This week Dave and Conor discuss the European Court of Justice ruling that Ireland is owed €13.8bn in taxes due to illegal state aid.

What are the implications for Ireland, and how does this illustrate the nature of the Irish comprodor economic system?

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This week on the podcast, Clare and Michelle are joined by Stiofán O Nualláin to discuss

Northern Ireland and British Elections

Imperialist Labour Party

Gaza Genocide

Garda Violence

Pilot Strikes

Mass evictions from Direct Provision Centres

& Much More!

This week Dave and Conor take a look at the EU and local elections where they review the performance of the parties, the media campaign and the strategies of the left. They also discuss, where to next... where will "left unity" come from?

On this weeks show, Dave, Conor and Michelle discuss:

• The Housing Commission Report
• The recognition of Palestine
• The Dublin 8 Artwork Project
• The EU Elections
• The real cost of a United Ireland

This week Dave and Clare talk to Conor Reddy about the ongoing Trinity College Dublin encampment and protests against complicity with Israel’s genocide in Palestine.

Conor is a member of the Postgraduate Workers' Organisation of Ireland and a People Before Profit candidate in the upcoming local elections.

Also discussed:

• Threats from Amazon Ireland if we don’t allow more data centres
• Shortages of energy and water
• Leila Doolin skydiving for Gaza on her 90th birthday (https://tinyurl.com/LeilasJump)
• Decriminalising drugs

And much more…

This Week Clare and Michelle discuss Stardust Verdict Bloody Sunday Palestine - West Bank violence increasing - - Protests against weapons through Shannon for Israel. - Columbia students encampment - Banning of people speaking languages at protests - Google workers sacked for protesting Googles role in apartheid. - Communication Workers Union motion on An Post members not handling Israeli mail. - Eir and An Post workers pay rises - Unite policy conference - Labour Party Councillor brought to WRC - Josip Strok, Roderick O Gorman, IPO, policing, elections and the far right Hands - Ireland seeking to abandon ‘triple lock’

In this special episode Councillor Dean Mulligan hosts a public discussion with Clare Daly MEP and Palestinian activist Aseel Marabeh. The event took place on 3rd April in Swords. Dean introduces the event explaining the resistance at local council level to pro-Palestinian initiatives, while Clare Daly explains what is happening in the EU. Aseel gives a horrific breakdown of what is facing Palestinians, particularly in Gaza.

This week, Dave, Michelle and Stiofán Ó Nualláin discuss:

• Jeffery Donaldson
• Bertie Ahern
• Easter rising commemorations
• Dublin - a failing capitalist experiment?
• The Shannon 3 protest US Military use of airport
• Stripsearching and Special branch.
• Israel embassy trade threat
• BDS actions in the workplace
• Palestinian banking
• Defunding RTE
• The James Connolly Festival (www.jamesconnollyfestival.com)
• The Robert Tressell Festival (www.tressellfestival.ie)

And much more...

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This week Dave, Clare and Conor discuss:

• A workers' rights Taoiseach
• All hail our new overlord
• Gannon gets salty with Pepper
• Unite victory in the Supreme Court
• Calls for suspension of EU Trade Agreements with Israel
• Genocide Joe and the continued attacks on Palestinians

And much more...

This week Michelle and Dave discuss:

• Palestine & the ongoing genocide
• Industrial Relations Act 1990 and Boycotting goods
• Sally Rooney:  ‘good friend’ in the White House.
• “the situation in the middle east”
• Two state solution
• Mary Robinson on RTE
• NI open for businesss
• SWSW festival
• Criminalising peaceful protesting
• Investor “activists”
• 94% of Forsa members voted yes to pay deal. 19 unions with public service members.
• SaveJobs – a coalition to preserve profits

This week Michelle and Conor discuss the care referendum result and the campaigns run by the three main left political parties: Sinn Féin, People before Profit, and the Social Democrats.

This week Aubrey and Conor look at Naomi Klein's new book on the rise of the far-right. Doppelganger, and discuss its relevance to what's happening in Ireland today.

161. This week Clare and Michelle talk about Palestine events, OPW block IPSC event, Seanad motion on Palestine, increased militrisation, investment in illegal companies, policing of Palestine protests, facial recognitiion technology, RTB report, Owen Keegan in RTB, Joan Collins bill Gaza Genocide Garda protester removal Housing Planning Developments Care referendum Opinion Polls & More!

This week Dave and Conor look at the strikes at Amazon's warehouse in Coventry, an upcoming trade union bill sponsored by Joan Collins TD, and Sinn Féin's recent dip in the polls.

This week David Gibney is joined by Eoghan Fox, President of the Galway Council of Trade Unions to discuss:

• The International Court of Justice ruling on Israel's Genocide
• Sinn Fein visiting Genocide Joe for Paddys Day
• New Public Sector Pay Deal
• Ryanair snap up gaffs in Dublin
• Guantanamo Bay and the inspiring former inmates trying to close it (book available here - https://www.connollybooks.org/product/dont-forget-us-here)

And more...

This week, Clare and Stevie discuss the Genocide of Gaza, the South African case in the ICJ, the Irish Government response and the power of collective action.

We discuss the upcoming local elections and referendum and the toxic discourse being driven by far right agitators, alongside discussions on housing, the EU, the DUP and Nothern Ireland politics and more!

This week Conor and Dave look at C. Desmond Greaves' biography of James Connolly, in particular the poetic license and myth-making that Greaves indulged in when filling in the gaps in Connolly's early days. It focuses on the account Greaves gave of Connolly's army career, and the issues with the sources used and story told. This episode was recorded in the Garden of Remembrance one Friday afternoon.

This week Conor McCabe and Aubrey Robinson discuss a recent paper by Pierce Daly (UCD) which mapped the location and intensity of institutional/corporate investment in the Dublin rental market. It is a rare example of detailed empirical analysis on the issue and we felt it deserved a discussion and analysis in itself. Link to the paper is below, along with one by Daniela Gabor and Sebastian Kohl which is referenced by Aubrey during the show.

Pierce Daly. Institutional Investment in Housing: Financialisation 2.0 in the Case of Ireland - https://shorturl.at/IOWZ4

Daniela Gabor and Sebastian Kohl. My Home is an Asset Class - https://shorturl.at/goHTU

This week, guest Saoirse McHugh and Conor McCabe discuss the dynamics of class and capitalism in so-called 'rural' Ireland; the feebleness of the institutional Irish left (political parties, trade unions, research bodies) in dealing with these dynamics; and the rising threat of the far-right as it elbows its way into the vacuum. Recorded during a climate action march in Dublin on 9 December 2023.

This week Glenn and Michelle discuss:

• Truce in Palestine ended, Israeli bombardment restarted
• Role of mainstream media
• Division in our communities - rise of hate and the question of 'resources'
• Mary Lou tweet
• Rents reaching new records
• The Ditch investigations
• Data centres and COP
• Successes in the BDS campaign

This week Dave, Clare and Michelle discuss:

• The Parnell Square knife attack
• Dublin violence & classism
• Policing - water cannons, Facial recognition technology
• ICTU rally
• Palestine so-called 4 day pause in firing
• Surge in munition exemptions undermining our neutrality
• Attempts to scrapping the triple lock
• AIB applying banking sanctions?
• Homeless numbers record broken again
• AirBnb profits
• Mayo council execs as landlords
• Mechanical workers win big after strike threat

In this weeks episode Dave and Michelle discuss the continued genocide in Palestine including: 

• Israel bombing boats in Gaza to starve population
• Israel’s Heritage Minister suggests nuking Gaza and sending civilians to Ireland
• Doctors in Israel call for continued targeting of hospitals
• WCNSF acronym - child with no remaining family left
• Irish citizens in Gaza prevented from leaving
• SF call to expel the Israeli ambassador
• Silencing dissent - Web Summit, Amazon, Pharma, Gofundme and Wix
• Football community politics
• Sunday indo poll on ceasefire
• Artist boycott
• 600+ academics calling on unis to suspend ties with Israeli institutions
• Role of media

Also discussed:

• European far right in in Kilkenny
• Intel is Hell
• Garment workers strike in Bangladesh
• Scrapping air passenger cap
• Traveller homes
• Household media charge
• Gardai propaganda
• Good IRA v Bad IRA

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Lifelong activist, socialist and feminist, Bernadette McAliskey, addresses the topic of Nationalism & the Far Right at An Scoil Chois Claí 2023.

This week Clare O'Connor is joined by Dr Sean Byers of Trademark Belfast to discuss ongoing Israeli war crimes and bombardment of Gaza, international Palestinian solidarity and Trade Union Actions , The Fog of War, DUP Rollback, Liberal legislating and more!

