The Mick Clifford Podcast
Episodes
LEARNING THE HARD WAY: Colm Byrne
27 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The country is bracing itself for the reopening of schools for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic last March. Major preparations have b...
BACK TO SCHOOL WITH A BANG
21 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Schools are reopening to a different world over the coming weeks, a world that is completely alien to all past and present pupils. This week, the podc...
REAL OR BOGUS JOBS – MARTIN MCMAHON
13 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The recent outbreak of Covid 19 in the meat processing industry has given rise to questions about employment conditions in that and other low paying s...
ANGELA DORGAN: MAKING ART IN A TIME OF COVID
23 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Artists of all disciplines have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic. It was difficult enough for the vast majority of artists to make a living ...
Will Ian Bailey be sent to France?
17 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The French authorities are attempting once more to have Ian Bailey extradited for the murder of Sophie Toscan Du Plantier. This week the High Court he...
Getting the message across.
10 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Communications expert Terry Prone is the guest on this week’s podcast to give her insight on what is working and what is not working for politicians...
FOLLOWING THE KINAHAN MONEY
03 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The recent high profile spat over Daniel Kinahan rising in the world of boxing has thrown up interesting questions about organised crime and sport. Mr...
AND THEY’RE OFF
29 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A new government was formed on Saturday 140 days after the general election. Micheal Martin was elected Taoiseach and he appointed a cabinet with a fe...
JIM DALY: Looking in through the Out Door.
26 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Junior minister for health Jim Daly took the road less travelled when he announced last September that he would not be contesting the next general ele...
IS THAT A GOVERNMENT I SEE BEFORE ME?
19 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
All eyes are on the Green party this week as the three parties hoping to form a government consult internally on whether or not to go for it. The smar...
WHERE HAVE ALL THE TOURISTS GONE
12 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Summertime but the living ain’t easy this year if you’re in the tourism business. Those in some of the most beautiful parts of the country, partic...
America’s Burning Issue.
05 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In a week in which protests spread throughout the USA after the violent death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, the podc...
Ross Lewis: When will we eat again.
28 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
One of Ireland’s leading chefs Ross Lewis is the guest on this week’s podcast to discuss how the pandemic has affected the restaurant business and...
MAURICE MCCABE: LIFE AFTER WHISTLEBLOWING
22 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Maurice McCabe is this country's best known whistleblower following his reports of malpractice in An Garda Siochana where he was a sergeant with an ex...
FIGHTING THE VIRUS IN DIRECT PROVISION
15 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The spread of the corona virus has led to major problems in particular settings, one of which is direct provision centres. One centre that has experie...
JOHN WAIN: When one size doesn’t fit all in locking down
08 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
While the western world has faced major upheaval in dealing with the pandemic, the developing world has a whole set of different, and largely more dan...
EDDIE HOBBS: A NEW WORLD ORDER
01 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s guest on the podcast Eddie Hobbs has some strong opinions on how the country is going to come out of the current crisis, the role that the b...
ANNE RYAN: WHEN ENOUGH IS PLENTY
24 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The public health emergency and lock down has for many people provided space to reflect on how we are living as a society. Are our priorities as they ...
ADAM HARRIS: AS HE IS
17 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Adam Harris was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum at the age of five but by the time he was nineteen he had established the organisation ASIAM...
CATHERINE SHANAHAN: A PROFILE OF TONY HOLOHAN
10 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
One figure who has emerged in the current pandemic to provide reassurance about the direction of the country is Tony Holohan. The chief medical office...
KEEPING FEAR OF VIRUS IN PERSPECTIVE
07 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The changes imposed by the onslaught of the corona virus have affected all areas of society but most particularly those who work in the healthcare sys...
Slow bicycle race to Government.
03 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Nearly two months after the general election and in the midst of an existential crisis we still don’t have a government. Fianna Fail and Fine Gale a...
LIVING AND DYING IN A TIME OF CORONAVIRUS.
31 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Alison O’Connor has like many people been reflecting in recent weeks on the nature of life and death as the country endures what amounts to lockdown...
HOLLY CAIRNS: A new politician for changed times
27 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Against much expectation from pundits, Holly Cairns was elected as a TD for the Cork South West constituency in February’s general election. Her par...
ENGINEERING TO SAVE LIVES FROM CORONA VIRUS
23 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The onslaught of the Covid 19 virus is expected to put our hospital service under severe pressure. Among the biggest worries will be whether the syste...
THE KILLING OF A LORD MAYOR
19 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On 20 March 1920 a number of RIC men entered the home of Cork’s Lord Mayor Tomas McCurtain and shot him to death in front of his family. The killing...
Kieran McCarthy on his IRA past and Sinn Fein at present.
13 Mar 2020
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...
NORMA COSTELLO WAR REPORTER
06 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Norma Costello has been reporting from Iraq, Syria and Turkey for the last five years. The Kerrywoman was at one stage embedded with Kurdish fighters ...
ROOTING OUT THE FAKE NEWS
28 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week's guest is Kerryman Donie O'Sullivan, who is the Disinformation, Technology and Politics correspondent for the American television network, ...
