The man behind Ross O'Carroll-Kelly and the creator of Coppers The Musical, Paul Howard joined Mario for this week's profile interview.

Paul spoke to Mario about the complaint made to the Irish Times and the Press Ombudsman about one of his Ross O'Carroll-Kelly columns earlier this year. A reader, who is English and living in Ireland, described the column in question as racism, and said it promoted negative feelings towards the English. Though the complaint was not upheld, it certainly gave Paul food for thought on how his comedy writing can be interpreted by someone who may not be familiar with the character of Ross.

He also spoke about beginning work as a journalist under Vincent Browne, crying at E.T. and Elliott's emotional goodbye, and where he gets his work ethic from.

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This week Mario was joined by Lauryn Gaffney, creator of Big Shot The Musical, for the story behind 'It's All Coming Back to Me Now' by Celine Dion.

She told us about the inspiration for the song coming from songwriter Jim Steinman's love for Wuthering Heights. We also heard of the fight for the song between Meatloaf who desperately wanted it for himself, and Jim Steinman who could only see it going to a woman.

The song eventually went to Celine Dion for her masterful 1996 release.

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For this week's panel, Mario was joined in studio by Suzanne Kane and Eoin McGee.

In the week when Minister Shane Ross defended his appearance in Portrush for The Open, Eoin threw politics in sport into the roast. While they both rely on each other for their own gain, can sport and the government find a better way to carry out business?

Suzanne wants to know if our parents might have had an easier time of things when it came to raising children. With rising house prices and childcare costs, many parents no longer have the option to be a stay at home parent. Did our parents have it all?

And inspired by the news of the potential sale of naming rights for Thomond Park, Mario has thrown in the ever increasing number of stadiums and venues being named after businesses. From the controversial renaming of The Point Depot in Dublin, to the KFC Yum! Centre in Kentucky - what's next?

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Manchán Magan is a writer and documentary-maker. He has written books on his travels in Africa, India and South America and two novels, he has also been a medical supervisor to an Indian leper colony, managed an Ecuadorian organic fruit farm, built and lived in Ireland’s first straw bale house, He has just spent 2 hours in a cave in Roscommon that is reputed to be the entrance to hell!

Mario was fascinated to meet Manchán and his stories on ancient Irish culture , Irish folklore, our language and our history.

Manchan is on tour now with his new show "Arán & Im"

Arán & Im is a theatrical performance/installation in which Manchán bakes sourdough bread for 2 hours while offering insights into the wonders of the Irish language – exploring potent words of landscape, terms of intuition and insight, and the many phrases that bring to life the mysterious glory of our natural world.

It is a celebration of language, land and local Irish food, with freshly-baked traditional sourdough bread for the audience to slice and spread with butter they churn themselves from Irish cream.

Check out all about the show here:

http://www.manchan.com

 

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This week on Story Behind The Song , DJ and Presenter of "The Beat Goes On" on Today FM joined Mario to talk about a 70`s disco classic "Young Hearts Run Free" by Candi Staton.

Kelly Anne interviewed Candi Staton for her show a couple of years back (she`s lived quite a life) & she told how her how this track came about.

She was living in LA & working with a producer called David Crawford, each day he would come to the studio & ask her about her life. At the time she was in a very abusive marriage and felt that she could never escape it mainly because of her children and the time she was living in.

David told her he was going to write a song for her that would last forever & that's how the track came about, it's all about being strong as a woman & finding the courage to get out of something that is destroying your life.

It became her biggest hit & at the time so many women related to the words, it was the 70's & women didn't exactly have rights.

Sadly, David was murdered in New York in 1988 & Candi was broken-hearted by his death. Kelly Anne tells us that no matter where she plays this track & no matter what the age group, people scream the words at the top of their voices, she thinks it really is a song that will last forever.

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Joining Mario this week for this week`s panel on Mario`s Sunday Roast was Tadgh Hickey one third of comedy group CCCahoots and now with his first solo show, 'In One Eye, Out The Other' at well...another festival!...The Dublin Fringe Festival ! Jules Coll writer and podcast host of "Cringe Binge: My '90s Teenage Diary" also joined Mario and together they had one or two things to throw into the roast!

