Curious Broadcast

Ground Breakers: Catherine McGuinness explores the life and work of Catherine McGuinness. A voce for women's issues and children's rights in Ireland, over the years Catherine has served as a Senator, a barrister, and a judge of the Circuit Court, High Court, Appeal, and Supreme Court. she has also chaired the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation the foundation stone of the Northern Ireland Peace Process and is a member of the Council of State.

Ground Breakers is a Curious Broadcast production funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee.  Produced and narrated by Patricia Baker. Final mix Domhnaill Corrigan. Choral music courtesy of the Culwick Choral Society. Original music score by Gerry Horan.  

First broadcast on Newstalk 106 - 108 FM

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Troublesome Nun is a new radio documentary on the life and times of Margaret Mac

Curtain, a Dominican Sister whose lifelong determination to write women into mainstream

Irish history changed the narrative of Irish history forever. Margaret was a historian, a

feminist, a teacher, a human rights activist, and a nun.

Diarmaid Ferriter, Professor of Modern Irish History, School of History, University College

Dublin said of Margaret. “She had established not only the need for women’s history to be

studied but also the sheer range and complexity of what could be covered. She had to try

and convince a sceptical male historical establishment that this needed to be done. She had

to navigate not just as a teacher and someone who wanted to promote women’s history, but

also as someone who was determined to challenge excepted wisdom and authorities at that

time… She did not shy away from those debates that were going on not just in Irish society

but within the church as well.”

Cork born Margaret MacCurtain began her remarkable career in UCC, where she graduated

in the 1950s with BA & HDip. She then went on to join the Dominican Order. She achieved

her PhD from UCD where she lectured until her retirement in 1994.

Within this outline sketch of her career, there is a life of an activist and a feminist whose

legacy has impacted generations of women and men. She thought a generation to question

more deeply, to remember more ethically; she worked all of her life to effect change in Irish

society and to write women into Irish history.

‘This documentary is an important way to capture the impact that Margaret had which was

quite a wide impact.’ said Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland. ‘It was as an historian,

as a feminist, long before people were calling themselves a feminist, as an educator, as a

Dominican nun, and as a women with such warmth and kindness and humour, that she made

everyone, male and female, love her for herself and what she gave of herself.

‘She actually had a great influence both on me and my whole generation. She was a very

active feminist even before the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement which started in Ireland in

1970.”

‘We all need to know that there are active minds in the universe and hers was one of them,’

said Theo Dorgan, Poet, Writer and Broadcaster of Margaret. ‘The joy of running into

Margaret was to run into her boundless curiosity you would have no idea what she would

come out with and she was fascinated by the variety of things.’

The Troublesome Nun is part of a forthcoming series of three documentaries, each one

charting the life and work of one extraordinary woman who broke the ground for the next

generation of women. These older women did not just witness a changing Ireland; they were

the change makers themselves.

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The Troublesome Nun is a Curious Broadcast production funded by the Broadcasting

Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee, produced and narrated by Patricia Baker.

Final mix Gerry Horan Contact Studio. Original Music score Gerry Horan.

First Broadcast: Sunday October 3rd at 8am, on NEWSTALK 106-108FM

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trafficking of human beings, referred to as modern-day slavery, is one of our largest humanitarian crises, with over 40 million adults and children enslaved worldwide. Half of these people are sold into the sex trade, the majority of whom are women and children.

Ireland is not immune to this global catastrophe. The annual Trafficking in Persons Report, published recently by the US Department of State, further downgraded Ireland to ‘Tier 2 – watch list”, criticising the country for major failings in its treatment of human trafficking victims. Human trafficking is a growing criminal activity and justice issue here in Ireland. The need for public awareness is paramount. The statistics are frightening and overwhelming.

How do we respond to such an issue? An Irish charity MECPATHS (Mercy Efforts for Child Protection Against Trafficking with the Hospitality Sector) took one small step. Hotels are known as one of the places where women and children are sex trafficked.  MECPATHS is working with hotel groups to deliver training programmes for hotel staff on the indicators and protocol of reporting child sex trafficking. Do Disturb is about the importance of increasing public awareness and understanding that no matter how overwhelming this global issue is, there is something we can do to bring about change. 