Dave Gibney and Clare O'Connor are joined by Conor McCabe as we look at Budget 2024 and what the main opposition parties would have done differently. We address housing, health, education, climate, taxation and carers, among other items.

This week, Clare and Michelle discuss Palestine, Israel and EU imperialism Student & PHD strikes Budget 2023 Estate Agents ramping up rental costs Drug Hauls & the war on drugs And much more!

Michelle and Glenn take a look at the mainstream media reaction to the far-right protest that took place outside Dáil Éireann upon its return, which has been riddled with bothsidesing and false equivalence. This segues into a chat about the Garda handling of everything from protests to illegal evictions. Michelle, fresh in from attending a demonstration outside Waterford Garda Station, gives a firsthand account of the community response to an illegal eviction that took place a few weeks ago. Housing is covered extensively later in the episode before taking a look at some other interesting stories that emerged throughout the week.

This week Dave and Clare discuss:

• Scoil Chois Claí 2023
• Housing, tax reliefs and inflating prices
• Mary Lou and health
• Cosmic events in Portmarnock and alien cakes
• Russel Brand
• USC lobbying

& much more…

Support us at www.leftbloc.ie

This week Michelle talks to Glenn Fitzpatrick and Mebh McDaid about:

- Electoral reform in the South

- Workers Rights under attack - Ryanair

- Free State mindset

- Future of Ireland’s drug laws: Gardai vs evidence base

- UBI and “a new social contract”

- Bernadette Devlin new journo role

- Scoil Chois Claí preview

- EPA and pushback on meat consumption, what of the “just transition”?

& More...

This week Michelle and Clare discuss Deaths in homeless services Failure of state services in duty of care. Policing responses on homelessness and far right Budget 2024 and the myth of scarcity AIB profits and sell offs Climate boiling Bray Air show Industrial action And more!

On this week’s The Week At Work, Michelle Byrne speaks to Caoimhe Ní Dhónaill, anti-casualisation officer in University and College Union (UCU) Queens University Belfast (QUB) branch and Professor John Barry, a green representative in UCU at QUB. We hear about the UCU QUB industrial action covering pensions, casualisation, pay and pay gaps and more. We also discuss the neoliberal agenda in education, the role of the university in the climate crisis and solidarity.

This week Michelle talks to Dean McGrath from the South East Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign to discuss his recent visit to Palestine and the ongoing oppression there.

Part 2 of this weeks show with Clare and Dave discussing:

• Climate change and preparing for a 2 degree increase in temperatures 
• Interview by Mebh McDaid with the Iceland workers at the Talbot street occupation

• SAG-AFTRA strike and superstar solidarity
• Cluster munitions and Ireland’s role in their supply
• Commentators seeking a nuclear war

And more...

This week Clare and Dave have split the episode in to two parts to discuss:

• Left Bloc’s festical Scoil Chois Claí 2023 on Inis Oírr
• Housing & blaming victims
• RTE, the strawman and deconstructing public service broadcasting
• Companies delisting from the Irish stock exchange
• Climate change and preparing for a 2 degree increase in temperatures 
• Interview by Mebh McDaid with the Iceland workers at the Talbot street occupation

• SAG-AFTRA strike and superstar solidarity
• Cluster munitions and Ireland’s role in their supply
• Commentators seeking a nuclear war Report on the Future of Youth Work

This week Dave Gibney, Michelle Byrne and Glenn Fitzpatrick discuss:

• RTÉ and the future of Public Service Broadcasting
• Ireland Thinks Poll
• Spanish ambassador to Ireland on NATO
• Rise of the right across Europe
• Iceland and strategic insolvencies
• Water services workers on strike
• FG Selective outrage on fast fashion

 And much more…

This week we have a special episode about Cuba with Michelle Byrne, Liz from the Communist Party of Ireland (CPI) and Sam Galvin (Chair of Unite Youth). They discuss the May Day Brigade, the US blockade, Healthcare, climate and farming, children, the family code, participatory democracy, culture, Committees for Defence of the Revolution (CDR) and trade unions in Cuba, International Conference and how we can show solidarity with the Cuban people.

This week we have a special episode from the James Connolly Festival where Dave Gibney hosts a discussion between Eddie Dempsey, Senior Assistant General Secretary from the RMT, Denise Curran, President of Mandate Trade Union and our own Michelle Byrne, Trade Union Left Forum (TULF).

The discussion is: Trade Unions: Radical or Redundant

 

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This week Michelle and Glenn discuss:

• Red C poll / Coalition “rift” and anti immigrant sentiment
• Performance of Gov parties vis a vis what is happening at societal level (industrial disputes, call for wage increases etc)
• Media Blackout on PANA poll
• Clare Daly advocates for peace on RTÉ Upfront
• Decay of US economy (based off this piece https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/05/27/china-economic-alternative-us-led-financial-order/)
• Tax Breaks and the Squeezed Middle
• Forsa conference, HSE outsourcing and pressure on the health system
• Emerald Air (Aer Lingus regional) dispute
• IWU Iceland workers dispute update
• Tech workers unionising with FSU and impact of anti-trade union legislation
• ICTU calls for minimum wage increase, a living wage and abolition of discriminatory rates of page based on age
• Peace and Neutrality Alliance poll - 87% support ceasefire
• Irish multinational in Columbia disrupting peace

And much more…

This week Dave and Michelle are joined by Stiofán O’Nualláin to discuss:

• Elections in the North
• The erosion of Irish neutrality
• Migration, climate and rise of hate
• Iceland workers strike
• Debenhams workers win WRC case
• Corporate veil protecting employers
• Sacked Murphy 4 - Unite campaign
• An Scoil Chois Claí - Inis Oírr details

And much more…

Join the Left Bloc Community on WhatsApp: https://chat.whatsapp.com/GrpI1ETKXHN5UMjPyjVfzY

Michelle spoke to Jamie Murphy, acting General Secretary of the Independent Workers Union (IWU) about the union and it’s most recent campaigns with Iceland store workers, bogus self employment of Home help workers by the state and more. Support the Iceland workers strike fund here: https://gofund.me/b4cbe2df

This week Dave, Michelle and Clare discuss:

• International Workers’ Memorial Day
• International Workers’ Day
• Political Festivals
• Government to defend ESAT case
• Government attacks independent media
• Homelessness
• Far right protests on Paul Murphy's house
• Varadkar eyes surplus for tax cuts
• The Stardust Inquest

& More….

This week Clare is joined by Amy Rafferty member of Connolly Youth Movement and Left Bloc member to discuss

Her recent article on LeftBloc.ie ,

Good Friday Agreement celebrations and it's economic legacy

Abortion Review & the effort to stall progress

Niall Collins & The Ditch

Investment Funds and Social Housing

10 billion rainy day fund while the world burns,

Who will pay the 8 billion euro penalties for our carbon emissions?

& More!

Support us on www.LeftBloc.ie and on patreon.com/LeftBloc

Episode 131

On this weeks The Week at Work, Clare O Connor and Lorna Bogue discuss:

Housing

LDA and Land Hoarding

1.5 billion underspend on housing budget

Ireland argue against ECHR right to clean, healthy, sustainable environment

Class Politics

Irish Neutrality

Garda bodycams and facial recognition software

Stardust Inquest starts tomorrow

....and More!

This week Stiofán Ó Nualláin is joined by Mebh McDaid as they take over The Week at Work for one week only! They discuss:

• Eviction ban
• Latest polls
• GFA anniversary
• UDA feud
• Strike action

And more...

Episode 129. This week Michelle, Clare and Glenn discuss the eviction ban, the IPCC Report, coalition politics, Labour party promises, Irish Neutrality, Geopolitics and Organising where you stand.

This week Michelle and Stiofán Ó Nualláin discuss:

• Eviction ban,
• Labour V Soc Dems,
• Windsor Framework,
• Biden,
• Pension protests

And more...

Like the pod? Support us at www.leftbloc.ie

This week, Clare and Michelle discuss the Ireland For All rally; The eviction ban; mother and baby home vote; the first anniversary of the Ukraine war and more

This special episode contains speeches and songs from the United Against Racism and Le Cheile rally held on O'Connell Street on Monday, 6th February 2023.  Speakers included activist Ellie Kisyombe, Cllr. Daithí Doolan (Sinn Fein), Paul Murphy TD & Richard Boyd Barrett TD (People Before Profit), Steph Hanlon, Marese Hegarty, Ailbhe Smyth, Dean Scurry and many others. Music by Jimi Cullen and others. Let's build for Saturday, 18th February! 

This week Michelle and Conor look at the Le Chéile anti-far right rally in Dublin; new research into the Dublin rental market and corporate landlords; a bizarre 64-page pull-out in the Irish Examiner; Sinn Féin's big mortgage idea; and Bertie Ahern out of the sin bin. The show is interspersed with clips from the Le Chéile rally last Monday.

