Una and Andrea's United Ireland

We ask one politician 32 questions. This ep, we're talking to Labour Leader Alan Kelly.

The word on everybody's lips this week has been languishing. There's a collective feeling of stagnation, even though we are progressing. We'd been having conversations about our feelings of being stuck and working on tactics to emerge. Perfectly timed was this article in the New York Times putting a name to how we were feeling. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/19/well/mind/covid-mental-health-languishing.html We wanted to look at this situation and feeling and figure out ways to face it, manage it and to emerge from it by finding meaning. Hopefully it helps you if you're feeling the same.

No, this isn't a podcast about the crazy new European Super League. But it is about something super. (Badum Tish) Bohemians FC has just announced Mark O'Meara as it's Club Artist Officer. You don't often hear about the merging of football and art, although there is a rich artistic heritage to the game. We're talking to Mark to find out more about the role, what his plans are to grow the artistic output of the club & to bring people & the local community in and the importance of fan owned football.

We bring you behind the scenes of Dublin City Council’s outdoor plans for the summer, how Cork is steaming ahead of the capital, why city recovery taskforce was revamped four days after launching, and the plan for coffee docks to supply public toilets. Bananas. Also: Stefanie Preissner’s Fianna Fáil cheque, MHQ fully booked in a city full of hotels, and the excellent novel Detransition, Baby.

Suzanne Lynch is the Washington Correspondent for the Irish Times, and has gone from the chaos of the Trump era to the slightly more zen vibes of flying on Air Force 2 with Kamala Harris. Suzanne's love of music, her English PhD from Cambridge, and her accidental background in finance journalism all contributed to her excellent reporting from Brussels as the newspaper's Europe Correspondent before she headed to D.C.. In this interview, she discusses the graft of her earlier career, the despondency in America at peak Trump, and what Biden may have in store for Ireland's happy relationship with FDI and our corporate tax rate.

Paul Handrick and Clare-Louise Donelan are from the Bee Sanctuary of Ireland and have started the ambitious 'National Meadowland Project'. We're talking to them about side stepping the old style of farming in favour of creating the perfect conditions for the 98 kinds of wild bees in Ireland with the only dedicated native wild bee sanctuary on the planet. We're also talking to novice bee-keeper Adam Sherry about the logistics of setting up your very own hive. PLUS Jack Charlton, The Sopranos (it's a new show, have you heard of it?) and Cllrs petitioning em, the council for more outdoor toilets.

With tempers fraying amongst a despondent public, and case numbers plateauing, we talk to Pete Lunn, the head of the ESRI Behavioural Research Unit about current public health messaging, what he has learned from a year of research in an extraordinary time for behavioural scientists, and how we can overcome this current difficult moment. Plus love for For Those I Love, CMAT, Saint Sister, Pillow Queens. And White Water Rafting, Green Implosion & United Ireland on Claire Byrne.

This week we're wondering how communities can buy their local pub by asking Isla McCulloch from Co-Operatives UK to give us the DL on Britain's long-standing co-op culture. The Tories just launched a £150 million Community Ownership Fund to help community groups buy or take over local community assets at risk of being lost. As the hospitality industry continues to await the light at the end of the COVID tunnel, is it time to start a co-op culture in Ireland?

With protestors being shot dead on the streets, and a sense that history is repeating itself in Myanmar as the military once again takes over in a coup on February 1st, people from Myanmar living in Ireland are desperate for the Irish government and other countries to move beyond statements and take action. We speak to two people from Myanmar living in Kilkenny and Kerry about watching from afar, and calling for help.

When we saw Samuel Brazys, an Associate Professor at UCD tweeting that 1,257 companies with a combined turnover of 68 billion (= to 17.5% of Irish GDP) work from one office block on North Wall Quay in Dublin, we had to know more. We wanted to know about GDP, GNP, GNI*, tax loopholes, whether we have any intangible assets we can move to a tax haven, are we a tax haven on purpose, what's a double Irish and should we do away with all these maybe fake measurements of our economy and change to Gross National Happiness like Bhutan and New Zealand?

We are talking to friend of the pod Aoife Gallagher from the Institute of Strategic Dialogue about the end of February protest in Dublin that turned violent.

Ten years ago this week, Una and her two flatmates were in Dublin, depressed about the recession, and decided one of them should run for election. A decade later, Una and Dylan reflect on that time.

In our ongoing quest to dance, we're looking at the importance of Clubbing being considered as culture. On the back of the Dept of Justice announcing intentions to extend our archaic licensing laws and repeal the 1935 Public Dance Halls Act following the long term campaigning by Sunil Sharpe and the rest of the Give Us The Night crew and the establishment of the Night Time Economy Task Force, we're delving into the policies of each of the parties with regard to what happens in our cities and towns after dark. You can also watch the Clubbing Is Culture mini doc here: https://youtu.be/pECGnXz6PBc

Little Collins is a CBD shop in Kilkenny and Galway that's been raided by Gardaí a number of times over the past few weeks. We're joined by owner Ide O'Brien to try and get to the bottom of why this is happening. We also have a broader look at the journey Ireland is currently on with cannabis and delve into the reasons why drugs are illegal in the first place, and it's not the reasons you think, reader. State of the Nation, It's Bananas, Get in the Sea and Una's Book of the Week also included.

We ask one politician 32 questions. This ep, we're talking to Social Democrat TD Holly Cairns.

We've been taking your feedback very seriously from our survey and as a result we'll be having a culture focused ep once a month. Not a culture review or listings type convo, more a look at what's happening in culture and how is that informing or being informed politically and socially. This month, we're talking about It's A Sin. Who isn't? We're talking to High Priestess and Queen Witch Veda about where It's a Sin hit the spot and where there were some inadequacies. Enjoy.

It's the final county. Longford, this is your moment. We're talking to Ruairí McKiernan, a wonderful man full or hope and promise. Whilst we're talking about the problems that don't seem to get solved without citizen intervention, Ruairí shows us how we all possess the power to bring about change. We've TWO county reps - Longford listener Paula McNally and maybe the most famous Longford woman, campaigner Siona Cahill. Of course we have the State of the Nation, County Facts, It's Bananas, Get in the Sea and the Tuna Chicken Roll.

32 Questions is back! We ask one politician 32 questions, with this episode featuring People Before Profit TD, Richard Boyd Barrett.

OMG. A county. On the day we bid adieu to Trump. And JLo shines in white. WHAT A CULTURAL RESET. We're talking all things Offaly with county facts making a return, comedian Edwin Sammon as county rep and Minister of State and Green party Senator Pippa Hackett joins us to talk about what's next for bogs in Offaly, where she lives and farms. We've a briquette moment of appreciation with James Kavanagh, Una becomes an influencer and Soulwax remix Fontaines D.C.

I couldn't help but wonder, what if... Samantha was replaced by a city planner? We spend a lot of time talking about our capital city on this pod, how it's shaped, how it develops and all the bits and bobs that throws up. So, as the Dublin City Development Plan is now currently open for submissions, we wanted to go straight to the horse's mouth to find out exactly how the city is planned and how we can be part of that process. We're joined by Dublin City Council's City Planner John O'Hara to talk about the process; the decisions; co-living and naturellement Andrea's not letting the moment pass without talking about the situation with our clubbing landscape. Please take this opportunity to make a submission to the City Development Plan! This is your opportunity to have your voice heard and to create a city YOU want to live in. The link is below and the deadline is the 22nd Feb. http://dublincitydevelopmentplan.ie/