The Mick Clifford Podcast

Naoise Ryan: Talking on corporate America.

04 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In March 2019, Naoise Connolly Ryan’s husband Mick Ryan was among 157 people who died when a Boeing 737 max aircraft crashed in Ethiopia. Mick Ryan ...

DON O’LEARY: STILL LEARNING, STILL GIVING

28 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Don O’Leary was told last February that he had less than a year to live. Despite that he has still not missed a day at work as the director of the C...

WHO KILLED TOM OLIVER?

21 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The killing of Tom Oliver in Co Louth in 1991 was one of the more shocking murders associated with the Troubles. The IRA claimed he was an informer, a...

DANNY McCONNELL: Unpacking political buckets and spades

14 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With the end of the Dail term in sight and a whole host of problems bedevilling the government, Irish Examiner political editor Danny McConnell runs t...

LAURA O’CONNELL: SURVIVING A STALKER

07 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sonya Egan was recently imprisoned for two years for a campaign of harassment against former Sinn Fein TD Jonathan O’Brien and businesswoman Laura O...

FERGUS FINLAY: We’ve been here before.

01 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The enveloping inflation spiral and cost of living crisis is dominating public life today and practically everybody has been impacted in one form or a...

CIVIL WAR ANNIVERSARY: The role of women.

23 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With the centenary of the start of the Civil War arriving next week and the conflict having been marked by a major conference in UCC last week, we are...

MARTIN MCMAHON: A SICK SYSTEM

16 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Martin McMahon has seen first hand the inequalities within the Irish health system. A political activist, and co-founder of the Tortoise Shack podcast...

NIGHT OF TERROR: Neil Atkinson.

09 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On 29 May the champions league final between Liverpool and Real Madrid took place in Paris but what unfolded was far more than a football match. Liver...

TO ISLAMIC STATE AND BACK: Lisa Smith.

02 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On Monday, Lisa Smith was found guilty at the Special Criminal Court of membership of Islamic state group, ISIS. The case, which included details of h...

The Fraud Squad: Willie McGee

26 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Willie McGee joined the fledgling garda fraud squad in the 1970s and over the following thirty years his work brought him to the front line of the kin...

GREAT HATRED: Ronan McGreevy

19 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Nearly exactly one hundred years ago, Sir Henry Wilson was gunned down on the streets of London by two IRA men. The assassination was one of the semin...

MASTER OF ALL HE SURVEYED: Ed Honahan.

12 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Recently retired master of the High Court Ed Honahan was often in the headlines because of his interventionist approach to the job. Mr Honahan’s cou...

LIFE IN A TIME OF WAR: Polina Bashkina.

07 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As the war in Ukraine continues, those who have fled to this country are trying to get on with their lives. Polina Bashkina had what she says was a go...

A WRITING LIFE: Danielle McLoughlin.

05 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The only Irish writer shortlisted for this year’s €100,000 Dublin Literary Award is Cork born Danielle McLoughlin for her debut novel, The Art of ...

NEW NORTH, OLD PROBLEMS: Mick Fealty.

21 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The North goes to the polls on 5th May in what many are describing as the most significant election in the assembly’s history. Mick Fealty, fou...

DANNY MCCONNELL: Taking the temperature.

07 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

There is a lot going on in the world at the moment and not a lot of it is good. Irish Examiner Political Editor Danny McConnell is this week’s guest...

LOOKING SOUTH: Aideen Elliot.

31 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

While the focus of the world is on the war and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, there is an ongoing refugee crisis in southern Europe. Thousands fleein...

IN FEAR OF FIRE: Claire Ryan.

24 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Claire Ryan bought her home in 2006 but within a year she knew that she was living in a dangerous development. Fire safety defects in the building wer...

Ann Murphy: Sex for rent.

17 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the current housing market there are some who will use the crisis to exploit vulnerable people. One phenomenon that has come to light in recent tim...

UKRAINIAN VOICES: Cry, beloved country.

11 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Natalya Summar has been living in Cork for twenty years but since 24th February she has been focused on doing what she can for her native Ukraine...

LORCAN SIRR: Markets be damned.

03 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Housing is the defining issue of Irish politics at the moment but what do we talk about when we talk about housing? Lorcan Sirr has assembled a collec...

CONOR BRADY: The guards, now and then.

24 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Exactly one hundred years ago this month meetings took place in the Gresham Hotel to shape a new police force. Michael Collins chaired the first meeti...

ON DANGEROUS GROUND: Hilary Dully.

17 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this decade of centenaries, some of those who made their mark a century ago have had their lives and contributions critically examined. However, th...

Peter Sweetman: Planning to stick around.

10 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The government is examining how to cut down on protracted objections to planned projects and some people are up in arms about it. Peter Sweetman is, b...

