Documentary on Newstalk

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

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

Yummy Mummy: Radio Drama Premieres on Newstalk this weekend

‘Yummy Mummy’ is an original radio drama by Aisling O’Connor and Siobhan Clarke about a woman’s struggle to find her place in a modern materialistic Ireland

Lydia Cummings is a 40-year-old mother of two young teens, recently returned to live in Ireland from Australia. Her husband’s sales director's role in Ireland’s booming IT sector offers the family a dream home in Kildare, and Lydia, a new-found wealth and freedom. She is befriended by a well-heeled neighbour, Anna, who introduces her to a tight circle of 'ladies who latte' - Anna, Sophie and alpha female, Natasha. Losing a grip of her formerly down-to-earth home life, Lydia immerses herself in a Paltrow-esque existence where food is designer, fashion is a religion, and showcasing a ‘curated’ lifestyle is paramount...

LIVE BROADCAST: ‘Yummy Mummy’ broadcasts on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday 29th March at 7am, and repeated at 9pm on Saturday 4th April 2020. Podcast goes live directly after first broadcast.

PODCAST HERE:

    

[audio mp3="https://media.radiocms.net/uploads/2020/03/27142215/Yummy_Mummy_Full-PODCAST.mp3"][/audio]

PODCAST: Yummy Mummy is broadcast as part of the Drama On Newstalk Series, which showcases the best of original, homegrown and groundbreaking Irish Radio Drama. Podcast full series here: https://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/drama-on-newstalk

In the new Irish Radio Drama, 'Yummy Mummy', writers Aisling O’Connor & Siobhan Clarke, set out to create a story that spoke to modern Irish women who yearn for value and acceptance beyond the realm of the family home. This drama, set during the latter stages of the recession, exposes the underbelly of the lifestyle phenomenon which gripped Irish culture during this time. The sub-theme looks at how non-career women can feel displaced by society once their children are reared, leading them to seek value in the veneer of looks and lifestyle.

The drama looks at Irish culture’s obsession with a visibly curated lifestyle through a group of middle class women who rely on it in order to be valued via feelings of superiority and desirability. In this context the production is timely for Irish audiences as it offers an inside view of our society’s insecurity-driven pursuit of perfection.

Yummy Mummy is brought to you by the multi-award winning and critically acclaimed team at Henchman Productions. Yummy Mummy features the same writer/director team that won the Best Drama Award at the PPI Radio Awards 2015. Henchman Productions have also won a number of New York Festivals International Radio Awards and competed at the Prix Europa in 2015 and 2016.

CREDITS: ‘Yummy Mummy’ is a Henchman Production written by Aisling O’Connor and Siobhan Clarke. The drama was directed by Siobhan Clarke and produced by Aisling O’Connor and Daithí McMahon. The sound engineers were Sean Byrne and Daithí McMahon. Featuring Caroline Power, Karen Scully, Aoibheann McCann, Laura Kelly, Eva-Jane Gaffney, Fiach Kuns and Morgan C. Jones. Recorded at Tinpot Productions, Dublin. Funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee.

 ‘Yummy Mummy’ broadcasts on Newstalk 106-108fm www.newstalk.com on Sunday 29th March at 7am, and repeated at 9pm on Saturday 4th April 2020. 

 

‘Sunshine On Leith- Hibernian F.C ’ broadcasts on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday the 8th March at 7am Saturday 14th March at 9pm. Podcast goes live after the first broadcast.

Leith is a now gentrified part of Edinburgh with a unique identity. So much so that its old inhabitants refer to themselves as Leithers and deny they are from Edinburgh. It was once a mix of Catholic, Protestants, Scots and Irish and was also were the first Irish football team was founded, Hibernian FC.

In ‘Sunshine On Leith- Hibernian F.C, producer Brian Kenny travels to Edinburgh to unravel the complex story of Hibernian which crosses religion, politics and football. Then we hear from fans, sociologists, historian and Leithers in the same week that Hibs are due to play Celtic the most notorious of Irish clubs in Scotland.

However how unbeknownst to most Irish people it was not Celtic that first wore the green rather Hibernian football club of Edinburgh. Although nowadays it is their Glasgow rivals Celtic that are most well-known for their Irish identity it was indeed  Hibernian or Hibs as they are more commonly known that first created a football club for Irish immigrants to Scotland to call home.