This week Clare and Conor are in conversation with Dr. Stiofán Ó Nualláin on the ongoing far right attacks on migrants, the structural nature of racism in the Irish state, and the way the media frames the issue.

This week we're in conversation with Dr. John Bissett, researcher, activist and community worker, on his new book, It's Not Where You Live, It's How You Live: Class and Gender in a Dublin Estate. It was recorded while walking around Rialto, the Coombe, and Pimlico.

This week Clare and Conor discuss the social acceptance of Tommy Tiernan's lazy racism; combatting the far-right lies on housing; the upcoming Stardust Fire inquiry; and Paschal Donoghue's election scandals.

This week Michelle and Conor discuss Matt Cooper's dog whistles on the recent racist attacks; Damien English and his missing house; John Bissett's new book on class and gender in working class Dublin; Bono's time warp politics; and Prince Harry's gilded cage. 

This week Michelle and Conor discuss the structural issues behind the health crisis in Limerick and the regions, the problem with RTÉ's Operation Transformation, Bertie Ahern's Presidential run in 2025, and the political vision and strategy of Eoin Ó Broin. 

This week Conor is speaking with Stiofán Ó Nualláin about the north, border polls, and what a post-reunification Ireland would - and should - look like. 

This week Michelle and Conor discuss Leo Varadkar's call for housing for the multinationals, ninety years of Connolly Books, the links between Irish and German fascists, and climate denialism within Sinn Féin.

Today we're looking at the way that finance flows through the city of Dublin, focusing on phantom aircraft leasing and international property funds. Recorded as a walk through around St. Stephens Green Square with Aubrey Robinson.

Special episode with Stiofán Ó Nualláin and Conor McCabe where they discuss the politics and practice of activist education. Recorded on a stroll around Belfast, from Trademark's office at the Peace Wall to the James Connolly Centre on the Falls, via Shankill and the Springfield Road.

This week Michelle and Conor discuss the controversy over Eoin Ó'Broin calling for the sacking of the State Chief Economist, The Assembly in the North, Elon Musk and Twitter, Bono's capitalist heaven, and the horrors of 1986 Self Aid.

An interview with Joe Carolan, trade union organiser in New Zealand, on fair employment legislation and possible strategies for Ireland.

Recorded live in UCC with Alex Homits of the Decency for Dunnes Workers Campaign and Noel Murphy of the Independent Workers Union.  12 October at The Hub, UCC. 

This week Michelle and Conor go through this year's alternative budgets with an analysis of the housing solutions put forward by Sinn Féin, People before Profit, Social Democrats, and Labour.

This week Michelle and Conor discuss the recent budget, possible policy responses from the trade union movement, and the need for a class analysis of Irish unity.

This week Clare and Conor discuss Irish neutrality, the upcoming Right to Housing Referendum, Bertie Ahern's kite-flying over a presidential bid, and a recently-published Anti-Poverty Strategy for Co. Clare

Special edition with Sinéad Mercier and Conor McCabe where they discuss the dynamics of the Irish comprador/Middleman sector, its deep roots in the institutions of the state, and how that plays out in terms of climate action. They discuss agriculture, housing, energy, and mining, and reflect on ideas for a genuine decolonial Irish climate action energy strategy.

This week Dave and Michelle discuss:

• Energy crisis “for industry”
• Token windfall tax for super profits
• Robert Troy: Election candidates disclose interests ahead of elections
• Will we see a SIPO with bite?
• How to ease the cost of living: wash little, eat tinned fish and lay off the drink
• Company shares for workers
• Tony Holohan report
• Public sector pay talks
• The Pope & warmongering
• Access to Ministers helped develop housing crisis
• Billionaire Shannon gas project backer secured meeting with Varadkar after Ryan declined
• SSE Airtricity hikes prices after record profits
• Revenue will not give detail on 20 tax settlements totalling more than €1 billion

And much more…

This week Dave and Michelle discuss:

• Minister for regulation not sure of regulations – Robert Troy
• Renters charged €45 for applications
• Students spending 60% of wages on rent
• “Headbutted, hit and abused – hospital staff subjected to hundreds of assaults at work”
• Pressure on An Bord Pleanála
• Students and teachers under pressure
• Millions to be saved if state bought buildings
• Hate related incidents
• Great resignation - because of state underfunding and understaff
• Palestinian rights groups targeted
• Kingspan profits off passing costs to customers
• Irish Water profits up – and staff earning €100k+ also up
• 69% of nationalists agree with Michelle O’Neill’s claim there was no alternative to the IRA campaign
• 82% of unionists say DUP right to stay away from Stormont
• Green Party’s Leddin criticises ‘ridiculous’ TII report into lowering speed limits
• Customers face hiked electricity prices during evenings to avoid blackouts
• Laptops can be crashed by Janet Jackson song, says Microsoft

And much more…

This week Dave and Michelle are joined by Des Fagan, Union official with Forsa, to discuss:

• Fresh public sector pay talks
• Amazon says Unions are not the best answer for its Irish employees
• Dublin Bus workers to vote on five year pay and change deal
• “Tweeps” who work for Twitter & collective employee names
• Businesses paying half PRSI EU average
• Datacentres cause of blackouts
• RTB fining landlords… then paying them back
• Missing target to end direct provision
• Sabina Higgins call for peace
• Amnesty accuse Ukraine of war crimes
• Security staff pay
• Ires REIT milking the state
• Profits at builder providers close to €31m – in a housing crisis
• One in six worth over €20m now a tax exile
• Israel launches week of Gaza ‘operations’, which is code for massacres

And much more…

This week Dave and Michelle discuss:

• Farming carbon targets & climate collapse
• Irish Water and the water referendum
• Housing referendum
• Electric car subsidies
• Disability health services
• Five new pension rates linked to age you retire
• AIB, free market banking and rural Ireland
• Workers priced out of the housing market
• Dunnes workers lodge life changing pay claim
• Big tobacco lobby and vapes
• Vicky Conway RIP

And much more…

This week Dave, Michelle and Clare discuss: Climate breakdown Rent Pressure Zones & Housing Lobbying & the media Pensions timebomb options Travellers rights Cost of Living Crisis Forsa balloting for action And much more…

A walk through Dublin's northside, looking at the dynamic between property developers, Dublin City Council, and artist-led studios. We stop at sites related to Pallas Studios, the City Arts Centre, the Ormond Multi-Media Centre, the Complex, and Block T. We also discuss Richmond Road Studios. 

This week Michelle, Clare and Conor discuss:

Cost of Living Crisis

Housing

Roe v Wade Implications & Anti-Choice Rally

How are Parties Polling

And much more...

101. Mick Lynch, Roe v Wade & Housing Vacancies

• This week Dave, Conor and Clare discuss:

• CSO data – including housing vacancies

• Roe v Wade Supreme Court Judgement

• Mick Lynch, the RMT & Trade Unionism

• Details of Left Bloc’s first Summer School

And much more…

This week Dave and Clare discuss: The cost of living crisis Public sector pay talks break down Leo Varadkar’s petty attacks and their implications Media presentation of Trans community Climate change forces Everest Base Camp move Employers win the majority of unfair dismissal job cases Energy poverty at highest recorded rate Adult Safeguarding legislation we 2 A&E wait times up to 21 hours And much more…

In this special episode Therese Moloney of Unite chairs the launch of the Fair Employment Act by the Trade Union Left Forum with contributions from Michelle Byrne, Jimmy Doran and Dave Gibney. The Launch took place on Thursday, 2nd June in Unite the Union’s office and a full video of the event is available here: https://fb.watch/doWOuHjE-m/

This week Dave and Michelle are joined by Stiofan O’Nuallain to discuss:

• The Northern Ireland election fallout
• Green Party to support National Maternity Hospital
• Cost of living crisis
• Staff shortages in hospitality & pharmacies
• Mum dies during medical procedure in Turkey
• The bravery of Kelly Kemmy
• Israeli forces attack mourners carrying coffin of Palestinian journalist
• NATO expansion into Finland & Sweden
• Irish language used in Stormont for the first time

And much more…

This week Dave and Michelle discuss:

• Vigils for Aidan Moffitt and Michael Snee
• People want more action taken to tackle rise in cost of living
• Northern Ireland elections
• SDLP candidate assaulted
• Wild seal in rehab after being fed by beachgoes
• Junior Doctor hit-piece
• Gaza attacks framed as “clashes”
• Celebrating Russian deaths
• UN estimates close to 1m refugees have returned to Ukraine
• Hotels looking for more money to house refugees
• Holohan’s truly extraordinary €20m secondment
• Clare Daly & Mick Wallace more popular on Chinese news than Conor McGregor
• Amazon profits triple in Ireland
• The political centre cannot hold – we need a new consensus