First Broadcast: Sunday 5th July 2020 at 7am and again on Saturday 11th July 2020 at 9pm.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Art/Rage is an audio journey through the streets of Dublin with artist and activist Will St. Leger and documentary maker Patricia Baker who explore the evolution of street art in Ireland. The programme is also a conversation with Ireland’s renowned artist on how they have utilised the city’s canvas to voice their loves and outrages.

Street art in Dublin has evolved over the last few years, and there is now a history of the work on our streets and buildings. Street art, once frowned upon, and seen as indistinguishable from graffiti, is now very much an established art form and means of artistic expression and has become increasingly more prevalent, in terms of scale and of the subject matter covered. Now more than ever our cities have become canvases that can testify to the changes in society’s norms, and acts as a revolving creative space for political and social commentary.

First Broadcast: Easter Monday 11th April 2020

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Egg Money is the story of a generation of women who worked to improve life in rural Ireland; countrywomen often stereotyped and overlooked in their roles as mothers, homemakers and farmer’s wives; women who were not initially considered part of the women’s movement. These women, now aged between 70 and 90, tell their stories, and when woven together, highlight a very different story than the one expected. These women played a vital role in the development of rural Ireland. They were activists, lobbyists, and business women with very independent means.

First Broadcast: Sunday 17 November 2019

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Enquiring Minds is the philosophical enquiry undertaken by a class of ten year olds from 4th class at the Central Model School, Gardiner Street in Dublin’s Inner City. The children are participating in an Art and Philosophy in the Classroom Programme. Enquiring Minds is the voice of children exploring and questioning and enquiring combined with the reflection of philosophers and artists, to bring a better understanding of children’s capacity for critical and independent thought.

Enquiring Minds is a Curious Broadcast production funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland through the television licence fee.

First Broadcast: 1st September 2019

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A Hidden Fanfare is the story of St. James’s Brass and Reed Band, a band that has been playing music in Ireland for over two centuries. They have been present at key points in Ireland’s history but their own story has lain hidden, until now.

St. James’s Brass and Reed Band is the oldest band in Ireland and they still play. The secret of the band’s unbroken tradition and survival is entirely due to service of its members. At its core is a group of people who are passionate about their music, who play as a family, and who have lovingly kept the tradition on through generations. This is the story of a band that has marched through the history of modern Ireland, and continues to play on.

First Broadcast: 19th May, 2019

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Steamboat Ladies is the story of 700 female students from colleges in Oxford and Cambridge who travelled to Trinity College Dublin by Steamboat between 1904 -1907 to collect their degrees. They did this because their own universities refused to confer degrees upon women.

In 1904 Trinity College Dublin opened its doors for the first time to women students. This was a ground breaking move but it had unintended consequences. Between 1904 and 1907, 700 female students from colleges in Oxford and Cambridge traveled to Trinity to receive their degrees, because their own universities refused to confer degrees upon women. They traveled to Ireland by Steamboat. And as such became known as “the Steamboat Ladies”. These were pioneering women from the field of academia, science, and humanities, and they went on to have careers that began to shape the newly emerging role of women in politics and society.

First Broadcast: 21st April, 2019

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Charred Remains tells the story of the destruction in 1922 of Ireland’s Public Records Office. This office, located at Dublin’s Four Courts, was a treasure trove of legal proceedings, ecclesiastical records, censuses, genealogical records, wills, and parish registers, which were destroyed during Ireland’s Civil War in 1922.

Forward-thinking archivists collected and stored the charred remains of these records, which were scattered all over Dublin, even as far as Howth Head, confident that in years to come, future generations would be able to save some of these archival fragments.

First Broadcast: 3rd February 2019

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the story of a man many would consider the father of computing in Ireland, Professor John Byrne, “The Professor” explores the life and influence of a shy but brilliant Trinity College Dublin scholar with extraordinary vision, who was directly responsible for the success of the Irish Software sector.

First Broadcast: 9th September 2018

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.