The documentary explores a time when Irish people were flooding to Scotland for work and Irish Catholics were not always welcome. In Glasgow where industry was booming the Irish found jobs and settled in larger numbers whilst in the neighbouring city of Edinburgh jobs suitable for the Irish immigrants were less plentiful. Many of them settled in an area of Leith which had a unique identity separate entirely from that of Edinburgh.

Historian Martin Mitchell tells us how Catholic identity of the new arrivals caused tension and amidst the staunch protestant communities there were protests when they Irish tried to set up their first church, many believed there was nowhere for them to go so they started their own football club Hibernian F.C.

Michael Rosie a sociologist and fan of Hibs biggest rivals Hearts details how the club had hue initial success and attracted Irish from all over Scotland including Glasgow. However shortly after Hibs won the Scottish cup in 1887 and held a victory parade in Glasgow, Glasgow Celtic was formed and Hibernian was no longer the go to place for Irish immigrants to Scotland.

We hear how they myth that Hibernian and their closest rivals Hearts mirror the situation of Celtic and Rangers. Fans tell us that it’s a rivalry based on the side of the city you were born nor whether you are Catholic or Protestant. In a shop outside the stadium we talk to fans of both clubs who distance themselves from the sectarianism that can often be associated with Celtic and Rangers.

Finally we go on the road with the Hibs fans, chants banners and all as they make their way to play Celtic in the Scottish League cup semi-final and sing their anthem Sunshine on Leith at the top of their voices.

BROADCAST TIMES: ‘Sunshine On Leith- Hibernian F.C ’ broadcasts on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday the 8th March at 7am Saturday 14th March at 9pm.

LISTEN LIVE ONLINE: ‘‘Sunshine On Leith- Hibernian FC.  can also be listened to online at: www.newstalk.com

PODCAST: Podcast the show after the broadcast at: www.newstalk.com/documentaryonnewstalk

CREDITS: ‘‘Sunshine on Leith- Hibernian FC. was written, edited, and produced by Brian Kenny. The programme was funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the television licence fee.

This weekend, Documentary On Newstalk takes a trip back to 2002, when one of the greatest sporting icons in history sent a letter to Armagh GAA to wish them luck... in a new radio documentary: The Ali Ireland Final.

In ‘The Ali Ireland Final’ Producer Jonathan Farrelly talks to Hugh Campbell, a member of the 2002 Armagh coaching staff who got Muhammad Ali to send a letter to inspire the team to glory....

 BROADCAST TIMES: ‘The Ali Ireland Final’ will be broadcast on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday 16th February at 7am, with a repeat broadcast on Saturday 22nd February at 9pm.

Before 2002, Armagh had never won an All-Ireland title. Appearing in finals in 1953 and 1977, it was a case of third time lucky when they struck gold in 2002. Hugh Campbell was recruited as part of the Armagh coaching staff that year. He didn’t have a background in the sport, but he specialised in sports psychology, something of an unknown quantity at the time. His initial appointment was met with scepticism from a sport that was notoriously traditional. It took a while for Hugh to settle in and gain the respect of the players. Hugh had just started to read ‘The Fight’ (Norman Mailer) about the infamous ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. Hugh thought that if he could get the players to believe in themselves like Ali did, this could be their year. He also knew that in order for something to really hit home, he’d need something from the man himself. His neighbour was a TV producer and reached out to the Muhammad Ali Center. They told him Ali would be delighted to send a letter to each member of the team. The night before the final, Campbell gave a presentation to the team and finished up by saying, ‘'If Ali was here in his prime right now, what do you think he would say to you?' He left it at that and they all went to bed. The next morning, he got up early and slipped the letters under each player’s door. And the rest, as they say, is history...

‘The Ali Ireland Final’ will be broadcast on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday 16th February at 7am, with a repeat broadcast on Saturday 22nd February at 9pm.

Podcast goes live on www.newstalk.com after the first broadcast

LISTEN LIVE: ‘The Ali Ireland Final’’ can also be listened to online at: www.newstalk.com

CREDITS: ‘The Ali Ireland Final’’ was produced, recorded, and edited by Jonathan Farrelly and was supported by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, through the television licence fee.

ABOUT THE PRODUCER: Jonathan Farrelly is a writer and producer with over ten years experience in radio and TV, having produced sports content for BBC, RTE and Eir Sport.

 

This weekend, Drama on Newstalk will broadcast the premiere of new radio drama “Secrets” in which IMRO-nominated producer Brian Gallagher travels back in time to a seaside holiday in Sixties Ireland, during which two women face an intriguing moral dilemma.