FINOLA CASSIDY: WHEN A WONDER DRUG GOES WRONG

03 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Just over sixty years ago the morning sickness drug Thalidomide was withdrawn from the market when it was discovered that it was causing major foetal ...

AOIFE MOORE: Bloody Sunday.

27 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sunday January 30 marks the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the day that thirteen innocent people were shot dead in Derry by members of the pa...

ELAINE LOUGHLIN: The year ahead in politics.

10 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As always, the major political stories for the coming year are likely to emerge from nowhere that is currently on the horizon. However, we do know tha...

GARY MURPHY: Haughey.

10 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Charlie Haughey bestrode public life in Ireland for four decades and was then hauled back into the spotlight in retirement when it was discovered that...

HOME WHERE HIS HEART IS: Romi Ramtohil.

23 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In 2019, Romi Ramtohil was living on the streets and in bad health. After thirteen years in this country he saw no way out of the rut into which he ha...

WHERE'S ME CHRISTMAS JUMPER GOING: Jennifer Stevens.

16 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How much damage is your poor old Christmas jumper doing to the environment? The cost of fast fashion in not just abuses of working and human rights, b...

JOHN TWISS: Justice delayed.

09 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Last week the cabinet recommended a presidential pardon for John Twiss, a 34-year-old man who was hanged for a murder he didn’t commit in 1895. Twis...

GABRIEL DOHERTY One hundred years a-growin’.

02 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Exactly a century ago on 6 December, the Anglo Irish Treaty was signed in London. The document for the first time recognised Ireland’s right to inde...

Family tragedy foretold? Neil Michael.

25 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

On 25 February last on a small farm in North Cork, Johnny Hennessy killed his two brothers Paddy and Willie and then drowned himself in a nearby river...

DIRTY TRICKS, FILTHY LIES: Frank O’Rourke.

18 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Frank O’Rourke lost his Dail seat, which he had held for one term, in 2020. In the days prior to the election, there was both a physical leaflet dro...

Imelda Wickham: Time’s up for prison.

11 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Imelda Wickham spent twenty years as a prison chaplain in one of Ireland’s largest prisons. During that time she met hundreds of prisoners and their...

ABUSED BY THEIR UNCLE, LET DOWN BY THE SYSTEM.

07 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Three sisters and their cousin suffered prolonged abuse as children at the home of their uncle in Dublin. On November 1, Patrick Caffrey with an addre...

LIFE ON THE ROCK: Robert Harris

05 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Harris has, for the last thirty four years, spent at least six months every year living in Skellig Michael. His job description was originally ...

ON THE DICTATOR’S TRAIL: Ronan Tynan.

28 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Anne Daly and Ronan Tynan’s latest documentary Bringing Assad To Justice examines the attempts by hundreds of exiled Syrians to gather enough eviden...

Aidan Regan: Right you are on the left.

22 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Are Irish voters moving to the left and if so why? Results from the 2020 general election appear to indicate that a growing number of voters are now v...

One Object at a time: Tara Shine and changing how we live.

14 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

At a time when climate change is taking up more of the public square questions are being raised as to how we can all live more sustainably. To that en...

Mary McGill: Facebook and Instagram – Anti social media?

08 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week a whistleblower told the US senate about how Facebook had suppressed research that showed the serious impact that use of the company’s Ins...

IAN ROBERTSON: HOW CONFIDENCE WORKS

01 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Are you a confident person or do you lack confidence? How does it feel to be confident and how can you get a little of that if you don’t have it. Ho...

ONLINE AND IN YOUR LIFE: Dr Johnny Ryan.

23 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How much do the big tech companies, led by Facebook, Google and Amazon, know about you? How big an influence do they have on your life without you eve...

KERRY BABY

17 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The exhumation of the body of ‘Baby John’ this week has once again awoken interest in the Kerry Babies case. The gardai are anxious to find the mo...

Maeve Mullin: Who do you think you are?

10 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever fantasised about the phone call to tell you a long lost and forgotten great aunt has just died and left you a forture? Maeve Mullin is a...

Osgur Breatnach: Sallins Inquiry

03 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In 1976 the Cork-Dublin mail train was robbed setting off a series of events that led to a major miscarriage of justice. Osgur Breatnach was one of th...

FORCED MARRIAGE: ESCAPING TO IRELAND

26 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As the Taliban exerts control on Afghanistan and women’s basic rights come under attack again we speak to a woman from another part of the Islamic w...

Bryan McDonald: From Russia with Love.

20 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Bryan McDonald is an Irish journalist working for the Russian online newspaper, Russia Today. From his home in the city of Sochi on the Black Sea he s...

END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT: Cara Augustenborg.

13 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change this week has provided a wake up call for the world at large. We can no longer continue ...

Vera Regan: So, is it, like, the way I talk or what, like?

