Best Seanad Podcasts (2025)

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Here’s How 181 – Votes, Lies and Video Tape 38:29

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1M ago38:29

38:29

Kev Collins’ Youtube channel his here. Ben Scallan writes for Gript. ***** That’s a clip I played on the podcast a while back, it’s from one of the far-right protest a while back, and we’ve had a couple more of those anti-immigration protests in the last while. I saw some comments on social media about […]…

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Here’s How 180 – Medieval Attitudes 1:06:42

2M ago1:06:42

1:06:42

Dr Kirill Bumin is Associate Dean of Metropolitan College of Boston University and Dr Mordechai Inbari is Professor of Religion at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. ***** That’s the diminutive Justin Barrett, formerly of Youth Defence and a string of other far-right organisations, Litler himself, talking to a commentator with the Canadi…

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Here’s How 179 – Lost Boys 55:03

4M ago55:03

55:03

Amun Bains is a journalist. ***** The first amendment to the US constitution starts “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” Our constitution is not quite so concise. Article 44 of De Valera’s handbook for governing deals with freedom of religion. Section one says “The State […]…

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Here’s How 178 – All Changed Utterly 58:07

5M ago58:07

58:07

Daniel Mulhall is a consultant with DLA Piper law firm and, prior to that, he was ambassador of Ireland to Malaysia, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. ***** I want to talk about a couple of fellas that I’m really not so sure of. It’s hard to overstate how disappointing the last century […]…

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Here’s How 177 – Threats to Democracy 35:47

7M ago35:47

35:47

***** Now that the dust has settled after the election, congratulations to all the candidates, all 686 of them. Congratulations to everyone from Pearse Doherty who got 18,898 first preference votes in Donegal, all the way down to Seán O’Leary who stood for election in Wicklow and got nine votes. Pearse Doherty got that massive […]…

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Here’s How 176 – Fair and Balanced 46:46

10M ago46:46

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Wendy Grace is a presenter on Spirit Radio and the director of a communications training company. *****By William Campbell

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Here’s How 175 – Rolling the Dice 1:08:46

11M ago1:08:46

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Professor Colin O’Gara is Head of Addiction Services at St. John of God Hospital and author of the book Gambling Addiction In Ireland: Causes Consequences and Recovery. ***** There is a pattern, I suppose it’s so well-known that it’s a cliché, of people mellowing their view as they get older. One version is the famous […]…

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Here’s How 174 – The Price of Everything 55:08

12M ago55:08

55:08

Cormac Lucey is an economics columnist at Sunday Times (Ireland), and lecturer in finance, at the Irish Management Institute, Chartered Accountants Ireland and Trinity College Dublin. *** And we’re back! Sorry about the unannounced little hiatus for the podcast. I’ll tell you a bit more about it, but first just to say I’m lining up […]…

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Here’s How 173 – Hidden Faces 1:02:28

1+ y ago1:02:28

1:02:28

Mathew Creighton is associate professor of sociology at UCD. ***** I’ve been on a low-information diet. I suppose I’m someone who is generally pretty well-informed but sometimes that can get a bit too much, so a few months ago I just tuned out, deleted all my news apps, Twitter – while it still had the […]…

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HH172 – Never Mind the Bullocks 57:00

1+ y ago57:00

57:00

Andrew Wright is a fourth generation dairy farmer near Omagh in Co Tyrone, with a big following on Tiktok. We talked about this video he published. ***** In the world of what used to be called PR, these days they call themselves other things, information management or whatever. PR has PR’d itself. In the world […]…

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Here’s How 171 – Tilting at Monoliths 1:08:12

1+ y ago1:08:12

1:08:12

David Maddox is the political editor of Express Online. ***** Kevin and myself always appreciate feedback from listeners, we try to reply when we can, but Aengus Ryan send in a sound file, which is great cos I can include it in the podcast. I think this is an important question, and I think that […]By William Campbell

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Here’s How 170 – Nobody Tells Us What to Do 56:31

1+ y ago56:31

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Pádraig Mac Lochlainn is Sinn Féin’s chief whip. *****By William Campbell

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Here’s How 169 – Gift of the Gab 1:08:12

