Donald Trump is visiting the country this weekend and it’s safe to say that many people, from the upper echelons of power down to the man and woman in the street, would prefer if he stayed home.

He is here to attend the Irish Open golf championship at the Doonbeg in Clare which he owns.

But what kind of welcome will he receive and will he notice anything beyond the perfect arc of Rory McIllroy’s golf swing. And is time running out for this man whom many suggest is bringing democracy into disrepute.

This week’s guest on the podcast is Clodagh Harrington who lectures on US politics in UCC.

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What would a united Ireland look like? Could we come up with imaginative solutions that would only cheese off everybody equally? Paul Howard, the creator of Ross O’Carroll Kelly has written a satirical novel set in a government department charged with planning for a united Ireland. The results are not what you might expect. 

Mick interviewed Paul before a live audience in Waterstone’s Cork for this week’s podcast.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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It hasn’t been a smooth ride since John Moran was elected Mayor of Limerick, the first such office to be created in a city in the state. He has clashed on a number of occasions with councillors and most recently there has been conflict with traders in the city centre. But there has also been progress in establishing a new form of local government and injecting, as he would have it, new ideas on how a city (and county) should be overseen. 

John Moran is this week’s guest on the podcast.

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The coalition government, awash with cash and bereft of a core political compass, appears to be governing by the path of least resistance. The Irish Examiner’s Political Editor Elaine Loughlin recently outlined in a column how the government is now content to sort out those who shout loudest irrespective of the damage that might do to the country’s long term health. 

Elaine is this week’s guest on the podcast.

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The Government says Ireland needs to build faster. To do that it is preparing legislation that could allow major infrastructure projects to bypass parts of the planning system. At the same time, a major review of local democracy wants to hand more power to councillors and reduce the dominance of unelected council executives.

So are politicians taking back control, or are they concentrating power in different ways? Will these reforms speed up the delivery of housing, transport and public services? And what happens when national priorities collide with local democracy? Irish Examiner political reporter Tadgh McNally joins guest host Eoghan O'Sullivan to discuss two major reforms that could reshape how Ireland is governed and how decisions are made.

Article: 

Local authority 'mini cabinets' to give more powers to councillors: https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41883649.html

Government plans emergency laws to fast-track major infrastructure projects: https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/politics/arid-41885329.html

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The running of agents in the North by the British state was a moral maze. Those who were in charge of the agents often had to decide whether or not to allow a murder go ahead in order to protect an agent’s cover. But where is the morality in such decisions? Did a point arrive where the state ceded the moral high ground to groups like the IRA which were killing at will?

Veteran reporter John Ware’s new book is entitled Neither Confirm Nor Deny – British Intelligence, lawless agent running and the suppression of truth. He is this week’s guest on the podcast.

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For the last month a defence forces tribunal, that was over two decades in the making, has been hearing shocking evidence about how some officers conducted themselves. Allegations of sexual, physical and psychological abuse have called to mind the kind of army life that might have existed in a colonial force from the nineteenth century. The Irish Examiner’s Neil Michael has been reporting on the evidence and he is this week’s guest on the podcast.

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