The Mick Clifford Podcast

Linda Doyle this week became the first woman Provost in Trinity College’s 429 year history. She talks to the podcast about growing up in Cork, how she came to study engineering in UCC and why at first she thought she would never fit into Trinity. As the only professor of both Engineering and the Arts in the world, she explains how the disciplines compliment each other by looking at the world from different perspectives. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jude Sherry and Frank O’Connor are urban designers who moved from Amsterdam to Cork three years ago. Their experience abroad living and working in cities that have been repopulated in recent decades prompted them to look around their new environs and envisage a vibrant future, where hundreds of derelict buildings are transformed into living hubs. But how do you get there? How do you transform the dereliction that blights towns and cities all over the country and create twenty first century urban living spaces. Listen in. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Derek Scally’s book, The Best Catholics In The World, is part personal journey, part reportage and full of insight into the role of the Catholic Church in Irish society down through the ages and recent decades. He traces over his own childhood, speaks to those who still worship and to some of the leading figures in the decline and fall. He also provides a fresh perspective into the complicated relationships between church, state and society. Derek is this week’s guest on the podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In December 2017, Paddy Moriarty, a native of Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick went missing for his home in the Australian outback. He lived in the town of Larimah, pop 12. He disappeared along with his dog. There was no sign of a struggle or anything out of the ordinary in his home. Pretty soon, the police suspected he was the victim of foul play. But who in the tiny hamlet would want to have done harm to the 70-year-old Irishman? Kylie Stevenson, co-producer of the podcast series Lost In Larimah, joined Mick to talk about the case. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Seamus O’Mahony is an author and doctor who brings wry observations, dark humour and social awareness to the books he has written while practicing as a consultant gastroenterologist in Cork University Hospital. He retired last year just before Covid hit and his latest book The Ministry of Bodies has been described as “a brew of madness and sadness worthy of Flann O’Brien". Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Economist Seamus Coffey and trade unionist Brendan Ogle have opposing views on whether or not Ireland is a relatively equal or unequal country and whether it is heading in the right direction in that respect. Both have recently produced work putting forward their respective positions. They debate here cogently and with not a little fire and sparks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week a married couple, both solicitors, were jailed for an elaborate fraud that robbed banks of credit unions of at least €400,000. The couple, who had been in practice in Cork used false identities, scanners and disguises including wigs, to pull off their sophisticated criminal enterprise. The Irish Examiner’s Noel Baker reported on the story for the newspaper and he tells the podcast of their rise and fall. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As we approach the first anniversary of the arrival of the coronavirus on these shores, public health specialist Dr Orla Healy discusses the rollout of the vaccine in this phase of the pandemic. She talks about any possible pressure points in the roll-out and how the development of vaccines has been transformed in this pandemic.Dr Healy, who is leading the Covid Response for the HSE in the South and South West, also details how the approach to and resourcing of public health has changed as a result of our experience over the last twelve months. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Worrying activity online and the targeting of high profile individuals from a minority background formed the basis of an investigative piece of journalism by Irish Examiner reporters Aoife Moore and Paul Hosford. Aoife tells the podcast why serious vigilance is required to ensure that a campaign of hate does not take hold in this country as it has elsewhere.Also, she explains why the latest controversy over policing in the North is tapping into some old resentments in the nationalist community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Saoirse McHugh had a brief but high profile time as an election candidate for the Green party. The 30-year-old activist narrowly missed being elected to the European parliament, subsequently missed out on a Dail seat and then resigned from the party in opposition to the decision to go into government.Here the environmental activist discusses her time in the party but also where she sees climate change and biodiversity challenges developing and whether or not a breakaway Green party is in the offing in the near future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.