“Secrets” tells the story of the extended Lawlor family who take a seaside holiday in Bray, County Wicklow, in 1964.  Unaware that such holidays will be soon made redundant by package holidays to sun destinations, they go about their usual two-week break. Despite the surface good humour, tensions are evident in the family dynamic, and when the Lawlors cross paths with a holidaying Scottish family the seeds are sown for a dramatic outcome.

The 1964 scenes are viewed through the eyes of twelve-year-old Damian Lawlor, while simultaneously the now-adult Damian looks back on the action.  Reappraising the moral choices of that summer, over fifty years later, giving Damian another dilemma now as he has to decide whether or not to leave the past undisturbed.

Starring Aonghus Og McAnally, Mark O’Regan, Mary Murray, Marion O’Dwyer, and Claudia Carroll, “Secrets” was written and produced by Brian Gallagher.   The programme was funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television License Fee.

BROADCAST TIMES: “Secrets” will be broadcast on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday 26th January at 7am with repeat broadcast on Saturday 1st February at 9pm

LISTEN LIVE ONLINE: “Secrets” can also be listened to online at: www.newstalk.ie

PODCAST: Podcast available at: www.newstalk.ie/documentaryonnewstalk after the broadcast.

 

In the latest Documentary on Newstalk, Producer Brian Kenny takes a look at the effect of our housing and homeless crisis on society and highlights the connection to the plight of Irish migrants forced into homelessness in the UK in the recent past...in “Bricks and Mortar”

Bricks and Mortar will air on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday 19th January at 7am, with a repeat broadcast the following Saturday 25th January at 9pm

Bricks and mortar tackles the widely covered subject of our current housing/homeless crisis in Ireland whilst looking from different angles. Rather than solely focusing on the causes and effects of the current deficit in accommodation supply, we look at the larger impact of homelessness and the concept of a house and a home itself. Brian Carey from Trinity colleges department of Philosophy investigates the possible cause of society’s paralysis in fixing this issue that all everyone agrees needs to be addressed. The tireless Christina Noble tells us that unfortunately nothing has changed in Ireland since as a homeless child on the streets of Dublin she dug a hole in the grounds of the Phoenix Park to find shelter.

One thing that is certain when looking at the root causes of this crisis is that it’s something that not everyone agrees on. Karl Dieter gives us his perspective on the differences between the government building houses in the '50s and the lack of construction happening now while smashing the myth of the Golden age Fallacy that Europeans do this much better than us.

Another international comparison is gained through an interview with Bobby Gilmore. Bobby worked throughout the '70s and '80s with Irish homeless people in London, Manchester and Birmingham and talks us through some harrowing tales of individuals who he came across in his work. We hear how homelessness affects the soul of people and how easy it is to get trapped in a negative cycle.

Bobby tells us how the people he worked with in England often chose not to access state services initially as they always felt like they were going to go home to Ireland until they became lost. Importantly though, he tells us that there often was accommodation and social housing available to people in England whereas coming back to Ireland Bobby is shocked to see a homeless problem where state services are not available to those who are (unlike his experience in the UK) actively looking to access them.

Homelessness was traditionally seen and still is by many people as individuals sleeping rough but we have learned that there are very major distinctions in what is involved in the sheer numbers of people without accommodation in Ireland. We hear from professionals working with the medical charity Safety Net who talk us through the differences between people who are on the streets due to substance and mental health issues against people who are unable to access accommodation due to a housing shortage.

These are very important distinctions, as without grasping these we cannot effectively look at how to solve the issue. Through Safety Net we talk to homeless individuals who are on the streets for years about their stories and how for them homelessness is not a new thing rather has been going on for far too long.  Bricks and Mortar raises many questions of us as a nation and indeed tackles many of the false narratives currently circulating around the homeless and housing crisis.

BROADCAST TIMES: Bricks and Mortar will air on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday 19th January at 7am, with a repeat broadcast the following Saturday 25th January at 9pm

PODCAST: Download Podcast from www.newstalk.com after the first broadcast

CREDITS: "Bricks and Mortar” was produced by Brian Kenny and Malachy Smyth and was supported by a grant from the Columban Missionary Society.

 

This weekend and next, on Documentary on Newstalk, Producer Brian Byrne brings you the story of Dublin’s past, as told by the city’s six historians in residence - in History in Residence...

History in Residence premieres on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday Jan 12th at 7am, with a repeat broadcast on Saturday Jan 18th at 9pm.