And much more…

This week Dave and Michelle discuss:

• O’Devaney sell off
• Homes for people fleeing Ukraine
• Holohan hooley
• DAA fire and rehire
• Clapgate
• Elon musk and twitter
• Kingspan
• Top civil servant hiring process
• Sinn Fein poll on IRA support
• Private health insurance profits

And much more…

This week Michelle is joined by Glenn Fitzpatrick & Stiofán Ó Nualláin to discuss:

• Construction lobby, 
• Neutrality polling,
• UVF hijack,
• 800 workers sacked,
• New Labour leader & ‘International view’ on Ukraine

This week Dave and Michelle discuss:

• Ukraine could trigger recession
• Western hypocrisy on sanctions
• Ireland’s neutrality under threat
• Ireland can afford to take in Ukrainian refugees
• Tim Cook is worth $99m – or so we’re told
• Future of Labour depends on the party offering a real alternative to populism
• Joan Burton & Frances Fitzgerald discuss politics
• Father of two killed when tree fell on his car ‘had not wanted to go to work’ during Storm Ophelia red weather alert

And much more…

This week Dave and Michelle discuss:

• The invasion of Ukraine by Russia
• Sanctions on Russia
• Far right & hard left make strange bedfellows in their support of Putin
• Fine Gael drop to lowest support level since 2005
• Poll shows lack of support for pension rescue strategy (or does it?)
• New homes supply has ‘gone into reverse’, property lobbyists claim
• Working from home – improvements to new Bill required

& much more

This week, Michelle, Clare, and Conor discussed:

Misogyny in healthcare

Hyperemesis

Health Committee

Environmental emissions targets

Gov. threatens civil society

Housing planning laws

Stardust

Poverty index report

Employment statistics

This week Michelle and Conor discussed

- Leaked HSE audio & insight to push back from Dept officials 

- Rejection of abolishing hospital charges & the mini budget 

- How to blow up a pipeline

- Rents out of welfare payments 

- linking welfare & pensions to cost of living

- Go ahead for religious detox centre with no medical oversight

- recommendations for pay increases

- climate action sabotage

- Afghan funds

- Ukraine & Russia fears and the push for military industrial complex in Ireland in new Defence force report.  

- Valentine’s fraud

This week Dave and Conor are joined by Left Bloc & Unite member Glen Fitzpatrick to discuss:

• Ires Reit profiting from state rent subsidies
• Extra measures to tackle cost of living must be once-off, warns McGrath
• Israel is an apartheid state
• Russia v USA narrative
• Hospitality groups lobby for overseas recruitment campaign to bring back skilled workers
• Varadkar may ban use of service charge to top up wages of waiting staff in hospitality sector
• Pensions age debate – ignore workers, listen to economists?
• The DUP and the Stormont crisis – a new first Minister on the way
• Bloody Sunday Anniversary
• “Employers must cough up”: pressure rises for wage hikes

And much more…

This week Dave and Conor discuss:

• Gender based violence coverage
• Closure of only women’s refuge in north
• Bloody Sunday – 50th anniversary next week
• Inflation as class war
• Dunnes Stores worker explains how they *won* 10% pay increase
• Killian Woods on what is an affordable home, and who benefits from the definition
• Ryan intervenes (or does he) on ‘senseless' Shannon LNG plan
• How to prevent a wealth tax - by the Irish Tax Institute

And much more…

On this special episode, we talk to Gerry Carroll, MLA for West Belfast about his proposed Trade Union Freedom Bill which has the capacity to radically reform worker's rights in Northern Ireland.

This week Dave, Michelle and Conor discuss:

• The murder of Aisling Murphy and what needs to be done
• Pat Rabbitte justifying austerity
• Facebook moderators bring legal actions to High Court
• Public sector workers to demand “inflation-busting pay increases”
• Minimum unit pricing
• New flexible working
• Psychiatric  Nurses not getting leave for work related PTSD,
• Vacant council homes
• Anti-vax alpha male group established

And much more…

This week Dave, Michelle and Conor discuss:

• Taxpayers lose as insurers keep millions in state funds cut from Covid pay-outs
• Revenue claws back wage-subsidy from parents who used it to pay childminders during lockdown
• Absence rates predicted to rise to 30% as businesses urge new close-contact rules
• Sinn Fein continue to top polls
• Eirgrid doubles down on new data centres for Dublin
• Developers get go-ahead not to include creches in apartment schemes
• Health workers haven’t been given a “red cent”
• “Novak is the Spartacus of the new world who wont tolerate injustice, colonialism and hypocrisy
• NAMA profits and the legacy of the bailout
• TikTok solicitor advice should be “join a union”

And much more…

This week Dave and Conor discuss:

• New Covid predictions
• Lack of protections for workers
• National Broadband Ireland contract
• Pat Kenny walking his dog and the anti-vax chat
• Housing policy and neoliberalism
• Water charges are back, baby
• Absence of water charges effectively adding €6k to homes?
• Archaeology company sues Supermac’s over plaza survey
• Cryptocurrency ad campaign & the Ponzi scheme that it is
• Pandemic profits: claiming state supports and paying dividends to shareholders

And much more…

This week Michelle is joined by Anna Ní Nualláin from the Nuall na nÓg podcast and activist with Mise Fosta (#MeToo) & Glenn Fitzpatrick, Left Bloc supporter and Unite the Union member.

This week Dave and Michelle discuss:

🟡 United Ireland poll

🟡 Property and rent increases

🟡 Data centres pretending to solve energy crisis

🟡 New Covid-19 mutation

🟡 Big tech advocating for higher electricity prices and more infrastructure

🟡 Assistance with heating bills?

🟡 Hotel workers living in hotels

🟡 Greens in Government

🟡 Huge profits for privatising government failings in IVF, registering births and outsourcing speed vans

🟡 Children’s hospitals depending on charity

🟡 Anti-vax zealot may face charges after death of Covid-19 patient

🟡 Long-Covid patients ‘gaslighted’

And much more…

This week Dave and Michelle are joined by Emily Duffy from Parable Communications to discuss:

• Monday’s Oscar Traynor Road vote
• Media censorship of DCC & Housing
• Burke asked Dept of Housing to find flaws in ESRI report
• Data Centres saving the bees
• Covid-19 disconnect between govt, NPHET & workers
• Banks criticised for ‘refusing to finance cargo container homes’
• Mother & Baby redress scheme and voluntarism of church pay-out
• Govt. may support Lynn Ruane’s Bill to compel firms to reveal emissions
• Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty verdict
• “Foreign investors are neither vultures nor cuckoos, and should be welcomed”

And much more…

This week Dave and Conor discuss:

• The legacy of Sean Fitzpatrick
• John Pat Cunningham and full military honours for his alleged murderer
• Taxpayers foot broadband bill for homes already on high-speed Eir
• Car users face new tolls, parking fee hikes and reduced road space
• Covid numbers spike while govt plans subsidised antigen tests
• Academics warn of 12,000-plus cases a day
• Non-essential services cancelled in hospital
• Flutter (Paddy Power) to self-regulate – after refusing workers lunch breaks
• PUP cost drops further as more staff return to work
• COP26 is a COP OUT
• Labour Party keeps coalition options open with Sinn Fein

And more…

This week Michelle and Conor discuss: Leo Varadkar and Paddy Cosgrave The Climate Action Plan Electric Cars, Retrofitting and Low Wages Rents and Housing Fintan Drury and Anglo Irish Bank

This week Dave and Conor discuss more fallout from the special Budget episode, along with: 🟡 Labour Party responds to TWAW Budget special 🟡 Digicel IPO back in play as Denis O’Brien to slash debt by ¢1.4bn 🟡 ESRI report on social housing slammed as ‘detached from reality’ by Finance officials (the same ones behind the banking crisis and austerity) 🟡 Crying with laughter over a mother’s death: soldiers joked about murder on Facebook 🟡 Arlene Foster and her support for Eoghan Harris 🟡 COP26: Hopes grow of deal to save rainforests 🟡 Agriculture, climate, cattle farming and Irish capitalism 🟡 Amazon moves to increase size of new north Dublin data centre 🟡 Sinn Fein policy shift on non-jury courts  🟡 Climate plan to slash car travel by 25% 🟡 ICTU BDC in Belfast and the Industrial Relations Act 1990 And much more...

This week Michelle and Conor respond to criticism of our special Budget analysis, along with discussions on:

• Shannon LNG
• School struggle for teachers
• TD security & protest restrictions
• Illegal eviction
• National herd
• Nightclub regs
• Green Party council on data centres
• Cat rent, land flipping and Oscar Traynor road
• Auctioneering
• TikTok priest

In this special episode, Dave Gibney and Conor McCabe discuss the alternative Budgets produced by Sinn Fein, Social Democrats, Labour Party and People Before Profit.

