EP2. 'Devil in the Hills': Jim Sheridan on the Sophie Toscan du Plantier Murder

In this episode, Luke Sheehan engages with Róisín Michaux, the self-described "unemployed Twitter TERF" who lost her European Commission role after co-founding a gender-critical staff network. Hired on a special contract which was not renewed, the Commission, in her account, used this grey-area employment structure to remove her as a dissenting voice. The same grey-area contract status also allows the EC to deny that she was ever employed by them. The backstory to that provides a former EU insider's perspective on a contentious topic. Her TERF explorations have been taking her around the continent. A lacerating "shitposter" on X with a substack and podcast (Peaked), Michaux has taken up the task of exploring how "gender self-id" laws are being brought into force across the EU and among accession states. From here, Michaux goes into depth on her own working-class Dublin roots, her Brussels career, and the internal battle that started on a message board and eventually got her fired. The talk ranges from "autogynephilia" to detransitioning, the NGO-isation of Irish civil society, and parallels between the Catholic Church's old moral authority and today's activists and academics—weirdly, often based in the old ecclesiastical stronghold of Maynooth! Michaux is a combative voice in this debate, and—like her fellow Róisín (Murphy, of Moloko)—she is channeling a fiercely vocal Irish womanhood into an arena where the cultural combat had turned vicious before she ever got embroiled. It is remarkable that prominent gender critical Irish women like her, Helen Joyce and Stella O'Malley have been largely ignored by Irish media. Cassandra Voices can slip through where official Ireland has installed its barriers. Not everyone will welcome Michaux's strong stances on trans policy and activism. Her doggedness, wit and talent for sustained argumentation will leave a strong impression on all who listen. We welcome other voices on this topic; if you want to submit your point of view write to [email protected]. Episode Credits: Host: Luke Sheehan Music: Loafing Heroes - ​​https://theloafingheroes.bandcamp.com Produced by Massimiliano Galli - https://www.massimilianogalli.com

adraic X. Scanlan joins Frank Armstrong to discuss his book Rot: A History of the Irish Famine, which explores the modernity of Ireland's experience with potato cultivation, culminating in the arrival of the dreaded blight phytophthora infestans in 1845. He reveals how Ireland became the guinea pig for British colonialism of the late nineteenth century, aspects of which linger to this day. Thus, the staggering inequality, pervasive debt, outrageous rent-gouging, precarious employment, and vulnerability to changes in commodity prices that torment so many in the twenty-first century were rehearsed in the Irish countryside before the potato failed. Episode Credits: Host: Frank Armstrong Music: Loafing Heroes - ​​https://theloafingheroes.bandcamp.com Produced by Massimiliano Galli - https://www.massimilianogalli.com

American journalist Amanda Knox joins Frank Armstrong to discuss the case of English nurse Lucy Letby. Knox was herself falsely charged with murdering her roommate Meredith Kerchner in Italy in 2007 and spent four years in prison. Lucy Letby was a nurse working in the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester hospital. She was found guilty of murdering seven babies in her care in 2023, based primarily on statistical evidence and statements she made apparently implicating her. Amanda has found parallels with her treatment by the British media, and points to major flaws in the prosecution case. Episode Credits: Host: Frank Armstrong Music: Loafing Heroes - ​​heloafingheroes.bandcamp.com Produced by Massimiliano Galli - massimilianogalli.com

For this Saint Patrick's Day episode, Luke Sheehan asked Irish-American historian and New York history expert Terry Golway to help create an overview of the Irish American experience, with a focus on post-famine migration and the infamous Tammany Hall. Episode Credits: Host: Luke Sheehan Music: Loafing Heroes - ​​https://theloafingheroes.bandcamp.com Produced by Massimiliano Galli - https://www.massimilianogalli.com

For this episode we have asked our friend and contributor, Greek journalist and filmmaker, Alexis Daloumis, to sit in for an interview with Luke Sheehan about his newly released Documentary Belki Sibe. Back in 2015 Alexis travelled in northern Syria to Rojava, to join the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces and soon was deployed on the frontlines as a member of the International Freedom battalion. His documentary depicts with unprecedented candour and rawness his eighteen-month journey through war and revolution, during the advances and victory against Isis, the liberation of Raqqa in 2017, until then, the Islamic State capital and stronghold. The documentary also includes new footage and interviews from his subsequent visit in 2021 to the same places and cities where he once fought. Now, as a journalist, his camera turns to scrutinize civil life and institutions under the autonomous Kurdish administration. In light of recent developments, we asked Alexis to talk about the making of his documentary, his experiences on the frontlines and that of his comrades, as well as the potential dangers that loom over the area and its people, now that United States has withdrawn its support to the autonomous Kurdish administration in favour of the newly established Syrian Central Government after the fall of the Assad's regime. Host: Luke Sheehan Intro: Daniele Idini Music: Loafing Heroes - ​​https://theloafingheroes.bandcamp.com Produced by Massimiliano Galli - https://www.massimilianogalli.com