The death of Pope Francis has set in train one of the most unique contests in world politics: the Papal conclave. Cardinals will vote again and again until one name achieves a two-thirds majority and becomes pope.

Voting is not the conclave's only similarity to secular politics. The prospects of victory for frontrunners Antonio Tagle from the Philippines and current Vatican secretary of state Pietro Parolin have declined in recent days, thanks to the emergence of negative stories about the two cardinals.

But how do the 133 cardinals, many of whom do not know each other, align behind a particular candidate?

Venezuelan journalist Edgar Beltrán is Rome Correspondent for The Pillar, a US-based Catholic news organisation. He joins Hugh to explain the behind-the-scenes politics, friendships and rivalries that play a big role in the selection of the next pope, why it is possible this conclave of cardinals may struggle to reach a conclusion and what happens if the votes remain tied.

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On today’s Inside Politics podcast Irish Times London Correspondent Mark Paul joins Hugh Linehan to discuss what Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is already calling “the beginning of the end of the Conservative Party" as Tories lost council seats all over England.

And to add icing to Farage’s cake, Reform Party candidate Sarah Pochin dramatically won the Runcorn and Helsby byelection by just six votes, the narrowest margin of victory in a byelection since 1944.

Labour didn’t fare well in Thursday’s local elections either - will they now view Reform as a legitimate challenger? And is the clock already ticking for Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch?

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

·       Nama chief executive Brendan McDonagh almost became housing ‘tsar’ until Fine Gael blocked his appointment this week. It seems communication between the two main parties was not at its strongest when it came to Fianna Fáil’s push to have McDonagh head up the new Housing Activation Office.

·       Both the Government of the 34th Dáil and Donald Trump reach the milestone of 100 days this week, although it feels like night and day in terms of activity with the Government’s executive functions here barely getting off the ground.  

·       But nobody could accuse Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan of inactivity as he has taken that portfolio and ran with it. Building strongly on the work of his predecessor Helen McEntee, could Fianna Fáil be looking at a potential future party leader?

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

·       Has the EPP become a cold house for Fine Gael? Recollection of a soirée in Beijing, and Westminster’s long memory for its murdered MPs.

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

·       Pope Francis passed away on Easter Monday at the age of 88. Thoughts now turn to the election of his successor and whether they will be viewed to be as tolerant and progressive as the late pontiff.

·       Minister for Education Helen McEntee has her work cut out for her to keep secondary school teachers onside with both the Teacher’s Union of Ireland and the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland voting to ballot on industrial action if plans to reform the Leaving Certificate from this September are not paused.

·       And the Government has told RTÉ that State funding of more than €60 million for its redundancy plan will hinge on the broadcaster hitting yearly targets as it reduces its headcount.

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

·       Bill Clinton on a polarized America 30 years on from the Oklahoma bombing, Ireland needs to tread carefully with the EU on tariffs, and have we reached an empathy crisis? 

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Cork-based author Pádraig Óg O'Ruairc joins Hugh Linehan to discuss his new book 'Burn Them Out; a history of fascism and the far right in Ireland’. He argues a line can be drawn directly between the far-right and, in the case of the Blueshirts, openly fascist movements of the 1920s and 1930s and the Dublin riots of 2023. Ó'Ruairc objects to the Irish exceptionalism many feel in having largely escaped the xenophobic populism seen elsewhere in Europe, arguing we have a long history of 'looking the other way' when it comes to confronting a pervasive and enduring fascist undercurrent.

'Burn Them Out' is available now.

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This episode was first published in October 2023.

Naomi 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 globalising world. 

Her later books have examined a range of subjects including crisis capitalism, militarism, and climate change. 

Klein is also commonly confused online for a very different writer, Naomi Wolf, who has called Covid-19 vaccine programmes ‘mass murder’.

In Klein's latest book Doppelganger she draws on this unwanted comparison to explore themes like online identity, conspiracy theories and the 21st Century supremacy of the ‘personal brand’. 

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Cliff Taylor joins Pat Leahy to assess the latest developments in the trade war initiated by US president Donald Trump that threatens to upend the global economy.

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As the head of an organisation called Labour Together, which despite its name '"was all about dividing the Labour party and defeating the left", Irishman Morgan McSweeney handpicked Keir Starmer as the leadership candidate to take on Jeremy Corbyn and the party's left wing in 2020. That is according to Patrick Maguire, co-author of Get In, an entertaining book about Starmer's road to Number 10 and McSweeney's accumulation of power behind the scenes. He talks to Hugh about McSweeney's talent, Starmer's leadership and why the Labour government is struggling to get its message across.

Get In by Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund is available now.

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