From domestic violence to public transport, and from the nationalisation of private healthcare to tax, spend and borrow, we explore the offers from each of the opposition parties.

This week we discuss:

• Sally Rooney & Palestine
• Gardaí corruption
• Hotels v Culture: Cobblestone & Merchants Arch
• Cooking up sustainable solutions with Landrover
• Uncertain reopening next week
• Call to continue remote working
• Blaming young people for upcoming energy crisis
• Dara Quigley apology
• Blaming PUP for not attracting workers
• Dunnes Stores petition

And much more…

This week we're joined by Ciaran Nugent from the Nevin Economic Research Institute (NERI) to discuss Budget 2022, corporation tax changes and inequality, among other issues.

This week we’re joined by Lorna Bogue & Michael Rafferty from An Rabharta Glas – Green Left to discuss: Alternative Housing Plans Repair and lease scheme’s failure to deliver homes, except Waterford Corporation Tax Plans Data Centres & Energy Price Rises 20th anniversary of Martin O’Hagan’s Murder Government rewards for frontline workers And much more…

This week Michelle and Conor discuss:

• Michael D. Higgins & partition celebrations
• Bruton, Briton and class war
• Return to office
• Crisis in care
• Pensions
• Worker wins sexual harassment case
• Glenveagh Properties fanboy piece
• Enterprise Ireland to Cairn Homes trajectory
• Land Rover and Brian O’Driscoll solve the climate crisis

And much more…

This week Dave and Conor discuss the weeks news and the weekend newspapers with stories ranging from Leo Varadkars “populism” in seeking tax cuts and pensions increases, to Sinn Fein topping the Red C and B&A polls.

This week we discuss:

• Housing for All
• Property prices set to soar (again)
• Wage suppression of construction workers
• Ministers use app to wipe texts 
• Piglet gate
• Mother and baby homes crimes 
• Bias in Northern Irish media re: United Ireland?
• 4,500 LC blocked from college annually?
• EU Army 
• Glorifying Irish army rangers who carry logs in Afghanistan
• State may sell off more of its AIB shares
• Trucks avoiding tolls by passing through Abbeyleix
• Declan Ganley shelves plan for respirator as he waits for worse pandemic
• Mary Harney has a vision for our healthcare system
• USA (Pot) lectures China (Kettle) on climate change

And much more…

This week we’re joined by Stiofán Ó Nualláin from Trademark Belfast to discuss:

• Sharon Graham elected Gen Sec of Unite
• Four weeks to Covid guidelines lifted
• High level of Covid sees Ireland classified as ‘dark red’
• Cocaine is ‘everywhere’ and also ‘not everywhere’
• Swimming Cows
• Ireland welcomes Afghan refugees
• Homes up for raffle to fund schools
• Social housing to be commodified?
• Gaeltacht homes on hold
• Pedestrianisation extended
• Charity chairman steps down
• Luas and tolls losses supplemented by state
• RTE staff salaries

And much more…

This week we discuss:

• COVID cases and the GAA
• Arts Council ads invoke systemic racism comparisons
• Brokers aid insurance hikes
• Galway horror crash
• 900,000 on hospital waiting lists
• Pensioners travel north for eye operations
• Covid inspections of hospitality sector
• First recorded rainfall on Greenland’s ice sheet
• Industrial action on the cards in DAA
• Bus Drivers reject proposals
• Owen Keegan and removal of homeless tents
• Woman “having affair” with chimp banned from visiting him
• Afghanistan, the US and Saudi Arabia
• Bolsonaro fanning the flames on Amazon destruction

And much more…

This week we’re joined by John Barry, Professor of Green Political Economy, Queens University, to discuss:

• Climate breakdown & the IPCC report
• Seaweed solutions, electric cars, robot trees and the free Luas
• €500m state gift to housing developers
• Dublin bus workers reject erosion of working conditions
• Enterprise Ireland & the IDA – gifts to millionaires
• Individual carbon footprint lie
• Irish Water & housing
• The Taliban, a US intervention
• 23 years after Omagh bombing

And much more…

This week we're joined by Claire O'Connor, The Workers' Party rep for Dublin-Central and Conor McCabe, writer and researcher to discuss;

The Workers Party

Union recognition and collective bargaining

Hospitality - underpaid and undervalued

Vilified teachers

Soc Dems heave

Zappone drama & cabinet leaks

Homelessness on the rise again

Review bombing

Bolsoaro conspiracies

Cycleways blocked

Rebecca Vardy and axe-throwing...

.This week on The Week at Work we discussed - Soc Dems Heave - Water shortages - Climate change & Madagascar famine - Covid reopening - Soup runs - Airport outsourcing - Insurance price walking - Gov EU Mercosur impact report - Omagh bombing -vaccinating children for herd immunity & much more!

65. Covid’s 4th wave, JobBridge II & Cuban protests

This week we’re joined by Paul Murphy, People Before Profit TD for Dublin South West, to discuss:

• Possible 1,800 further deaths ahead as Covid surge continues
• Long Covid poses huge threat to young
• CETA case begins
• Abusive Kerry Judge
• Wage theft and the trainee solicitor “awarded” €22,000
• Anti-sematic group targets campaigner
• Housing at Dublin Port
• Water shortages: the real culprits
• Cuban protests and the blockade
• Bar workers are not specialised staff, supposedly
• Soldier F & the British Governments amnesty for crimes during the Troubles
• Children’s hospital hit by arson attacks

And much more…

This week we’re joined by Stevie Nolan (Trademark Belfast) & Glenn Fitzpatrick (Left Bloc member and Unite activist) to discuss:

• Bonfires on the 12th July - a brief background
• UDA “armed to protect bonfires”
• Hyperbole on indoor pub reopening’s: both sides?
• Fianna Fail point finger of blame after worst ever election
• Ivana – The Queen of Dublin Bay?
• €1bn spent for 0.7% increase in forests
• Second opinion finds evidence of mother and baby homes abuse
• Pedal for Progress event in memory of Mel Corry
• Private operator of Irish lottery retains €17m of unclaimed prizes
• Space race for billionaires
• Will it be Home Rule or Rome Rule with Euro 2020?

And much more…

This week Brian McLoughlin, Head of comms & fundraising for Inner City Helping Homeless joins us to discuss the Rush for vaccines, Justice for Bloody Sunday victims denied , Homeless children, the Shared equity scheme Long term leasing Children w/ additional needs being locked out of education, State ownership of NMH hospital land, corporate tax rate, Sexual harassment & young political leaders, the Inquiry into nursing home deaths and more!

This week we’re joined by Dr. Stephen Baker, Lecturer in Media Studies at the University of Ulster to discuss:

🟡 Government may push back indoor dining by two weeks

🟡 Martin and Varadkar differ on reopening – wonder who is leaking those disagreements?

🟡 Loyalists to protest in Dublin

🟡 Media portrayals of Unionists

🟡 Housing to reach record prices

🟡 22,000 cancelled 999 calls

🟡 George Floyd murderer gets 22 years

🟡 Izzy Kamikaze attacker pleads guilty

🟡 Sinn Fein oppose the building of 6,000 homes… or have they?

🟡 Apple revives plan for €850m data centre in Athenry

🟡 Public don’t want tax cuts at expense of good public services

🟡 National Maternity Hospital and trust of the Church

🟡 Stardust inquest to proceed

And much more…

This week we’re joined by Senator Lynn Boylan, Sinn Fein candidate for the Dublin Bay South by-election to discuss:

• Fake polling
• Tax rates discourage mobile workers?
• We need a “liveable city” says man who has made Dublin difficult to live in
• Mother & baby homes independent review
• Data centres
• Vaccination centre closed for horse racing event as Delta variant spreads
• Civil Legal Aid and HAP
• FG whitewashing on housing
• PUP, low paid work and student workers

And much more…

This week we are joined by Brigid Purcell, People Before Profit candidate for Dublin Bay South & Conor McCabe, researcher and author to discuss:

• Gardai baton charging
• New G7 corporation tax plans
• Irish Sea bridge
• Abortion services in north
• Covid laws used to avoid planning
• Developers profiting off death
• Refunds for acquisition of lands... lining up LDA taking over control?
• Eoghan Murphy resigning is a reward for the left
• New collective bargaining EU Directive
• Broadband company fails to meet targets
• Vacant property tax achieves 1% or target

And much more…

This week we are joined by Brian Leeson from Éirígí to discuss:

• Tracking vulture landlords in Ireland (view here: https://eirigi.org/trackthevultures)
• Funds reaped profits of €3bn in first three years
• EU proposes end to tax exemption for jet fuel
• Supreme Court ruling could have ‘chilling effect’ on WRC
• Collective bargaining referendum a possibility
• Waitress loses union membership dismissal action against Ivy – despite membership being a factor
• Lobbyists attempt to change mortgage rules
• Universal public housing
• Who owns the wind?
• Warning of blackouts as electricity alerts rise
• Land development agency and removing council powers
• Cash for developers, restaurants but not for workers
• 4th wave?
• Supports for artists
• Dublin Bay South by-election
• JobBridge rebrand

And much more…

In this special episode we are joined by Dr. Conor McCabe to discuss inequality in Ireland and the Unite report, "Hungry Bellies: Exploring inequality and deprivation in Ireland."