1+ y ago1:08:12

1:08:12

Mario Rosenstock is a comedian and impressionist, and creator of TodayFM’s Gift Grub. ***** Here’s something about the Chinese economy. China’s ‘investment’ in real estate makes Ireland’s property obsession seem breezy and carefree. Just before our crash, 12 per cent of our economy was house-building. Even if Chinese GDP figures are true, then thei…

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Here’s How 167 – Holes in the Net 40:41

1+ y ago40:41

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Aubrey McCarthy is the founder and chairman of Tiglin, a charity that provides services to homeless people. ***** I listen to podcasts quite a bit in arrears. I’m not too worried about being current, I suppose, and I was just listening to a David McWilliams podcast from August, he was talking about the banks, not […]…

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Here’s How 166 – Tsar Wars 54:02

1+ y ago54:02

54:02

James Ker-Lindsay is Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics. His research focuses on conflict, peace and security in South East Europe (Western Balkans, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus), European Union enlargement, and secession and recognition in international politics. ***** Donald Trump is going to jail. That’s a whole big story in itsel…

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HH165 – A Step into the Dark 1:06:29

2y ago1:06:29

1:06:29

Janie Lazar is the chair of End of Life Ireland. ***** Some people have said some things about my level of political insight, thanks to them, even if I don’treally think it’s that impressive most of the time. Actually, whatever level of insight that I do have, Ithink is just down to two habits. One […]…

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HH164 – Uncivil Liberties 55:21

2y ago55:21

55:21

Josie Appleton is the director of the Manifesto Club. ***** You might think that you’re not familiar with the CE symbol, but you probably are, I’m sure you’ve seen it thousands of times. I can’t show you a picture of it in audio format, but the symbol is two semi-circles, the first one making a […]By William Campbell

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Here’s How 163 – Guilty Speech 1:00:52

2y ago1:00:52

1:00:52

Pauline O’Reilly is the Green Party spokesperson on Education and Higher Education and Senator and the cathaoirleach of the Green Party. ***** I heard Mark O’Halloran on an old episode the Mario Rosenstock Podcast recently, he talked very articulately about how the housing crisis affects him, how he as a man in his 50s has […]…

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Here’s How 162 – Gravy Trains and Spin Cycles 1:00:36

2y ago1:00:36

1:00:36

Repeats on podcasts don’t always make a lot of sense, but if you are subscribed, you’ll know that I put up a podcast from 2019 into the feed again last week; the podcast was an investigation into RTÉ and their relationship with the AA which supplied them with AA Roadwatch, the erstwhile traffic news segments. […]…

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Here’s How 161 – Once Again for Those at the Back 55:33

2y ago55:33

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I think that it’s about time to hear this edition of the podcast from 2019 again. Dr Michael Foley is professor emeritus at the school of media at TU Dublin – formerly DIT – also a member of the NUJ’s Ethics Council, and has been invited by the International federation of Journalists and UNESCO to […]…

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Here’s How 160 – Heading South 58:27

2y ago58:27

58:27

Uki Goñi is a historian, journalist and author who has lived in the United States, Ireland, and Argentina. ***** Sometimes it helps to draw a parallel between two events in the news, but two big recent stories – in Ireland, the scandal of RTÉ lying about Ryan Tubridy’s salary, and internationally the over-before-it-began apparent coup […]…

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Here’s How 159 – War and Peace 1:00:46

2y ago1:00:46

1:00:46

James Ker-Lindsay is Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics. His research focuses on conflict, peace and security in South East Europe (Western Balkans, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus), European Union enlargement, and secession and recognition in international politics. He has created many Youtube videos explaining his subject. ***** The F…

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Here’s How 158 – Up with this sort of thing Part II 1:24:56

2y ago1:24:56

1:24:56

Freda Wallace is the cohost of the Gender Nebulous podcast. Statistics of the sharp rise in the number of referrals to the Tavistock clinic, and their age distribution are here, and here. False claims that puberty blockers, given to children to delay typical-age puberty are ‘completely reversable’ are incredibly common, and have been made by the ta…

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Here’s How 157 – Up with this sort of thing Part I 54:49

2y ago54:49

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Freda Wallace is the cohost of the Gender Nebulous podcast. ***** I want to comment on a rant that was previously posted on this podcast. The rant in question was posted with episode 120 Levelling the Field and the topic was Minimum Unit Pricing for Alcohol or MUP. MUP, long-time listeners may recall, prohibits the […]…

