Panoramica

Hey Panoramica listeners, I'm back with a new podcast 'Memo to File'!

Co-produced with Luke Fehily, we explore how significant public policy projects were delivered in Ireland.

You can listen to 'Memo to File' wherever you get your podcasts!

A special report from Uganda on politics, refugees, religion and education in the country, which is also known as "The Pearl of Africa".

Named 'Radio Documentary of the Year' at the National Student Media Awards (Ireland) in 2024.

Archive clips: NTV Uganda, Uganda Today, British Pathé and Louis Jadwong.

Independent, not-for-profit production presented and produced by Tom O'Connor for FlirtFM.

Copyright Tom O’Connor ©, 2024. All rights reserved.

20 University of Galway students took part in the 'Sleep Out for Simon' in the Quadrangle on the night of October 6th.

The fundraising initiative was in aid of the Simon Community, which is an Irish charity helping homeless people.

Tom went to the Sleep Out where he spoke with Rory O'Flaherty, Dara Golden and Anna Sheehy.

Music courtesy of trad group Fiántas Ceol.

Copyright Tom O’Connor ©, 2024. All rights reserved.

Kevin Boyle was a human rights lawyer, activist, and academic.

A leading figure in the Northern Ireland civil rights movement, he was a founder of the People's Democracy and a key member of NICRA (the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association). Kevin Boyle also contributed to the peace process, which culminated in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.

As a human rights lawyer, he did significant work on cases regarding gay rights, abuse of prisoners, and the treatment of the Kurdish minority in Turkey. 

Kevin Boyle was also central to the freedom of expression organisation Article 19, Amnesty International's work in Africa in the 1980s, and the work of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson.

Hear all this and more in 'Boyle's Law', which tells the story of Kevin Boyle with archive audio and contributions from those who knew him.

This documentary was named 'Podcast of the Year' at the National Student Media Awards (Ireland) in 2023 and received the Law Society of Ireland Justice Media Award for Student Journalism in 2024.

An independent, not-for-profit production presented and produced by Tom O'Connor for FlirtFM.

Copyright Tom O’Connor ©, 2024. All rights reserved.

Music credits:

- Intro/Outro music 

"Never Miss A Moment" from Scott Holmes Music on FreeMusicArchive. Licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license.

- Other

"Codeine Crazy" from Alexander Lavoe on FreeMusicArchive. Licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license.

Archive clips:

RTE Archives, BBC, Mike Chinoy, Council of Europe.

The Cairde Ronáin project brought together residents in a nursing home and children in a local school on the Aran Island of Inis Mór off the coast of Galway. They would chat, dance, play music, and more.

Noreen Watts is a staff nurse from Glenamaddy in County Galway who started the amazing Cáirde Rónáin initiative back in 2005. Noreen joined Tom to chat about the establishment of the programme, how it worked, why it stopped, and more.

Galway band ‘New Dad’ is one of the greatest Irish bands at the moment. The group has played Glastonbury, supported Fontaines DC, and gained over one million listeners in 176 countries on Spotify in 2022.

The band’s lead singer Julie Dawson and guitarist Sean O’Dowd chatted with Tom about the group’s history, its inspirations, gigging, their experiences of living together, plans for 'New Dad' in 2023 and much more besides.

A round-up of the main political events in Ireland, Britain and Northern Ireland in the second half of 2022 with:

- Mairéad Farrell, Sinn Féin TD for Galway West and party spokesperson on Public Expenditure and Reform,

- Darragh Nolan, Deputy Editor at SIN ("Student Independent News"), and

- Róisín Elizabeth Cowan, Editor-in-Chief at the University of Galway Law Review. 

The panel discussed everything from the change of Taoiseach and the fall of Boris Johnson to the chaos of Liz Truss's premiership and the Stormont Assembly deadlock. 

Piet Lens is an established Professor of New Energy Technologies. He is currently leading a project using microbes - minuscule organisms - to discover new ways to convert organic and inorganic waste into bioenergy.

Professor Lens joined Tom to discuss the research, its progress, the challenges, and the potential impacts of the study.

Animal activists across the world have been advocating for animals to be recognised as sentient beings, including "Happy the elephant" in a New York zoo. Similarly, there have been developments regarding artificial intelligence being granted legal personhood, particularly in light of a robot named “Sophia” being given legal personhood in Saudi Arabia in 2017.

Tom was joined by Séan McCallum and Claire Holland to consider where we stand, the relevant legal provisions, and much more besides.

Claire Holland and Tom O'Connor were joined by Róisín McGrath, vice auditor of the NUIG Feminist Society, to:

- Discuss the do's and dont's for incoming NUIG students

- Review the college year in general

- Assess the impact of Covid-19 on learning