This week we are joined by Richard Boyd Barrett, TD for Dun Laoghaire and People Before Profit to discuss:

• Palestine and ethnic cleansing
• State investment in Cuckoo funds
• HSE hackers looking for Bitcoin
• Council to rent housing estate for more that cost to buy
• Ireland’s Best Employers
• Renationalise Aer Lingus call from Matt Cooper
• Mica protests in Donegal & Mayo
• 40 homeless deaths so far this year
• DBS bye-election
• Debenhams

And much more…

This week we discuss:

🟡 #PalestineUnderAttack

🟡 Ballymurphy massacre & amnesties

🟡 Health system held at ransom

🟡 Suitcases of cash wheeled out for Bóther CEO

🟡 Gardaí perverting course of justice

🟡 Portobello plaza and access to public space

🟡 Communicorp new owner Nazi links

🟡 Sorry sod turning and cuckoo funds

🟡 Edwin Poots is new DUP leader

🟡 Employer hotline for ratting out workers

🟡 COVID vaccinations reduce deaths

🟡 Debenhams & Gardai

This week we’re joined by Réada Cronin, Sinn Fein TD for Kildare North, to discuss:

• Eoghan Harris, abuse of women online
• Maternity restrictions “barbaric & traumatic”
• Retailers can’t get workers, apparently
• Housing, vultures, REITS, Maynooth
• Children adopted abroad
• Human trafficking
• Taoiseach opposes waiving COVID-19 vaccine patents
• Perinatal deaths in African Irish community
• Death of homeless man, homeless figures to date this year 11
• By-election, Kate O’Connell
• Stardust delays and high court threat
• British soldiers amnesty, Stormont House agreement, Ballymurphy inquest report
• British elections

This week we’re joined by Conor McCabe (author and researcher) and Aaron Nolan (Communist Party and organiser of the James Connolly Festival) to discuss:

• The history of International Workers Day
• Trade Unions and hope
• WRC not working for workers
• 1990 industrial relations act
• The James Connolly Festival
• The Great Reopening - but maternity restrictions promises a ruse
• Majority want united Ireland, but won’t pay for it
• Unionist Ministers in a United Ireland
• Sinn Fein and data – their cookies are out to get you
• Ian Wright Racism case
• Supermacs refuse CCTV access in injury claims
• Covid policing powers
• Southeast university & TUI vote ignored
• John Waters & Gemma O’Doherty to pay legal costs
• Debenhams workers cost liquidation process €3m

This week we are joined by Sadhbh Mac Lochlainn - People Before Profit organiser and Ber Grogan - community Activist to discuss - Debenhams & Gardaí strikebreaking - An Alternative United Ireland - Socialists in the Dáil - Secretarial assistants WRC case - Greenwashing, electric cars and vegans - Record breaking COVID crisis in Indian - A people’s vaccine - Trump tactics in Ireland - citizens assembly and Gender Equality

This week we’re joined by Seamus Farrell, Community Action Tenants Union (CATU) Phibsboro/Glasnevin, to discuss:

• Evictions
• Co-living
• Another data centre in Dublin
• Solidarity tax – a bad idea?
• Varadkar interviewed under caution
• Sinead Mercier profile
• Google shifts €63bn profits through Double Irish
• Should we re-join the commonwealth?
• Top civil servants to get €40k pay increase
• Sinn Fein and their “secret” database
• Trinity, links to slavery & classism
• RCSI charge students up to €56k – the commercialisation of education
• RTE’s Claire Byrne show decends into shock jock territory

And much more…

More info on CATU:

https://www.facebook.com/CATU-Phibsboro-Glasnevin-108624190847492

https://twitter.com/CGlasnevin

https://twitter.com/CatuIreland

www.catuireland.org/join

This week we’re joined by Kerry Guinan, Chair of Praxis, the new artists union & Sean Byers, Trademark Belfast to discuss:

• A new union for artists in Ireland
• Riots in Belfast & Derry
• Amazon union busting
• Limerick - Stab city?
• Mandatory Hotel Quarantine
• Privatised public spaces (Fitzwilliam Square)
• Debenhams one year anniversary
• Israel refuse to cooperate with ICC
• No more €10 flights
• E-cars
• Empty properties across the country

And much more…

This week we’re joined by Jane Crowe, ex-Debenhams worker, to discuss:

• Gardai remove Debenhams workers from Blanchardstown picket
• Covid & 14,000 arrivals in one week
• Mandatory quarantine?
• Varadkar & Coveney gamble with lives
• 43 year old easter eggs
• Sinn Fein and the mysterious Serbian social media manager
• Cervical check claims
• Enda Kenny, Golfgate and The Late Late
• Children’s shoes are essential… again
• RTE apologise for bringing up the past

This week on the Week at Work we are joined by Nem Kearns, Disability and LGBTQI+ advocate and board seceratary with Disabled Women Ireland to discuss The Beacon Hospital Vaccine scandal The HSE Dossier on Autistic children and their families Greens The Climate Bill Incomplete Adoption Records Bessborough Same Sex Parents Recognition 

This week we’re joined by Kellie O’Dowd, Trade Union Activist from Belfast & Ciaran Campbell, Trade Union Official, to discuss:

• The North is Next?
• Male Violence against Women
• Gardai or defense forces at hotels
• EU cut Ireland’s recovery fund by €352m due to GDP
• Buyers of high end electric cars to lose €5k government grant
• Glanbia shareholders profit while hedge funds attempt to short company
• A new United Ireland?
• Irish Water and privatisation

This week we’re joined by Joan Collins TD from Dublin South Central, to discuss:

• #LeotheLeak Garda investigation
• AstraZeneca suspension
• Sarah Everard & Met Police
• Data centres to starve us of energy
• Counting the cost of COVID
• Councils spend €50m on housing homeless in pandemic
• George Nkencho funeral
• Davy corruption
• Hospital waiting lists increase by 34%
• Workers pay for pandemic
• Redundancy & PUP complications

This week we’re joined by Tommy McKearney, activist and former hunger striker, to discuss:

• Covid vaccine rollout and patents
• CETA and the Green Party
• Davy Stockbroker fallout
• Johnny Ronan, high rises & NAMA
• Data centres and fossil fuel usage
• Exploring Irish unity or the British union
• Loyalists ignored by Taoiseach
• Pontins & racism
• Fictional beef barons & honest GDP growth
• Talking about the Hunger Strikes

And much more…

This week we’re joined by Brid Smith TD from Solidarity/People Before Profit to discuss:

• Far right violence
• Garda Commissioner lies
• Paul Murphy & RISE join People Before Profit
• Inequality & the manipulation of public discourse
• FAI asks for share of betting tax to clear €70m debt
• White collar crime & Fine Gael candidates
• New tax break for remote workers?
• Stardust funding has been released
• Direct Provision White Paper
• Mother & Baby Homes

This week we’re joined by Grace Dyas, Activist and Artist, to discuss:

• We can be Zero
• Class & the illusion “we’re all in this together”
• Taxing essential workers
• Mother & Baby Home tapes
• Moyross development
• Shared equity loan schemes
• Israel destroys Irish aid to Palestinian village community
• Digital tax on social media firms to support journalism
• Insurance Bill

This week we’re joined by Stiofán Ó Nualláin from Trademark Belfast to discuss:

• The Northern Ireland protocol
• Death threats to Sunday World journalists
• Political policing
• Covid supports for business, paid for by workers
• FBD says pub court decision is limited to specific policies
• Inspections into bogus self-employed workers in RTE and meat plants
• Irish Water and workers demand for a referendum
• Quarantine hotels and half-arsed Covid plans
• Stardust 40th Anniversary

This week Dave and Clare are joined by Gary Gannon TD, Social Democrats spokesperson on Education and Social Welfare, to discuss:

• Poverty in Education and Class Advantage
• Leaving Cert Assessments during Covid
• Personal Injury Claims and the “Benevolent Insurance Industry”
• Lyndsey Bennett, Cervical Check
• Knife Crime and Poverty in Dublin (and everywhere)
• Mother & Baby Homes recordings destroyed and author won't appear at Children's Committee
• Chief of Tokyo 2020 organising committee - women talk too much in meetings
• FBD ruling on pubs
• Changes to Social Welfare System
• CETA Trade Agreement
• Garda checks
• Covid vaccines
• Land Development Agency Proposals
• Debenhams workers mark 300 days on strike

In this special episode we talk to Clancy Dobbyn, Government advisor in Melbourne, Australia and Joe Carolan, Union organiser in Auckland, New Zealand, about the #ZeroCovid strategy and what life is like right now for them.  Pubs open, restaurants functioning, gigs and festivals all happening, and much more. 

