Corruption Shaped Modern Ireland, w Frank Connolly (E27)

Welcome, comrades.

You're listening to The Party Line, a podcast from The Ditch.

News and comment from Ireland on theditch.com. I'm Harry Brown.

And I'm Owen McNeill.

As Jay Cole said to the OGs, I'm thanking you now.

We've got one of the OGs of Irish investigative journalism here, Frank Connolly.

Big inspiration to all the work that we do at The Ditch.

It's great to be joined by you, Frank.

Thanks, Owen.

It's

great to

have you, Frank.

Frank has broken stories for many, many different publications over the years, and he's here with his new book, Exposed, Scandals that Rocked the Irish State.

It's not only a gripping series of stories about political and police corruption at the turn of the millennium, but something of a guide to how we got to the place we're in in this society today.

But as always, we start the show very much in the present.

Owen, tell us what's going on in the ditch at the moment, and it's relevant to the conversation we're going to have today.