# How the duplicitous double life of Jeffrey Donaldson threatens the future of unionism Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/irish-times-inside-politics-170288/how-the-duplicitous-double-life-of-jeffrey-donaldson-threatens-the-future-of-unionism Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/irish-times-inside-politics-170288/how-the-duplicitous-double-life-of-jeffrey-donaldson-threatens-the-future-of-unionism.md Podcast: [Irish Times Inside Politics](https://stenobird.com/podcast/irish-times-inside-politics-170288) Published: 2026-07-01T13:32:51+00:00 Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/inside-politics-2/episodes/alex-kane-on-jeffrey-donaldson-and-the-dup Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/6155db9059a3fa00137f30a9/e/6a4504e106fb5d326d8d5755/media.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/irish-times-inside-politics-170288/episodes/how-the-duplicitous-double-life-of-jeffrey-donaldson-threatens-the-future-of-unionism Duration seconds: 2319 ## Resource Hugh Linehan is joined by Alex Kane to discuss the double life of disgraced politician Jeffrey Donaldosn and its broader impact on the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) as well as Ulster unionism overall.  Alex Kane is an Irish News columnist and a political commentator as well as a former director of communications for the Ulster Unionist Party. The pair discuss a recent wave of stories that reveal the hypocritical behaviour of self-professed christian Donaldson over the course of his career; from projectile vomiting on the Mayor of Beijing to swigging from a wine bottle in the House of Commons and being spotted entering a gay sauna.   Kane says it seems as if no one in the DUP attempted to address this highly inappropriate behaviour. He also highlights a growing conspiracy theory among unionists who believe the British government may have used this information to blackmail Donaldson to return to the Northern Ireland Assembly.   In today’s episode, they discuss what all of this spells for the future of unionism in Ulster.       Would you like to receive daily insights into world events delivered to your inbox? Sign up for Denis Staunton's Global Briefing newsletter here: irishtimes.com/newsletters/global-briefing/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/irish-times-inside-politics-170288/episodes/how-the-duplicitous-double-life-of-jeffrey-donaldson-threatens-the-future-of-unionism/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/irish-times-inside-politics-170288/how-the-duplicitous-double-life-of-jeffrey-donaldson-threatens-the-future-of-unionism.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.