Two constituencies go to the polls next Friday in byelections created by the resignations from the Dail of Pascal Donohue and Catherine Connolly, who both went on to greater things. Dublin Central and Galway West will vote for their replacements in the first by-elections since the current government assumed office after the 2024 general election.

So who’s up and who’s down, what matters what won’t. How will the results impact on party leaders? Irish Examiner Political Correspondent Louise Burne takes the temperature for this electoral event.

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The Irish Examiner’s Louise Burne has memories of spending time in Temple Street hospital in Dublin as a child to treat a condition with which she was born. The staff were great, the environment and facilities far less so. Recently, she wrote about the children of tomorrow who will have a brand new hospital to cater for their needs. But, at the rate of progress in building the national children’s hospital, we might well ask, will tomorrow come? Louise and Irish Examiner Health Correspondent Niamh Griffin fill us in on the story so far and whether an end is in sight.

NOTE: In response to the story relayed by Niamh on this podcast, a spokesperson for CHI said, “all staff concerns are being addressed as they come up in real time in regular sessions across hospital sites.”

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Tina Satchwell was murdered by her husband and her body hid in the family home where he continued to live for six years before it was discovered in a cold case Garda search. The case was shocking and tragic and journalist Barry Cummins, who has written and broadcast extensively on Ireland’s missing women covered it closely. Now he has written a book that tells the full story. Buried Secrets – The Murder Of Tina Satchwell and a journalist’s journey into Ireland’s most chilling cold case is the name of the book. Barry is this week’s guest on the podcast

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Roy Keane is a towering figure in Irish sport and even culture. From one of the greatest footballers to ever emerge from the country, to the man who divided Ireland over Saipan to the pundit everybody wants to see. But where did he come from, what relationship does he have to his home place and what effect has he had on the country, as it changed, as he changed.

We Need To Talk About Roy – the Keanification of Modern Ireland is written by Dave Hannigan and Dave is this week’s guest on the podcast.

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Pressure is coming on Taoiseach Micheal Martin in the wake of the fuel protests and following the resignation as junior minister of Michael Healy Rae. We examine whether his leadership is now in peril, whether he can hang on for now and, beyond that, long enough to host the presidency of the EU in the second half of this year. Or is he destined to fulfil the maxim of all political lives ending in failure. Irish Examiner Political Correspondent Louise Burne is this week’s guest.

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In March 1985, IRA man John Corcoran’s body was found outside Cork city. He had been shot as an informer. In the intervening years there has long been speculation that Corcoran’s murder could have been avoided and that he was sacrificed to protect another informer for An Garda Siochana, Sean O’Callaghan. The special branch detective who was John Corcoran’s handler, JP O’Sullivan, has now written a memoir about the times and the murky manoeuvres leading up to and following Corcoran’s murder. JP O’Sullivan is this week’ guest on the podcast

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