Tadgh kicked things off with Festival season...how many festivals are too many - Yoga Festivals, Mediation Festivals, A Cup Of Tae Festival, A Lamb Festival and now a Dog Festival!! ( Some of us are TOTALLY ok with this!!). He thinks the essence of what the festival experience used to be has been completely lost and now almost every event and opening of an envelope has to be labelled a festival!

He just wants them to give it a Restival! This got listeners texting in the many festivals popping up around them from Scarecrows to Cups of Tea...are there just far too many festivals?

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Barrister and journalist Aileen Hickie and comedian Michael Fry joined Mario for this week`s panel on Mario`s Sunday Roast. There were many things flying into the roast including fair weather Wimbledon fans,  Dad bod shaming and angry men online!

Michael Fry started the discussion, he talked abut how he is often called the snowflake generation who need safe spaces but he has never seen a bigger bunch of babies than older men in comment sections crying about mostly positive news!

This led Mario into the creation of a new character, "Gammon man", he is the older man who used to be able to "say what he wanted" and give out about anything he wanted! But now its the age according to Gammon man of "You can`t say anything anymore"!

Press the play button on the image on the top of the screen to hear the full rantings of Gammon Man!

Run In Red are a 4-piece transatlantic band based in Dublin made up of members from the Dublin and US music scenes. 

In 2017 the band released their debut EP: ‘The Revelled Theory Mind’ and second EP 'Undercover, Overthrown' last September.

They joined us this week for Story Behind The Song on Mario`s Sunday Roast , the chosen song was "These Are The Days Of Our Lives" by Queen , the song was originally written by Roger Taylor about his children, and how parenthood made him look back on his own life.

The song then took on new meaning when it was announced that Freddie Mercury had AIDS and knew he was going to die soon when he recorded this.

The song was released as a double A-side single with the re-released "Bohemian Rhapsody." Profits from the single, which went to #number 1 in the UK, went to AIDS research as a tribute to Freddie Mercury.

RUN iN RED have just released their new single ‘Dirty Spirits Design’ and are also playing more shows across Ireland this summer, plus dates in the US and UK which kicked off at the start of June.

www.runin.red/dirtyspiritsdesign

 

@RUNiNREDmusic join @GiftGrubMario now for the story behind the song of "These Are The Days of Our Lives" by @QueenWillRock Tune in now to hear all!#roastmario pic.twitter.com/lCxrluqZyT

— Today FM (@TodayFM) July 14, 2019

 

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Paddy “The Hooligan” Holohan is 31 years of age,a business owner,former UFC fighter and a first time candidate who topped the Poll in his hometown Tallaght earlier this year. Paddy secured his seat as councillor for South Dublin County Council running as a candidate for Sinn Féin.

Paddy had to retire from the UFC in 2016 due to a rare blood disorder. He now runs his own gym, SBG Dublin 24 in Tallaght.

He has fought fifteen times as a professional including five times in the UFC promotion. Today he spoke to Mario about life in politics, what he thinks of the current government and why he thinks Ireland could be an example for the rest of the world.

We live on an island, there is 6 million people here, we could make an example for the whole world, I know that sounds crazy and that sounds ambitions but in this world that we`re in people are looking at you as if you`re crazy.

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In a special interview with Mario on Thursday night for Mario`s Sunday Roast, Eamon Dunphy finally reveals what really happened the night before his infamous suspension from RTE during the 2002 World Cup.

In a special audience recording of the show which was broadcast today, Dunphy details the events of the night that left him so ‘tired and emotional’ that the national broadcaster was forced to remove him from the TV panel and drive him home.   

Huge thanks to all who came along to the first live show of Mario`s Sunday Roast in @Ntwenty2, what a night!Are you ready for this broadcast with @GiftGrubMario? Eamon Dunphy, @SenDavidNorris @SuzanneKaneFM @ThanksBrother_ and @TheAcademic