The Underneath: New Podcast Series Digs Deep into Evangelicalism in Northern Ireland…

‘People who like Billy Graham.’ That’s how one academic jokingly defined the term ‘evangelical’ to me in a recent conversation for The Underneath podcast. And, having spent the past year carrying out interviews with a huge range of people in religious Northern Ireland, this light-hearted definition may well be the most accurate one I’ve come across. From Edwin Poots’ views on the age of the earth, to the multi-million-pound new church builds in Ballymena, to the four hundred thousand Northern …

Read more…

The GFA brought peace – but paramilitaries haven’t gone away

The Good Friday Agreement ended the bitter conflict, but failed to eliminate the poison of paramilitarism. In the latest Forward Together podcast interview recorded before the loyalist street riots protesting against the Brexit Protocol and the latest paramilitary shootings in Derry, Duncan Morrow considers the limitations of the GFA. Northern Ireland remains overshadowed by paramilitaries that claim a political motivation, yet are engaged in criminal enterprises that include the drug trade, protection rackets and loan sharking. Can the GFA now …

Read more…

#InConversation Podcast with Andrew Hill – What is going on in America?

Andrew Hill is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at St. Philip’s College in San Antonio, Texas. In this podcast, we talk about the recent race protests in America, inequality and the upcoming Presidential Election. Andy has a local connection, he worked at Corrymeela for a year and he also studied at Trinity College Dublin. The books Andy recommended were Linda Hogan’s Keeping Faith with Human Rights, and Sluggers own Gladys Ganiel’s books. You can find out more about Andy on …

Read more…

Slugger Podcast #InConversation with David Gavaghan about the economy & society after Covid-19…

For the third of my Slugger #InConversation podcasts, I chat with David Gavaghan. David is the founder of Aurora Prime Real Estate Ltd. He is a Non- Executive Director of CBI (and in 2016/2017 was chair of CBI in Northern Ireland). In January David was appointed a Belfast Climate Commissioner and was Chair of MAC in Belfast until March 2020. Amongst his previous roles, he was the Chief Executive of Titanic Quarter Ltd and Strategic Investment Board. Whilst his background …

Read more…

Slugger Podcast – Chris Donnelly on the challenges to education during Covid-19…

For episode two of our new Podcast series, I take to Slugger contributor Chris Donnelly. More know to Slugger readers for his political insights, Chris is also a headteacher of Holy Child Primary School in Belfast. In the podcast we discuss the challenges of trying to teach during the pandemic as well as other issues such as the 11plus and the future of education. Have a listen and let me know what you think. You can subscribe to the Slugger …

Read more…

HAND OF THE FUTURE Podcast Episode 1 – “Biopolitical Peacebuilding”…

I have embarked upon a podcasting journey in order to generate some discussion on topics popular on this site and on twitter. Hand of the future is a tongue and cheek reference to the recent comment by Boris Johnson in the great hall of Stormont. His entire speech seemed unprepared, uninformed and representative of a distant Westminster bubble. Yet I thought it nicely summed up what I want this podcast to be about, achieving a future not blighted by a …

Read more…

Podcasting Brexit

Podcasts are a useful medium, even though listener numbers are not always massive. But if considered as an alternative to a series of public meetings, their value is significant. They can be cheaper and gain more listeners than would be attracted to a meeting. They can be a way of collecting together different voices, without the need to bring them all together in one place, on one date. And, we can guess, they attract a very different audience. Since early 2018, the Holywell Trust …

Read more…

Experiencing July 12th as a southerner

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 …

Read more…

In overestimating Brexit’s short term effects, we underestimate it in the long run.

