Ireland and the World

Is community within faith-based organizations special? What makes it so? What could community look like for countries whose populations are moving away from religion?

Amanda joins Diarmuid in the studio to discuss what faith-based community means to her and Diarmuid explores how we can generate this sense of community without religion.

Diarmuid does a 15 minute deep-dive on Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs. He explores why they were introduced and what they mean for people and businesses in the US and the world.

He finishes by analysing different ways to respond - should countries "fight fire with fire" or surrender to Trump in the hope of special treatment?

Diarmuid makes the case for Ireland and the EU to develop stronger economic and military independence from the US and China given the geopolitical climate that has existed for the past 8 years.

Diarmuid and Amanda discuss their childhood experiences of growing up in religious households, their different journeys and relationship with religion and faith as adults and some of the pros and cons of being integrated in religious communities.

The pod is back! Diarmuid explains the confusing and chaotic mess that was the Dail in the past week, dissects the new Irish government's program for government (focusing on defence, foreign policy, climate, investments for the future) and gives a personal account of the first few days in the US under Trump 2.0.

Produced, edited and hosted by Diarmuid Cassidy.

Recorded on 23rd January 2025.

Diarmuid & Lukas do a deep-dive on migration and Ireland. Before this they have a casual chat about Irish actors & actresses in the media (spoiler, Saltburn!) and a disagreement between Ireland's Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.