In 2016 thousands of people took to the streets across the country to take part in events commemorating the Easter Rising. In Dublin alone there were over 100 different community events. This was when Dublin City Council identified the real appetite for history in the city, and the need for community-based history resource. This was how the historians in residence program was born.

The following year in 2017, the council hired 6 historians in residence (the first of their kind in the city) with the mandate to take history down from the ‘ivory tower’ of academia, and back into our communities. To deepen and empower public connection to the past, promoting a sense of historical identity and pride - and to show that history can be just as much about the present, as it is the past.

“It’s probably unique that a local authority and a library service is taking historians and encouraging them to go out and talk to people about history. I think sometimes people are overwhelmed by history, or it’s boring or its too much, or I don't know how to do it or its hard to read, we wanted to just let people to have access and engagement to history, to be able to to go to a talk or a walk, or take part in a discussion, exhibition. It’s just bringing history out onto the streets if you like. Making it that bit easier to tap into. And I think their enthusiasm and their passion for history just comes across when you talk to them, they just love history and talking to people about history, and that’s just infectious and its very positive.” Tara Doyle, Senior Librarian, Dublin City Council

Cathy Scuffil, Maeve Casserly, Mary Muldowney, Cormac Moore, Bernard Kelly and James Curry make up the team of historians. They each have their ‘own’ area of Dublin to work in, and over the past 2 years they’ve held talks, given guided walks, helped the revival of weaving in the Liberties, started history clubs, oral history projects and made history engaging for people from all walks of life.

This documentary follows the work of the historians in residence, and takes you on a journey across Dublin and into its past, featuring little known stories behind some of Dublin’s history- like why the forty foot is called the forty foot, why Hannah Sheehy Skeffington did to the census or the origin of the animals which once adorned our coins.

BROADCAST TIMES: History in Residence premieres on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday Jan 12th at 7am, with a repeat broadcast on Saturday Jan 18th at 9pm.

PODCAST: The programme will be available for download from newstalk.com after the broadcast.

CREDITS: History in Residence was produced by Brian Byrne & funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the television license fee.

HISTORY IN RESIDENCE PROJECT: To find out more about the historians in residence project, ask your local librarian, or contact them at the following email address: [email protected]

 

This weekend on Documentary on Newstalk, Producer Patricia Baker’s new radio documentary, Egg Money, celebrates 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. 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.

Photograph Courtesy of ESB Archives

Egg Money is broadcast on Newstalk 106 – 108FM on Sunday 17th November at 7am, and again Saturday 23rd November at 11pm. 

Quotes from Egg Money:

“I had a journalist say to me once, ‘I went to an ICA Guild meeting wanting to talk about changing the world, and what did I finish up doing? I was asked to judge a jam making competition’.  And I said  ‘and are jam making and saving the world mutually exclusive’ ?”

Mamo McDonald

“My parents were farmers.  There was seven of us in the family, no bathroom, no electricity, very basic stuff. We all did jobs.  We had to milk the cows before we went to school in the morning, everyone had to milk by hand. Turning the turf in the evening, or the hay. Everyone just mucked in and did what they had to do.  Cleaned out the houses.  You just did it and there was no saying that you won’t, you just got on with it.”

Eleanor Calnan

“The one word that has come up all the time in my research is drudgery.  Housework was a constant drudgery at the time.  If you didn't have electricity, you’re cooking on an open fire., You had to light the fire in the morning if you wanted a cup of tea. Most people did not have running water in their houses, so you are talking about getting water from a well, or from a pump.  Washing clothes in a basin with a scrubbing board, it is hard manual work.  Also you’re talking about families where you could have anything up to four children in nappies at the same time, and no one had disposable nappies at the time.” 

Dr Sorcha O’Brien design historian

“Women were expected to bring in some income to keep the family afloat. They did it in various ways, child minding, knitting, sewing various. Poultry raring was seen as one for the women.   Egg Money was often the only income stream that the women controlled themselves.  It was put away to pay towards a child’s education, to improve conditions in the home.  It could be used for diverse purposes. It was pretty central to the life of the family.”

Professor Emeritus UCD History Mary E Daly

“My mother always had the Egg Money, and so did all the other women I knew, my aunties and grandparents, and myself, and it was never questioned.  We were independent enough, we did a lot of the work, the women milked the cows, cleaned out cow sheds. They did everything, pitched hay. We were brought up to be independent since the time we could walk.  My mother and all her counterparts regarded herself as business women, they knew a lot about running business in those days, and they were trained by their mothers.”

