Naomi O Leary 
What does the UK’s seismic election result mean for the island of Ireland, Brexit and the union? We break it down in a new episode of The Irish Passport podcast: what will happen next with Brexit, whether an ‘Irish Sea border’ is really in the post, and why the vote is being described as the most serious for the union in a century. One reason Scottish National Party’s landslide victory and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s demand for a referendum on …
How did a Scottish maths teacher end up joining a rebellion in Dublin? The tale of Margaret Skinnider is told in the newest episode of The Irish Passport podcast. It asks how women went from being a central force in winning Irish independence, to being marginalised from power for close to a century. The episode features interviews with historian Mary McAuliffe, broadcaster Martina Fitzgerald, politician Hazel Chu and others to explore whether 2019 will be a turning point for women …
I just received an email from the administrator of the Erasmus programme at a major university in France. Over many years, this institution has built up exchanges with top tier universities in Britain. Students from the French university swap places with their British counterparts, allowing them to learn or perfect each others’ languages and increase their opportunities to build their future. This year, the future of that programme is unclear. The forwarded email announces, with great sadness, that Brexit has …
Social media is alive with rumour about the identity of security guards involved in the repossession of a farm and house in County Roscommon. In retaliation for the eviction, a large vigilante group stormed the property early on Sunday, leaving eight security guards injured, one guard dog dead, and six vehicles burnt out. Anger was fuelled by a video of the eviction which went viral over the weekend. In it, security guards dressed in black are seen roughly treating elderly …
It can be difficult to keep up with the twists and turns of Brexit. It’s simultaneously important, because the stakes are so high, and yet frustrating and boring, because although there seem to be new changes every day the fundamental cold hard realities remain the same. If you’ve lost track, the latest episode of The Irish Passport podcast sums up the past few weeks and what it all means for island of Ireland. Can Theresa May survive as prime minister? …
Today is a day of action in Dublin, as protesters gather outside government buildings to demand action to a grinding housing crisis. Homelessness has hit record levels, and rents have hit such heights that even well-paid people are struggling to meet them. House prices have surpassed their Celtic Tiger levels, putting home ownership out of reach for even many in the middle class. How did the crisis reach this point? The new episode of The Irish Passport podcast explores the …
This summer myself and my podcast co-host Tim Mc Inerney travelled to Derry and Belfast to experience the 11th and 12th of July for ourselves and record our experiences for our podcast The Irish Passport. With our southern accents and southern registration plates, we got plenty of warnings to be careful — from both sides of the border. But we wanted to see and understand for ourselves what the Glorious Twelfth is all about, confronting our own biases and gaps …
It took 24 hours for the result to really sink in. A landslide yes to end Ireland’s near-total abortion ban. It was so unexpected, the reaction of many was shock. “We’re just blown away by the landslide,” one woman told The Irish Passport podcast as she absorbed the result in Dublin Castle. “It’s like living in a new Ireland.” “I’m kind of astounded,” said an older man who voted No. “I thought it would be tighter.” Myself and Tim McInerney …
The Republic of Ireland’s referendum on whether to overturn its near-total constitutional abortion ban is already having an impact in Northern Irish politics, and the outcome on Friday is crucial. That’s the takeaway from Slugger O’Toole deputy editor David McCann in a special episode of The Irish Passport podcast from Belfast. Have a listen here. Naomi O LearyIrish journalist and host of The Irish Passport podcast on Irish culture, history and politics.
Erin believes if Irish people only realised the suffering the abortion ban inflicts on people, they would vote to repeal it. You might know Erin as In Her Shoes, the Facebook page that has gained a following of 90,000 since she started posting crowd-sourced stories of abortion earlier this year. The page has made stories of tragedy go viral. Stories of rape. Stories of happily expected babies given a fatal diagnosis. Stories of secrecy and shame. She got the idea …
One April morning 102 years ago a countess, a grocer’s daughter, a carpenter and and a former British soldier picked up guns and marched onto the streets of Dublin to rebel against the British Empire and declare an Irish republic. We introduce these characters and what they were fighting to achieve in the new episode of The Irish Passport podcast: ‘1916 and the Invention of Ireland‘. The episode traces the cultural upheaval that led to the rebellion and questions whether, 102 …
Today people will be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in Irish pubs from Hong Kong to Panama. But did you ever wonder how Irish pubs spread to the ends of the earth? The fascinating backstory is explained in the St. Patrick’s Day special of The Irish Passport podcast. The Irish pub empire began in the 1990s, when Guinness and The Irish Pub Company came up with The Guinness Irish Pub Concept ™. Guinness were looking for ways to sell more stout, and they gambled that …
The second season of The Irish Passport podcast has arrived. If you haven’t heard the podcast yet, it’s a ‘passport’ to Irish culture, history and politics. It gives the low-down on the unfinished history that explains today’s news. I’m a journalist, and the show combines my reporting on current affairs with the historical insight of my co-host Tim Mc Inerney, who is a lecturer in British and Irish cultural history. We launched the podcast out of a sense of urgency …
Ireland is set to have a referendum on whether to allow all Irish citizens resident outside the state to vote in presidential elections. This has provoked a debate, with some fearing this could lead to a distant diaspora imposing a terrible unwanted president on residents of the country. Here’s why that is not going to happen Isn’t this a radical proposal? No. Currently, Ireland is radical in the other direction. Its lack of any provision for overseas voting is internationally …