This week we’re joined by Julien Mercille, UCD academic and a member of ISAG (Independent Scientific Advisory Group), along with two regular participants, activists Glen Fitzpatrick and Michelle Byrne, to discuss:

• Mel Corry
• An All-Ireland Zero Covid Strategy
• Gardai enforcing travel restrictions – on people LEAVING the country
• Belgium bans all non-essential travel
• George Osborne and northern Unionists
• George Nkencho shooting
• Four Irish jailed for people-smuggling
• Varadkar pledges support for businesses
• State to reclaim Rosslare Port from Britain, like, wtf?
• Amazon hypocrisy – attempts to stop workers using the mail to unionize
• Aer Lingus lobbies against quarantine rules
• John Delaney and the FAI
• Directly elected Mayors
• Green Party discuss support for CETA, despite party policy
• The national herd size has increased
• Russia’s revolt
• Goodbye Trump, Hello Biden
• Michelle Byrne: Gold rush for COVID vax
• Saoirse McHugh profile

In our first episode of 2021 we're joined by activist and author Conor McCabe to discuss:  

• George Nkencho's death, mental health failures & racism
• Trump & the American Revolution II
• Will Trump pardon himself?
• The "darkest day of Covid" - "a price worth paying"
• Vaccination rollout
• Working from home allowances
• The Leaving Cert & Norma Foley
• Boeing fine
• Plans to cut property tax in rural Ireland
• Rising house prices in rural Ireland
• OECD warn against austerity

Gillian McSweeney, ex-Debenhams worker and Mandate Trade Union member talks to us about their 9 month strike with the company. 

Almost 1,000 workers were made redundant back in April 2020 and their employer failed to pay them their agreed redundancy package. Gillian talks about her experiences on the picket line and how the strike has impacted on her politically.

This week Clare and Dave look at CETA, Noel McGree Whistleblower, Tribunal Costs, An Post, PornHun, Kingspan & Grenfell, Nama & Project Eagle, Student Nurses, SInn Fein & much more

This week we’re joined by Councillor Dean Mulligan (Independents4Change) and Lilith Carroll (TENI) to discuss: Trans rights & bodily autonomy Student Nurses and Midwives pay The magic money tree or austerity up ahead? Increase in retail worker abuse Deaths of people in homelessness Palestine not being included in Israel EU vaccine deals Sinn Féin comments and coverage 17,000 undocumented to receive residency permits Who will pay for our pensions Greyhound industry v Bus Eireann Coca Cola – the new Apple Public sector pay talks Traveller Discrimination Niall O Hara death 4 Day Working Week

Michelle Gavin, an ex-Debenhams worker from Waterford with 27 years service, explains the strike and its impact on all workers. The workers have been on strike for 230 days now - in rain, hail and storms. She talks about government inaction and being left high and dry first by the company and then by the State. Michelle also talks about loss and trauma during the strike as well as how she has taken actions she never thought she would.  We hope this will form part of a series of interviews with ex-Debenhams workers. Because they deserve to be heard.

This week we’re joined by People Before Profit Councillor Tina MacVeigh to discuss:

• Direct Provision
• Oscar Traynor site campaign victory
• Image Based Violence leak
• RTEGate
• Autism Services
• Debenhams
• Lloyds Pharmacy
• 100 years after Bloody Sunday
• Declan Ganley suing the state
• Solas Youth Services

This week we’re joined by Eoin O’Broin TD & Sinead Redmond discuss:

• Sinn Fein: the cause of and solution to all of Fine Gael’s problems;
• The Teflon Tánaiste;
• Rewarding Seamus Woulfe;
• Data centres must provide own power;
• Oscar Traynor Road Housing Campaign;
• Dublin Airport drinking sessions;
• Domestic violence;
• Vaccines, capitalism and public health;
• Infections crisis linked to three deaths in Rotunda;
• Garda corruption;
• Precarious working in academia;
• “Eviction-hit hermit nun hellbent on selling bogus cure for cancer”;
• Slainte Care: a vision, not a plan;
• Church to pay “penal law” VAT on candles;
• Wild Mountain Thyme: an accent crime.

This week we’re joined by our new Washington correspondent Joe Guinan (Anglo-Irish exile in the imperial metropolis · Vice President Democracy Collaborative) & activist Mark Malone (activist, communicator & researcher) to discuss:

The election of Joe Biden; 

Kamala Harris and the glass ceiling; 

Irish coverage of the new President; 

Will another Trump emerge? 

Could Bernie Sanders have won? 

The importance of political education; 

The new Undercover Policing Inquiry; 

Water charges to re-emerge; 

Services for children with special needs; 

Facebook moderates ads for moderators; 

Kingspan and Grenfell tower fire; 

The long-term impact of COVID19; 

This week we’re joined by Paul Murphy TD and Ber Grogan to discuss:

• #LeoTheLeak;
• Mother & Baby Homes;
• Judges won’t sit with Woulfe;
• Abortion rights campaign in Poland;
• Pharma Companies manufacturing COVID19 vaccines;
• Homeless deaths this week;
• Direct Provision;
• Glanbia stealing water;
• Bottled water companies and data centres go unregulated;
• Coveney seeks compensation for Israeli authorities destroying Palestinian homes;
• Big tobacco firms use Ireland to avoid tax;
• Facebook workers and their shitty conditions;
• Support Ber’s Basket Brigade;
• Launch of Clare O’Connor Appreciation Society.

You can support us at www.patreon.com/leftbloc 

This week we’re joined by Dave Murphy & Diana O’Dwyer from RISE and Rupture Radio Podcast to discuss:

• The Mother & Baby Homes records;
• “Silent majority” backs lock-down;
• Zero Covid Ireland with Socialist Policies (article by Diana);
• Have we learned anything from the first wave of Covid?;
• Hand sanitizer that’ll make you sick;
• CEOs who volunteer for vaccine trials, but don’t really;
• Far right v far left – sure they’re all “extremists”;
• Arrest of John Gilligan;
• Tusla and failure to act on child abuse;
• Budget 2021 and the ‘baby bounce’ for Fianna Fail;
• Warnings of Austerity;
• The Great Gig Economy;
• “Asking too much of our younger generation” by the party saddling them with debt;
• Apple tax appeal is appealed by EU.

This week we’re joined by Glenn Fitzpatrick and Ciaran Campbell to discuss:

• The Stardust Inquest
• British State Collusion in the murder of innocent civilians
• Covid fallout with Derry worst hit region in UK & Ireland
• Mother & Baby Homes legislation rushed & hushed
• Private hospitals oppose providing extra beds to tackle Covid
• New LPG gas terminals off Irish coast
• New Look’s failed attempt to use Covid for examinership
• Private security firms free to Evict without a license
• Budget allocates compensation for “slop out” cases
• The media presentation of Budget 2021
• Airline industry crisis; &
• Brexit talks

On this special episode we talk to Mairead Farrell TD (Sinn Fein), Ciaran Nugent (NERI) and Lorna Bogue (Green Party Councillor and Just Transition Greens co-Chair) about what’s in Budget 2021 and what a left Budget would look like.

We talk about the framing of the Budget by the media, housing, education, climate action, cutting the PUP, business supports, tax breaks for high earners, SIPTUs successful pensions campaign, Capital Gains Tax cuts for entrepreneurs, lack of capital infrastructure, live entertainment supports, and we even talk about what’s not in the Budget – like a wealth tax.

This week we’re joined by Saoirse McHugh and Conor McCabe to discuss: 

• The individualisation of Covid and missed opportunities
• Covid fines
• Sick pay 
• Airlines & lobbying power
• Budget - supports funnelling into private pockets 
• Climate Action Bill
• Earth to Dan O Brien - EU debt to GDP is actually low 
• Carrickmines anniversary
• Housing agency & Build to rent 
• Spent Convictions Bill
• Fergus McCabe
• Mick Clifford: Fascists = Anti-Fascists?
• NAMA and no accountability 

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On this special episode, our hosts David Gibney and Clare O'Connor talk to Stiofán Ó Nualláin, Emma Clancy and John Barry about #LeftBloc, an exciting new media and political education project in Ireland. Included in the media hub is A Worker's Guide to Everything; The Week at Work; Nuall Na NÓg; Offshore; A news based website; and a Climate Justice podcast currently in production. 

