The Ghost Limb

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack Claire Mitchell is a writer and researcher from Belfast. Her recent book The Ghost Limb was published in 2022 to critical acclaim. In this episode Claire chats to the lads about the book, the spirit of 1798 and the United Irishmen, her work with Billy Mitchell and progressive loyalism in the early 00s and the […]

Go to Podcast

1122. Israel-Palestine – Death and Destruction at Al Ahil Hospital

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack The world watched in horror as videos emerged of the carnage wreaked by a missile on the Al Ahil Baptist Hospital. With reports of over 500 dead, the fog of war quickly descended in what are attempts to shift the blame. Some of the media have decided, rather than investigate, to both-sides it. We have […]

Go to Podcast

321. Israel-Palestine ‘My Parents Could Be Dead Now’

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack Longtime listeners will be familiar with the Palestinian NASA engineer, Loay Elbasyouni, as the man who designed a helicopter that flew on Mars. But today he rejoins us to talk about the conflict raging in Gaza and how his parents (dual Palestinian and German citizens) have ended up trapped in the city and what, if […]

Go to Podcast

1119. Israel-Palestine – “Maybe it is the last time that we talk” with Mahmoud Mushtaha

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack In this podcast you’ll hear from an emotional Mahmoud Mushtaha about the incredible cruelty of the Israeli military’s bombardment and orders to evacuate. We discuss in a very broad and (probably) clumsy way some of the events that led to this catastrophic conflagration, the maddening reporting by much of international media, the insular reporting of […]

Go to Podcast

1117. Israel – Palestine: An SOS to the World

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack Joining me for the first time on the podcast from Gaza, Palestine, is 21 year old English Literature Student and volunteer with wearenotnumbers.org, Afaf Al Najjar. She outlines the situation inside Gaza right now, the crumbling infrastucture, the shortagrs of electricity, wifi and now water and the need for the fighting to stop. This is […]

Go to Podcast

319. Budget 2024 – More of the Same

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack We decided to give some immediate reactions to the Budget and needless to say Rory was deeply unimpressed. I tried to be a bit more positive, but couldn’t sustain it for more than a few minutes. We talk tax cuts instead of investment in public services, mortgage holders getting a better deal than renters, Fianna […]

Go to Podcast

1116. Israel – Palestine “Running For Our Lives”

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack It has been another bloody and brutal 36hrs in Israel and Palestine, with the destruction of schools, homes and hospitals and air strikes leaving hundreds of people dead and thousands more injured. Joining us to discuss the this, the events that led to Operation Al-Aqsa Storm and the reaction of the international community is journalist […]

Go to Podcast