Shaking up the Seanad, with Senator Lynn Ruane

Its fair to say that Lynn Ruane not your “typical” Irish politician – she’s from a very working class background in Dublin, developed a drug addiction in her teens, became a mother at 15, and has generally had a life that might be called ‘unconventional’ in the context of politics in Ireland. And yet that’s what makes Lynn such an interesting and effective politician – she represents a huge yet traditionally under-represented part of Ireland, shakes things up in government building and shines a light on some long-standing and accepted injustices that have arguably have been allowed to last for far too long. Lynn is also so much fun; she’s insightful, open and honest and we chat about all sorts of interesting stuff, including how her passion can be judged as aggression, the classist politician that inspired the title of her book ‘People Like Me’, and why Ireland’s drug laws are now so outdated and in need of reform. We also had a lot of the regulars phoning in to speak to Senator Ruane, including ‘Ballymun Paschal’, The Two Norries, and her fellow Senator, David Norris. COMEDY: In the week that Leo Varadkar becomes Taoiseach once again, we get exclusive access to his voicemails…drop in for a listen GET IN TOUCH: https://www.instagram.com/mariorosenstockofficial/ https://twitter.com/giftgrubmario [email protected] The Mario Rosenstock Podcast is produced by Patrick Haughey of AudioBrand