DUNPHY ON THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
21 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Eamon Dunphy has, over his lifetime, crossed the political spectrum from left to right and back again. On this week's podcast he assesses the current ...
POET’S CORNER – THEO DORGAN ON SLOWLY UNFOLDING CHANGE
14 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the aftermath of the 2011 general election poet Theo Dorgan forecast that "it was an interim moment in a long, unfolding process of change…” th...
THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD TO GOVERNMENT
11 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
After the earthquake in last Saturday's election the country has been left with the prospect of a long drawn out dance before we arrive at a coherent ...
HOW WAS THE CAMPAIGN FOR YOU?
07 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The general election is finally upon us and the podcast is taking a look back at the campaign that was and a look ahead into the tea leaves to see how...
THE POLITICAL TIMES, THEY ARE A-CHANGIN'
04 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Something is happening in this election, but do we know what it is?Mick Clifford asks Professor Gary Murphy of DCU to put in context the changes that ...
IT'S NOT EASY BEING GREEN DURING AN ELECTION
31 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Are we there yet? As the general election campaign enters its final, crucial week the podcast hears from public affairs consultant and Irish Independe...
BREAKING THE BACK OF THE CAMPAIGN
28 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We're into the third week of the general election campaign, a crucial period for all those vying for your votes as people are now supposedly beginning...
ELECTION CAMPAIGN STUTTERING INTO LIFE
24 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Hitting the halfway stage in the general election campaign and the early sorting out between the various sides has been completed. Opinion polls have ...
A WEEK IS A LONG TIME IN CAMPAIGNING
21 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The election campaign is now well underway and we have already had two opinion polls and a couple of controversies. A slew of policy papers have been ...
WHAT SHOULD THIS ELECTION BE ABOUT?
17 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The starting gun has sounded on the general election campaign. All parties are out of the blocks with promises and pledges but what should this electi...
THE RIC HAVEN'T GONE AWAY, YOU KNOW
10 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Is the past ever behind us? This week a major furore was kicked up over a planned commemoration for members of the Royal Irish Constabulary and the Du...
ALICE LEAHY: KEEPING WARM AT CHRISTMAS.
20 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Christmas is a time of year to spend with family and friends but what of those who exist beyond the warm, fuzzy glow that permeates much of society du...
A WRONGED MAN?
13 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Diarmuid Higgins got a call out of the blue last April telling him that an allegation of sexual abuse had been made against him as part of the garda i...
LONDON IRISH VOICES: Ray O'Rourke and Rory Godson
06 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Ray O'Rourke is a native of Co Mayo who began work in London fifty years ago as a labourer and is today the chief executive and major shareholding on ...
BEING IAN BAILEY
29 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Ian Bailey is a wanted man. The French authorities have requested the Irish government to extradite him for the murder of Sophie Toscan Du Planter in ...
IS IRELAND STILL A WARM HOUSE FOR IMMIGRANTS?
22 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Immigration has entered the political arena again this week with comments from Wexford by-election candidate Verona Murphy about asylum seekers. She s...
THE KIDS ARE NOT ALRIGHT
15 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist and broadcaster Alison O'Connor talks to Mick Clifford in this week's podcast about two stories that have dominated the news agenda for the...
SHOULD DRUG ABUSE BE TREATED WITH AN URGENT RESPONSE?
08 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Figures released this week by the Health Research Board point to a major increase in demand for drug treatment services. In particular treatment for c...
RISE AND FOLLOW MURPHY
01 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Paul Murphy has been one of the most high profile TDs in the Dail over the last five years, during which time he and five of his party colleagues were...
DREAMING OF THE BIGTIME
25 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This week the podcast interviews Cork boxer Gary Spike O'Sullivan and his trainer, Packie Collins about the upcoming documentary The Prizefighter, bas...
RIGHTING THE WRONGS FROM WITHIN
18 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The role of the whistleblower in exposing wrongdoing and corruption has come to the fore in recent years. The most prominent case was that of former g...
Lonely voice behind prison walls.
11 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Last November David McDonald, an assistant chief officer in the prison service, made serious allegations of malpractice about what has gone on in the ...
A sense of injustice that will never die.
04 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A young couple died in a fire tragedy in 2002 but it would be fifteen years and another fire later before it was discovered that the building in which...
A Hard Rain's already falling.
27 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The environmental group Extinction Rebellion have lost faith in the willingness of government and or the capacity of conventional governments to tackl...
From the dark end of the street
20 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Gerard Mannix Flynn is a survivor of Ireland's industrial school system, a renowned performing artist and writer, and, for the last decade, a Dublin C...
No Country For Old Men
13 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Ken Mayers and Tarak Kauff arrived in Ireland from the USA last March intent on a brief visit to support friends protesting against the US military us...
Mr Brexit Goes To Westminister.
06 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Mick Clifford Podcast 06/09/2019Mr Brexit Goes To Westminister.In a tumultuous week in UK politics, in which the government lost control of its Br...