The Mick Clifford Podcast

Communications expert Terry Prone is the guest on this week’s podcast to give her insight on what is working and what is not working for politicians striving to get their message across.She also runs the rule over Donald Trump’s communication strategy and explains why she thinks Eamon Ryan’s wife, Victoria White, should not have relinquished her highly rated Irish Examiner column because of her husband’s new job. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The recent high profile spat over Daniel Kinahan rising in the world of boxing has thrown up interesting questions about organised crime and sport. Mr. Kinahan has been named in the High Court as a major player in organised crime. Yet outside the country, and particularly in boxing, he was regarded in relatively benign light until recent months.Security analyst Sheelagh Brady talks to the podcast about how crime and sport have become entangled around the world, how the major criminals are now washing their money and why some are running out of places to hide. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A new government was formed on Saturday 140 days after the general election. Micheal Martin was elected Taoiseach and he appointed a cabinet with a few surprises.So what will this new government be like, how will it govern and what impact will the relationships between the various personalities have on the ability to get things done?Danny McConnell, political editor of the Irish Examiner spoke to the podcast about these and many other aspects of the new government in this special edition. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Junior minister for health Jim Daly took the road less travelled when he announced last September that he would not be contesting the next general election. He had watched his young family grow through the years when his job meant he was at the beck and call of constituents even when he wasn’t based in Leinster House. Now he wanted to grab what he could before the kids were all grown up.He talks about life as a TD from rural Ireland, what could be changed and what should not be changed. He also looked back over his time in the portfolio of mental health and elder people and revealed the only job that would ever have kept him in politics at this stage of his life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

All eyes are on the Green party this week as the three parties hoping to form a government consult internally on whether or not to go for it. The smart money says Fine Gael and Fianna Fail will ratify the proposed programme for government, but Green party leader Eamon Ryan has a much more difficult task.Dr Theresa Reidy, political scientist at UCC was this week’s guest on the podcast to discuss that, the wider political climate and where exactly politics is going today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Summertime but the living ain’t easy this year if you’re in the tourism business. Those in some of the most beautiful parts of the country, particularly down the western seaboard, are facing into a season that is hugely curtailed. That in turn deprives thousands of the means to get through the long winter.John Fitzgerald, who is based on the Ring of Kerry and operates with his wife a seaweed tours business, talks to the podcast about how they and most of their community are hoping to salvage what they can from the curtailed season, some of which will be as a result of an expected boom in the staycation market. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a week in which protests spread throughout the USA after the violent death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, the podcast’s guest is an Irish exile in Seattle, Gillian O’Connell.Gillian talks about how the events of the past week have awakened her to the reality of institutional racism in the country she had made her home for the last twenty five years. She believes that the recent events could well prompt real change this time and force the USA to confront its oldest problem. Interestingly, she sees that one leader in this respect could be corporate America. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of Ireland’s leading chefs Ross Lewis is the guest on this week’s podcast to discuss how the pandemic has affected the restaurant business and the hopes and fears in the sector about opening up again.He talks about how social distancing rules will impact on restaurants, the prospects for those working in the sector and the changes that can be expected in living and working habits and how that will effect eating out.He also gives an insight into the personal experience of turning the lights out on his business last March at the outset of the lockdown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Maurice McCabe is this country's best known whistleblower following his reports of malpractice in An Garda Siochana where he was a sergeant with an exemplary record.Now, two years after his retirement, following a series of inquiries and a tribunal examining his claims and the reprisal he suffered, he has agreed to act as patron for the anti corruption body, Transparency International.He spoke to the podcast about how he’s getting on with life, how Transparency International helped him and what he does when whistleblowers from various walks of life show up at his front door. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The spread of the corona virus has led to major problems in particular settings, one of which is direct provision centres. One centre that has experienced an outbreak is the recently opened Skellig Hotel in Cahirciveen. Nearly one hundred asylum seekers were transferred there from the Dublin area with 24 hours notice in March and now over a quarter of the residents are infected.The asylum seekers, local people and politicians have all called for it to be closed down. But why and in what circumstances was it opened, and what does it say about the direct provision system? Mick spoke to a local businessman Jack Fitzpatrick and Aswer, one of the residents of the centre. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.