I’m  mostly lying low and sticking to Twitter through the summer holidays. But William of Here’s How podcast caught up with me last week to ask me what I thought the consequences of Brexit would be for NI. This was before the latest Scottish poll was announced showing that the EU appears to be as unpopular with Yes voters as it is with No voters from the first IndyRef. So there will be no plain sailing towards the UK exit. …

Read more…

#IndyRef: Dublin silent, an insouciant NI and an abrupt resumption of British constitutional history

So this morning I joined an Irish Times Inside Politics panel to talk about the implications of a decision next week in favour of Scottish independence for Ireland and Northern Ireland… Some of the highlights include… – ‘Neo unionist’ silence of Dublin and the unspoken fear of unintended consequences, particularly within Europe… – The dream versus Ireland’s lived reality of a currency union in the first fifty years of the state’s history… – No show of Ireland as an exemplary …

Read more…

two pennies for your thoughts on the Irish election

Simon McGarr has been publishing short, 1-3 minute long, podcasts each day during the Irish election campaign, summing up his thoughts on the issues and debates (of which he’s not that impressed). For anyone like me with an all too sparse working knowledge of what’s going on, it’s a good listen. And it has been the merit of being short and personal. You can find the podcasts on tuppenceworth.ie/blog, Audioboo or iTunes. Do let me know in the comments below …

Read more…

House of Comments Podcast: (Mostly) on Northern Ireland…

Recorded on Tuesday night, some of it may already be out of date. It was recorded with Mark of Mark Reckons and Stuart of Sharpe’s Opinion… It starts with a slightly breathless account from me as to how the Robinson affair ‘flipped’ the fortunes of Sinn Fein and the DUP… talks about the complications for Cameron and the Tories and Mark and I have a sharp (but very civil) difference of opinion on the STV PR system… Mick FealtyMick is …

Read more…

CityBeat Slugger Politics slot…

I’ll be doing my regular monthly Slugger Politics slot on Citybeat (catch it online) at about 6.3045 this evening. Roughly we’ve agreed to chat about: Sport: Rugby (God save the Queen and Lambegs at Croke Park); and the big dispute in soccer (over who can play for whom) comes to an uncomfortable resolution for IFA. The UUP’s internal family woes over names and prospects for the new force in the euro elections. And the Minister of finance struggles to keep …

Read more…

Celebrating Charles Darwin

On the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, and in the year of the 150th Anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, a New York Times op-ed offers a timely thought, “The cultural opposition to evolution was then, as now, scientifically irrelevant.” [added emphasis]. The BBC is covering the anniversary with an impressive series of programmes and a dedicated website. The Natural History Museum has more information and events. And Scientific American has a Darwin …

Read more…

What’s to be done with the Irish economy?

Last week’s podcast has comfortably passed the 200 download mark. That’s thanks mostly to a little bit of buzz around the Irish blogosphere. For which, thanks to John, the Irish Left Review, Stephen, and Gerard did their bit to spread the word… If you enjoyed the last chat tune in again tomorrow at 11.30… And spread the word… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider …

Read more…

“It’s like defusing a bomb when you are not sure whether to cut the red wire…”

We had our first Slugger Live podcasting session in a while this morning. We were lucky enough to have a fine panel of southern economists with us to pick over the wreckage of the Anglo Irish Bank, and upon which there was remarkable unanimity about what should be done with it: ie, let it collect all the toxic assets of the other Irish banks, then tow ‘out to sea’ and sink it in a box for thirty years and then …

Read more…

“Calm Down Dear, it’s only a recession…”

Tomorrow Slugger will be hosting a live podcast on the Republic’s economy; particularly in light of the announcement of nationalisation of the Anglo Irish Bank tonight. Joining us will be Gerard O’Neill of Turbulence Ahead; Stephen Kinsella of his own eponymous blog; and Michael Taft of Notes on the Front who will hopefully help us tear at the problem from different angles. As Michel de Montaigne once said: Of the hundred parts and aspects that a thing has, I take …

Read more…

“more a part of the problem..”

I previously noted the Observer’s extracts from Henry McDonald’s new book Gunsmoke and Mirrors – How Sinn Féin dressed up defeat as victory and on the Guardian website today he’s been discussing it – direct link to mp3 file here. Pete Baker

IFA: no egos and no prawn sandwiches…

Nice innovation from the IFA, in the shape of a podcast interview with Caroline Menary the new marketing bod behind a vigorous billboard campaign to get people to come to Irish League matches for the first time… Good start, look forward to hearing more… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and …

Read more…