Irish Times Inside Politics

Ellen Coyne and Naomi O’Leary join Pat Leahy to look back on the week in politics:

·      In the wake of Catherine Connolly’s emphatic presidential election win, could there now be a legitimate prospect of a left-wing government arising from the next general election?  

·      With anger still simmering in Fianna Fáil’s ranks after a disastrous presidential ca...

This week’s Inside Politics podcast with Hugh Linehan explores what a united Ireland would actually involve, Irish Times columnist Fintan O’Toole and Belfast Telegraph journalist Sam McBride have written a new book that addresses the case both for and against Irish unity.

The structure of the book is unusual. Each journalist writes two long chapters: one arguing for unity, and one arguing against. O’Toole says the aim is to “giv...

Pat Leahy joins Hugh Linehan for the final episode of Election Daily for this campaign. They look at the impact of Connolly's victory on left-wing politics, wonder if Ireland is about to have a more outspoken president than ever before and consider Simon Harris and Micheál Martin's political futures.

Thanks to everyone who listened to Election Daily. Inside Politics will return on Wednesday.

Votes are still being counted but it is already clear that Catherine Connolly has won the presidency by a huge margin.

Connolly's victory will be confirmed at Dublin Castle this afternoon. Hugh, Jack Horgan-Jones and Ellen Coyne are there and sat down to discuss the emerging results and what they mean. How did Catherine Connolly get her campaign so right and Fine Gael theirs so wrong? What does the unprecedented level of spoile...

Cormac McQuinn and Jack Horgan Jones join Hugh Linehan to talk about the final day of campaigning before voters go to the polls.

They look at how the Connolly campaign has managed to create momentum that sustained her push for the Áras since July and why the Humphreys campaign did not live up to expectations.

Finally they pick their high and low points of the campaign.

Hosted on A...

The two remaining candidates in the presidential election came into the final televised debate of the campaign needing different things.

Well behind in the polls, Heather Humphreys needed to come across convincingly while landing some blows. Catherine Connolly needed not to slip up. So how did they do?

On today’s episode of The Irish Times Election Daily podcast Ellen Coyne, Pat Leahy and Hugh Linehan analyse how the battle-w...

Harry McGee and Jack Horgan-Jones join Hugh to talk about today's news from the presidential campaign trail:

A concert in support of Catherine Connolly's campaign brought top musical artists and thousands of young people together in Dublin's Vicar Street on Monday night. The event also brought together Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald, the Social Democrats’ Holly Cairns, Paul Murphy of People Before Profit-Solid...

Ellen Coyne and Pat Leahy join Hugh to talk about the all the latest from the presidential election campaign.

There is one topic dominating the campaign today, or two related topics: Catherine Connolly's record as a barrister who worked on behalf of financial institutions in the aftermath of the property crash, and Fine Gael's negative campaigning around that record. A video posted by Fine Gael to social media and an interview ...

With Catherine Connolly showing an unprecedented lead for a presidential candidate one week out from polling day, could her campaign only be derailed by something extraordinary at this stage?

Cormac McQuinn and Harry McGee join Hugh Linehan to discuss Connolly’s seemingly unassailable lead, the repetitive nature of recent debates, and with posters for Connolly and even Jim Gavin outnumbering Humphreys in some Dublin Fine Gael s...

Catherine Connolly holds a commanding lead in the presidential election with just over a week to go before votes are cast, according to the latest Irish Times/Ipsos B&A opinion poll.

The poll finds that Connolly, on 38 per cent, has almost double the support of her nearest rival, Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys, on 20 per cent. Support for the Fianna Fáil candidate, Jim Gavin, who stopped his presidential campaign last week, b...

As independent candidate Catherine Connolly and Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys enter the final nine days of the campaign, Jack Horgan Jones and Ellen Coyne join Hugh Linehan to launch our daily podcast coverage.

• A motion of no confidence in Simon Harris over controversies in Children’s Health Ireland and waiting times for scoliosis surgery was itself a presidential election event. 

Hugh talks to Ronan McCrea, professor of constitutional and European law at University College London, about his new book, The End of the Gay Rights Revolution. McCrea believes that the achievements of the most successful civil rights movement of the last few decades may be more politically fragile than most people assume. He argues that these successes were largely an incidental dividend of the wider sexua...

Ellen Coyne and Harry McGee join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

·      With Jim Gavin gone, the presidential election is now a two-horse race between Catherine Connolly and Heather Humphreys, and a more combative one at that as the third live debate on Thursday on RTÉ Radio’s Drivetime will attest. Is Heather Humphreys trying to appeal to voters on the left who haven’t made the...

Yesterday’s budget spelled out the Government’s tax and spending plans for next year. But what happens after that?

Barra Roantee of Trinity College Dublin’s Department of Economics says it is “shocking” that there is no plan beyond 2026.

“Last year we had five-year-ahead forecasting. The year before was four-year. We’re meant to be submitting a medium term plan to the European Commission.

This is part of our obligations, a...

Ellen Coyne and Jack Horgan-Jones join Hugh to talk about the stunning news of Jim Gavin's withdrawal from the presidential race, leaving Heather Humphreys and Catherine Connolly in a head-to-head battle.

The news has infuriated Fianna Fáil backbenchers and leaves party leader Micheál Martin and campaign director Jack Chambers with big questions to answer over how Gavin was selected and how his campaign was run.

There is also...

Pat Leahy and Jack Horgan-Jones join Hugh Linehan to talk about the week in politics: 

We already know next Tuesday’s budget is going to be a much less generous affair than recent years. Jack and Pat share what they know about the tough stance being taken by Ministers Paschal Donohoe and Jack Chambers in negotiations, including one Government source’s characterisation of Chambers as akin to Margaret Thatcher: “no, no, no”.&...

Fresh from the hostile grass arena of Bethpage, where supporters of the US Ryder Cup team spent the weekend abusing their European opponents, Washington correspondent Keith Duggan returns to the podcast to discuss the latest:

• Some commentators have tried to link the boorish behaviour of US golf fans to the ascendancy of Trumpism. Is that justified?

• What lies behind the steady level of popular support for presid...