Spoil Your Reign

This episode follows a different format as it is an interview between Ben Simmons and recent general election candidate for the Social Democrats, Niall O'Tuathail.  You can find more information about Niall at his website created for the most recent general election. http://www.niallotuathail.ie  As always comments, questions and complaints please email us spoilyourreign@gmail.com or on Twitter @spoilyourriegn

This episode of Spoil Your Reign is a discussion of two key issues; the labour market in Ireland and the prospect of a universal social payment that would replace our current social security network with a single payment for all resident Irish citizens.  In addition there is a brief re-cap of the current Irish political scene approximately 50 days after the general election and our view that a second general election is going to be likely in 2016.  We would like to get feedback on the podcast so please email us at spoilyourreign@gmail.com or you can follow us @spoilyourreign on Twitter

This is a short discussion of some aspects of the election and the aftermath.  Any comments / questions / complaints please email us at spoilyourreign@gmail.com  Follow us on Twitter @spoilyourreign or on Facebook

This episode is a recap of the recent Irish General Election recorded on Monday Feb. 29th. In this election episode we discuss the results of the election and the performance of the political parties. Lastly we discuss the possible coalition outcomes and the possibility of a second General Election being held in 2016.  Comments and questions email us at spoilyourreign@gmail.com Follow us on Twitter @spoilyourreign

This episode is a discussion of centralisation and decentralisation in Ireland. Over the past 40 years in Ireland, there has been a steady decline in the power and authority given to local authorities and greater emphasis on centralised authority based in the Cabinet. At the same time, the famous decentralisation strategy of the early 2000s was supposed to create more equity between the regions. Ben and Jack discuss this in detail and do a quick overview of the recent report of the Banking Inquiry report and indulge in a little 2016 election results speculation. One thing to note is the audio for this episode requires everyone to turn up the volume, we apologise for any inconvenience caused! We have fixed this issue for future episodes. Corrections: The Irish Financial Regulator during the Celtic Tiger was Patrick Neary not Patrick Nevin as mentioned in the podcast. Apologies to any persons named Patrick Nevin. Show Notes: Colm McCarthy quotes are the article ‘When Irish Eyes are Crying’ by Michael Lewis in

This episode is a discussion of the ‘rights’. The term ‘rights’ has been utilised repeated in recent years, particularly by a younger generation in Ireland. However most of the ‘rights’ specified by that group are only applicable to the U.S. and are not explicitly guaranteed or given in the Irish constitution. We discuss many of these rights in the context of the Irish constitution and within the broader EU framework of human rights jurisprudence. Correction: There is one error, that was made in this episode, the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission were mentioned as having created a report on technical amendments to the Irish constitution, actually it was the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution. You can find the reports of the commission dating back to the early 2000s at www.oireachtas.ie and www.gov.ie/taoiseach

This episode takes a slightly different approach to previous episodes as it is a discussion of the Irish education system, starting in the 1920s until present day. The special New Years day episode features Jack Kirwan, filling in for Ben Simmons.  Much of what is discussed in this episode can be found in various articles in Irish Education Studies in particular articles by T.F. Holohan and Arthur Motherway. In addition Seamus O Buachalla’s book “Education Policy in the Twentieth Century” is an excellent study. Any feedback, comments and complaints please send to spoilyourreign@gmail.com

This episode is an discussion of the last budget of the Fine Gael / Labour coalition before the next general election. As budgets are often viewed as the physical manifestations of government policy, we explore the vision of the coalition in the last budget before the election and try to understand who has benefited from this budget.This is our last episode of 2015! We wish everyone a happy holidays and we'll be back in January 2016.Here are some links to some of the issues brought up in this episode: http://www.thejournal.ie/tobacco-excise-cigarette-tax-ireland-2370102-Oct2015/http://www.budget.gov.ieAnd lastly please follow us on Twitter @spoilyourreign or email us at spoilyourreign@gmail.com.

An in-depth look at the next Irish general election and the emergence of three new players on the political scene.

A discussion of 'The 12th' a cultural and political phenomenon that occurs annually in Northern Ireland.