Documentary on Newstalk

Premiere of new Irish radio drama on gangland feuds

The latest radio drama to be broadcast by Newstalk 106 – 108fm as part of its weekly Documentary & Drama On Newstalk series is Idlewild.

In Idlewild, producer Brian Gallagher brings us his radio adaptation of Jimmy Murphy’s stage-play, a drama in which the leaders of two feuding crime groups meet to explore the possibility of a radical sacrifice to end their bloody feud…

The radio premiere of ‘Idlewild’ airs on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday 12th July at 7am, with a repeat broadcast on Saturday 18th July at 9pm. Podcast goes live after first broadcast.   

 IMRO-nominated producer Brian Gallagher’s latest work is an adaptation of renowned playwright Jimmy Murphy's powerful and topical drama, Idlewild, which deals with a murderous gangland feud...

The Rev and The Bunny are the leaders of two feuding crime groups who meet, under truce, at a Dublin graveyard.  Former boyhood friends, they have both ordered the killing of members each other’s families, but have agreed to meet in person to try to stop the escalating death toll.

Their complicated back story emerges as they dig a grave – for whom it’s not clear.  We learn of their shared experiences and strong bonds – but bonds that have been sundered by violence and betrayal.

The scale of the cost of their crimes to society and their respective families becomes clear, and we learn that they have agreed that a radical sacrifice is the only way to end their bloody feud...

Based on a successful stage play that toured Ireland, Idlewild translates well to the medium of radio, with the shifting dynamic between the two gang leaders evocatively created with dialogue, music, and sound effects.

Featuring Rex Ryan and Ruairi Heading, Idlewild was written by Jimmy Murphy and adapted for radio and produced and directed by Brian Gallagher.   The programme was funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television License Fee.

BROADCAST: The radio premiere of ‘Idlewild’ airs on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday 12th July at 7am, with a repeat broadcast on Saturday 18th July at 9pm. Podcast goes live after first broadcast.   

PODCAST: Idlewild is broadcast as part of the Documentary and Drama On Newstalk Series, which showcases the best of original, homegrown and groundbreaking Irish Radio features. Podcast full series here:

 https://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/page/1/filter?filter_selected=show-filter&show=documentary-drama-newstalk&series=all

Sound And Vision Funding Scheme: Sound and Vision is a funding scheme for television and radio that provides funding in support of high quality programmes on Irish culture, heritage and experience, and programmes to improve adult literacy. The scheme is managed by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

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Newstalk explores modern day slavery, also known as Human Trafficking.

“There is evidence of human trafficking occurring in every village, in every town across the island of Ireland. And I don't think we know exactly how prevalent it is, because it is very much a hidden crime”. 

In the latest radio documentary to be broadcast by Newstalk 106 – 108fm as part of it’s weekly Documentary On Newstalk series, ‘Do Disturb’, Producer Patricia Baker looks at one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises; trafficking of human beings, referred to as modern day slavery. Ireland is not immune to this global catastrophe. Human trafficking is a growing criminal activity and justice issue in Ireland.  The need for public awareness is paramount, and one Irish charity, MECPATHS, has a simple idea, that will open our eyes to this issue.

The radio premiere of ‘Do Disturb’ airs on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday 5th July at 7am, with a repeat broadcast airing on Saturday 11th July at 9pm. Podcast goes live after first broadcast. 

Lembagai KITA / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

Patricia Baker, Producer of 'Do Disturb' says:

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.

Extracts from the ‘Do Disturb':

“When we look at the global number it is estimated that over 40 million people suffer from human trafficking, also referred to as Modern Day Slavery, today.  If we think of the times of the transatlantic slave trade which were shocking times, during the two centuries, there was about 15 million people in slavery. So the problem is worse now.

“If we turn it back to here in Ireland, I have met women who have been trafficked into and within Ireland and used as a commodity.  The people controlling them have often been Irish people, the people using the service have been Irish people. .. We have now turned people into a commodity and that generates income and profit to $150 billon a year”.

Kevin Hyland OBE: Kevin is a renowned international specialist in the fight against modern slavery and human trafficking. His expertise has been shaped by 30 years experience as an officer in London’s Metropolitan Police Service, notably, as head of the Human Trafficking Unit. In 2014 Kevin was appointed as the UK’s Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner.   In 2015 Kevin was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.), acknowledging his outstanding service in combating human trafficking.

