Tullow councillors team up to launch political podcast

TWO Fine Gael councillors from Tullow Municipal District, Ben Ward and Brian O’Donoghue, have launched a new podcast that they hope will cut through the political jargon and offer a more in-depth discussion of why certain decisions are made at a local level.

“We wanted to create a new way to kind of reach out to people that isn’t the usual format,” said Ben. “We wanted to just be able to talk about politics, local government in a way that I think people can actually understand.” The podcast, Through the Chair, is set to run for ten episodes and will come out on the day of each Carlow Co Council meeting. Rather than reacting to news events, the pair said they will record the episodes well ahead of time and offer commentary on topics that might only get a terse explanation in the newspapers, on radio or on social media.

“The great thing about podcasts is this opportunity to do more long form, where we can actually give our own thoughts on things that are topical and, I suppose, display a bit of our personalities a bit more,” said Brian.

It’s not a commercial project “because we’re already councillors, so we’re getting paid to do that job. So, this is just another part of our job, which is to try and bring politics to people in an accessible way,” said Brian.

It has already received a positive reaction on social media and tánaiste Simon Harris seems to have been listening. Ben said he was at an event in UCD and the tánaiste greeted him saying “Hi Ben, how goes the podcast?” 

Their ambition is not to create a podcast for people already in the political bubble. “I think it’s fair to say most people probably find politics and current affairs relatively boring and there is a bit of a bubble around it and there’s a certain language,” said Brian.

They have a ‘jargon jar’ that penalises them for using overly technical language during the discussion.

They also throw in some humour. “I’ve had friends who’ve been texting me saying ‘oh my God, this podcast is actually interesting. I thought it was going to be the most boring thing ever when you told me about it’.” 

There are no direct podcast predecessors that the councillors are replicating, but they did take inspiration from The Rest is Politics, Inside Politics by the Irish Times, Paths to Power and The Indo Daily.

In contrast to these journalist-run podcasts, which interrogate politicians and their decisions, the two councillors will have the time and space to share the full gamut of their opinions. They deny that this will make the podcast less objective, that their party allegiance will constrain their opinions or that they’ll overstep the line in criticising their party when discussing actions taken by the government.

“It’s not like a Fine Gael propaganda show,” explained Ben. “Being a critical friend is the best thing to be; there’s no point in having some sort of blind, unwavering faith. I don’t see the benefit in that for anyone, whether it be the party or the people in general.” 

Brian agreed: “Like Ben, I have no issue in being critical of the government. I suppose when you are part of the government party, you often have a deeper insight as to why something is happening and it, maybe, brings us back to why the podcast might be of some value.” 

He did admit that being sitting politicians makes it “a little bit harder” because “you should be very careful that you don’t commit to something that later on doesn’t come true or, maybe, reveal something that is commercially sensitive”.

They also said the podcast, produced by Carlow business Ampifi Podcast Studio, is different to, rather than a competitor of, local news outlets. When they are interviewed by journalists, said cllr O’Donoghue, they have to be assertive and take a strong position, whereas on the podcast “we can actually just relax the shoulders a bit” and focus on why something has happened, rather than what has happened.

They will record the episodes ahead of time to avoid focusing on topics that are ‘too hot’ and newsy.

And they are open to feedback. In the third episode, Ben and Brian will answer questions from members of the public and “it’s not going to be filtered,” Ben noted.

To submit your questions, email throughthechair@gmail.com. The first podcast episode is available to listen on Spotify and YouTube.