Rebel Matters Podcast

This week is a discussion with Fatin Al Tamimi (chair of Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign), that was recorded at the IPSC office in Dublin. I also share details of our West Bank Gym Project/

This weeks episode is with Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap from KNEECAP who are making waves in the hiphop world over the last year or so. KNEECAP picked up 5 awards at the Gradam Ceoil Nós, have been described as 'hip hop gold' by Nialler9, and have been banned from RTÉ. Check them out on Spotify, Youtube, Instgram (KNEECAP32), Facebook, and Snapchat.

You can now support the Rebel Matters Podcast by becoming a patron on Patreon!

This week's episode is a chat with lead students strength and conditioning coach for the Leinster Rugby Academy, Joe McGinley, and it is very much two friends sitting down to shoot the breeze about coaching and what we do in our professional lives. We talk about

• Is it healthy to be an athlete
• Coaching mastery and coaching philosophy
• Creativity in coaching
• Creating a productive and nurturing environment to work in
• Being 'in service' to the people you are coaching or facilitating
• The basics of nutrition and recovery.

This week's episode is a conversation with producer and documentary maker Brian Reddin. Brian has a massive amount of shows under his belt from It Came from Connemara (2014), Fir Bolg (2016) and John Huston: An t-Éireannach (1996), Route 66, Underdogs, Amú le Hector, and many more.

We talked about how to prepare for interviews, some of the most bizarre experiences and situations that Brian found himself in during the course of his work from filming with the KKK, a minute man on the American side of the Mexican border, and some of the awkward moments he has had including an interview with Robin Williams. Brian also delved into the ingredients required for a great documentary, and the work he has coming up.

At the start of the episode, I talk a bit about my new website, upcoming events at ACLAÍ,

This week I chatted with my friend Feargal Mac Ionnrachtaigh about his work as a community activist in West Belfast, issues that effect working class areas, and the Irish language revival.

This week I am chatting with Father Des Wilson, who is 93 years of age, and spent nearly his entire life serving the people of West Belfast and Ballymurphy through some of the darkest times Ireland has ever seen. He is particularly known for his work in setting up Springhill Community house 'as a place for discussion and learning, where people could work and enjoy themselves in freedom.'

Relevant show links:

Video of Father Des During Hunger Strikes

Mother Theresa in Ballymurphy

Article about the Ballymurphy Massacre

Article about Noelle Ryan

In this episode, the roles are reversed and Orla-Peach was calling the shots and asking me about my experience of being in Palestine twice this year. We spoke about the Irish connection with the conflict in Palestine, and some of the differences between the two struggles, as well as discussing some of the lesser know facts from the ground in the West Bank. Enjoy! Ainle

Links mentioned in the show:

http://www.badil.org

http://www.alhaq.org

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Aida+refugee+camp

This week is a chat with local historian Kieran McCarthy about this history of Cork city, the river Lee and many other facets of day to day life in Cork. Checkout Kieran's website and details about his walking tours below.

http://kieranmccarthy.ie

In this podcast I also talk about the brand new initiative Cork, Neighbour Food, ACLAÍ's recent National Inclusion Award, my interview on Raidió Fáilte's new studio, anabolic steroid abuse feature in the Evening Echo, and our latest project to open a volunteer gym in the West Bank. Links below:

Neighbour Food

https://www.neighbourfood.ie

National Inclusion Award

https://www.aclai.ie/blog/3-people-with-disabilities-who-impact-my-life

Evening Echo Anabolic Steroid Abuse Feature https://www.eveningecho.ie/corknews/Cork-trainers-warning-about-teens-using-steroids-41c932c2-44e7-4cc7-9273-3c6a9fb127e7-ds

West Bank Volunteer Gym Project

https://www.aclai.ie/blog/help-us-open-a-gym-in-the-west-bank

Today's episode episode was recorded in the East Belfast Mission, on the Newtownards Road with Linda Ervine. Linda has been the driving force behind setting up Turas, which provides Irish lessons and talks on the Irish language on the Newtownards Road, making it the only Irish language centre based in a Unionist community, It was great to record this episode with Linda to get an insight into how Turas came about, its challenges, and what they have planned for the future.

In this episode we also talked about the current political landscape within Unionism, and quite a few other interesting topics that will give you a real perspective on some of the problems that exist in the north today, and especially how they relate to the irish language.

To give you a bit of perspective on the political geography of Belfast if you are not familiar with it, many areas in Belfast were separated in the late 60's, early 70's by what are known as peace walls which separated protestant areas from catholic areas, and the walls are still there today.

If you go down the falls road at any time of the day these days you will see tourists stopping at the wall to take photos and to some degree the walls have become a tourist attraction but in many places still serve as a kind of psychological security blanket, but whatever way you look at it, they are there to keep people apart from each other. Whether or not all of the walls are actually needed any more is an area of debate but as of today the vast majority of walls that have gone up in Belfast have never been taken down for one reason or another.

One of the results of living in a conflict area is that we didn't travel around the to other parts of the much for security reasons and while this isnt as big an issue as it was before, I think it is still present in Belfast today. Areas that are populated with a majority of Catholics or Protestants are pretty self contained with their own shops and clubs etc. So being from West Belfast, I was rarely in East Belfast, and this was only my second time out on the Newtownards Road where the podcast was recorded.

The Irish language in Belfast has seen a massive revival in the last number of decades, and it is the language that i have always spoken at home with family, when I was at school, and going about everyday business. The Irish language movement is completely non sectarian, and non religious, but at the same time revival was very much concentrated in the largely catholic areas of Belfast. Developments like the Cultúrlann, the Gaeltacht Quarter, Raidió fáilte, Glór na Móna and Coláiste Feirste have made the language a part of everyday life in West Belfast today. it is a massive step for the Irish language movement to have people from protestant communities speaking, learning, teaching, and taking ownership of the language, which has always belonged equally to anyone who wants to use it.

The work that Linda is doing with the language in East belfast is monumental, and has got very positive implications for Belfast and for the language as a whole, which is why i was looking forward to having the chats with her.

Get in touch on FB or twitter and let me know what you think of this, and when you have listened to it share this episode around. Enjoy!

Relevant links below

https://www.cairdeturas.com

https://www.skainos.org

https://www.facebook.com/cairdeturas/

A few weeks ago i went up to Belfast and recorded chats for the podcast with people that have given a huge commitment to community development and people that have a story that I would like people to hear about.

Today's episode is a sit down chat with Séamus Mac Seáin, and it is a chat as Gaeilge. Séamus is a community leader, an Irish language activist and a revolutionary. I think he coined the motto "Ná habair é, déan é" (Don't say it do it), that has become the philosophy of the Irish language movement in Belfast. Séamus has had a big impact on the course of my life and the lives of my brother, and friends, on account of the work that he committed his life to.

Give it a go if you fancy putting your cúpla focal to the test. Here are few links a follow up for some of the projects that Séamus has been involved in over the years.

Bombay Street Burning:

https://www.rte.ie/archives/exhibitions/1042-northern-ireland-1969/1048-august-1969/320452-vast-areas-in-ruins/

http://www.anphoblacht.com/contents/12159

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_Northern_Ireland_riots

Bunscoil Phobal Feirste

http://www.bunscoilphobalfeirste.com

Cultúrlann Macadam Ó Fiach

https://www.culturlann.ie/en

Séamus's Book

https://www.litriocht.com/product/dimigh-sin-agus-thainig-seo/