“I know from working overseas that human trafficking and child trafficking is on the rise. It is one of the fastest growing criminal industries is in the world.  I would say that is our number one obstacle to overcome, is to overcome the perceived idea that human and child trafficking is something that happens overseas and not here in Ireland.” Ann Mara, Education Manager, MECPATHS

 “Interfere.  Get stuck in there, be the noisy ol’ one.  That would have made a difference in my case.  If one person had stood up for me and said ‘this child matters enough to be removed from a situation where she is being abused on a daily basis’.  That would have changed my life immeasurably. And it never happened.  And people knew.”  Hazel Larkin, Writer, teacher, activist.

CREDITS: ‘Do Disturb’ is a Curious Broadcast production funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television License Fee. It was narrated and produced by Patricia Baker, with edit and final mix by Gerry Horan at Contact Studio. Music by Úna Keane.

Sound and Vision Scheme: Sound and Vision is a funding scheme for television and radio that provides funding in support of high quality programmes on Irish culture, heritage and experience, and programmes to improve adult literacy. The scheme is managed by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

BROADCAST: The radio premiere of ‘Do Disturb’  airs on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday 5th July at 7am, with a repeat broadcast airing on Saturday 11th July at 9pm. Podcast goes live after first broadcast. 

PODCAST: ‘Do Disturb’ is broadcast as part of the Documentary and Drama On Newstalk Series, which showcases the best of original, homegrown and groundbreaking Irish Radio features. Podcast full series here:

 https://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/page/1/filter?filter_selected=show-filter&show=documentary-drama-newstalk&series=all

Listen and subscribe to Documentary on Newstalk on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

  

Download, listen and subscribe on the Newstalk App.

  

You can also listen to Newstalk live on newstalk.com or on Alexa, by adding the Newstalk skill and asking: 'Alexa, play Newstalk'.

New documentary explores the lives of Irish girl orphans shipped to Australia during the famine

In the latest radio documentary to be broadcast by Newstalk 106 – 108fm as part of it’s weekly Documentary On Newstalk series, producer J.J. O`Shea looks at the controversial scheme in which over 4000 young orphan women were shipped to Australia from workhouses all over Ireland during the Great Famine in “The Earl Grey Girls”

The radio premiere of ‘The Earl Grey Girls’  airs on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday 21st June at 7am, with a repeat broadcast airing on Saturday 27th June at 9pm. Podcast goes live after first broadcast. 

In the years 1848 to 1850, in the midst of the Great famine, over four thousand young Irish women, teenagers as we would call them today, set sail on a voyage to the unknown. They were travelling to a destination and a way of life utterly different to anything they had yet experienced.

The Great Famine National Monumentcc-by-sa/2.0 - © Bruce Hall - geograph.org.uk/p/23194

During the 1840’s an issue of real concern had emerged in Australia. There was a disproportionate amount of men on the British colony. It was said that in the outback the gender balance was eight men to one woman. This was because the majority of convicts sent out to Australia in previous decades had been male, as indeed were the settlers who had been encouraged to travel out on various assisted passage schemes. Women were desperately needed in the workforce, primarily in the role of domestic servants, and, of course, as potential marriage partners. A possible solution emerged in Ireland.

In Ireland, during the years of the Great Famine, workhouses offered the only possible hope to numerous famine victims with nowhere else to turn. But they were overcrowded, dirty and disease ridden places. Among the numbers in these workhouses all over the country were thousands of young orphan women and the British Government devised a plan, under the management of Earl Grey, to offer free passage to Australia to some of these women. The idea was to address the gender imbalance in Australia and to help reduce the rising maintenance costs in the burgeoning workhouses. For the British Government it seemed like a clever solution to two problems.

“The Earl Grey Girls” tells the story of the young women who travelled to the other side of the world as part of the Earl Grey scheme. It shows how the girls were chosen and transported without any real understanding of what lay ahead. It looks at their subsequent experience in Australia and their attempts to build a life far from home and it considers the animosity shown to the girls in the Australian press that led to the closure of the scheme. In addition the programme seeks to evaluate whether the scheme proved an opportunity or a tragedy for the girls who participated.

Interviews with the girl`s descendants in Australia, expert historians from Ireland and Australia, and excerpts from contemporaneous accounts, newspaper articles, letters and diaries are drawn on to create the fullest possible picture of the girls and their legacy. An original song, written especially for the programme, expressing the hopes and fears of the girls while on the voyage to Australia, and sung by Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, is woven into the narrative.