23 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Vera Regan is Professor of Sociolinguistics in UCD and she listens to people professionally to find out and analyse why they speak as they do. How muc...

JOHN BORGONOVO: When the guns fell silent.

16 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In July 1921 a truce was called in the War of Independence bringing to an end a conflict that was to shape the future of this island. The truce also e...

Ian Bailey: What next?

09 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Two documentaries on the murder of Frenchwoman Sophie Toscan du Plantier in West Cork in 1996 have recently been released. Ian Bailey, who was the chi...

SHIFTING GROUND: Susan McKay.

02 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Twenty years after journalist Susan McKay wrote a book about Northern Protestants, she once more takes the temperature of the tradition right across s...

HARROWING JOURNEY: Rebecca Price and Pat Kiely.

25 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Rebecca and Pat were told that their unborn baby had a fatal foetal abnormality and proceeded to have a termination as a result. Three weeks later the...

NO MAN’S LAND: Elaine Loughlin.

18 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Should one-off housing be allowed to a much greater extent than it is and would that contribute towards tackling the housing crisis? Irish Examiner De...

ARTHUR GRIFFITH: Father of us all.

11 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This year marks the centenary of one of the most momentous years in the country’s history. Arthur Griffith was a leading figure during the revolutio...

SAOIRSE EXTON: KEEPING US ON OUR TOES.

04 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week’s guest Saoirse Exton is worried about the planet, the future and the failure of those who lead to act against the dangers.Saoirse is a 15...

RADICALISATION ONLINE: Caolan Robertson.

28 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How long does it take to be radicalised online? Caolan Robertson reckons as short as six weeks and he should know because he was radicalised and went ...

HOMING IN ON THE PANDEMIC.

21 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Normal fare in politics has resumed with a bang as we appear to be finally heading out of the pandemic. Housing is the issue that is dominating and ac...

NO HOMES TO GO TO: Trapped millennials

14 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week’s report from the ESRI says that the millennial generation in this country is likely to be the first to be worse off than their parents. S...

Kieran McCarthy on his IRA past and Sinn Fein at present.

12 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Kieran McCarthy is a former IRA member and a former Sinn Fein councillor. He left the party after a falling-out in 2015. Unlike others who have left h...

Mark O’Connell: END OF THE WORLD AS THEY KNOW IT.

07 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Author Mark O’Connell spent two years travelling around the globe meeting individuals and groups who are preparing for, well, the end. ‘Notes From...

SERPICO ON SERPICO

30 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Frank Serpico exposed major corruption in the New York Police Department and his story spawned the Hollywood classic movie, Serpico, with Al Pacino in...

Fields of Dreams: Brian Cuthbert

23 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With outdoor activity opening up again for children and adults, will it just be a question of picking up where we left off? What impact did the lockdo...

LINDA DOYLE: BREAKING NEW GROUND

16 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Linda Doyle this week became the first woman Provost in Trinity College’s 429 year history. She talks to the podcast about growing up in Cork, how s...

JUDE AND FRANK: Home is where the city is.

02 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jude Sherry and Frank O’Connor are urban designers who moved from Amsterdam to Cork three years ago. Their experience abroad living and working in c...

DEREK SCALLY: OF CHURCH AND STATE

26 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Derek Scally’s book, The Best Catholics In The World, is part personal journey, part reportage and full of insight into the role of the Catholic Chu...

PADDY MORIARTY – Murder or a victim of harsh terrain.

19 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In December 2017, Paddy Moriarty, a native of Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick went missing for his home in the Australian outback. He lived in the town of Lar...

PHYSICIAN, WRITE THYSELF: Seamus O’Mahony

12 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Seamus O’Mahony is an author and doctor who brings wry observations, dark humour and social awareness to the books he has written while practicing a...

WHO IS THE MOST EQUAL AMONG US?

05 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Economist Seamus Coffey and trade unionist Brendan Ogle have opposing views on whether or not Ireland is a relatively equal or unequal country and whe...

NOEL BAKER: A scam for the ages.

26 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week a married couple, both solicitors, were jailed for an elaborate fraud that robbed banks of credit unions of at least €400,000. The couple,...

ORLA HEALY: THE PUBLIC’S HEALTH IN A PANDEMIC

19 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As we approach the first anniversary of the arrival of the coronavirus on these shores, public health specialist Dr Orla Healy discusses the rollout o...

AOIFE MOORE: The wrongs of the right and upheaval up North

12 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Worrying activity online and the targeting of high profile individuals from a minority background formed the basis of an investigative piece of journa...

Saoirse McHugh: Not easy bein’ green.

05 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Saoirse McHugh had a brief but high profile time as an election candidate for the Green party. The 30-year-old activist narrowly missed being elected ...

Denis Eustace: Minding the mind in a time of Covid.

