Culture File

Culture File Presents: The Comfort Zone XXXL Edition: Artist and curator, Kerry Guinan join Colm Tóibín and Luke Clancy to rake over the embers of art-provocateurs K-Foundation's 1994 performance of burning £1 million on a Scottish island. (First broadcast July 25)

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How birds and their metaphors move through the work and the lives of novelist, John Banville, art critic, Orit Gat, novelist, Sara Baume, journalist and author Paddy Woodworth. Under consideration are: The Pigeon; The Swift; The Wheatear; and The Crane. But which scribe fancies which wìngéd muse? (First broadcast Dec 24)

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In this XXXL edition of The Comfort Zone, The Rats: 'horrademic' Prof Darryl Jones brings a favourite 1970s gorecore novel into the Zone, with a steer that James Herbert's The Rats, racism, misogyny and homophobia notwithstanding, has something to offer the world of 2025. 

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In this XXXL edition of the debate, an ancient Irish farming tradition that sees the wisdom of leaving some farm land free from the imperatives of production -- ‘The Hare’s Corner’ -- is celebrated in poetry, story, discussion and music. Paddy Woodworth leads a panel featuring Jane Clarke, Catherine Cleary, Jane Carkill and Colm Mac Con Iomaire.

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Culture File Presents: The Comfort Zone. Music critic Michael Dervan wants everyone in the zone to enjoy the artistry of The Great Slydini and other masters of sleight of hand and misdirection.

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Outlandish Theatre Company's performance event Freedom uses the myth of Antigone to explore the act of speaking about Gaza, about the limits of art and speech. Listen to the piece in its entirety here. Recorded live at Samuel Beckett Theatre, TCD, Dublin in November 2025.

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Outlandish Theatre's latest, Freedom works with the myth of Antigone to focus on the act of speaking about Gaza, about the world in which it exists, and about the limits of art and speech. After the show's Dublin debut, the creative team gathered to explore further for the Culture File Debate. Check the Culture File feed for a live recording of the Freedom performance.

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Culture File Presents: The Comfort Zone. Translator, Joshua Barley encourages Colm Tóibín to watch Reconstruction (Anaparastasi) Theo Angelopoulos' 1970 avant police procedural set in the rock-studded, murder-harbouring landscape of the Northern Greek province of Epirus.

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Culture File Presents: The Comfort Zone XXXL Edition. Translator, Joshua Barley encourages Colm Tóibín to watch Reconstruction (Anaparastasi) Theo Angelopoulos' 1970 avant police procedural set in the rock-studded, murder-harbouring landscape of the Northern Greek province of Epirus.

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24 Hour Raga People at a festival in Redhook, NY; by the banks of the River Nore, Tadhg O'Sullivan journeys into art that might not get made ; and in Piccadilly, the largest ever European Survey for the veteran American, Kerry James Marshall, a painter of Black American life like no other.

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