The Mick Clifford Podcast

What would a united Ireland look like? Could we come up with imaginative solutions that would only cheese off everybody equally? Paul Howard, the creator of Ross O’Carroll Kelly has written a satirical novel set in a government department charged with planning for a united Ireland. The results are not what you might expect. Mick interviewed Paul before a live audience in Waterstone’s Cork for this week’s podcast. 

The Dail has been recalled to delay the restoration of excise taxes in order to keep down the price of fuel. But is he government acting simply out of fear of a repeat of the fuel protests earlier this year? And what will happen if the USA’s war in Iraq continue through the winter and the price keeps rising? Are the government making it all up on the hoof? Irish Examiner political editor Elaine Loughlin is this week’s guest on the podcast.

Democracy is under threat right across the world, certainly in the liberal form that persisted since the end of the Second world war. Donald Trump is leading the charge for a new form of populism and his administration is now providing funds for like minded organisations in Europe. Here, in contrast, a new body has been established to promote democracy and fight mis and dis information. Caradem was co-founded by Simon Coveney, Eamon Gilmore and Catherine Heaney. Catherine, the CEO of Caradem, is this week’s guest on the podcast.

It hasn’t been a smooth ride since John Moran was elected Mayor of Limerick, the first such office to be created in a city in the state. He has clashed on a number of occasions with councillors and most recently there has been conflict with traders in the city centre. But there has also been progress in establishing a new form of local government and injecting, as he would have it, new ideas on how a city (and county) should be overseen. John Moran is this week’s guest on the podcast.

The coalition government, awash with cash and bereft of a core political compass, appears to be governing by the path of least resistance. The Irish Examiner’s Political Editor Elaine Loughlin recently outlined in a column how the government is now content to sort out those who shout loudest irrespective of the damage that might do to the country’s long term health. Elaine is this week’s guest on the podcast.

The Government says Ireland needs to build faster. To do that it is preparing legislation that could allow major infrastructure projects to bypass parts of the planning system. At the same time, a major review of local democracy wants to hand more power to councillors and reduce the dominance of unelected council executives.So are politicians taking back control, or are they concentrating power in different ways? Will these reforms speed up the delivery of housing, transport and public services? And what happens when national priorities collide with local democracy? Irish Examiner political reporter Tadgh McNally joins guest host Eoghan O'Sullivan to discuss two major reforms that could reshape how Ireland is governed and how decisions are made.Article: Local authority 'mini cabinets' to give more powers to councillors: https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41883649.htmlGovernment plans emergency laws to fast-track major infrastructure projects: https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/politics/arid-41885329.html

The running of agents in the North by the British state was a moral maze. Those who were in charge of the agents often had to decide whether or not to allow a murder go ahead in order to protect an agent’s cover. But where is the morality in such decisions? Did a point arrive where the state ceded the moral high ground to groups like the IRA which were killing at will?Veteran reporter John Ware’s new book is entitled Neither Confirm Nor Deny – British Intelligence, lawless agent running and the suppression of truth. He is this week’s guest on the podcast.

As the World Cup comes to a conclusion we look back on a month of football to celebrate the best of it but also to ask where exactly the game is going and whether it is irredeemable corrupt. And beyond that, do we care if we keep watching it which is exactly what everybody did. Joining Mick to discuss all this is Irish Examiner columnist Colin Sheridan.

For the last month a defence forces tribunal, that was over two decades in the making, has been hearing shocking evidence about how some officers conducted themselves. Allegations of sexual, physical and psychological abuse have called to mind the kind of army life that might have existed in a colonial force from the nineteenth century. The Irish Examiner’s Neil Michael has been reporting on the evidence and he is this week’s guest on the podcast.