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David Quinn is a founder of the Iona Institute, a newspaper columnist and a regular media commentator.
During the marriage equality referendum campaign, David said that
Should the referendum pass, a same-sex couple could demand a right to marry in a church … In Denmark, we have already seen that the Lutheran Church, a State Church admittedly, has been forced to conduct same-sex weddings.
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Sandra Khadhouri is one of the founders of Renew Britain, a new political party set up to resist Brexit. James Cousins, a former Conservative party member of Wandsworth Council has recently joined their party but they have not yet had a chance to test their electoral strength. 
In our conversation, I mentioned The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics by David Goodhart, which charts the cultural gulf that has opened between different groups in Britain and elsewhere.
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Linda Bellos is a businesswoman, radical feminist and gay-rights activist. She was a member of the collective that produced Spare Rib, a British feminist magazine, and was a member of Lambeth Borough Council in London and was the leader of the council from 1986 to 1988. 
The term ‘TERF‘ is widely used as a term of abuse by third wave feminists for second-wave feminists, often with extreme hostility and even threats of violence. Linda was invited, and then un-invited to speak to the Beards Society in Cambridge University, as part of a bitter dispute between factions within feminism.
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I talked to Director of Retail and Consumer Services at Comreg, Barbara Delaney.
Yourtel appear to still be advertising to the Irish market, despite being convicted on 88 sample charges (out of 880) of ripping off their customers. They were fined just €750 of a maximum fine of €5,000 in each case – a total of €66,000. Their pricing scheme and the fact that they have ~ read more ~
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Ken Foxe
Ken Foxe is a lecturer in DIT and a freelance journalist.
On June 27 last, the Irish-American academic and blogger Catherine Kelly was leaving Ireland through Dublin airport when she was detained by two plain clothes gardaí, and questioned about ~ read more ~
Jonathan Irwin, the founder of Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation, is an active campaigner against the HPV vaccine Gardasil. He regularly tweets and appears in the media to highlight the supposed danger of the vaccine.
His latest tweet shows how motivated reasoning works, and how in the antivax echo-chamber, scare stories can be ~ read more ~
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Keith Redmond is an independent member of Fingal County Council, having been elected on the Fine Gael ticket in 2014 previously run for the Progressive Democrats and briefly been a member of Renua Ireland. He’s also a founder member of the Hibernia Forum. 
The Libertarian Party in the US is known for its anti-government stance and espousal of Austrian economics.
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I normally wouldn’t do a podcast about a blog post, but this is a blog post that has been signed by almost 500 people, so it’s not an ordinary blog post. 
You might have heard about Dean Scurry, he’s one of the activists who organised Home Sweet Home, the occupation of Apollo House by the homeless. Dean also set up a ~ read more ~
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In the main interview, I talked to Gino Kenny of the People Before Profit party. 
Gino’s Facebook page shared the Facebook group Medical Cannabis Testimonials Ireland & UK, and encouraged people to share supposed ‘testimony‘ of people benefiting ~ read more ~
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I interviewed Dr Mariano García de Palau of the Kalapa Clinic about his claims to treat a wide range of ailments with cannabis. As he mentioned, there are no clinical trials to validate most of these cures.
I also interviewed Dr Robert O’Connor, Head of Research for the Irish Cancer Society.
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This podcast is the first part of a major investigation into people selling unlicensed substances that they claim will treat or cure serious conditions. This first part of the investigation, focussing on the Dublin-based Hemp Company. 
The Hemp Company’s page selling the Charlotte’s Web product for up to €5,500 per litre is here, That page contains a link on the text “View Everyday Advanced hemp oil supplement facts” with a link to this page which recommends the oil for treating depression and multiple sclerosis, and a comment apparently from a doctor saying “patient of mine uses this for cancer“.
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Derek Mooney is a public affairs and communications adviser as well as a former adviser to the Irish government. He’s a columnist on Broadsheet.ie and Slugger O’Toole. 
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In the last podcast, I was talking to Tom Geraghty of the PSEU, that’s the union that represents higher level public sector workers. The interview was in the aftermath of the PSEU annual conference, where Tom was demanding a ~ read more ~
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Tom Geraghty is the General Secretary of the Public Service Executive Union. 
Tom disputed a couple of the references that I made during the interview. The report of MABS staff dealing with an average of two new cases per week here. The minister for justice has confirmed that there are gardaí suspended on pay for up to seven years. ~ read more ~
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Opposition parties have called for the Disclosures Tribunal to be expanded. The MacLochlainn Tribunal does exist, but the Boyle Tribunal does not. Yet. Honest.
