The Mick Clifford Podcast

A new opinion poll, a series of coincidental articles, the mid term blues and a question hanging over Michael Martin, will he stay or will he go? Irish Examiner political editor Elaine Loughlin unravels all on this week’s podcast.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tony Connelly is known across the country as RTE’s Europe Editor but now he is exploring his family history for a TV documentary. His grandfather, Michael Connelly from East Galway served in the RIC right up until it was disbanded in 1922. The trajectory of his life and career makes for a fascinating story and has also provided Tony with some food for thought about the RIC, their role in Irish society and how they are remembered today. Tony Connelly is this week’s guest on the podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Summary results for last year’s census were published this week and they provide a snapshot of where exactly Ireland is now. Senior statistician at the Central Statistics Office, Cormac Halpin spoke on the podcast about what the change are and what they mean. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On 24 May 1923 the Irish Civil War ended with the order to dump arms. This is one of the final major occasions to be examined in the centenary of the revolutionary decade, a time when the newly independent state finally had a chance to breathe. So how did it come about, and what was left at the end of a conflict that exercise a huge toll on a public that was already exhausted and damaged. Historian John Dorney is this week’s guest on the podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In October 1984 the IRA attempted to kill Margaret Thatcher with a bomb in the Grand Hotel in Brighton where she was staying for a Conservative party conference. The plot failed but five other people died. It was the most audacious attempt at assassination that the Provos had undertaken over the course of the Troubles. The story of the Brighton bomb, who plotted it, who carried out the plan, and how the main culprit was eventually captured, form the core of Rory Carroll’s new book, but it is much more than that, providing a wide lens view of the Troubles throughout the 1980s, written in the style of a thriller. And it also poses an interesting question: How would history have unfolded had the IRA been successful in killing Thatcher? Rory Carroll is this week’s guest on the podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speculation over who exactly will take over as presenter of the Late Late Show has been mounting as various presumed candidates have stepped forward to declare that they are not interested. So who is now the favourite and can he or she manage to ensure that the show maintains its relevance in a world transformed from the days when the show was unmissable.Professor Jane Suiter from DCU discusses the past, present and future of the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next month a brother and sister from a highly successful Co Kerry family which made good in New York are due to be sentenced for fraud offences. Donal and Helen O’Sullivan were found guilty of the offences in relation to contributions from their construction company to union funds. It’s all a long way from Ballinskelligs in south Kerry where the family grew up and a long way from the dizzying success the family achieved in New York, where they were pillars of the Irish and Irish American community. The Irish Examiner’s Catherine Shanahan has the full story and she is this week’s guest on the podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week an inquest into the deaths of forty eight young people in a fire in the Stardust disco in North Dublin in 1981 opened. It’s been a long, torturous journey for the bereaved to a point where they believe there is a very good chance of the truth of what happened to their loved ones finally being established. Irish Examiner reporter Sean Murray has been following the journey of the Stardust families for most of his journalistic career and he was present this week to witness pen pictures of those who lost their lives. Sean is this week’s guest on the podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The acquittal of Gerry ‘the Monk’ Hutch on the charge of murder this week has raised a whole host of questions, mostly for the gardai and the DPP. Why was this case ever brought? How did anybody build a case around the main prosecution witness, Jonathan Dowdall, whose character was ripped apart in the witness box? What does the ruling say about the controversial Special Criminal Court? And why does it appear that Gerry Hutch has achieved some level of sympathy among sections of the public? Irish Examiner reporter Sean Murray covered the trial and he is this week’s guest on the podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The debates on the Anglo Irish Treaty which took place in December 1921 into January 1922 were historic and tragic, leading ultimately to the Civil War. Poet Theo Dorgan adapted the debates for Anu Productions which staged a ten hour production over four nights and was ultimately streamed on RTE last Saturday, the centenary of the vote on the treaty. The result is enthralling and profoundly sad in light of what was to unfold in the following months. Theo Dorgan speaks about what he learned from working on the material, how the men and women of the day were brought to life and what exactly is this Republic about which they argued. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.