Host Hugh Linehan is joined by Jack Horgan-Jones and Cormac McQuinn to look back on the week in politics:

· With a general election now likely a matter of weeks away, it is the main opposition party, and not government parties, who continue to dominate the headlines. And they are unwanted headlines relating to former TD Brian Stanley, former senator Niall Ó Donnghaile and former press officer Michael McMonagle.

· And with all those controversies piling up for Sinn Féin, are the Government in danger of overreach should they seek to force a vote on Brian Stanley’s replacement as PAC chair?

· And could former Fine Gael TDs Alan Shatter and Kate O’Connell’s decision to run as independents give their old party cause for concern in Dublin-Rathdown and Dublin Bay South respectively come election time?

Mark O'Connell: The mystery is not why we Irish have responded to Israel’s barbarism. It’s why others have not

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The music of 2024: Our critics’ verdicts on the best albums and acts of the year

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‘I left the goose in the nightclub’: seven writers spill their most bizarre Yuletide yarns

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Kellie Harrington fought hard for the dream ending she well deserved

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Plus, the panellists pick their favourite IT reads of the week:

· Newton Emerson on Britain’s anti-obesity jab plan.

· Kathy Sheridan urges us not to write off celebrity candidates.

· Keith Duggan writes about why a small Democratic stronghold in Detroit is deserting Kamala Harris for Donald Trump.

Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.

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