Inside Politics with Hugh Linehan

Pat Leahy and Cormac McQuinn join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

Chinese leader Xi Jinping lands in Washington later this evening for a three-day state visit, his first to Washington since 2015. The Trump White House is rolling out the red carpet and laying on the full ceremonial treatment for a leader who currently still faces American tariffs, sanctions and export controls. Irish Times China correspondent Dennis Staunton joins Hugh from Hong Kong to explain what both men want out of the meeting and what it will tell us about the balance of power between the world's two superpowers. They also talk about the race for AI supremacy and China's economic...

Anthony Scaramucci is a successful Wall Street financier, a recovering Republican, a famously short-lived communications director in the first Trump administration and co-presenter with Katty Kay of The Rest is Politics US. His new book All the Wrong Moves chronicles his time within the Maga movement and diagnoses where America took a wrong turn. He talks to Hugh about three “catastrophic” policy errors he believes gave rise to the populist anger that propelled Trump to power.

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

Derek Scally talks to Hugh about  the aftermath of two elections that have recently taken place: the Swedish general election and regional elections in the Gerrman region of Saxony-Anhalt. Each offers some fascinating insights into current trends and future directions in Germany and Scandinavia, and perhaps more broadly in Europe.  

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Left-leaning think-tank Tasc has published a new report to mark its 25th year.

the report (The State We Are In - Inequality in Ireland 2026) suggests that the redistribution of wealth via the tax system is struggling to keep inequality under control and argues for greater provision of services.

It also warns that the rapid development of artificial intelligence could deepen inequality in Ireland and around the world.

Tasc director Dr Shana Cohen talks to Hugh about her organisation's history, the new report and the peculiarities that give rise to Ireland's...

President Trump and his vast, costly entourage have rolled through Dublin on the way to his golf course, meeting with the Taoiseach and President Connolly along the way. As with other recent encounters between representatives of the State and Trump, there were no major diplomatic incidents for Irish officials to worry about. But Trump did ruffle some feathers with his comments on Irish reunification. "The Weave", as Trump calls his signature style of oratory, was on full display, by turns baffling, witty and terrifying.

Pat Leahy and Jack Horgan-Jones were present at the various set-pieces and...

Inside Politics Live is coming to Cork on September 30th. Get your tickets here.

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

Inside Politics Live is coming to Cork on September 30th. Get your tickets here.

Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers talks to Jack Horgan-Jones about pre-Budget negotiations, HSE overspending, childcare, infrastructure and more.

He reveals that he intends to strip power over day-to-day spending from four HSE regions in response to what he describes as a "really poor performance" when it comes to controlling costs.

He also responds to critical comments reportedly made by Cabinet colleagues over his unwillingness to grant their spending wishes.

Then Hugh and...

British journalist Paul Mason talks to Hugh about his new book Reds: A Global History of Communism.

The book traces communism’s story from early human egalitarian impulses to modern China’s controlled capitalist system. 

Mason talks to Hugh about what drew him to Trotskyism as a young man, his current politics as a left-wing social democrat and his concerns about democracy under threat. He explains his own break with Corbynism. 

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Inside Politics Live is coming to Cork on September 30th. Get your tickets here.

Pat Leahy and Cormac McQuinn join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

Labour’s annual think-in is happening in Galway and Pat is there to find out what the party is thinking up. The mood is positive. But with the rival Soc Dems riding high, Labour faces an uncertain future.

One new measure being proposed by party finance spokesman Ged Nash is a €100 “shopping supplement” targeted at families over the winter months. Expect m...

In his new novel A Nation Once Again, Paul Howard, best known for the Ross O'Carroll Kelly series, turns his satirical eye from wealthy South Dublin to an imaginary government department devoted to preparing for the reunification of Ireland. He talks to Hugh about how the concept allowed him to explore both the absurdity of the border's existence and the ridiculousness of trying to remove it

They discuss the book’s origins as a sitcom, how his experience as a child in Ireland with an English accent (Howard's family returned to Ireland when he was eight) he...

Hugh, Pat, Ellen and Jack took to the stage at Electric Picnic on Saturday to discuss politics and take some uestions from the audience. They discussed UK prime minister Andy Burnham's controversial comments on the possibility of a border poll before moving on to take stock of the political positions and futures of the Big Three party leaders: Taoiseach Micheal Martin, Minister for Finance Simon Harris and Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald. Here's an excerpt of their conversation.

Thanks to Electric Picnic and MindField for having us.

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Ellen Coyne and Jack Power join Pat Leahy to look back on the week in politics:

·      All 27 EU foreign ministers will gather in Druids Glen in Wicklow next week for a “Gymnich” meeting. What is that you ask, it is characterised as a more informal chat with no expectation of any hard decisions being made. The lull of August will now give way to a hectic calendar culminating in difficult choices around the next seven-year EU budget.

·      Andy Burnham made his first visit to Northern Ireland this week as UK prime minister. He raised eyebrows wi...