29 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Denis Eustace is the fifth generation of his family to train and practice as a consultant psychiatrist. He has specialised in later life mental health...

REGINA DOHERTY: IN THROUGH THE OUT DOOR

22 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Last week, the former minister for Social Protection became the first parliamentarian from the government benches to criticise the Mother and Baby Hom...

Katherine O’Donnell: Mother and Baby Homes Report

15 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The report of the Commission of Investigation into the Mother and Baby homes has answered some questions and left many others hanging about the treatm...

EDDIE HOBBS: Hunkering down for the big reset.

08 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Financial consultant Eddie Hobbs takes out his crystal ball and looks into the future as it might unfold once we get the pandemic under control. That ...

War of Independence Part Four: Women of their Time - Helene O'Keeffe

22 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

War of Independence Podcast - Part Four:WOMEN OF THEIR TIME: Helene O’Keeffe.The role of women during the revolutionary period had, until recent dec...

HOW WERE THEY FOR YOU? Assessment of ministers in 2020.

21 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Irish Examiner political team runs the rule over the ministers in the government since its formation last June.Danny McConnell, Elaine Loughlin, P...

ALICE LEAHY: Bringing in the Outsiders.

18 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Alice Leahy is this week’s guest. She talks about the people who visit the Alice Leahy Trust at this time of year, particularly those who have no ho...

War of Independence Part Three : The War - John Borgonovo

15 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Mick Clifford talks to John Borgonovo on the War of Independence. The War of Independence was an early example of guerrilla warfare, fought with the c...

Aoife Moore: A WEEK NOT FOR THE WEAK

11 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Irish Examiner political correspondent Aoife Moore is on the podcast talking about a week in which she found herself the target of online trolls from ...

War of Independence Part Two : The Burning of Cork - Kieran McCarthy.

08 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Kieran McCarthy: The burning of Cork in December 1920 was one of the seminal events of the War of Independence. Major damage was done to the city cent...

PARENTS’ QUEST FOR ANSWERS

04 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

After their son Niall took his own life John and Johanna O’Hara went looking for answers as to what had driven him to despair. They were to discover...

War of Independence Part One: A Tale of Two Mayors - Gabriel Doherty.

01 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A TALE OF TWO MAYORS: Gabriel Doherty.Tomas MacCurtain and Terence MacSwiney both served as lord mayors of Cork in 1920. Both tenures in office were v...

HOME ALONE:

27 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How good is the system in this country in catering for parents of new born children? Can and should the state and employers do more? Do women get a ra...

MIRIAM KENNY: FIGHTING TO RIGHT THE STATE’S WRONGS

20 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How does it feel to get up every day and face into fighting for your children’s rights? That’s the lot of thousands of parents of children with a ...

CATHERINE CONNOLLY: An Independent Voice

13 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Independent TD Catherine Connolly has had a varied background that includes working as clinical psychologist and a barrister before she arrived in pol...

JOHN O’BRIEN: Policing and politics

06 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

John O’Brien spent thirty eight years in An Garda Siochana at a time when the state and policing went through transformational change. From chasing ...

BOB SCHMUHL: Is Trump’s time up.

30 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Next Tuesday sees the election for the next US president in a contest that many believe to be the most important in decades. Can Donald Trump, against...

NATASHA DROMEY: The Right on the rise.

16 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Right wing extremism is growing in Ireland, according to the annual report from the EU crime agency, Europol. This is the first time that this country...

A BUDGET LIKE NO OTHER.

13 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

There was plenty of spending but very little corresponding cheer in Budget 2021, mainly because of the pandemic that has impacted on all our lives.But...

Micheal Martin: 100 Days and Counting.

07 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Earlier this week the government passed the milestone of 100 days in office. An unprecedented coalition has been governing through unprecedented times...

DONIE O’SULLIVAN: ON TRUMP’S TAIL

02 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

CNN Reporter Donie O’Sullivan attended the Minnesota rally on Wednesday where the Covid 19 virus first became apparent among Donald Trump’s staff....

NEASA HOURIGAN: It’s not easy bein’ Green

25 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Neasa Hourigan is the Green party’ spokesperson on finance who has had a baptism of fire in politics going from a full time carer to a councillor an...

SETH BARRETT TILLMAN: Can Trump win again?

18 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The US election is little over six weeks away and the polls still favour Joe Biden but the race is tightening. This time around Donald Trump is no lon...

DES O’NEILL: ASSISTED DYING OR ASSISTED LIVING?

11 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A private member’s bill advocating a law for assisted dying will be introduced in the Dail in the coming week by People Before Profit Gino Kenny. Th...

TIME FOR A BASIC INCOME

04 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As we face into a new post Covid world many economists, sociologists and political scientists are predicting that major changes will have to be made t...