Irish Times Inside Politics

Political Editor Pat Leahy is here with the latest Ipsos / MRBI poll which brings bad news for most political groups but especially for Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, support for whom has dipped significantly. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

First: Fiach Kelly explains what we've learned from a cache of documents featuring exchanges between Solidarity TD Paul Murphy, his party colleagues and an international umbrella organisation for socialist politics, while Jennifer Bray has the latest on internal divisions within the Social Democrats. Then: Is there any version of the backstop that could be accepted by the EU, Ireland and Britain? In part two we're joined by Peter Foster, Europe Editor of British newspapers The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph, who says the political realities of Brexit and the implications of the backstop mean the border issue still looks completely irreconcilable. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Finally it seems that meaningful moves are being made in Westminster toward some sort of conclusion to the Brexit saga. Denis Staunton and Pat Leahy analyse the public shifts in position made in recent days by Prime Minister Theresa May, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and hard Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg, and the private strategising of the Irish government, the DUP and the European Union. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The EU-Arab League summit in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, today has been dominated by talk of Brexit. And it has turned out to be a more eventful day than promised, with expectations growing that UK Prime Minister Theresa May will take steps to avoid 'No Deal', reports our Deputy Political Editor Fiach Kelly. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

At the Fianna Fáil ardfheis in City West, everyone, from the regular delegates on up to the party leader Micheál Martin, wants to take the fight to Fine Gael in a general election. But not right now, of course. As all are at pains to point out, the party must hold off in the national interest. Harry McGee and Pat Leahy were there to assess the party mood. They were joined by the party's Brexit spokesperson Lisa Chambers and European candidate Barry Andrews to talk about the party's direction, the Brexit waiting game and working with the SDLP. After that, Pat and Harry analyse the speech delivered on Saturday evening by Micheál Martin. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jennifer Bray and Fiach Kelly join presenter Harry McGee to discuss the big political stories this week: the continuing National Children’s Hospital controversy, the government's Brexit omnibus, UK Labour resignations and Fianna Fáil's Ard Fheis this weekend.Later: Historian Dr Marisa McGlinchey talks to Harry about her book, Unfinished Business - The Politics of 'Dissident' Republican Groups, for which she spoke to 90 members of paramilitary groups about their motives and ambitions. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As a professor of economic history at Oxford University, and an Irishman, Kevin O'Rourke is well placed to explain how the different economic experiences of the UK and Ireland have led both nations to very different views of the European Union. His book on the subject, A Short History of Brexit, holds plenty of surprises for Irish and British readers. And Professor O'Rourke has a message for Taoiseach Leo Varadkar when it comes to the issue of the border. A Short History of Brexit is published by Pelican. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Amid apologies and ‘learnings’, the row over the massive overspend on the National Children’s Hospital rumbles on. Two big questions remain: What will the final bill be? And, which other projects will suffer as a result?Hugh is joined by Fianna Fáil deputy leader Dara Calleary, Pat Leahy and Jennifer Bray to discuss the controversy and how budgets on capital projects can be controlled better in the future.Later: the new SDLP-Fianna Fáil alliance, the nurses’ strike and Brexit. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Simon Carswell has been investigating the potential impact of Brexit on people - their lives, their communities and their businesses. He talks to Hugh Linehan about what he has discovered, including the fear of the return of violence, the threat to trade and the concerns of children in border communities. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

First: A subtle but deliberate shift was noted in Theresa May's position on the Brexit backstop during a trip to Belfast yesterday. As the two-day Northern Ireland visit draws to a close today, is her strategy any clearer and what are its chances of survival?Plus: The blame game over the dramatic cost overrun on the proposed National Children's Hospital is lurching from controversy to full-blown crisis. What might it mean for the government?Guests: Denis Staunton, Pat Leahy, Jennifer Bray and Harry McGee See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Theresa May has united Tory MPs behind her plan to go to Brussels to seek legally binding changes to the Brexit withdrawal agreement, exploring 'alternative options' to the Irish backstop. The trouble is, the EU won’t reopen the deal and they’ve said so time and again. The Guardian’s Brexit correspondent Lisa O’Carroll, Irish Times Europe editor Patrick Smyth and Irish Times deputy political editor Fiach Kelly join Hugh to cut through the spin to explain what happened in Westminster last night and what it all means. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sunday is International Holocaust Remembrance Day and to mark it Hugh talks to academic and author Deborah Lipstadt about her new book Antisemitism Here and Now. They discuss the growth of antisemitism in Europe and the United State, what distinguishes antisemitism of the political left from the political right, and why she has a problem with an initiative in the Seanad to boycott goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Deborah Lipstadt is the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University. Her book Antisemitism Here and Now is available now from Scribe. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

First: Pat Leahy on the comments yesterday by an EU Commission spokesperson suggesting that a hard border will appear in the case of a no deal Brexit, a suggestion flatly rejected by Simon Coveney. But what are our plans in the case of a no deal Brexit? Is a softening on the backstop being considered behind closed doors?Then: The Irish Times's Fintan O'Toole and Children's Rights Alliance CEO Tanya Ward join Hugh to talk about No Child 2020, an initiative of the two organisations to draw attention to the issues of child poverty and deprivation that still afflict Ireland 100 years after the first democratically elected Irish parliament promised to serve children as its "first duty". See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Public meetings to introduce pro-life TD Peadar Tóibín's new, as-yet unnamed political party have been drawing decent crowds around the country in recent weeks. Already 1,400 people have joined the party. Who are they, and what will the party stand for beyond opposition to abortion? Peadar sits down with Hugh and Pat to explain. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan joins Hugh and Pat to consider last night's historic House of Commons defeat for Theresa May's Brexit plan. Has the likelihood of a 'no deal' crash out increased? And, how prepared is the Irish government for such a scenario? Also on the agenda: Fine Gael's "old-fashioned environmentalism", the carbon tax and the Green Party's ambitions for the local and European elections. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As nurses prepare for days of strike action, our politics team consider the problem it poses for Minister Paschal Donohoe and how he is likely to respond. In part two the panel look ahead to the new political season and discuss the significance of upcoming European elections in an utterly changed European political landscape and the meagre legislative agenda. But as ever, it's all overshadowed by the B-word. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today, for the benefit of those who recently discovered Inside Politics, we're reposting a podcast with one of our favourite interviewees: American author, historian and academic Timothy Snyder. In November 2017 Hugh interviewed Timothy Snyder about his book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, in which he makes provocative and unsettling comparisons between today's politics and the rise of the Third Reich and suggests how we can avoid the terrible mistakes of the past.Timothy Snyder is a professor of history at Yale University and a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. He has spent ten years in Europe, and speaks five and reads ten European languages. He has also written for The New York Review of Books, Foreign Affairs, The Times Literary Supplement, The Nation, and The New Republic as well as for The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, and other newspapers.He is the author of several award-winning books including The Red

The second of two AMA episodes of Inside Politics. Answering your questions about politics and more are Pat Leahy, Fiach Kelly, Jennifer Bray and Harry McGee with host Hugh Linehan. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We invited you to submit questions for our politics team and we received a lot of responses, so today is the first of two episodes dedicated to answering them. Thanks to everyone who sent in a question! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What did The Irish Times politics team expect to see happening in 2018 that failed to materialise? Which politicians impressed us? What disappointed us? Fiach Kelly, Jennifer Bray and Harry McGee join Hugh to look back on the year in politics. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.