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Here’s How 156 – Down with this sort of thing 1:11:20

2y ago1:11:20

1:11:20

Graham Linehan, now back on twitter, is the creator of numerous famous TV shows including Father Ted. *****By William Campbell

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Here’s How 155 – Computer says Tá 28:05

2+ y ago28:05

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Annabel Fenwick Elliott is a British freelance journalist who previously worked for the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail. ***** It might have been Tomorrow’s World, that science programme from the BBC from my dim and distant childhood, where they demonstrated an early chatbot, although I think it wasn’t called that. You typed in some […]…

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Here’s How 154 – Faithful Translations 51:23

2+ y ago51:23

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Dan McClellan is a public scholar of the Bible and religion and author of the book YHWH’s Divine Images: A Cognitive Approach. ***** I don’t much talk about Jordan Peterson, I don’t think that he is as interesting a character as the internet makes out, certainly not as interesting as he thinks he is himself. […]…

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Here’s How 153 – Tax Reform 46:22

2+ y ago46:22

46:22

Graham Neary is a financial commentator who has been a fund manager and analyst in the London financial markets. ***** The transport minister, Eamon Ryan who is also leader of the Green Party, it has been announced will set up an inter-departmental group to make sure the transport sector meets its emissions reduction targets. Related […]…

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Here’s How 152 – We Are Still Here 44:18

2+ y ago44:18

44:18

Dafydd Iwan is the former president of Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party. ***** Bertie Ahern, we are told, had been readmitted, to Fianna Fáil. It might be better to use the term rehabilitated. Fianna Fáil activists gave him a standing ovation at an event recently, it was to mark the 25th anniversary of the […]…

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Here’s How 151 – Never Mind the Ballots 55:03

2+ y ago55:03

55:03

John Rentoul is the chief political commentator for the Independent. ***** I’m pessimistic. I’m not naturally a pessimistic person, but I’m pessimistic. Maybe I’m getting older, maybe I’m entering the ‘the whole world is going to hell’ phase of my life, maybe I’m right to be pessimistic, maybe I’m not paying attention to the right […]…

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Here’s How 150 – I Wanna Be Anarchy 1:17:21

2+ y ago1:17:21

1:17:21

Jesse Spafford is a research fellow at Trinity College Dublin working on the project REAL – Rights and Egalitarianism. His research is focused on ethics and political philosophy with particular attention paid to debates between libertarians, socialists, and anarchists over the moral status of the market and the state. ***** I was talking to someone…

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Here’s How 149 – Schrodinger’s Cake 1:01:56

2+ y ago1:01:56

1:01:56

Brooks Newmark was a British Conservative Party MP for the constituency of Braintree and is now a PhD candidate at the University of Oxford. ***** I’ve got a proposal for tax reform. The idea is to make tax easier and simpler to understand, simpler for the government to collect, thereby lower costs which would lower […]…

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Here’s How 148 – Labouring Forward 1:08:05

2+ y ago1:08:05

1:08:05

Brendan is the Labour Party TD for Wexford, and former party leader. ***** So, we’re talking about a war. We’re talking about a war where a huge, nuclear-armed superpower, attacks a territory to its south that this formerly-communist superpower views not as a real country, it views but as an integral part of its own […]…

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Here’s How 147 – Makey-up Nonsensical Propaganda 1:18:41

2+ y ago1:18:41

1:18:41

Eoin Ó Murchú was the political editor for Raidió na Gaeltachta. *****By William Campbell

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Here’s How 146 – Another Calm Discussion 1:05:28

2+ y ago1:05:28

1:05:28

Aoife Gallagher is a research analyst for the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and author.By William Campbell

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Here’s How 145 – A Calm Discussion 54:30

3y ago54:30

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Aoife Gallagher is a research analyst for the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and author. *****By William Campbell

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Here’s How 144 – Stuck in the Middle with you 1:02:29

3y ago1:02:29

1:02:29

Kellie Armstrong an Alliance party MLA for the Strangford constituency. ***** I saw a load of comments from commentators online, from talking heads on radio and TV, from people on Twitter, that the mobilisation ordered by Putin last week to try to shore up his invasion of Ukraine was stupid. It was stupid to try […]…

