{"podcast":{"title":"Education Nation","slug":"education-nation-6810585","podcast_index_feed_id":6810585,"rss_url":"https://media.rss.com/stateofthenation/feed.xml","website_url":"https://rss.com/podcasts/stateofthenation","image_url":"https://media.rss.com/stateofthenation/20260119_100154_cd68321b9e6870de0c4a919631042489.jpg","author":"State of the Nation","episode_count":26,"summary":"Education Nation is a new podcast for 2026 brought to you by the Irish Catholic. Hosted by Nicky Cuddihy, we have lined up a host of fascinating guests who have intriguing stories to tell about their own career journeys and their role within the Irish education system. As we hear their stories, we hope that the podcast will help us develop a better understanding of the complexity and the richness and the diversity that make our education system so unique, and our schools and teachers so highly valued.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-12T18:21:32.232884+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/education-nation-6810585"},"episode":{"title":"Admission Act 2018: a major stumbling block for divestment - w/ Alan Hynes","slug":"admission-act-2018-a-major-stumbling-block-for-divestment-w-alan-hynes","published_at":"2026-04-15T10:10:49+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/education-nation-6810585/admission-act-2018-a-major-stumbling-block-for-divestment-w-alan-hynes","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/education-nation-6810585","url":"https://rss.com/podcasts/stateofthenation/2737397","audio_url":"https://content.rss.com/episodes/255486/2737397/stateofthenation/2026_04_15_09_49_01_41e8a0ec-5848-4f86-82e9-c3e0ee4415ff.mp3","summary":"The Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018 has undoubtedly improved fairness and transparency. The Act for the first time required that every school publish a clear, nondiscriminatory admissions policy and that they follow an agreed common national timeline. There is no doubt that parents now have greater confidence in how places are allocated. But one unintended consequence means that Catholic schools can no longer give priority to children of Catholic families. In the opinion of Alan Hynes this is the decisive factor that has prevented communities from supporting divestment. Parents are reluctant to relinquish a denominational school if they cannot be assured that their children will have priority access to the remaining Catholic option.","meta_description":"The Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018 has undoubtedly improved fairness and transparency. The Act for the first time required that every school pu…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":6071,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/education-nation-6810585/episodes/admission-act-2018-a-major-stumbling-block-for-divestment-w-alan-hynes/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/education-nation-6810585/admission-act-2018-a-major-stumbling-block-for-divestment-w-alan-hynes.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}