...

First Things First, please sign the petiton here: https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/stop-bord-na-mona-sale-of-derrinlough-1?share=19e307f1-0f51-4a49-9449-7e396e134c8b&source=email-share-button&utm_medium=myuplift&utm_source=email-share This was seriously one of our favourite podcasts.  Joining us in the tortoise shach is lecturer in geography in Maynooth University and climate activist, D...