CREDITS: "The Earl Grey Girls" was Produced by J.J. O`Shea and was supported by a grant from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, as part of the Sound and Vision Scheme. Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh sang Seolaimíd

BROADCAST: The radio premiere of ‘The Earl Grey Girls’  airs on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday 21st June at 7am, with a repeat broadcast airing on Saturday 27th June at 9pm. Podcast goes live after first broadcast. 

PODCAST: ‘The Earl Grey Girls’ is broadcast as part of the Documentary and Drama On Newstalk Series, which showcases the best of original, homegrown and groundbreaking Irish Radio features. Podcast full series here:

 https://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/page/1/filter?filter_selected=show-filter&show=documentary-drama-newstalk&series=all

Documentary on Newstalk

Listen and subscribe to Documentary on Newstalk on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

  

Download, listen and subscribe on the Newstalk App.

  

You can also listen to Newstalk live on newstalk.com or on Alexa, by adding the Newstalk skill and asking: 'Alexa, play Newstalk'.

Sound And Vision Funding Scheme: Sound and Vision is a funding scheme for television and radio that provides funding in support of high quality programmes on Irish culture, heritage and experience, and programmes to improve adult literacy. The scheme is managed by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Spy Thriller airs on Newstalk

The latest homegrown radio drama to be broadcast as part of the Drama On Newstalk series is The Dead Key, a contemporary spy thriller by Alan Meaney and Jason Gill. 

This weekend, Drama on Newstalk are proud to broadcast the premiere of a new original Irish radio drama, The Dead Key.

In The Dead Key, Producer Alan Meaney and director Jason Gill fashion a contemporary spy thriller and tale of family loyalty...

Brendan Grattan was a young writer with the world at his feet, until a sex scandal caused him to spend the rest of his life in disgrace and silence.

Back in Ireland for Brendan’s memorial, his niece Stephanie begins to doubt the official explanation of his disgrace. Was Brendan innocent after all? And if so, did his dishonour hide another, infinitely more terrible secret?

Her probing introduces her to different associates from Brendan’s life; Marina, his mysterious former Russian lover and British spy David Prentice who demands to know if her uncle has passed on any ‘secrets’ after his death.

The Dead Key unfolds over two episodes through Brendan’s posthumous narrative, spoken into a recording left for his niece, and Stephanie’s efforts to explore the mystery.

BROADCAST TIMES: 

‘The Dead Key’ (Episode 1) will be broadcast on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday June 7th 2020 at 7am, with repeat broadcast on Saturday June 13th at 9pm. Podcast goes live after first broadcast.

'The Dead Key' Episode 2 premieres on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday June 14th 2020 at 7am, with repeat broadcast on Saturday June 20th at 9pm. Podcast goes live after first broadcast. 

PODCAST SERIES: The Dead Key is broadcast as part of the Documentary and Drama On Newstalk Series, which showcases the best of original, homegrown and groundbreaking Irish Radio features. Podcast full Drama On Newstalk series here:

 https://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/page/1/filter?filter_selected=show-filter&show=documentary-drama-newstalk&series=all

Documentary on Newstalk

Listen and subscribe to Documentary on Newstalk on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

  

Download, listen and subscribe on the Newstalk App.

  

You can also listen to Newstalk live on newstalk.com or on Alexa, by adding the Newstalk skill and asking: 'Alexa, play Newstalk'.

CREDITS: ‘The Dead Key’ was written and directed by Jason Gill.  It was produced, recorded and edited by Alan Meaney. The cast are Martin Kelleher, Sarah Gordon, Anne Hoey, Pawel Starkowski, Irena Cvetkovic, Ollie Hegarty and Harry Smith. The programme was funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television License Fee

ABOUT THE PRODUCERS:

Alan Meaney is an independent radio producer, based in Galway, specialising in dramas, documentaries and short features.  His work has been aired on RTE, Newstalk, Resonance FM and on various community and regional stations. His radio dramas have been nominated for 7 European Radio Drama Awards. Heads Up - a series on positive mental health was the winner of a CRAOL Award in 2016. A Pilot’s Honour, won bronze at the IMRO Radio Awards 2018 in the drama category. You can listen to his work at www.alanmeaney.ie

Jason Gill has been involved in community theatre since the early 1990’s, and has acted in almost 30 plays. He has written and directed his own full length plays, ‘The House of Peter’ performed to much acclaim in 1994 and ‘The Brothers Malone’, which was performed by Athlone Little Theatre group at festivals throughout Ireland during 2006 and 2007. He has also directed Billy Roche’s ‘Poor Beast in the Rain’ and Willy Russell’s comedy ‘One For The Road’.

