Irish Times Inside Politics

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.

This day 100 years ago, citizens (including, for the first time, women) across the entire island of Ireland voted together for the final time for a national parliament. To look back at that vote and its historic consequences, Hugh is joined by Diarmaid Ferriter, Irish Times columnist and Professor of Modern Irish History at UCD, and Dr Mary McAuliffe, a lecturer in Gender Studies who specialises in Irish women's history, also in UCD. But first Hugh shares some family history of his own. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today's podcast focusses on Brexit and the Sinn Fein party's fortunes. London Editor Denis Staunton explains why UK Prime Minister Theresa May is unlikely to lose a confidence vote called by her own backbenchers and what the process means for Brexit, for The Tories and parliamentary politics in Britain. Sinn Féin's finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty is here to discuss his party's showing in the presidential election, the loss of TDs Peadar Tóibín and Carol Nolan over the abortion issue and why Fine Gael's budget arithmetic is "batsh*t crazy". See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With Hugh to appraise all this week's political news (including high drama in Westminster, the personalised abortion legislation debate, Peadar Tóibín's new political movement and the Fiscal Advisory Council's reprimand of the Government's budgetary policies) are UCC political scientist Dr Theresa Reidy and Pat Leahy and Jennifer Bray from our politics team. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

"Putin and his regime are going to become more hostile, malicious and deadly to the rest fo the world, and we need to understand this".Since the murder in Russia of his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, Bill Browder has been on a mission to highlight and punish corruption and crime in that country and beyond. He is in Dublin this week to push for the introduction here of a law to mirror the US Magnitsky Act that penalises Russian officials by targeting their assets. He talks to Hugh about Vladimir Putin, the Russian regime and the decade-long campaign that he believes has placed his life at real risk. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As we wait for UK parliament to vote on Theresa May's deal, Hugh talks to two people with thought-provoking and divergent ideas about what brought about Brexit in the first place: Irish Times columnist Fintan O'Toole and Professor Helen Thompson of Cambridge University. The conversation touches on everything from the Norman invasion to the nature of the EU single market, and even a fictional EU prohibition on prawn cocktail-flavour crisps. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Concerns are growing that the Government’s proposed abortion legislation will not pass through the Oireachtas in time for its planned introduction date in January. Was Minister Simon Harris naive in setting the deadline? Irish Times politics team new recruit Jennifer Bray joins old timers Hugh, Pat and Harry to talk about this and other matters including Brexit, Leo's tax cuts promise, and the national broadband scheme. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On the floor at the Fine Gael National Conference, the Inside Politics team interviews Tanaiste Simon Coveney about Brexit, what happens if the deal is not approved by UK parliamentarians and the role of the DUP. Plus: A major policy announcement has been made by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in his speech: a pledge to raise the threshold for the higher rate of income tax from €35,000 to €50,000 over five budgets. Huge if true. But is it wise? Fiach Kelly and Pat Leahy analyse the news. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With a Brexit deal agreed between Britain and the EU, now all eyes turn to Westminster. Will Prime Minister Theresa May be able to bounce her cabinet, the Commons and the EU into a deal that nobody likes and many despise? And ultimately could the markets scare the Commons into accepting anything to avoid No Deal? Meanwhile in Dublin, all focus is on whether the wording of the border backstop will be sufficiently resistant to 'interpretation' down the line. Plus: Confidence and Supply negotiations continue in Brexit's shadow, and Fianna Fáil's forever delayed move into Northern Irish politics. Today's guests: Fianna Fáil TD & Brexit spokesperson Lisa Chambers, our own Pat Leahy and Denis Staunton in London. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Author Michael Lewis (Moneyball, The Big Short, The Undoing Project)talks to Hugh about his new book 'The Fifth Risk'. The book concerns the Trump Administration and what Lewis says are astounding levels of cronyism and corruption in the appointments it has made in key government organisations with responsibility for everything from nuclear weapons to weather forecasting. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

New Yorker staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe has written a book about the killing of mother-of-ten Jean McConville by the IRA in 1972. As well as uncovering new facts about the circumstances around McConville's killing, and making a new allegation about the identities of those who killed her, the book is a valuable outsider's view of the enduring legacy of The Troubles and the roles of republican leaders like Gerry Adams.On today's podcast Patrick Redden Keefe talks to Public Affairs Editor Simon Carswell. "Say Nothing: a true story of murder and memory in Northern Ireland" is out now. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

First: Washington Correspondent Suzanne Lynch on a night of mixed results for both parties and President Trump in the US Midterms. What message will Democratic Party take from this when selecting a presidential challenger to Donald Trump for 2020?Then: economist and Irish Times columnist David McWilliams joins Hugh and Fiach to talk about his new book Renaissance Nation, the success of political centrism in Ireland, what divides the generations and how the property problem ("the primacy of feudalism over creativity") threatens to undo our hard-won progress. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

RTÉ political correspondent Martina Fitzgerald has written a book about the experiences of the small number of women - 10% of the total - who have sat at the cabinet table in Ireland. Madam Politician features interviews with all "the living members of this exclusive club". She's here to talk about what she found with Pat Leahy and Harry McGee. They are also joined by Labour councillor Rebecca Moynihan who shares her own experience at the local government level, and discusses what the Labour party should do to grow its support. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The official numbers are not yet in but the result is clear. Kitty Holland, Pat Leahy and Fiach Kelly are here to talk about the reelection of Michael D Higgins to the presidency, the surge in support for Peter Casey, who today denied the growth in his support was due to his comments about Travellers, and the disappointing showing from Sinn Féin's Liadh Ní Riada. Has this election exposed a flaw in the party's broader strategy? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There’s still one more live debate left to endure in this presidential campaign, but last night’s on RTÉ’s Prime Time was the final one to feature all six would-be presidents. Did we learn anything new about the candidates? Director of the Institute for Future Media and Journalism at DCU, Jane Suiter, joins Hugh and Pat to discuss their performances, whether there were too many contestants in the race and how the blasphemy referendum might play out. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this bonus podcast, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald explains why her party is working “might and main” to ensure there is a Brexit backstop. She also speaks to Hugh and Fiach about her belief that a Border poll will happen in the next 5-10 years and why a hard Brexit would in fact speed that process up. Asked whether she regretted criticising former Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald following her exoneration in the Charleton report, McDonald said it is her job to challenge the government, adding that she could play her violin and list how many times she has been criticised, but sometimes you just have to take your knocks in politics, even when you think it's wrong.Also on the agenda: the presidency, the DUP and going into government. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.