Irish Times Inside Politics

Cormac McQuinn and Jack Horgan Jones join Hugh Linehan to talk about the final day of campaigning before voters go to the polls. They look at how the Connolly campaign has managed to create momentum that sustained her push for the Áras since July and why the Humphreys campaign did not live up to expectations. Finally they pick their high and low points of the campaign. Would you like to receive da...

What does a two-horse race look like in our PR-STV electoral system? What happens when you throw a zombie candidate and a 'spoil your vote' campaign into the mix? And what about turnout? Pat Leahy and Hugh Linehan nerd out with a look at how the count could play out this weekend. Would you like to receive daily insights into world events delivered to your inbox? Sign up for Denis Staunton's Global...

The two remaining candidates in the presidential election came into the final televised debate of the campaign needing different things. Well behind in the polls, Heather Humphreys needed to come across convincingly while landing some blows. Catherine Connolly needed not to slip up. So how did they do ? On today’s episode of The Irish Times Election Daily podcast Ellen Coyne, Pat Leahy and Hugh Li...

Harry McGee and Jack Horgan-Jones join Hugh to talk about today's news from the presidential campaign trail: A concert in support of Catherine Connolly's campaign brought top musical artists and thousands of young people together in Dublin's Vicar Street on Monday night. The event also brought together Sinn Féin’s  Mary Lou McDonald , the Social Democrats’  Holly Cairns ,  Paul Murp...

Ellen Coyne and Pat Leahy join Hugh to talk about the all the latest from the presidential election campaign. There is one topic dominating the campaign today, or two related topics: Catherine Connolly's record as a barrister who worked on behalf of financial institutions in the aftermath of the property crash, and Fine Gael's negative campaigning around that record. A video posted by Fine Gael to...

With Catherine Connolly showing an unprecedented lead for a presidential candidate one week out from polling day, could her campaign only be derailed by something extraordinary at this stage? Cormac McQuinn and Harry McGee join Hugh Linehan to discuss Connolly’s seemingly unassailable lead, the repetitive nature of recent debates, and with posters for Connolly and even Jim Gavin outnumbering Humph...

Catherine Connolly holds a commanding lead in the presidential election with just over a week to go before votes are cast, according to the latest Irish Times/Ipsos B&A opinion poll. The poll finds that Connolly, on 38 per cent, has almost double the support of her nearest rival, Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys, on 20 per cent. Support for the Fianna Fáil candidate, Jim Gavin , who stopped his p...

As independent candidate  Catherine Connolly  and  Fine Gael  candidate  Heather Humphreys  enter the final nine days of the campaign, Jack Horgan Jones and Ellen Coyne join Hugh Linehan to launch our daily podcast coverage. A motion of no confidence in Simon Harris over controversies in Children’s Health Ireland and waiting times for scoliosis surgery was itself a pr...

Hugh talks to Ronan McCrea, professor of constitutional and European law at University College London, about his new book, The End of the Gay Rights Revolution. McCrea believes that the achievements of the most successful civil rights movement of the last few decades may be more politically fragile than most people assume. He argues that these successes were largely an inc...

Ellen Coyne and Harry McGee join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:   ·      With Jim Gavin gone, the presidential election is now a two-horse race between Catherine Connolly and Heather Humphreys, and a more combative one at that as the third live debate on Thursday on RTÉ Radio’s Drivetime will attest. Is Heather Humphreys trying to appeal to vo...

Yesterday’s budget spelled out the Government’s tax and spending plans for next year. But what happens after that? Barra Roantee of Trinity College Dublin’s Department of Economics says it is “shocking” that there is no plan beyond 2026. “Last year we had five-year-ahead forecasting. The year before was four-year. We’re meant to be submitting a medium term plan to the European Commission. This is...

Ellen Coyne and Jack Horgan-Jones join Hugh to talk about the stunning news of Jim Gavin's withdrawal from the presidential race, leaving Heather Humphreys and Catherine Connolly in a head-to-head battle. The news has infuriated Fianna Fáil backbenchers and leaves party leader Micheál Martin and campaign director Jack Chambers with big questions to answer over how Gavin was selected and how his ca...