He worked as a journalist and columnist for twenty years, and has written a number of novels and short stories. He currently hosts ‘For Art’s Sake’, the weekly arts review programme and ‘Athlone Today’ a current affairs programme on Athlone Community Radio. He wrote and directed the Sound and Vision funded eight part radio detective series, The Killing of Sheila Price and the Sound & Vision funded radio dramas Love Was, When Harry Met Satan The Prime of Johnny Broody and Fairies Only Wear Wings.  A Pilot’s Honour, written and directed by Jason, won bronze at the IMRO Radio Awards 2018 in the drama category.

Sound And Vision Funding Scheme: Sound and Vision is a funding scheme for television and radio that provides funding in support of high quality programmes on Irish culture, heritage and experience, and programmes to improve adult literacy. The scheme is managed by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

New Spy Thriller airs on Newstalk

The latest homegrown radio drama to be broadcast as part of the Drama On Newstalk series is The Dead Key, a contemporary spy thriller by Alan Meaney and Jason Gill. 

This weekend, Drama on Newstalk are proud to broadcast the premiere of a new original Irish radio drama, The Dead Key.

In The Dead Key, Producer Alan Meaney and director Jason Gill fashion a contemporary spy thriller and tale of family loyalty...

Brendan Grattan was a young writer with the world at his feet, until a sex scandal caused him to spend the rest of his life in disgrace and silence.

Back in Ireland for Brendan’s memorial, his niece Stephanie begins to doubt the official explanation of his disgrace. Was Brendan innocent after all? And if so, did his dishonour hide another, infinitely more terrible secret?

Her probing introduces her to different associates from Brendan’s life; Marina, his mysterious former Russian lover and British spy David Prentice who demands to know if her uncle has passed on any ‘secrets’ after his death.

The Dead Key unfolds over two episodes through Brendan’s posthumous narrative, spoken into a recording left for his niece, and Stephanie’s efforts to explore the mystery.

BROADCAST TIMES: 

‘The Dead Key’ (Episode 1) will be broadcast on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday June 7th 2020 at 7am, with repeat broadcast on Saturday June 13th at 9pm. Podcast goes live after first broadcast.

'The Dead Key' Episode 2 premieres on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday June 14th 2020 at 7am, with repeat broadcast on Saturday June 20th at 9pm. Podcast goes live after first broadcast. 

PODCAST SERIES: The Dead Key is broadcast as part of the Documentary and Drama On Newstalk Series, which showcases the best of original, homegrown and groundbreaking Irish Radio features. Podcast full Drama On Newstalk series here:

 https://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/page/1/filter?filter_selected=show-filter&show=documentary-drama-newstalk&series=all

CREDITS: ‘The Dead Key’ was written and directed by Jason Gill.  It was produced, recorded and edited by Alan Meaney. The cast are Martin Kelleher, Sarah Gordon, Anne Hoey, Pawel Starkowski, Irena Cvetkovic, Ollie Hegarty and Harry Smith. The programme was funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television License Fee

ABOUT THE PRODUCERS:

Alan Meaney is an independent radio producer, based in Galway, specialising in dramas, documentaries and short features.  His work has been aired on RTE, Newstalk, Resonance FM and on various community and regional stations. His radio dramas have been nominated for 7 European Radio Drama Awards. Heads Up - a series on positive mental health was the winner of a CRAOL Award in 2016. A Pilot’s Honour, won bronze at the IMRO Radio Awards 2018 in the drama category. You can listen to his work at www.alanmeaney.ie

Jason Gill has been involved in community theatre since the early 1990’s, and has acted in almost 30 plays. He has written and directed his own full length plays, ‘The House of Peter’ performed to much acclaim in 1994 and ‘The Brothers Malone’, which was performed by Athlone Little Theatre group at festivals throughout Ireland during 2006 and 2007. He has also directed Billy Roche’s ‘Poor Beast in the Rain’ and Willy Russell’s comedy ‘One For The Road’.

He worked as a journalist and columnist for twenty years, and has written a number of novels and short stories. He currently hosts ‘For Art’s Sake’, the weekly arts review programme and ‘Athlone Today’ a current affairs programme on Athlone Community Radio. He wrote and directed the Sound and Vision funded eight part radio detective series, The Killing of Sheila Price and the Sound & Vision funded radio dramas Love Was, When Harry Met Satan The Prime of Johnny Broody and Fairies Only Wear Wings.  A Pilot’s Honour, written and directed by Jason, won bronze at the IMRO Radio Awards 2018 in the drama category.