Inside Politics Live is coming to Cork on September 30th. Get your tickets here. 

Pat Leahy is joined by Ellen Coyne and Liz Carolan to talk about the response to the circumstances around the recent fatal M9 motorway crash. They examine Coimisiún na Meán’s response and the powers it has under the EU Digital Services Act, and the refusal of Tiktok to appear before a Dail committee. They consider proposals like making joyriding videos illegal and weigh up concerns about free speech and enforceability. 

In part two: the Government has u-turn...

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

There is deep support in Ireland for the Palestinian cause. But why? And is Ireland truly an outlier in its attitudes to Palestine and Israel? 

Academics Miceal Canavan and Liam Kneafsey surveyed over 1,500 people to gauge attitudes, investigate the origins of this support and ask whether anti-Semitism plays a role. 

Their findings include that Irish people have the highest pro-Palestinian sympathy in Western Europe and that we assign unusually high importance to the conflict despite no direct ethnic, economic or military link. 

They test explanations for this, including ideology, party sup...

Jack Horgan-Jones and Ellen Coyne join Hugh to look back on the week in politics:

Hugh Linehan and Pat Leahy close their series on the PDs. In 1997 the party runs a disastrous campaign, falling from 10 seats to four. But they still enter government with Fianna Fáil, with Mary Harney their sole cabinet minister.

Their real influence comes through Charlie McCreevy, effectively a PD inside Fianna Fáil, whose close friendship with Harney drives a tax-cutting agenda during the boom years.

Facing wipeout in 2002, Michael McDowell rescues them with a Ranelagh lamppost stunt and an ingenious slogan. But the next term in government is less successful.

Mc...

In the second of three episodes on the rise and fall of the Progessive Democrats, Hugh and Pat pick up the story on the eve of the 1987 general election with the PDs riding a wave of energy and Fianna Fail's Charles Haughey chasing the overall majority that always eluded him.

The party's first outing at the polls is a triumph: 12 per cent of the vote, 14 seats and third place ahead of Labour, much of it carved out of a collapsing Fine Gael. Haughey falls two seats short. Without O'Malley's new party, would he finally have had...

Today Hugh and Pat embark on a deep dive into the history of a political party that, despite its small size, had an enormous and lasting impact on Ireland.

Born of the dire economic and political realities of 1980s Ireland, the Progressive Democrats, or PDs, spent half of their 23-year existence in power despite never having more than a handful of TDs - and sometimes far fewer. Under successive leaders Des O'Malley, Mary Harney and Michael McDowell, the party used that power to fight for lower taxes and economic liberalisation, reshaping the Irish political landscape along...

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

Narendra Modi’s 12 year rule of India has never looked so fragile.

Weeks of protests have engulfed the country following the leak of a medical entrance exam paper, which forced nearly two million students to resit the test. Protestors hailed victory from the resignation of the education minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday.

On today’s podcast, Hugh asks our contributor in New Delhi, Rahul Bedi, to explain the significance of the movement.

What had fanned the flames, he said, was the description of unemployed young people as “cockroaches” by one senior g...

Ellen Coyne and Cormac McQuinn join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

Returning to the podcast today is UK political commentator, broadcaster and author Iain Dale to talk to Hugh about the arrival of Andy Burnham as prime minister and the death of Iain's friend Ann Widdecombe.

Burnham's excellence as a communicator and a political salesman means there's a strong contrast between him and his predecessor. But after being swept to office unopposed, it's not yet clear what he is offering to the British public. How will he handle issues like immigration, defence and the economy, and what have we learned from his cabinet picks?

...

Michel Barnier is best known in Ireland for his central role in the EU's negotiations with the UK over Brexit almost ten years ago. But Barnier has also played a central role in French politics for decades, including a brief stint as prime minister. Today he is a member of the French parliament.

Last week he was in Dublin for a series of political meetings with Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee and other senior figures, and on Wednesday Hugh interviewed him at Europe House, the European Commission's Dublin base, in front o...

Harry McGee and Cormac McQuinn join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

As the Dáil shuts down for the summer it's time for Hugh, Pat and Jack to take stock of the term gone by. But the biggest political event of the year didn't happen in Leinster House. The April fuel protests left their mark on Irish politics as few other events of recent years have.

In part two: How have the various parties navigated the term? Has Mary Lou McDonald steadied the SF ship, and could a forthcoming book by a former party insider cause renewed problems? Can the Social Democrats maintain their recent momentum? Has Si...

Last week an appeals court opened the way for Marine Le Pen of French far-right party National Rally to stand in next year's presidential election. If the far right comes to power in Paris it will be the culmination of a long journey that is outlined in The Dark Side of France: A History of the Far Right, a new book by Irish journalist Enda O’Doherty. 

Hugh talks to O’Doherty about his book and what a Le Pen victory would mean. They discuss tensions within National Rally between economically liberal conservatism and its working-class base...

