We are joined in The Tortoise Shack by trade unionist, activist and loving son, Brendan Ogle. Brendan was due to do this interview last Saturday, but tragically Brendan’s Mam passed away early that same day. In an emotional interview, Brendan tells us about the hardship of a funeral during the Covid-19 pandemic and also the deep respect and love from […]
The scale of the Covid-19 pandemic is beyond anything seen in our lifetime. But we can learn from emergency responses from across the world. We are joined via Zoom by Irish man currently in Iraqi Kurdistan, Will Holden, who was in Yemen during the cholera outbreak, Iraq while ISIS rolled into power and Afghanistan when troops were withdrawing. In short, […]
On the 4th of March, Samantha Kelly (@tweetinggoddess) used the hashtag #selfisolation on Twitter, asking her followers to bear in mind their elderly and vulnerable neighbours and support them as they self-isolated. Helen O’Rahilly (@HelenORahilly) followed up, within minutes, with the first offer of practical help and launching the new hashtag #selfisolationhelp, intending to generate volunteers around the country, with […]
As the EU prints money at negative interest rates and our government throw insults at people who suggest that we might avail of the Apple money sitting in an escrow account, we want to talk about the workers who are facing the uncertainty of not knowing if they will be able to afford the rent or mortgage next month. To […]
The Covid-19 crisis has seen countries close their borders and limit people going outside except for essentials. We are joined from Madrid by Professor Joe Haslam, to discuss what life is like under lockdown. Joe has traveled extensively and has studied disaster management for many years. He talks about how this is pandemic is showing up the flimsiness of a […]
What do you do when a loved one shows symptoms of coronavirus? Well MEP and friend of the pod, Luke Ming Flanagan, went public and called on governments here and across the EU to pull all the levers they can to save as many lives as possible. We talk about the need to bring people along quickly and the necessity […]
Our political system is busy passing the Health Preservation & Protection and other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill, as we record, but what does this mean for us all? Senior Researcher and Policy Officer at the Irish Council for Civil Liberites, Doireann Ansbro, joins us to discuss what these new powers are, whether they are appropriate, time-limited and […]
The Taoiseach made what many are calling the defining speech of his career last night, and while it was reassuring, we ask what meat we need to see added to the bones very quickly and who is going to pick up the cheque when this is all over. We also go through the numbers for today and the latest developments […]