Jason ‘Political Blogger’ O’Mahony on the Inspireland Podcast

This is

a very listen-able interview with Jason O’Mahoney. Sample:

The thing that attracted me to the PDs [Progressive Democrats] was that they were the first non-socialist party to talk about a secular Ireland, the idea that you didn’t have to be Catholic to be Irish.

I’m old enough to remember the Guards raiding the Virgin Megastore to round up the condoms. I remember thinking, what sort of country are we living in that this is what we use the police for?

The thing about running for election is that it’s a state funded opinion poll of what your neighbours think of you.

No one would ever get elected in Ireland on the slogan ‘He stands by the rules and treats everyone equally.’ They all get elected on the slogan ‘He gets things done’, which means he’ll bend the rules for you.

We now have people who are going into politics who want to be professional candidates, professional politicans, and are curiously not that interested in political discussion.