Aggression and abuse on the campaign trail for those running in local elections

Hugh Linehan is joined by Cormac McQuinn and Jennifer Bray to discuss the week in politics:

· The last fortnight has seen several incidents of councillors being verbally and physically attacked while out canvassing for the forthcoming local elections. A disturbing trend that hasn’t been a feature of previous elections.

· The panel dig into what the Irish Times/Ipsos B&A poll results say about the volatility of public opinion right now.

· And neither current First Minister of Northern Ireland, Michelle O’Neill, or former First Minister of Northern Ireland, Arlene Foster, came away from the UK Covid-19 inquiry unscathed.

Plantations, ‘patriots’ and Pádraig Pearse: What is ethnonationalism and how did it get on the ballot?

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Robert De Niro’s raging at Trump outside courthouse was an extraordinary moment in American public life

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The truth about being a councillor: ‘Many say they will vote for you. Divide by two and two again’

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Dean Rock: Time to play Leinster SFC final and All-Ireland quarter-finals outside Croke Park

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And the panel pick their favourite Irish Times pieces of the week:

· Ronan McGreevey writing 50 years on from the Dublin-Monaghan bombings.

· Laura Kennedy does the arithmetic of emigration.

· Stephen Collins writes of Micheál Martin’s political enemies postponing their big move.

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