The Brezhnev wing of Fianna Fáil will soon have to decide if keeping the blinds down and pretending they're heading somewhere is preferable to finding a fresh driver and a radically improved engine. This episode is also available as a blog post: http://derekmooney.ie/2021/05/11/riding-the-rails-with-the-blinds-down/

This podcast appears two weeks after it first appeared as a blog. Apologies for the delay. It looka t the art of good government communications as is also available as a blog post: http://derekmooney.ie/2021/05/05/theres-no-big-secret-to-good-government-communications/

In this episode I look at the upcoming Scottish Parliament election and argues that it will be one of the most consequential U.K. elections of modern times for the politics and future of these two islands. This episode is also available as a blog post: http://derekmooney.ie/2021/04/28/1-week-to-the-most-consequential-uk-election/

In this week's podcast I look at the recent disturbances and incidents across the North and consider what they us about what is happening in the leadership of both loyalism and unionism. This episode is also available as a blog post: http://derekmooney.ie/2021/04/15/when-loyalisms-loyalty-is-rejected/

This episode is based on my latest weekly Broadsheet column. You can read this on my website, here: http://derekmooney.ie/2021/04/01/times-up-for-martin-but-itll-take-a-little-longer-to-play-out/

This episode looks at how events in the week after St Patrick's week may have a deeper long term impact on relations across this island than all the fine words spoken over Zoom to the US. This episode is also available as a blog post: http://derekmooney.ie/2021/03/25/this-is-an-important-week-for-relations-across-these-islands/

Even before The Sunday Times front page story about the Tánaiste being the subject of criminal investigation, Fine Gael TDs were starting to imagine what a world without Varadkar as leader might look like. This episode is also available as a blog post: http://derekmooney.ie/2021/03/22/varadkars-future-no-more-assured-than-martins/

We have endured the longest lock down, closing all but essential workplaces for 200 days so far (and counting) - so, coming seventh or eighth in Europe when it comes to vaccine roll out,  is just not good enough. We need to be at the top of the vaccine roll out league. That means we need to have a greater percentage of our people vaccinated, even if only with one dose, by the end of April or May. 

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://derekmooney.ie/2021/03/09/why-michealmartintd-must-act-to-defer-second-covid19vaccine-doses-now-so-we-can-unlock-sooner/

This podcast is based on an article I wrote in December 2020. Here I predict that duplicity and mendacity will be the hallmark of Johnson's future relationships with Brussels, Dublin, Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff. Events would seem to be proving me right. This episode is also available as a blog post: http://derekmooney.ie/2021/01/18/johnsons-duplicity-will-not-end-with-brexit/

This episode is from late November 2020, but the doubts I express about Martin's continuing leadership of Fianna Fáil expressed then are sadly just a valid today. It also available as a blog post: http://derekmooney.ie/2020/12/01/taoiseach-martins-negatives-outweigh-his-positives/