What Were We Like

Political insults part 2/2. The civil war is well in the past, but Irish politicians are still roaring at each other. From Paul Gogarty’s viral, foul-mouthed outburst during the economic crash, to Brian Lenihan Sr. being derided as the ‘13th stroke of Irish political clock’, and the ‘Bismarck of lobster pots’, Diarmaid and Catriona unearth more angry gems from the Dáil archive.
What Were We Like is a podcast from RTÉ about modern Irish history co-hosted by Diarmaid Ferriter and Catriona Crowe. It comes out every Monday morning on the RTÉ Radio Player app, and wherever else you get your podcasts.
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Political insults part 1/2. Diarmaid Ferriter and Catriona Crowe look at the angriest and most bizarre Irish political insults of the last 100 years. In part one of this catalogue of mudslinging, the civil war dominates. Dev is a ‘Spanish Bastard’, TDs are jealous of Michael Collins’ fame, and one politician is accused of shooting off his own toe to commit pension fraud. It’s no holds-barred madness from start to finish.
What Were We Like is a podcast from RTÉ about modern Irish history co-hosted by Diarmaid Ferriter and Catriona Crowe. It comes out every Monday morning on the RTÉ Radio Player app, and wherever else you get your podcasts.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the final episode of What Were We Like, Diarmaid and Catriona talk about Ireland’s two female Presidents, Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese, and how their visions of the Presidency reflected the events of the day. They talk about Mary Robinson’s harrowing trip to Somalia in 1992, and the crowning diplomatic achievement of Mary McAleese’s Presidency, the visit of Queen Elizabeth II in 2011.
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In the fourth episode of What Were We Like?, Diarmaid and Catriona talk about Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh’s remarkable offer to swap places with kidnap victim Tiede Herrema while he was in the Áras; and how Garrett Fitzgerald and Noël Browne were being talked up as possible candidates in the 1990 Presidential election.
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In the third episode of What Were We Like?, Diarmaid and Catriona talk about how Douglas Hyde was removed as a patron by the GAA for attending a soccer match; why Muhammad Ali was not considered a suitable guest at Áras an Uachtaráin; and how Eamon De Valera almost failed to win a second term because he refused to campaign at all.
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