Ellen Coyne and Cormac McQuinn join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

·       Sinn Féin’s Planning for Constitutional Change Bill, which obliges the Government to draft and publish a Green Paper on unification within 18 months, failed to win support from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, or independents.  

·       All Government TDs also voted against a PBP Bill to ban hare coursing. The Bill presented an issue where the party whip could have been spared in favour of a free vote, given the public’s clear support to outlaw the practice. The Bill...

For Germany, football is often a reflection of the nations’ stability.

“When Germany is going well, things are going well on the pitch” Irish Times Berlin correspondent Derek Scally tells the Inside Politics podcast.

Following another premature exit from a world cup tournament they won only 12 years ago; in football, as in German politics, the future is uncertain.

Host Hugh Linehan asks where the major fault lines are in the upcoming federal elections in September. Elections, Scally explains, that are likely to be won by the far-right party Alternative for Deutsc...

British MP Nigel Farage has resigned as an MP triggering a by-election in the constituency of Clacton-on-Sea which he says he will stand in.

It comes amid a row over his financial support, after The Sunday Times reported he had not declared benefits, including staff and security, received from his ally George Cottrell, who was convicted of fraud in the US.

“I’ve done nothing wrong” Farage said on a live stream provided by his UK Reform party and broadcast on British news channels.

Hugh speaks to our London Correspondent Mark P...

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

·       Ireland’s presidency of the Council of the European Union got off to a slightly awkward start at the opening ceremony at Dublin Castle on Wednesday when guest Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned against “material emanating from a plant in Ireland” being used in Russia’s war effort. The Ukrainian president didn’t name Aughinish Alumina, but his feelings were clear.

·       Dozens of solicitors walked out of District Court rooms on Wednesday in protest against a new pay system for legal aid. This marked...

Hugh Linehan is joined by Alex Kane to discuss the double life of disgraced politician Jeffrey Donaldosn and its broader impact on the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) as well as Ulster unionism overall. 

Alex Kane is an Irish News columnist and a political commentator as well as a former director of communications for the Ulster Unionist Party. The pair discuss a recent wave of stories that reveal the hypocritical behaviour of self-professed christian Donaldson over the course of his career; from projectile vomiting on the Mayor of Beijing to swigging from a wine bottle in the H...

Last week Pat Leahy sat down with former Labour leader Pat Rabbitte for an interview about his life in politics. 

Rabbitte is now retired but for decades he was one of the most recognisable faces and voices of centre left politics in Ireland. 

As a minister in the 2011 Fine Gael-Labour coalition, he witnessed first hand the events explored in our recent mini series on the subject.

He talked about the decisions he made as party leader and as a minister, as well as his formative years in the west of Ir...

Harry McGee and Cormac McQuinn join Pat Leahy to look back on the week in politics:

All anyone can talk about this week is the weather. While the country enjoys the warmth, the Government still has to find balance between spending to prevent climate change and spending to mitigate the impact of change that has already arrived. 

Keir Starmer may be gone but the UK's biggest problem remains: the lack of growth in their economy.

Proposed “reform” (read: scrapping) of the “triple lock” restriction on Irish overseas military deployment has run into...

Next week Ireland takes over the presidency of the EU Council. But what does that mean? What exactly is the EU Council anyway? How does this council and this presidency fit in among the numerous other European councils and presidents? And how is Ireland going to approach the challenges and opportunities the six-month position brings? To find out Pat Leahy talks to Jack Horgan-Jones and Jack Power.

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Jack Horgan-Jones and Mark Paul join Harry McGee to look back on the week in politics:

·       Taoiseach Micheál Martin is in Brussels for the EU summit this week, also in attendance is Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy who is pushing for serious peace negotiations with Russia. Will Vladimir Putin come to the negotiation table? And could Ukraine’s EU membership be fast-tracked during Ireland’s upcoming EU presidency?

·       Security, competitiveness and the EU budget are some of the issues that will come into focus as Ireland becomes a deal maker and parks parochial affairs for...

 Jimmy Wales founded Wikipedia in January 2001, and almost nobody thought that an encyclopedia that anyone in the world was allowed to edit would actually work. But a quarter of a century later, Wikipedia is still one of the most visited websites on Earth and one of the few large-scale online institutions that people across the political spectrum broadly trust.  

 In his new book, The Seven Rules of Trust, Wales argues that what made Wikipedia work was a set of principles encompassing human nature, reciprocity, purpose, civility, independence and transparency.

He joins Hugh to talk a...

Cormac McQuinn and Harry McGee join Hugh to discuss the week in politics:

The disorder in Northern Ireland since a knife attack in Belfast on Monday reached levels not seen since “the worst possible days of the Troubles”, the Police Service of Northern Ireland chief constable Jon Boutcher said. In a society with a history of sectarianism, there are complex layers to the events taking place.

Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll McNeill won her battle with the Rotunda Hospital this week.

The Football Association of Ireland has confirmed that Ireland’s Nati...