Inside Politics with Hugh Linehan

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar called the Department of Justice 'dysfunctional' yesterday, but it is worse than that, says Fintan O'Toole: the failure by the Department to give the infamous emails at the heart of Frances Fitzgerald's downfall to the Charleton Tribunal is an act of defiance of Irish democracy that requires a independent investigation with the power to question witnesses under caution and seize documents, phones and computers. He talks to podcast regulars Hugh Linehan, Fiach Kelly and Sarah Bardon in part one of today's podcast. In part two they hear from London Editor Denis Staunton about the persistent belief in London that Dublin's 'bloody difficult' position on Brexit is motivated by party politics, the rise of Sinn Féin, or even a forthcoming presidential election - anything really, except for what Simon Coveney and Leo Varadkar are actually saying. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pat Leahy and Harry McGee talk to Hugh about the dramatic events of the last week that were capped today with the resignation of Frances Fitzgerald, and the questions that remain. How could such important documents be missed - or was it more sinister than that? Is the Department of Justice facing a reckoning? Why did Leo Varadkar handle this situation as he did? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week there proved to be at least one more political sting left in the tail of the McCabe controversy. This latest entanglement involves a dubious legal strategy, a curiously incurious former Minister for Justice, a poorly written email and a frustrated Taoiseach. It's confusing, but we hope this conversation between Sarah Bardon, Harry McGee and Hugh Linehan will leave listeners with as clear an understanding of the affair as possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Inside Politics returned to the RDS on Saturday for the final stop on our tour of party conferences in what has amounted to a festival season for Irish politics. Louise O'Reilly, TD for Dublin Fingal, and Conor Murphy, MLA for Newry and Armagh, joined Hugh, Sarah Bardon and Northern Editor Gerry Moriarty to discuss some of the thorny challenges facing Sinn Féin. But first Fiach Kelly and Hugh discuss the news that, as expected, Gerry Adams will step down as Sinn Féin leader. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the deadline for completing the first stage of Brexit negotiations draws near, and with the British political establishment in the midst of a nervous breakdown, our Government is fast approaching a critical point in how it handles this most intractable of situations. Divergent national interests - on trade, on EU relations, on the border question - mean it is far from simple for us to stake out a coherent position. So what is our bottom line? Pat Leahy and Cliff Taylor join Hugh to see if they can imagine what solutions, or even the process of finding solutions, might look like. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last month we went to the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis for a close look at that party's policies, politics and personalities. This weekend it was Fine Gael's turn for their annual get-together, so Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy and TD for Dublin Rathdown Josepha Madigan joined Hugh, Harry McGee and Fiach Kelly for another live recording of the podcast. They discussed the style and substance of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's speech, the new policy proposals outlined in the "first iteration" of their "rolling manifesto", and the remaining doubt over how far we are willing to go to secure a a frictionless border with post-Brexit Northern Ireland. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Houses of Parliament in Westminster have been engulfed by allegations of sexual harassment in the past week. How does the environment in Leinster House compare? Fiach Kelly and Sarah Bardon join Hugh Linehan to discuss. Also on the agenda, the intense lobbying around plans for the display of alcohol in shops, why Bills are being left hanging at committee stage and Alan Shatter's Facebook post in which he said he won't stand for Fine Gael in the next general election. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Paradise Papers is the name given to a journalistic project organised by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in Washington DC along with 96 media partners around the world, including The Irish Times.It is one of the largest data leaks in journalistic history, and involves the largest number of documents ever leaked.The leaked documents show how deeply the offshore financial system is entangled with the overlapping worlds of political players, private wealth and corporate giants, including Apple, Nike, Uber and other global companies that avoid taxes through increasingly imaginative bookkeeping maneuvers.Irish Times Legal Affairs Correspondent Colm Keena has been working on the project, and on this podcast he talks to Hugh Linehan about what has been uncovered, including the investments made by famous figures such as Bono and Queen Elizabeth, and the legal advice received by AIB when The Revenue Commissioners requested information about offshore deposits. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hugh Linehan speaks with American author, historian and academic 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 Prince: The Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke, Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, and Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Labour is in the doldrums, stuck on five or six per cent in the polls and struggling to have its voice heard. What are its chances of getting back to ten per cent or more by the next election? Is its brand becoming less toxic? What is the purpose of Labour in Ireland now?Guests: Fiach Kelly, Political Correspondent; Ed Brophy, political columnist with the Sunday Independent and former chief of staff to Tánaiste Joan Burton; and Dublin City Councillor Rebecca Moynihan, who will run for Labour in the Dublin South Central constituency in the next election. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.