Village magazine summarised the Morris Tribunal report in 2005 saying “the gardaí are in a state of disarray, with low morale, poor discipline, lack of oversight, and a culture of silence…”
The Moriarty Tribunal found as fact in 2011 that Michael Lowry had an “insidious and pervasive” influence over the awarding the 086 licence to Denis O’Brien’s company Digifone. Since then, on at least five separate occasions justice ministers have given the exact same answer – word for word – as an excuse for why no criminal investigations have begun yet, here, here, here, here and here. ~ read more ~
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Tony Groves writes the blog Trickstersworld, and we discussed this article which he wrote for Broadsheet.ie.
Tony Groves
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Lughan Deane is the Communications Executive for the IMPACT trade union, who are currently running the #ClockedOut campaign.
Lughan Deane
In the discussion I slightly overstated the dominance of women in Iran’s technical and engineering facilities, but the point stands. By contrast, women in Norway are remarkably reluctant to enter many male professions.
In Ireland it is illegal to pay someone less based on their gender. TheJournal.ie have prepared an excellent analysis of the raw Eurostat figures.
Eurostat also report that males suffer almost 80 per cent of workplace injuries and 95 per cent of workplace deaths.
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Bill Donoghue is the President and CEO of the Catholic League. The article that he wrote claiming that the Tuam babies story is a hoax is here. The report by the Mother And Baby Homes Commission Of Investigation which detailed the forensic findings is here.
Bill Donohue
The text of the letter by Terry Prone, pouring scorn on Catherine Corless’s work and denying the existence of a grave related to the home is here. A letter a year earlier from Prone’s client, Sr Marie Ryan country leader of the Bon Secours nuns confirms that, in fact, she was well aware that children from the homes were buried on the grounds of the home.
Part of Mary Merrit’s story detailing life in one of the homes is here. In response to the findings, the bishop of Limerick, Brendan Leahy said in reaction to the findings “we hang our heads in shame”.
The Bon Secours nuns own the profitable Bon Secours healthcare group, and finance minister Michael Noonan opened their new €21m hospital in Limerick last week.
The annual birth rate in Ireland is here, and information about the effects of malnutrition were found by the Laffoy Commission.
Wages in Ireland in the 1940s (see table 9) were typically between £2 and £4 per week; in the 1920s, wages for agricultural workers were less than 15s (£0.75) per week. In 1928 the Connaught Tribune reported that local politicians thought that the payment to the Tuam home of 10s (£0.50) per week was excessive. It is clear that the Bon Secours nuns had a far more generous budget to feed and clothe the children than many families, before taking into account the profits from their businesses that used the slave labour of their mothers, or the profits of selling adoptive babies to American couples.
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Brendan O’Neill is the editor of Spiked Online. His 2014 article that we discussed is here, and the interim report of the Mother And Baby Homes Commission Of Investigations is here.
The second part of my coverage of this topic will be published next week.
Brendan O Neill
The global infant mortality statistics that I mentioned are here, and the historical Irish data is here. ~ read more ~
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This is the link to Episode 41 where I originally interviewed RTÉ’s news planner, Donal Byrne, and this is the original of the set-up interview with Paul Reynolds where he gave what he said were details of the contents of the O’Higgins report, which was published two days later.
Paul Reynolds of RTÉ
That report, and the possibility that it was made in collusion with the embattled Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan, has since become one of the terms of reference (item g) of the Commission of Investigation announced by An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, into the affair.
Reynolds’ report was the unspoken target of another report by Philip Boucher Hayes the next day, which rebutted many of his claims. A transcript of Boucher Hayes’ report is here, but the audio of it seems to have been removed from the RTÉ website. Edit: the audio of this report now seems to have been restored by RTÉ.
Ruth Coustick-Deal
Ruth Coustick-Deal of Open Media was talking to me about EU proposals for a ‘Link Tax‘ which would require websites to pay for links with snippets to news articles, and require websites to filter posted content to suit rights-holders.
John McGuinness is 61 years of age. He was first elected to the Dáil 20 years ago. He’s been a minister for state and chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). He’s a strong media performer and he’s no fool.
John McGuinness TD
He was summonsed to a meeting by the now-disgraced then-garda commissioner Martin Callinan in the car park of Bewley’s Hotel in Dublin. The meeting took place in January 2014 and lasted about half an hour. It happened just before McGuinness was due to chair the PAC’s hearing of garda whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe’s evidence. ~ read more ~