Pat Leahy and Jack Horgan-Jones join Hugh Linehan to talk about the week in politics:  We already know next Tuesday’s budget is going to be a much less generous affair than recent years. Jack and Pat share what they know about the tough stance being taken by Ministers Paschal Donohoe and Jack Chambers in negotiations, including one Government source’s characterisation of Chambers as akin to M...

Fresh from the hostile grass arena of Bethpage, where supporters of the US Ryder Cup team spent the weekend abusing their European opponents, Washington correspondent Keith Duggan returns to the podcast to discuss the latest: Some commentators have tried to link the boorish behaviour of US golf fans to the ascendancy of Trumpism. Is that justified? What lies behind the steady level of popular supp...

Pat Leahy joins Hugh to talk about the first televised debate of the  presidential campaign  which took place on Virgin Media Television tonight. Independent  Catherine Connolly , Fine Gael’s  Heather Humphreys  and Fianna Fáil’s  Jim Gavin debated a range of issues and did their best to come across as plausible candidates. But who dominated, and who struggled? W...

Hugh interviews Albanian academic and author Lea Ypi about her new book Indignity: A Life Reimagined. The book is an exploration of political, historical and philosophical themes through the story of Ypi's grandmother, Leman Ypi, who experienced Albania’s tumultuous 20th century, from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, through fascism, Nazism, communism and its fall. Lea talks about how literatur...

Ellen Coyne and Cormac McQuinn join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:   ·       Catherine Connolly, Heather Humphreys and Jim Gavin got their campaigns into full swing this week as they got out and about to meet voters and give their pitch ahead of voting day on October 25th. And while Connolly made headlines this week when she told a firesi...

Ellen Coyne and Pat Leahy join Hugh to talk about how independent candidate Maria Steen came close but ultimately failed to secure a nomination to run for the presidency. Why did the coalition that supported her take so long to decisively swing behind her? And what does it mean for the race? Would you like to receive daily insights into world events delivered to your inbox? Sign up for Denis Staun...

Last year The Irish Times Inside Politics podcast released a three-part series looking back at the political rivalry between Charles Haughey and Garret Fitzgerald. That series helped to inspire DCU’s Eoin O’Malley as he set out to write a book on the same subject. Eoin talks to Hugh and Pat about the two men and what he wanted to add to the story: how their perceptions of one another influenced th...

Pat Leahy and Jack Horgan-Jones join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics: The nomination process for presidential candidates rumbles on. At the time of recording independent Gareth Sheridan has the best chance, needing two more local councils to back him. A report today looking at Sheridan’s business partner’s links with Russia may not be welcomed by his campaign as councillors aroun...

Hugh talks to Michael Brendan Dougherty, senior writer at National Review, about the murder of right wing activist and Christian nationalist Charlie Kirk and the vociferous reaction that has exposed and deepened America's political divides. Michael talks about Kirk's significant influence on young conservatives, the media's portrayal of Kirk before and after his killing and the impact on U.S. poli...

Leo Varadkar's new memoir promises readers an insight into what the former taoiseach really thought about the monumental events - Covid, Brexit, the housing crisis - that he was centrally involved in. He talks to Hugh Linehan and Irish Times Britain and Ireland editor Mark Hennessy about the book and his life and times in politics. He explains why Eoghan Murphy may have been suited to a government...

Harry McGee and Cormac McQuinn join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:   ·       The assassination of the conservative activist and influencer Charlie Kirk on stage at a college campus in Utah on Wednesday is the latest chapter in America’s increasingly toxic political climate. A Donald Trump loyalist, Kirk was instrumental in mobilising...

The run-in to October’s presidential election continues to pick up pace this week with the selection of Jim Gavin as Fianna Fáil’s nominee. Jack Horgan-Jones brings us behind the scenes at Fianna Fáil’s special meeting where members had to choose between newcomer Gavin and party stalwart Billy Kelleher. Could the manoeuvring that took place around this vote foreshadow leadership contests to c...

Keir Starmer's Labour government seems to be in big trouble, with opinion polls suggesting the possibility of a dramatic reshaping of British electoral politics in favour of Nigel Farage's Reform UK. The resignation of deputy prime minister Angela Rayner last week has shown yet more Labour weakness for Farage to eagerly exploit. It's all happening against a backdrop of deepening divisions over sub...