Conversations with Ger Sweeney

James has released his new novel and like the three before it is set in Spain. It is called Helios and it follows the fortune of a former Christian Brother who wants to experience life following receipt of some bad news medically.

The Turning Tide is a hymn to a sea passage of world-historical importance. Combining social and cultural history, nature-writing, travelogue and politics, Welshman Jon Gower charts a sea which has carried both Vikings and saints; invasion forces, royals and rebels; writers, musicians and fishermen.

Grow Remote is non-profit group advocating for remote workers. The General Manager John Evoy has called for a body to be set up to promote remote working in Ireland. It comes after the first meeting of an All-Party Group on Remote Working took place in Leinster House recently.

Mantillas and Head Scarves is the title of a piece writte by George Lee. The piece brought memories flooding back to a simplier time and in this piece I chat with George to tease those memories out.

As the Religious Affairs Correspondent of The Irish Times from 1997, Patsy McGarry reported on some of the most troubling scandals to have rocked both Catholic and Protestant Churches in the last few decades. In Well, Holy God, he looks back not only on his time in journalism, recalling some of the most distressing stories he has had to cover, but also his own history with Catholicism and of a faith lost when the stark realities of being part of that Church became apparent to him.

David uncovers the clandestine activities of Patrick Crinnion, a Garda intelligence officer who secretly served MI6 during the early years of the Troubles. Burke reveals MI6’s shady dealings, from attempts to smear Irish politicians to plans for using criminals as assassins and the secret surveillance of a key IRA member.

Tim is the author of a book called The Atlas of Endangered Alphabets. If something is important, we write it down. Yet 85% of the world's writing systems are on the verge of vanishing - not granted official status, not taught in schools, discouraged and dismissed. When a culture is forced to abandon its traditional script, everything it has written for hundreds of years - sacred texts, poems, personal correspondence, legal documents, the collective experience, wisdom and identity of a people - is lost.

John joined an Garda Síochána but struggled to fell comfortable in his role. His life and career was changed in an instant one day as he visited HQ in the Phoenix Park. That visit started him on a very fulfilling and productive career within the force. The details are covered in his book "Identity".

Dan Lawton has written a book about the harassment by the British security forces in Northern Ireland, the wrongful arrest, the escape, re-capture and ulimate exoneration of Belfast man Keving Barry Artt. A truly unbelieveable story.

There is something special that connects Kylie, Calvin Harris, Noah Khan, Kodaline and the members of the Timahoe Male Choir. To find out what that is and to hear some of the members' stories have a listen.