Irish Times Inside Politics

"With economic signals flashing amber, the next Irish general election might be sooner than we thought", argues Cliff Taylor in an analysis piece for The Irish Times. But does Cliff's economic reasoning survive contact with political logic? Jennifer Bray and Pat Leahy let him know. Plus: Senator Malcolm Byrne is warning about the role AI technology and deepfakes could play in the next general elec...

LIVE SHOW: Inside Politics will record live on Wednesday, November 29th in Dublin city centre. For details and to secure your ticket, follow this link: https://events.irishtimes.com/events/59159 Hugh Linehan is joined in studio by Pat Leahy and Jack Horgan-Jones. First up for discussion is Fine Gael’s special conference taking place in Kildare this weekend. The conference comes just before a year...

It is almost four months now since Spain went to the polls to elect a new parliament. This week it looks as if Socialist Party leader Pedro Sánchez is finally about to be confirmed for a new term as Prime Minister. But the political road to that outcome has been complex and highly contentious, bringing to the fore all the divisions over ideology and identity which characterise the contemporary pol...

Housing, housing, housing and Palestine. Anyone hoping to hear much about anything else at this weekend’s Sinn Féin Ard Fheis will have left Athlone disappointed.  Pat Leahy was there and he joins Hugh Linehan to discuss what happened at the conference, including the warm welcome given to Palestinian ambassador to Ireland, Dr Jilan Abdalmajid. They also look at how party leader Mary Lou McDon...

Harry McGee and Pat Leahy join Hugh to look back on the week in politics: The dire situation in Israel and Palestine continues to d ominate Irish political discourse . UK home secretary Suella Braverman's controversial opinion piece may cost her her job . Sinn Féin's annual conference or Ard Fheis takes place this weekend. A new Irish political party was born this week - Harry McGee has the detail...

Will they or won't they? DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson must soon decide whether to lead his party back into power-sharing or to let devolution die and direct rule return. The decision he makes will be defining for Northern Ireland, for Unionism and for Donaldson himself. To discuss the forces at play, unionist commentator Alex Kane and Northern Editor Freya McClements join Pat and Hugh. Alex Kane i...

The Dail is in recess, and that means no Friday wrap today. Instead, we’re going to bring you a conversation that was originally published on the feed of our sister podcast In the News , hosted by Bernice Harrison, all about a story that gripped 1980s Ireland. You can subscribe to In the News for free here . On December 16th, 1983, after 23 days in captivity, kidnapped supermarket executive D...

The response to the Hamas terror attack on October 7th has been fierce. In the weeks since then, Israel has unleashed a war against Hamas but in which thousands of civilians in Gaza have lost their lives. Where will that war lead, and who will rule Gaza if Israel achieves its goal of eliminating Hamas? Irish Times columnist Fintan O'Toole talks to Hugh Linehan about why the only viable process is...

Hugh Linehan is joined in studio by Jennifer Bray, while Pat Leahy is on the line from Brussels where he is covering the EU leaders’ summit. As Pat explains in part one of today’s Inside Politics podcast, the Israel-Hamas conflict has been top of the agenda there, with hours of negotiation going into the European Union’s call for “pauses” in the conflict in Gaza . Also in part one, Jennifer highli...

Former MP, Tory leadership candidate, author and now host of the UK's biggest politics podcast The Rest is Politics, Rory Stewart is today's guest on Inside Politics. His gripping memoir Politics on the Edge (now available in paperback) is the jumping off point for a wide-ranging discussion: How the West blundered in Iraq and Afghanistan Why answering a call for new blood in politics led him to be...

Pat Leahy and Jack Horgan-Jones join Hugh Linehan to look at the week in Irish politics: Foreign policy came to Dáil Éireann as Government and opposition tried and failed to agree a motion on the crisis in Israel and Palestine. Dismay at the Department of Health and the HSE over a shortfall in funding for next year spills out into the open. The political response to devastating flooding in Cork an...

From Banbridge, County Down, Irish Times Books Editor Martin Doyle grew up in the heart of the 'Linen Triangle', home of Northern Ireland's biggest industry, and also within the 'Murder Triangle', a region blighted by sectarian violence during The Troubles. Martin has written a book, Dirty Linen, that explores that time through the stories of the people he grew up amongst. He talks to Hugh Linehan...