Sound And Vision Funding Scheme: Sound and Vision is a funding scheme for television and radio that provides funding in support of high quality programmes on Irish culture, heritage and experience, and programmes to improve adult literacy. The scheme is managed by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

Documentary celebrating the Irish aid worker who saved the lives of many Jewish children during WW11

"It’s estimated that at least 80 children were directly saved by Mary Elmes. She never sought any attention for her actions, and her story has only recently become known".

In her new radio documentary feature, ‘Mary Elmes’, premiering this weekend on Newstalk 106-108fm as part of the Documentary On Newstalk Series, producer Bairbre Flood tells the extraordinary true story of Irish relief worker, Mary Elmes, who smuggled dozens of children to safety during WW2.

The radio premiere of ‘Mary Elmes’ airs on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday 31st May at 7am, with a repeat broadcast airing on Saturday 6th June at 9pm. Podcast goes live after first broadcast. 

In ‘Mary Elmes’, producer Bairbre Flood tells the story of the only Irish person recognised as ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ for saving Jewish children during the Holocaust.

Mary Elmes, Irish Aid Worker credited with saving the lives of many Jewish children during World War 2

Mary Elmes was an Irish aid worker credited with saving the lives of dozens of Jewish children during the Holocaust, by hiding them in the boot of her car.

A fascinating character for many reasons, her work during the Spanish Civil War and then in Rivesaltes Refugee Camp in the South of France are noteworthy even in themselves. But it’s for risking her life, rescuing Jewish refugees who were being sent to concentration camps that she’ll be most remembered.

Her story raises all kinds of questions about moral courage and humanitarianism - and contrasts sharply with the official policy of the Irish government during the Holocaust.

Producer Bairbre Flood talks to Ronald Friend and Charlotte Berger-Greneche (two of the people whose lives she saved), her biographers Clodagh Finn and Paddy Butler, her family, long-time Quaker researchers Bernard and Janet Wilson, Mervyn O’Driscoll (Head of History, UCC), and Heino Schonfeld of the Holocaust Education Trust Ireland.

It’s estimated that at least 80 children were directly saved by Mary Elmes. She never sought any attention for her actions, and her story has only recently become known.

‘She was not alone. There were a lot of people doing the same thing with her. She couldn’t do all that without other people,’ - Mary’s daughter, Caroline.

Caroline pointed out that her mother never desired recognition for her work, eschewing a saviour narrative, and acknowledging the many people who worked together to do what they could under dire circumstances.

And yet, there’s no doubt Mary Elmes was a remarkable woman - a humanitarian who ‘had a tremendous ability and persistence to do what was right,’ as her cousin, Mark Elmes puts it. ‘She stuck with it through thick and thin, and all she was concerned about were the victims.

The radio premiere of ‘Mary Elmes’ airs on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday 31st May at 7am, with a repeat broadcast airing on Saturday 6th June at 9pm. Podcast goes live after first broadcast. 

CREDITS: ‘Mary Elmes’ was produced by Bairbre Flood and funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television License Fee. as part of the Sound And Vision Scheme.funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television License Fee. as part of the Sound And Vision Scheme

PODCAST: ‘Mary Elmes’ is broadcast as part of the Documentary and Drama On Newstalk Series, which showcases the best of original, homegrown and groundbreaking Irish Radio features. Podcast full series here:

 https://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/page/1/filter?filter_selected=show-filter&show=documentary-drama-newstalk&series=all

Sound And Vision Funding Scheme: Sound and Vision is a funding scheme for television and radio that provides funding in support of high quality programmes on Irish culture, heritage and experience, and programmes to improve adult literacy. The scheme is managed by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

 

New Newstalk Documentary exploring the lives of refugee women and girls

"Less than 20 per cent of girls in South Sudan can read and write".

On Documentary on Newstalk this week,  Newstalk Producer and Presenter Susan Cahill travels to one of the most isolated refugee camps in the world - to Maban in South Sudan to hear how the Jesuit Refugee Service is providing much needed humanitarian support and services to vulnerable refugee populations in ‘Moving Forward: How Education is transforming the lives of young refugee women and girls’.

