Is this presidential contest Ireland's 'first podcast election'?

Catherine Connolly and Donald Trump don't have much in common ideologically, but both their campaigns have focused heavily on podcasts, with a different style to traditional media interviews 

Presidential candidate Catherine Connolly appearing on the How to Gael podcast with hosts Síomha Ní Ruairc and Louise Cantillon. 

The US presidential election last year was dubbed by some as “the first podcast election”. Both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris used podcasts as key campaign tools. Trump appeared on 14 major shows, according to Forbes, from The Joe Rogan Experience, the biggest podcast in the world, to Logan Paul's show, which commands a vast young male audience — appearances that clocked up tens of millions of views. 

Harris hit the likes of Call Her Daddy, the second biggest podcast around, aiming for more diverse audiences. What effect did these appearances have on the overall election? Some Democrats might still be scratching their heads wondering what if Harris had gone on Rogan’s show (“scheduling conflicts” apparently put paid to any appearance and arguments are swirling again since the release of her book on the campaign, 107 Days).

Will a similar dynamic play out closer to home next weekend? In the two-horse race for the Áras, one candidate has embraced podcasts, while the other is nowhere to be seen — or heard. 

By my reckoning, Catherine Connolly has clocked up roughly eight hours of interviews across seven shows in recent weeks: How to Gael, Ready to be Real with Síle Seoige, The Simpler Life with James and William, Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning, Blindboy, Catch Up with Louise McSharry, and Rebel Matters. 

In the process, she’s reached a wide range of audiences, from millennials to Irish language enthusiasts to republicans in Belfast who want a vote in the next general election in seven years.

These shows are not confrontational — McSharry says as much before her chat with Connolly: “It's never aggressive. I want people to feel comfortable in the podcast. It is a conversation, really, more than an interview.” 

Presidential candidate Catherine Connolly appearing on How to Gael podcast with hosts Síomha Ní Ruairc and Louise Cantillon

Perhaps all are sympathetic or outwardly supportive of Connolly — Rebel Matters: “Without further ado, let's get stuck into this conversation with hopefully the Uachtarán na hÉireann Catherine Connolly”; 

Joe Brolly: “I think we’d all be very proud of Catherine. We're in very safe hands.” 

Both McSharry and How to Gael explain they did reach out to all candidates — McSharry was due to interview Jim Gavin before he pulled out of the election — but as Louise Cantillon explains on the latter: “Catherine was the only one to accept our invite.” 

It’s curious that Fine Gael’s candidate, Heather Humphreys, has eschewed the podcast circuit during the campaign. Her party leader, Simon Harris, has utilised them over the years, appearing on the likes of The Laughs of Your Life with Doireann Garrihy, The 2 Johnnies, and The Bookshelf with Ryan Tubridy. Again, hardly confrontational fare. 

Humphreys' team said in an email that "we do have podcast appearances in the schedule" for the final week of the campaign, though didn't go into specifics.

The growth of podcasting in Ireland’s own news ecosystem might explain why politicians should be leaning into the format. Reuters’ 2025 Digital News Report found 12% of Irish adults get news from podcasts each week; McSharry explains to Connolly some of her listeners have tuned out of the news in general and rely on her to give them their digest of the week that was. 

In a media landscape where attention is scarce and scepticism high, that trust is currency.

Unlike, as our interim political editor Paul Hosford put it on Tuesday, the “infinite loop of the same six questions” that we have heard Connolly and Humphreys face down in Groundhog Day-esque radio debates, these podcasts are not bound by time limits or the need to chase the major issue of the day. 

Connolly seems relaxed through all of her podcast appearances, and lightly critical of the more mainstream outlets. “I think issues are being conflated by certain outlets,” she tells Blindboy. “And I think it's quite disingenuous and also a very risky thing to do.” 

Of course, she repeats certain talking points throughout her podcast appearances: She calls her campaign a movement, hits out at ‘them and us’ othering in public debate, talks about how growing up in social housing as a big family who lost their mother at a relatively young age helped shape her, running a marathon while pregnant, and, of course keepie-uppies or solos. 

Just as that clip of her in the schoolyard playing with children went viral, the best bits of these interviews, most of which are available in video form, are cut up by the shows themselves for posting on social media, where they can be shared further, offering a second wave of exposure.

Whether Connolly’s podcast strategy translates into votes remains to be seen. But she’s clearly spotted a gap in how people now engage with politics. For a generation that finds the nightly news too loud and the radio too rushed, podcasts offer something closer to trust. 

And in a campaign where voters value sincerity over spin, sounding human for an hour might just be the most persuasive thing of all.