If you want to support the project you can do so at www.patreon.com/leftbloc. And don't forget to subscribe and share. Up the workers! 

On this special episode we talk to Vicky Phelan and Gino Kenny TD about the upcoming vote on the Dying with Dignity Bill and why we need to have this important discussion now. Vicky exposed the cervical cancer scandal and is living with terminal cancer and Gino Kenny has proposed the Bill that would allow those with terminal illnesses to have assistance in achieving a dignified and peaceful end of life. 

This week we are joined by Stiofán Ó Nualláin from Trademark Belfast to discuss: COVID Island, Seamus Wolfe & the KKK, the Green Party oppose a ‘Just Transition’, Michael Darcy & TDs who lobby, education errors, a four day week, wage subsidy scheme & Debenhams, Mairead McGuinness as commissioner for financial services, Cable Street & communists banned from the US.

This week we're joined by Independent TD for Donegal, Thomas Pringle, and Community Activist Michelle Byrne to discuss: COVID & capitalism, Third Level Education rankings & student poverty, airline arseholes, flat rate expenses, Debenhams and Estee Lauder strikes, VAT cuts & spreading the virus, businesses seek to restrict protests, Dying with Dignity Bill, co-positions on co-living by Housing Minister, Spike Island sacks union activists, Red C poll, environmentally reckless capitalism, publicly funded private schools and FG Minister interferes with GMIT governance.

In this episode we talk to Bernadette McAliskey and Ciaran Campbell whose families were both targeted by loyalist death squads. We get their reflections on "Unquiet Graves", the documentary about British government collusion with the Glenanne Gang, leading to the murders of more than 120 people, including the Dublin/Monaghan bombings.

This week we’re joined by Bernadette McAliskey for a two part discussion. In part one we discuss: - COVID and working class communities - Spike in homeless deaths - Ruth Bader Ginsberg - Infants taken into State care - Terrence Wheelock anniversary - Capital Gains Tax and shareholder dividends - inequality and the rise of fascism; and - The consequences of not having all-island Covid Approach

This Week on episode 20 we have Aoife Grace Moore, Ciaran Campbell and Glenn Fitzpatrick with us to discuss the stories of the week. We discuss new Covid strategy, the rise of the far right, violence at far right marches in Dublin, lack of access to adequate mental health supports for children, TriBeca development, Brexit and the withdrawl agreement, the Debenhams strike, the future of Unions and left unity, The Red C polls and much more. 

This week we’re joined by Clare Daly MEP and Eoghan Fox, Mandate activist to discuss: Banning meal deals & food poverty, Thiago Cortez and the gig economy, extra Garda powers, Debenhams, Tourism job losses, Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin & sexual harassment in UCD, COVID and the retail boom, Ryanair CEO bonus v pay cuts, Tony Abbott, Spike Island toilets, Direct Provision, Mercosur and EU trade deals, a new Commissioner, Occupied Territories Bill, Donald Trump and much more…

This week we are joined by Senator Eileen Flynn and Mark Malone to discuss: sexism & racism in the Oireachtas, a flood of redundancies ahead? unpacking the far right, Phil Hogan, Israeli settlements, rise in homelessness, the Miami showband massacre, Ministers demanding paintings, tax avoidance of US companies, profit rise for gambling outlets, Sarah McInerney, and much more.

This week we’re joined by Irish journalist in Sweden, Philip O’Connor and Sonia Balagopalan, mathematician & socialist to discuss: Golfgate, far right protests & Una McGurk, COVID in Sweden, US elections, the perceptions poll, lobbying power, homes to buy drop but rental properties increase, AirBnB, Troubles compensation and Bank of Ireland job losses.

This week we’re joined by Senator Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) & Clare O’Connor (ICHH) to discuss: Varadkar’s dog whistle to white middle class males, meat plants & workers’ rights, hospital waiting lists, evictions & homeless deaths, back to school and manipulating test results for the rich, and much more

This week Clare O Connor fills in for Dave Gibney to discuss the death of John Hume : Covid Meat Factories and lockdown: O Malley Report: Debenhams strike: Far Right Organising and more

This week we discuss: Greens vote against govt; Homeless deaths; PUP scandal; Sunil Sharpe; Tampon ads banned; Order of business vote in Dail; Successful Climate Case; Ryanair challenging the state; No travel restrictions/checks and a COVID spike; Marc McSharry attacks public sector workers; and much more.

This week we discuss: the fiscal stimulus package, deferring the minimum wage increase, super junior ministers paid more than Prime Ministers of Spain and Italy, reopening schools, staycation tax incentives, Debenhams, Green Party developments and much more… and we’re joined by Jean O’Dowd, regional officer for Unite the Union.

This week Sean Byers and Mel Corry from Trademark Belfast review the news and we speak to Dunnes Stores Anti-Apartheid striker and legend Karen Gearon on the 36th anniversary of the strike about Debenhams, Palestine, racism in Ireland and Black Lives Matters (interview at 47:40).

Mel and Sean discuss Apple Tax, Coronavirus a second wave and travel restrictions, Government (Eamonn Ryan) asleep at the wheel on workers’ rights, remergence of property porn, James McClean and sectarianism, and the death of Christine Keegan (Stardust campaigner).

This week we’re joined by the world’s only Professor of Green Political Economy, John Barry, to discuss: Jack Charlton, splits in the Green Party, homophobia and fascists on the rise, Covid bailouts and a second wave (Open the pubs, then close the airports?), Health waiting lists, drink driving and accountability, and much more.

This week we discuss employers milking the state during/after COVID, the Bobby Storey funeral, Barry Cowan drink driving v Clare Daly not drink driving, Fianna Fail TDs demanding a seat at cabinet 'for their constituents', Senator Eileen Flynn's inspirational speech, Irish Water spending billions to redirect the Shannon river for datacentres and sexism in the Green Party? And much more. 

We were joined by Rhona McCord from Unite the Union along with Ciaran Cambell and Stevie Nolan from Trademark Belfast (podcast here).

Special discussion in conjunction with the Trade Union Left Forum about last week’s High Court ruling striking down sectoral employment orders for electrical contractors and threatening trade union rights in Ireland.

Joining us on the show is Brian Nolan (Connect), Muireann Dalton (Mandate and former Dunnes Stores worker) and Conor McCabe (Labour historian, author and union activist).

This week we’re joined by Emma Clancy, editor of irishbroadleft.com to discuss some of the big issues in the news, including the formation of the new government, the Green Party aligning with the right, Ryanair seeking to risk COVID infections; right-wing judges striking down workers’ rights, Debenhams protests at Bank of Ireland; racism in Ireland; and much more.

This week Joan Collins TD, Conor McCabe and Ciaran Campbell discuss the Programme for Government, the Green Party vote, the inspiring Traveller women who sent their abuser to prison, the Irish #MeToo moment and abuse of Irish women, a new left-wing party for Ireland (Right2Change), the abandonment of the Right2Water referendum, trouble in Aer Lingus, racism in Ireland, the UK & soldiers seeking to stop prosecution for crimes during the Troubles, incentivising self-employment, and much more.

Conor McCabe, Clare O'Connor and Emma Clancy join Dave Gibney in reviewing the Programme for Government 2020. Climate change, Palestine, a Green New Deal, transport, housing, workers' rights, aviation, water, Mercosur, healthcare, the economy and public sector pay are all discussed.

A left review of the news and the Sunday papers with Brian Forbes (Mandate National Coordinator), Michelle Byrne (Activist) and Mel Corry (TradeMark Belfast). This week we discuss reopening the economy at workers expense, COVID and excess deaths, schools as childcare facilities, who is using most of our water, Green Party “trots”, social welfare fraud and protecting memorials to fascists and slave traders.

This week in the news: Black Lives Matter protests, swap your pension for a house, abortion in the North, government formation talks, Irish Water lobbying, low pay – particularly for women, and the reopening of the economy, among other stories.

This weeks review of the weekend newspapers with Green Party Councillor Lorna Bogue includes Supermacs boss Pat McDonagh attacking the €350 COVID payment, George Floyd's death and the US riots, the increase in retirement age, government formation and the Green Party leadership debate.

Discussing the Sunday papers with Senator Lynn Boylan including stories about government formation talks, the Green Party leadership challenge, opening up the economy during COVID19 and media diversity. Also a discussion about Mary Lou McDonalds interview in the SINDO and public sector pay.