‘Moving Forward’ will be broadcast on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday the 17th of May from 7am to 8am and then repeated on Saturday the 23rd of May from 9pm to 10pm. Podcast available after first broadcast.

Doro Refugee Camp, South Sudan. Image by Susan Cahill

South Sudan is the world’s youngest nation and is home to Africa’s largest humanitarian and refugee crisis. Today, over 4.3 million refugees, asylum seekers and IDPS are living in the country with 92% coming from the Blue Nile region of Sudan. According to UNHCR over 2.3 million people have fled the conflict in South Sudan and are living on refugee camps mainly in Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda, while inside the country approximately 1.47 million people have been forced from their homes and are internally displaced.

Since 2011, the Jesuit Refugee Service has been providing much need humanitarian support and services to host and refugee populations. The idea of accompaniment is central to their work.

In ‘Moving Forward’ Newstalk Presenter/Producer travels to Maban in South Sudan - one of the most isolated refugee camps in the world where over 160,000 refugees are living across 4 refugee sites – Doro, Batil, Kaya and Gendrassa. Here most of the refugees do not have enough to eat and access to drinking water is very limited. Women and girls make up most of the population.

Children Playing, Doro Refugee Camp, Maban South Sudan. Image by Susan Cahill.

On Doro, the largest of the camps, the JRS runs a day care centre for disabled children, a counselling and psychosocial support clinic for women and youths and a range of home visits programmes for the disabled and elderly. Added to this, is an impressive teacher training centre close to the town of Bunj, the capital of Maban County.

Hawa, JRS Teacher Training Centre, Maban, South Sudan Image by Susan Cahill

In 'Moving Forward', Susan Cahill introduces listeners to an impressive and vibrant range of refugee women and girls who are gaining an education and transforming their lives

BROADCAST DETAILS: ‘Moving Forward’ will be broadcast on Sunday the 17th of May from 7am to 8am and then repeated on Saturday the 23rd of May from 9pm to 10pm. Podcast available after first broadcast.

PODCAST SERIES: 'Moving Forward' is broadcast as part of the Documentary and Drama On Newstalk Series, which showcases the best of original, homegrown and groundbreaking Irish Radio features. Podcast full series here.

Listen and subscribe to Documentary on Newstalk on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

  

Download, listen and subscribe on the Newstalk App.

  

You can also listen to Newstalk live on newstalk.com or on Alexa, by adding the Newstalk skill and asking: 'Alexa, play Newstalk'.

Susan Cahill’s visit to South Sudan was supported by the Irish Jesuit Missions, a registered charity that funds education and development programmes in Africa, Cambodia, China and the Middle East, to help communities that are marginalised due to poverty, conflict and global injustice to thrive. For more information, see their website www.jesuitmissions.ie

The World Food Programme estimates that 7.5 million of South Sudan’s population are in need humanitarian assistance while it is estimated that over 860,000 of children under the age of five are acutely malnourished. This month the World Food Programme is operating with 75 percent of the funds that it needs to support its operations in South Sudan.

The latest radio documentary to be broadcast by Newstalk 106 – 108fm as part of it’s weekly Documentary On Newstalk series is ‘Brewery Days’, in which IMRO-nominated producer Brian Gallagher explores the lives of those who worked in the world-within-a-world that was Guinness’s Brewery in the Sixties and Seventies.

Brewery Days broadcasts on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday 10th May at 7am with repeat broadcast on Saturday 16th May at 9pm

Using a lively mix of interviews, location recordings, sound effects, and topical news stories and music, Brewery Days follows the journey of one employee from boyhood to manhood in Ireland’s most famous brewery.

The narrator tells of passing the Boys’ Examination and starting work in the Brewery the same month that Nelson’s Pillar was demolished.

Guinness historian Willie Mullen tells of how the Boys’ Examination was sent to Trinity College for marking, and we follow in the narrator’s footsteps as he starts work in the Brewery Laboratory, and begins his exploration of the fascinating world of the 64-acre Guinness plant, with its underground trains, electricity power station, and company fire brigade and police.

We hear how the company was progressive in many ways, yet had an old-fashioned pecking order that seemed to hanker after the past.

Paul Carty of Diageo explains how times have moved on, and how the company has made an unused building into The Storehouse, now one of Dublin’s top visitor attractions.

To a background of late Sixties music and news, the narrator describes his experiences in the the Brewery, and Alan Clarke, a former employee, tells of the company’s outstanding sports facilities at Crumlin Road.

