Inside Politics with Hugh Linehan

Pat Leahy and Jack Horgan-Jones join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

· Ireland’s presidency of the Council of the European Union got off to a slightly awkward start at the opening ceremony at Dublin Castle on Wednesday when guest Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned against “material emanating from a plant in Ireland” being used in Russia’s war effort. The Ukrainian president didn’t name Aughinish Alumina, but his feelings were clear.

· Dozens of solicitors walked out of District Court rooms on Wednesday in protest against a new pay system for legal aid. This marked an escalation in tensions with Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan who has pushed the reform through.

· The Government are not going to act on Oireachtas committee recommendations on the decriminalisation of the possession of drugs for personal use.

· And as the United States celebrates its 250th birthday, how has the country lived up to the principals and aspirations of its founding fathers?

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Hugh Linehan is joined by Alex Kane to discuss the double life of disgraced politician Jeffrey Donaldosn and its broader impact on the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) as well as Ulster unionism overall.

Alex Kane is an Irish News columnist and a political commentator as well as a former director of communications for the Ulster Unionist Party. The pair discuss a recent wave of stories that reveal the hypocritical behaviour of self-professed christian Donaldson over the course of his career; from projectile vomiting on the Mayor of Beijing to swigging from a wine bottle in the House of Commons and being spotted entering a gay sauna.

Kane says it seems as if no one in the DUP attempted to address this highly inappropriate behaviour. He also highlights a growing conspiracy theory among unionists who believe the British government may have used this information to blackmail Donaldson to return to the Northern Ireland Assembly.

In today’s episode, they discuss what all of this spells for the future of unionism in Ulster.


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Last week Pat Leahy sat down with former Labour leader Pat Rabbitte for an interview about his life in politics.

Rabbitte is now retired but for decades he was one of the most recognisable faces and voices of centre left politics in Ireland.

As a minister in the 2011 Fine Gael-Labour coalition, he witnessed first hand the events explored in our recent mini series on the subject.

He talked about the decisions he made as party leader and as a minister, as well as his formative years in the west of Ireland and 1960s America, and what he thinks of today’s splintered centre-left.
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Harry McGee and Cormac McQuinn join Pat Leahy to look back on the week in politics:

All anyone can talk about this week is the weather. While the country enjoys the warmth, the Government still has to find balance between spending to prevent climate change and spending to mitigate the impact of change that has already arrived.

Keir Starmer may be gone but the UK's biggest problem remains: the lack of growth in their economy.

Proposed “reform” (read: scrapping) of the “triple lock” restriction on Irish overseas military deployment has run into trouble due to disquiet among Fianna Fail backbenchers. If not a rebellion, there was certainly “a renewed amount of grumbling” over the issue. But will it be a real problem for Taoiseach Micheal Martin?

Plus the panel pick their IT stories of the week including a plea for underground bins, Michael McDowell’s bold predictions and the divestment of Catholic church patronage.
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Next week Ireland takes over the presidency of the EU Council. But what does that mean? What exactly is the EU Council anyway? How does this council and this presidency fit in among the numerous other European councils and presidents? And how is Ireland going to approach the challenges and opportunities the six-month position brings? To find out Pat Leahy talks to Jack Horgan-Jones and Jack Power.
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