Having already amassed a $26 billion fortune at 28, cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried was the world's richest person under 30. He was also the most prominent advocate of the 'effective altruism' movement, pledging to donate millions of dollars to charities he judged would make the greatest positive difference. Then, it all came crashing down. Bankman-Fried is currently on trial in New...

The horrific events this week in Israel and the Gaza Strip are the subject of part one of today's podcast. Harry McGee has been watching the conflict, and Ireland's political response to it, unfold. In part two Jack Horgan-Jones talks about ongoing reaction to this week's Budget. With Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael working together in harmony as they control the State's finances, how can the parties di...

Budget 2024 was a missed opportunity to invest more in housing and tackle chronic problems in our health system, says Sinn Féin spokesperson for finance Pearse Doherty. Pearse joins Pat Leahy, Jennifer Bray and Hugh to talk about Budget 2024 in detail and spell out what Sinn Féin would do differently. Would you like to receive daily insights into world events delivered to your inbox? Sign up for D...

Cormac McQuinn and Pat Leahy join Hugh Linehan to look at the week in politics: If past years are anything to go by, most of the Budget 2024 measures will have been leaked by next Tuesday. The fact they haven't yet been shows how difficult negotiations are this year, with Ministers competing for cash to spend on pet projects. Labour TD for Wexford Brendan Howlin announced he will retire at the nex...

On today's podcast: Jack Horgan-Jones on the darkening economic backdrop to next week's delivery of Budget 2024. Mark Paul reports from the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester where Prime Minister Rushi Sunak delivered some headline-grabbing 'common sense' pledges. But throughout the week he was overshadowed by those with an eye on replacing him. Would you like to receive daily insights in...

Today’s guest is Canadian academic and author Naomi Klein. Klein shot to fame with her first book, No Logo, which offered an acute critique of how powerful corporations in the 1990s had profited off exploitation in a globalizing world.  Her later books have examined a range of subjects including crisis capitalism, militarism, and the climate crisis.  In her new book Doppelganger Kle...

Harry McGee and Pat Leahy join Hugh Linehan to discuss the week in politics: The latest Irish Times / Ipsos opinion poll shows Sinn Féin continuing to gain . Other poll results foreshadow the potential for difficult negotiations if the party needs to form a coalition with Fianna Fáil. Beyond the next election, the poll shows long term problems for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael when it comes to attract...

A constitutional stopwatch is now ticking for the way in which some senators are elected. And it’s finally time for the Seanad reform which successive governments have promised but failed to deliver. That’s according to Tomás Heneghan, the University of Limerick graduate who won a landmark Supreme Court case earlier this year over being denied the right to vote for the upper houses’s university se...

Our Friday wrap of the week returns with the start of the new political season. Jennifer Bray, Jack Horgan-Jones and Pat Leahy join Hugh to discuss the week in politics: What should we call the ugly scenes outside Dáil Éireann this week - and what sort of response should there be? As politicians gear up for a period with lots of elections, is Taoiseach Leo Varadkar creating friction with his coali...

Peter Foster tells today’s Irish Times Inside Politics podcast that, while polls show a majority of British voters now think it was a mistake to leave the European Union, it is unlikely any UK government in the foreseeable future will seek to rejoin. What is needed instead, the Financial Times journalist says, is greater honesty on the subject from political leaders, in particular from Keir Starme...

How hard it is it to write a tell-all book about Sinn Féin, a political party known among journalists for its secrecy and its on-message discipline? Aoife Moore, author of The Long Game, a new book on the party, was expecting at least some cooperation - but it didn't really work out that way. Of those few who were willing to talk, she says, many had their own motives. In the Mindfield area at this...

October 10th is Budget Day, so it is the time of the year for politicians and lobbyists to make their cases for extra spending and tax cuts in 2024. It will be a year when Ireland is forecast to run a surplus of over €10 billion, leaving lots of room to manoeuvre, and plenty of decisions in the hands of Minister for Finance Michael McGrath and Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe. On to...

Harry McGee and Cormac McQuinn join Pat Leahy to talk about the big political stories of the week: News that RTÉ licence fee receipts have continued to plummet will be of concern when the Cabinet meets this week A spike in road deaths is another issue for the coalition to grapple with Political party think-in season is about to commence, but the annual events are not what they used to be, lament o...