Connie McEvoy.

“They are hidden from all the statistics.  Farmwives were never counted as economically productive people in the census.”

Professor Emeritus UCD History Mary E Daly

“ICA was very good for interaction with women, different ages. The ICA would have been very vocal on women’s rights.” 

Mary Therese Coen

“I started off a conservative, I was as conservative as anyone.  I thought these radical women’s movement were … (pause) well I thought Neil McCaffrey had cloven feet. Then I meet her and heard her speak, and I thought she was very articulate, she was very funny, and I was also admiring of a lot of the things the radical women were doing. They were going along a different path to the one we were going, but they had echoes of one another.  I became a born again feminist.  I claimed our place in the women’s movement, because we were part of the wider women’s movement because we were working for women too.

Mamo McDonald, Past National President of the ICA, founder of Age and Opportunity.

Egg Money is broadcast on Newstalk 106 – 108FM on Sunday 17th November at 7am, and again Saturday 23rd November at 11pm

CREDITS: Egg Money 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.

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.

 

 

In our latest Documentary on Newstalk, producers Shaun O’Boyle and Maurice Kelliher present a programme which marks the first 10 years of Science Gallery; a game-changing public gallery space in Dublin that redefined the relationship between science, art, and culture—in ‘Science Gallery: 10 Years of Art Meets Science’.

In 2008, a former car park on Pearse Street, at the edge of Trinity College Dublin, was replaced by a new kind of science museum: Science Gallery Dublin. A world first, Science Gallery has altered the cultural and scientific landscape in Ireland—and internationally.

Before 2008, there was a widespread mistrust of science and scientists in Ireland, despite a massive investment by the government since the 1980s in scientific research. Irish scientists wanted to change that, but still hadn’t figured out the best way to connect with the public on scientific issues.

Unlike most countries, Ireland has never had a traditional science museum, a place to house artefacts of our scientific history or interactive exhibits pointing at our scientific future. Strangely, this has worked in our favour. When the opportunity for Ireland to have its first space dedicated to bringing science to a public audience, we ended up with something far from your typical science museum.

Science Gallery was born at a time when ideas around museums and galleries [and their audiences] were evolving: moving away from large museums and towards smaller spaces, connecting with audiences, ushering in a culture where galleries and museums were in a ‘conversation’ with their audiences. Science was also changing. Scientists were moving away from the strict boundaries that used to enclose each scientific discipline, and instead embracing the potential for discovery and innovation when you break down those barriers and work across those disciplines. In fact, some of the most exciting ideas were coming from collaborations between scientists and those working in the arts and humanities.

So, when Michael John Gorman was appointed as the Founding Director of Science Gallery, he set out to create a space that would capture this new culture of science, culture, and creativity. Science Gallery Dublin became a space (both physically, and intellectually) where science converses with art; and an ever-changing programme of exhibitions and events meant that audiences could keep coming back to explore art/science investigations into subjects such as: personal data, love, risk, memory, infection, weather/climate, and trauma.

2018 marked the 10th birthday of Science Gallery in Dublin, a game-changing public space that redefined our relationship with science, art, and culture. As this idea, born in Ireland, becomes a massive international network, we look at how this small gallery on Pearse Street became such an important cultural and scientific space—nationally and globally.

The radio premiere of Science Gallery: 10 Years of Art Meets Science will air on Newstalk on Sunday 10th November 2019 at 7am, with a repeat broadcast on Saturday 16th November at 9pm

Podcast from www.newstalk.com after the first broadcast

Credits: Produced, recorded, and edited  by Shaun O’Boyle and Maurice Kelliher (aka Bureau).

The programme was funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

Photo: Science Gallery Dublin.

About the producers: Shaun O'Boyle and Maurice Kelliher (aka Bureau) make radio documentaries and podcasts on a diverse range of subjects; and have made programmes for: Documentaries on Newstalk, BBC Radio 4, Science Gallery Dublin, UCD x Dr Judith Harford, Irish Design 2015, LGBT History Month (UK), Inspirefest, Science Gallery International, Festival of Curiosity, Dr Shane Begin x UCD, Science Foundation Ireland, and BBC World Service. Their radio documentaries have been funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, ID 2015, and the Mary Raftery Journalism Fund. In 2016 they were shortlisted for the worldwide Whicker Foundation Audio Achievement Award—for their documentary ‘Prejudice and Pride’.

http://www.akabureau.com

The BAI 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.