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Here’s How 143 – Question Time 43:36

3y ago43:36

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It’s Q&A time! Thank you to everyone who sent in a question!By William Campbell

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Here’s How 142 – Both Sides Now 1:11:10

3y ago1:11:10

1:11:10

Joel Keys is a Belfast Loyalist activist and prolific tweeter. ***** I discovered a big discrepancy. Well, I didn’t so much discover it as notice it. And it isn’t really isn’t a big discrepancy, it is an enormous discrepancy. A gigantic discrepancy. A sort of a so-big-you-could-see-it-from-space. discrepancy This is the discrepancy. Have a look […]…

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Here’s How 141 – Defender of the Faiths 45:51

3y ago45:51

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Marc Coleman is a business consultant, former broadcaster and journalist. He is currently working on a book on the persistence of western democracy. ***** ‘Magical thinking’ is a great phrase that I learnt years ago, it’s a concept that’s useful to understand someone’s thought processes, maybe even your own. If you know what it is, […]…

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Here’s How 139 – German Divisions Part I 55:45

3y ago55:45

55:45

Professor Julian Nida-Rümelin is is a Professor of Philosophy and Political Theory at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. He was the State Minister for Culture of the Federal Republic of Germany under Gerhard Schröder. Professor Nida-Rümelin, along with dozens of other prominent Germans signed a letter in Die Zeit, a leading German newspaper, a…

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Here’s How 138 – Market signals 45:34

3y ago45:34

45:34

Seán Keyes is the finance correspondent for the Currency, a subscription news website. ***** I spoke to a Sinn Féin supporter in the years after the Good Friday Belfast agreement, I think it was during one of the interminable negotiations trying to get DUP to participate and have the institutions up and running, and she […]…

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Episode 137 – Ellie O’Byrne 55:20

3y ago55:20

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Ellie O’Byrne is co-editor of Tripe and Drisheen, a Cork-based local news substack, and we discussed a recent article of hers. ***** In talking to Ellie, I mentioned a tweet from Cllr Fiona Ryan of People Before Profit, who claimed that there are 25,000 ‘Airbnb vacancies’ in Ireland. I used the website InsideAirbnb.com to show […]…

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Featuring Mooney on Politics 15:22

3y ago15:22

15:22

Derek Mooney presents Mooney on Politics. Give it a listen.By William Campbell

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Here’s How 136 – Pravda or Samizdat 54:16

3y ago54:16

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Frank Armstrong is the editor of the magazine called Cassandra Voices. ***** I got a lot of the ideas for this discussion from an article by Yuriy Gorodnichenko on Berkeley Blog.By William Campbell

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Here’s How 135 – Anti-nuclear Fallout 34:38

3y ago34:38

34:38

Reinhard Bütikofer is the senior member of German Green Party delegation to the European Parliament. *****By William Campbell

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Here’s How 134 – Inside Russia 39:40

3y ago39:40

39:40

Sarah Hurst is a journalist who has been reporting on Russia for thirty years – her interview starts at 15:00. ***** Sharon Keogan is an independent member of Seanad Éireann, she’s one of those independent politicians who discovered her deeply-held belief in independent politics, just after she discovered that she had failed to get a […]…

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Here’s How 133 – Broken Homes 55:00

3+ y ago55:00

55:00

Michael Doherty is the PRO of the Mica Action Group. ***** I was talking to Billy Kelleher in the last podcast about Ukraine, and the west’s reaction, and in particular the attitude of MEPs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace. Naomi O’Leary started and epic Twitter discussion over Easter about the contrasting attitude of Wallace and […]…

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Here’s How 132 – Ireland and War 46:05

3+ y ago46:05

46:05

Billy Kelleher was Fianna Fáíl’s only MEP from being elected in 2019 for the South constituency until he was joined from the subs bench by Barry Andrews. He previously he served as a senator since 1993, and as a TD since 1997, including as and served as a minister of state from 2007 to 2011. […]By William Campbell

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Here’s How 131 – Who Decides 47:43

3+ y ago47:43

47:43

Ewan Mackenna is a sports journalist who was written five books on sports. Recently, he has been blogging and tweeting about the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. *****By William Campbell