Anne Manners reminisces about her status as a “Lady Clerk” and of causing a stir on meeting her future husband in the Guinness Table Tennis Club.

We hear from the narrator how with the advent of the Seventies the company branched out into pleasure cruising, and Jean Roche tells of the arrival of computerisation in Guinness.

The narrator recalls social change finally altering the conservative mores of the Brewery, and the shock in the workplace when the first time and motion studies were carried out

In the wider world Ireland joined the EEC and the Vietnam War ended, and then the narrator, after seven colourful years, takes voluntary redundancy, and leaves the Brewery to start his new life...

Quotes from Brewery Days:

“Some very clever person came up with the idea of using the Storehouse, which had been lying vacant.  And now it’s Ireland’s number one fee-paying attraction.” Paul Carty, Diageo.

“You had handball, bowls, tennis, soccer, gaelic, pitch and putt, rugby, hockey, cricket, table tennis, snooker and darts -The Iveagh Ground was a mecca.”  Alan Clarke, former Guinness employee.

 “The first time I asked her out she wasn’t sure if it was a joke or not, because it was April Fools’ Day”  Michael Manners.   “I met loads of people at the Guinness table tennis club – including my future husband.” Anne Manners.

“The early Seventies was the cusp of change between the old manual way of brewing and the new, more automated way of brewing that we do now.” Eibhlinn Roche, archivist.

“We were involved in a very competitive situation with our sister brewery in London, and it was always kind of held over us that there was a possibility that they could take over the Irish trade.”  Bob Kerr, former brewer.

“The punch room had about fourteen girls; the main frame computer had a huge room to itself and its own air conditioning; and the hard drives were mini-cabinets.” Jean Roche, former computer operator.

CREDITS: Brewery Days was produced by Brian Gallagher, and funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television License Fee.

BROADCAST: The radio premiere of Brewery Days airs on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday 10th May at 7am with repeat broadcast on Saturday 16th May at 9pm

PODCAST goes live after first broadcast.   

PODCAST: Brewery Days is broadcast as part of the Documentary and Drama On Newstalk Series, which showcases the best of original, homegrown and groundbreaking Irish Radio features. Podcast full series here:

 https://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/page/1/filter?filter_selected=show-filter&show=documentary-drama-newstalk&series=all

 

In Art/Rage, Producer Patricia Baker takes a walk through the streets of Dublin with artist and activist Will St. Leger to explore the evolution of street art in Ireland.

The radio premiere of ‘Art/Rage’ airs on Newstalk 106-108fm on Monday 13th April at 11am, with a repeat broadcast airing on Saturday 18th April at 9pm. Podcast goes live after first broadcast. 

The latest radio documentary to be broadcast by Newstalk 106 – 108fm as part of it’s weekly Documentary On Newstalk series is Art/Rage, at look how street art has transformed our streets into a revolving gallery of colour and images. Created as an audio journey through the streets of Dublin with artist and activist Will St. Leger, documentary maker Patricia Baker explores the evolution of street art in Ireland. The programme argues that 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.

Credit: One Kind Word. Street Art for 3Ts By Will St. Leger. Location: Middle Abbey Street Dublin.

St. Leger says that street art enriches the city. “I believe if you go to a city, and take one hour out, not to look at the landmarks but to look at the marks on the wall, you will get a sense of the cultural temperature of the city”

Credit: Dublin City Graffiti Photo By Oliver Gargan. The work was created by Emma Blake (Estr)

In Art/Rage. Baker interviews a range of established street artists, from Ireland and abroad, as well as Dublin City Council Arts Office to examine the tension that street art often brings when a wall has been painted without permission, and what procedures are being put in place to ease those tensions. She speaks to a representative of street art collective Subset about their Grey Area project and examines the relationship between graffiti and street art.

Artist Al Maser: “I started graffiti maybe at 14…. It did a lot for me graffiti, it was a whole subculture, we are using words like street art, that word was not around when we started, it was graffiti.  There are two different worlds.   Graffiti is coming from writing your name, abstract typography, screwing letterforms and manipulating them, and that is how you express yourself and it develops on to bigger productions and murals.  Street art is coming from originally a more political place were you a communicating a message.  They have all merged into one now.  People with different disciplines are coming into working in the public space a lot more.”

