ELECTION DAILY - Inside Politics with Hugh Linehan

What does a two-horse race look like in our PR-STV electoral system? What happens when you throw a zombie candidate and a 'spoil your vote' campaign into the mix? And what about turnout? Pat Leahy and Hugh Linehan nerd out with a look at how the count could play out this weekend. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The two remaining candidates in the presidential election came into the final televised debate of the campaign needing different things. Well behind in the polls, Heather Humphreys needed to come across convincingly while landing some blows. Catherine Connolly needed not to slip up. So how did they do? On today’s episode of The Irish Times Election Daily podcast Ellen Coyne, Pat Leahy and Hugh Linehan analyse how the battle-weary candidates handled questions from hosts Miriam O’Callaghan and Sarah McInerney and whether the programme will have moved the dial for voters ahead of polling, now just two days away. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Harry McGee and Jack Horgan-Jones join Hugh to talk about today's news from the presidential campaign trail: A concert in support of Catherine Connolly's campaign brought top musical artists and thousands of young people together in Dublin's Vicar Street on Monday night. The event also brought together Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald, the Social Democrats’ Holly Cairns, Paul Murphy of People Before Profit-Solidarity and Labour’s Ivana Bacik, who were photographed hand-in-hand on stage. Could the left's new-found unity be an image of the political future? The panel also look at the ongoing fallout from 'the video' and ahead to tonight's RTÉ debate. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ellen Coyne and Pat Leahy join Hugh to talk about the all the latest from the presidential election campaign. There is one topic dominating the campaign today, or two related topics: Catherine Connolly's record as a barrister who worked on behalf of financial institutions in the aftermath of the property crash, and Fine Gael's negative campaigning around that record. A video posted by Fine Gael to social media and an interview Humphreys gave to a Sunday newspaper drew attention to the issue but also drew a huge negative reaction, from Connolly supporters but also from those who believe Connolly should be above such criticism due to how barristers are assigned cases. Ellen assesses Fine Gael's tactics. Who is their video really aimed at: voters or journalists? Meanwhile Pat has been speaking to members of the Bar to find out whether Connolly has any case to answer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With Catherine Connolly showing an unprecedented lead for a presidential candidate one week out from polling day, could her campaign only be derailed by something extraordinary at this stage? Cormac McQuinn and Harry McGee join Hugh Linehan to discuss Connolly’s seemingly unassailable lead, the repetitive nature of recent debates, and with posters for Connolly and even Jim Gavin outnumbering Humphreys in some Dublin Fine Gael strongholds, could the party be accused of adopting a low energy approach to this campaign? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Catherine Connolly holds a commanding lead in the presidential election with just over a week to go before votes are cast, according to the latest Irish Times/Ipsos B&A opinion poll. The poll finds that Connolly, on 38 per cent, has almost double the support of her nearest rival, Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys, on 20 per cent. Support for the Fianna Fáil candidate, Jim Gavin, who stopped his presidential campaign last week, but is still on the ballot paper, is at just 5 per cent. Pat Leahy joins Hugh Linehan to talk about the significance of Connolly's lead, the mountain Humphreys now has to climb to win and what her campaign may do in the final week of the race. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As independent candidate Catherine Connolly and Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys enter the final nine days of the campaign, Jack Horgan Jones and Ellen Coyne join Hugh Linehan to launch our daily podcast coverage. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hugh talks to Ronan McCrea, professor of constitutional and European law at University College London, about his new book, The End of the Gay Rights Revolution. McCrea believes that the achievements of the most successful civil rights movement of the last few decades may be more politically fragile than most people assume. He argues that these successes were largely an incidental dividend of the wider sexual revolution rather than a standalone victory. What law and culture give quickly, he says, they can also take away. The book traces the shift from decriminalisation to equality, the AIDS-era turn to pragmatism, and the post-marriage-equality problem of purpose. McCrea contends that movement overreach, mission creep to ever-broader agendas, and a reluctance to confront awkward truths leaves freedoms exposed to changing demographics, populism and a revived moral conservatism. The conversation asks what a strategy of consolidation rather than perpetual expansion would actually look like and whether it carries costs as well as benefits in a world where history rarely moves in straight lines. The End of The Gay Rights Revolution is published by Polity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ellen Coyne and Harry McGee join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics: · With Jim Gavin gone, the presidential election is now a two-horse race between Catherine Connolly and Heather Humphreys, and a more combative one at that as the third live debate on Thursday on RTÉ Radio’s Drivetime will attest. Is Heather Humphreys trying to appeal to voters on the left who haven’t made their mind up about Connolly yet? · As the timetable of who knew what and when becomes apparent in the Jim Gavin controversy, could those running his campaign have done anything to dampen the impact of the revelation around an unpaid debt to a former tenant from Gavin’s time as a landlord in 2009? And why did Gavin go ahead and participate in RTÉ’s televised debate last Sunday when the game was already effectively up? · And will Wednesday’s marathon Fianna Fáil party meeting provide enough catharsis for a cohort within the party questioning Micheál Martin’s leadership in the wake of the Jim Gavin fiasco? Plus, the panel picks their favourite Irish Times pieces of the week: · Manchán Magan remembered, Japan’s Iron Lady, and Ray D’Arcy leaves RTÉ. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Yesterday’s budget spelled out the Government’s tax and spending plans for next year. But what happens after that? Barra Roantee of Trinity College Dublin’s Department of Economics says it is “shocking” that there is no plan beyond 2026. “Last year we had five-year-ahead forecasting. The year before was four-year. We’re meant to be submitting a medium term plan to the European Commission. This is part of our obligations, and we were told that was going to happen over the summer. Then, it’ll happen near the budget. It still hasn’t happened, and we still have no detail. We don’t know what spending is meant to be in 2027, 2028”. He also highlights the lack of detailed costings to underpin our budgetary decisions. “In the UK they’ll have hundreds of pages of costing documents for each policy decision and we have nothing. We have, like, a page”. Roantree is also highly critical of the way Paschal Donohoe and Jack Chambers have conveyed their decisions, including “astronomical spending increases” that end up being far higher, he says, than is claimed on Budget Day. “These costings are a cynical wheeze, innumerate, and they’re being used to, I think at this stage, cook the books”. On today’s podcast Rowntree talks to Hugh Linehan and Pat Leahy about Budget 2026. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ellen Coyne and Jack Horgan-Jones join Hugh to talk about the stunning news of Jim Gavin's withdrawal from the presidential race, leaving Heather Humphreys and Catherine Connolly in a head-to-head battle. The news has infuriated Fianna Fáil backbenchers and leaves party leader Michéal Martin and campaign director Jack Chambers with big questions to answer over how Gavin was selected and how his campaign was run. There is also the question of which of the remaining candidates benefits most from Gavin's withdrawal. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pat Leahy and Jack Horgan-Jones join Hugh Linehan to talk about the week in politics: We already know next Tuesday’s budget is going to be a much less generous affair than recent years. Jack and Pat share what they know about the tough stance being taken by Ministers Paschal Donohoe and Jack Chambers in negotiations, including one Government source’s characterisation of Chambers as akin to Margaret Thatcher: “no, no, no”. Of the three presidential hopefuls, Catherine Connolly has run the strongest campaign so far. But could the news that she employed a woman convicted of firearms offences hinder her in gathering the votes she needs? Fianna Fáil candidate Jim Gavin’s campaign also made some missteps this week, hampering the novice politician’s campaign as it finds its feet. Security issues are at the top of the European agenda thanks to the ongoing war in Ukraine and the fear of Russian cyberattacks and drone incursions. Finally the panelists pick their favourite Irish Times journalism of the week including Senator Michael McDowell’s explanation for why he didn’t nominate Maria Steen, the passing of Martin Mansergh and a relatable personal problem. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fresh from the hostile grass arena of Bethpage, where supporters of the US Ryder Cup team spent the weekend abusing their European opponents, Washington correspondent Keith Duggan returns to the podcast to discuss the latest: Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pat Leahy joins Hugh to talk about the first televised debate of the presidential campaign which took place on Virgin Media Television tonight. Independent Catherine Connolly, Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys and Fianna Fáil’s Jim Gavin debated a range of issues and did their best to come across as plausible candidates. But who dominated, and who struggled? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hugh interviews Albanian academic and author Lea Ypi about her new book Indignity: A Life Reimagined. The book is an exploration of political, historical and philosophical themes through the story of Ypi's grandmother, Leman Ypi, who experienced Albania’s tumultuous 20th century, from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, through fascism, Nazism, communism and its fall. Lea talks about how literature helps us hear silenced histories - particularly those of women. She also discusses nation formation, the role of archives, and the analogies between historical and current political crises. Lea Ypi is Professor in Political Theory at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Indignity: A Life Reimagined is published by Penguin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ellen Coyne and Cormac McQuinn join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics: · Catherine Connolly, Heather Humphreys and Jim Gavin got their campaigns into full swing this week as they got out and about to meet voters and give their pitch ahead of voting day on October 25th. And while Connolly made headlines this week when she told a fireside chat with the UCD Politics Society that she believed Germany’s rearmament was like the 1930s, it will be next Monday’s televised debate that will give voters a better idea of each candidate. · While the presidential election takes all the attention, it can be easy to forget that Budget 2026 is less than two weeks away. Perhaps Paschal Donohoe and Jack Chambers are enjoying the lack of scrutiny? · And Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan has not ruled out Ireland using deportation hubs outside EU borders, something that would have been very controversial in the not-too-distant past Plus, the panel picks their favourite Irish Times pieces of the week: · The bizarre political karaoke of the Lib Dems party conference, the central importance of William Shakespeare’s work to a proper education, and the influence of Kermit the Frog on Patrick Freyne’s journalism career. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ellen Coyne and Pat Leahy join Hugh to talk about how independent candidate Maria Steen came close but ultimately failed to secure a nomination to run for the presidency. Why did the coalition that supported her take so long to decisively swing behind her? And what does it mean for the race? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our 2024 mini-series on the political rivalry between Charles Haughey and Garret Fitzgerald helped to inspire Eoin O'Malley as he set out to write a book on the same subject. He talks to Hugh and Pat about what he wanted to add to the story: how the personal dynamic between the two men influenced the decisions they made and the kind of leaders they became. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pat Leahy and Jack Horgan-Jones join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics: Plus the panelists pick their favourite Irish Times pieces of the week, including columns on a rescinded award and Ireland’s rudeness problem and a look at sport’s greatest quirkiest cheating scandals. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hugh talks to Michael Brendan Dougherty, senior writer at National Review, about the murder of right wing activist and Christian nationalist Charlie Kirk and the vociferous reaction that has exposed and deepened America's political divides. Michael talks about Kirk's significant influence on young conservatives, the media's portrayal of Kirk before and after his killing and the impact on U.S. political discourse. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.