DIG LIFE DEEP!

Peadar Tóibín is the charismatic leader of Aontú (Irish for ‘unity’), Ireland’s newest 32-county political party and movement. A former member of Sinn Fein, Tóibín announced his resignation in November 2018, saying restrictions on him by the party over his views on abortion had stopped him "from fully representing my constituents.” Since the party’s much-anticipated launch, Aontú has clinched three seats in local elections in the Republic and a seat in Derry. A staunch pro-life party, Aontú, now has its eyes on further electoral success in the Republic's next general elections and in the North as the prospects of Brexit, when the UK leaves the European Union, raises the stakes.

In this episode, Tobin spells out his party plans to restore rights for the unborn baby, which were radically removed when Ireland repealed the pro-life Eighth Amendment, that legalized abortion this year. The unborn are still protected in the North. But the clock is ticking.  Aontú and many other pro-life groups and individuals, are fighting to prevent London imposing abortion.  Tóibín talked at his offices in Navan, Co. Meath, Ireland, about Ireland’s serious economic and fiscal challenges. These include a rising national debt, homelessness, a housing crisis as well as gaping infrastructure deficits, some ten years after Ireland was bailed out by global bankers and financiers.

Peter Tuchman, an icon on the New York Stock Exchange floor for over three decades, has witnessed bull markets and bears -- and become the most recognizable public face of Wall Street at moments of financial crisis, panic and sheer exuberance and rallies. And despite the massive encroachment of electronic high-speed trading, which has sharply reduced the numbers of human traders on the Big Board, Peter has thrived to tell the many legendary tales.  He says the human trader is now more a vital part of the trading machinery than ever before. 

In this episode, Peter describes life on the floor and how he got there, man vs machine, and the tragic events of 9/11 as he witnessed it from the venerable exchange in lower Manhattan. Peter is the son of holocaust survivors who came to America in 1949. His parents met in a displaced persons camp after World War II. Peter recalls the extraordinary family history.

Catholic Church bashing has replaced “Brit-bashing” in modern Ireland, according to David Quinn of Ireland’s Iona Institute in episode one of Life On Planet Earth. Quinn explains to host John Aidan Byrne how rampant anti-Catholicism has engulfed Ireland where many Irish politicians, once proud of the Irish Catholic identify, are now fearful of public rebuke if they speak up for the Church. Quinn, a prolific writer and columnist for the Sunday Times and Irish Catholic, is a social commentator and conservative activist.  He is the author of How We Killed God: and Other Tales of Modern Ireland. In this episode Quinn also explains how Ireland recently lost the pro-life Eighth Amendment that led to the legalization of abortion in Ireland.  And Quinn explains why he has a certain sympathy for voters who pulled the plug in favor of Brexit and the UK’s decision to exit the European Union.