In her exploration of the street art in Dublin, Baker highlights what’s hidden in plain sight, an “Easter egg hunt for the observant” as St. Leger puts it.  We might not have noticed James Earley’s mammoth mural enveloping Blooms Hotel in Temple Bar or the small pieces of glazed tiles etched with private messages in Crampton Court Temple Bar, but the art is there, transforming the cityscape in to a revolving gallery. As Street Artist Kinmx said “it is lovely to find these gifts, when you are walking through the street….”

CREDITS: Art / Rage   is a Curious Broadcast production funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television License Fee. It was narrated and produced by Patricia Baker, with edit and final mix by Gerry Horan at Contact Studio.  Original Music Score by Gerry Horan.

BROADCAST: The radio premiere of ‘Art/Rage’ airs on Newstalk 106-108fm on Monday 13th April at 11am, with a repeat broadcast airing on Saturday 18th April at 9pm. Podcast goes live after first broadcast.   

PODCAST: Art/Rage is broadcast as part of the Documentary and Drama On Newstalk Series, which showcases the best of original, homegrown and groundbreaking Irish Radio features. Podcast full series here:

 https://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/page/1/filter?filter_selected=show-filter&show=documentary-drama-newstalk&series=all

Sound And Vision Funding Scheme: Sound and Vision is a funding scheme for television and radio that provides funding in support of high quality programmes on Irish culture, heritage and experience, and programmes to improve adult literacy. The scheme is managed by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

 

 

New documentary shines a spotlight on Leinster Schools rugby and life in Dublin in the 1980’s and today.

In ‘Class Rugby’, producer Jane Farley unfolds a classic tale of underdogs taking on an institution of privilege and might.

In a blast of music, memories and politics and we’re taken back to the 1980’s to travel the road with a band of Churchtown teenagers as they take on the established rugby-playing private schools of Leinster.

The radio premiere of ‘Class Rugby’ airs on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday 5th April at 7am, with a repeat broadcast airing on Saturday 11th April at 9pm. Podcast goes live directly after first broadcast.

In the world of Leinster school’s rugby, the most coveted prize is the Senior Cup- ‘it’s the holy grail’. The top fee-paying schools of Dublin tend to pass it around amongst themselves and have done so since it’s inauguration 133 years ago. But in 1983, De la Salle College, a non-feepaying school in the newly developed suburb of Churchtown, was the ecstatic and unlikely winner of the Senior Cup.

Everyone had written the 1983 team off, but their coach Brian Farley - also the producer’s father - knew that they had the potential to be a great team. Alan Mooney, wing forward remembers the humiliating defeats they suffered during the pre-season run of friendly matches but saw that ‘we had talent all over the place.’

In a decade that was coping with the arrival of AIDS, a heroin epidemic and the threat of nuclear war, ‘Class Rugby’ follows the Churchtown boys through the knock-out rounds and on to the final. Front row Diarmuid Coogan remembers wearing a black armband in support of the hunger strikers ‘I probably got a name for being a bit of a radical from that stage onwards,’ and reveals his own personal experience as a consequence of the 1983 Abortion Referendum.

With a soundtrack of Depeche Mode, Kajagoogoo, Phil Collins, The Clash, Abba and more, ‘Class Rugby’ immerses the listener in the lighter side of the 80’s. The men remember their teenage angst and excitement, going to victory parties, fancying girls and ‘having a first drink, the first drink of many for some’.

‘Class Rugby’  examines why it is that a cluster of Dublin’s elite fee-paying schools keep winning the cup year after year. How much do money and tradition really matter and how did the abolition of 2nd level fees and then 3rd level fees impact on people…and rugby?

Tom Leigh, a teacher in De la Salle today, highlights that the numbers of adult men continuing to play rugby after school are in free fall at the moment. He wants his pupils to have a sport for life and questions how much pressure is put on schoolboy players and how rugby becoming a professional game has impacted on the game at all levels.

Class Rugby shines a spotlight on Leinster Schools rugby and life in Dublin in the 1980’s and today.

CREDITS: ‘Class Rugby’ was written and produced by Jane Farley, sound engineered by Steve McGrath. ‘Class Rugby’ was funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the television licence fee.

The radio premiere of ‘Class Rugby’ airs on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday 5th April at 7am, with a repeat broadcast airing on Saturday 11th April at 9pm. Podcast goes live directly after first broadcast.

PODCAST: Class Rugby is broadcast as part of the Documentary and Drama On Newstalk Series, which showcases the best of original, homegrown and groundbreaking Irish Radio features. Podcast full series here:

 https://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/page/1/filter?filter_selected=show-filter&show=documentary-drama-newstalk&series=all