Rebel Matters Podcast

This week's episodes is a quarantine chat on the importance of the arts in Ireland with actor and spoken word artist Roxanna Nic Liam There is a spoken word treat from Roxanna at the end of the chat, and as usual, a bit of story time after the outro music.

On this episode I discussed climate change on a global , national, local, and individual level with Áine O Gorman, who works for Friends of The Earth, is involved in Stop Climate Chaos, and also is a part of a group called Model Activists that work to promote sustainability in the fashion industry.

This week's guest on the show is a friend who gives walking tours in the old city of Hebron in Palestine, one of the most politically charged areas of the West Bank. This episode has an accompanying blog post on rebelmatters.ie with links to documentaries, films and further reading.

This week I chatted with Mary Hickson who runs the Sounds From A Safe Harbour festival in Cork every two years, the pioneering collaborative festival People in the Funkhaus Berlin, and the philosophy behind her work and approach. A timely chat as we start to consider what festivals and parties will look like as we start to come out of our prolonged Covid-19 lockdown.

Mark Graham from King Kong Company, and the Irish Music Industry podcast joined me this week for a chat on the show. We chatted about King Kong Company, the challenges facing Irish artists during the Covid-19 pandemic, and what the musical landscape might look like in the near future. Mark also discussed how King Kong Company ended up with their very own brand of Buckfast infused beer. Chapter 2 of The Last Of The Name can be found at the end of this episode.

The main section is an interview I did from Palestine with Somhailre Mag uidhie from Raidió Fáilte and is in Irish. There is an extended intro in English, as well as a shorter interview in English i did with the Off The Ball crew for Newstalk Radio, which comes after the main section with Somhairle, and also a new book at the very end as we have finished Roald Dahl's one last week!

To make Easter Sunday 2020 I recorded myself reading Bobby Sands' One Day in My Life. "Written on toilet paper, with a biro refill, and hidden inside Bobby Sands' own body, this is a book about bravery and endurance' - Excerpt from the back cover of the book.

This chat was recorded as part of the Quiet Lights festival in Cork in late 2019, and covers a lot of ground around the background and work that goes into alternative and socially conscious arts events and festivals.

This weeks episode is with brothers Ahmad and Hoba and we discussed growing up in Nablus under Israeli occupation, being an artists in Palestine, and their careers as performers in circus, dance, juggling, and acrobatics.

This weeks episode was recorded around the kitchen table in the home of Siobhán De Paor and Diarmuid Lyng who together run Wild Irish Retreats. I have added a short blog post on rebelmatters.ie with some additional links for anyone who would like to fins out more about these two legends but don't have the Gaeilge to follow along with the episode.