Welcome to Half Pints, the Irish Passport podcast mini-series for Patreon subscribers.

We are releasing this one to everyone as a special freebie.

If you want more, sign up to support us at www. patreon.com forward slash the Irish passport.

I'm Naomi O'Leary, and this half-pint comes to you from

Belfast, where I met David McCann this week, the deputy editor of the political commentary

site Slugger O'Toole. We chatted about how Northern Ireland has a lot at stake in the abortion

referendum currently taking place in the Republic, and his reaction to British

Conservative politician and cartoonish blast from the past, Jacob Rees-Mogg, who recently

said this.

When did you last visit Northern Ireland to discuss this issue?

I haven't been recently.

Have you been to know it?

I've been, but not recently.

Right.

So you haven't recently made any effort to visit the border?

I don't think my visiting the border is really going to give me a fundamental insight into the border

beyond what one can get by studying it.

Truly a mystery, hey, how that whole British Empire thing didn't quite work out.

Anyway, I've long been fascinated by how progressive issues often operate

on an all-Ireland basis in Ireland. So, for example, there's one Irish Green Party for the whole

island, people before profit, a left-wing anti-austerity group from its inception in the wake of the

financial crisis, ran candidates both in elections for the Republic of Ireland's

...