S3 Episode 6: Why can’t all Irish citizens vote?

The Irish Passport

Society & Culture

4.8 • 673 Ratings

🗓️ 7 August 2019

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Irish law in an international outlier in its restrictions on where its its citizens can vote. The franchise is limited to those resident inside the boundaries of the 26 counties of the republic, with almost no provision for early, postal or overseas voting. Ahead of a planned referendum to extend the right to vote for president to all Irish citizens, including in Northern Ireland and overseas, Naomi and Tim explore the political implications of the current voting system and weigh the arguments for and against change. We hear the case for reform from Irish people from the north, and from people who travelled back to Ireland in the famous ‘Home to Vote’ movements. This episode features a report from the campaign launch of Votes for Irish Citizens Abroad by contributor Michael Lanigan, as well as the voices of ordinary people in Dublin on their hopes and concerns about the proposal. Editing by Alan Meaney http://alanmeaney.ie/ For bonus episodes, support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/theirishpassport. Season 3 of The Irish Passport podcast is made with the kind support of Biddy Murphy, online sellers of genuine Irish goods. Check them out on www.biddymurphy.com. The music you heard in this episode is Night II, by Swelling, and Serial Killer, by John Bartmann. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook: @PassportIrish.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	That's just one of the original stone carvings.
0:04.0	So if you actually feel that, that's incredibly heavy.
0:07.0	So the original stone carvings can be very heavy and they're really quite valuable
0:12.0	because obviously when you're carving in stone, you can't make any mistakes.
0:17.0	So that's, yeah, some of the work is done in stone.
0:22.1	I'm in the Wild Goose Studio being shown around by Jamie McCarthy Fisher,
0:27.3	the second generation to run this family business in an airy workshop perched on a hillside
0:33.3	in the beautiful village of Kinsale on the coast of Cork.
0:37.3	So my name is Jamie McCarthy Fisher.
0:39.5	I grew up in England but moved to Ireland about 20 years ago now.
0:45.0	It's a wonderful place to live.
0:47.5	West Cork has a particular flavour to it,
0:50.1	a particular atmosphere,
0:53.3	something to do with being on the edge of the country, on the edge of
0:58.0	Europe. It's a freer place, I suppose. And the people who are attracted to living in a kind of
1:05.8	wild place tend to be interesting people. The studio was originally founded by Jamie's father-in-law, Brian Scott McCarthy,
1:14.1	an artist Kathleen Smith, in 1970.
1:17.6	They began by making carved reproductions of the ancient stone carvings of Ireland,
1:23.5	knotwork, pre-Christian patterns and swirls,
1:26.1	and the ornate scenes from lives of saints that
1:29.2	are etched into boulders and high crosses. The name Wild Goose Studio has a very special meaning
1:35.6	with its own roots in Irish history. It refers to the nobles and fighting men who went into exile
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Irish Passport, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Irish Passport and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.