The Irish Itinerary Podcast

In her conversation with Adam Hanna, Kimberly Campanello reads from and discusses her poetry-object MOTHERBABYHOME (2019). She talks about the path that led to the work and the composition process; the use of reports in her work and how this influenced its form; empty spaces and subtraction; the difficulty of performing the work and how it affects her; and the responses from survivors.  

You can find more information on and images from MOTHERBABYHOME (2019) at https://www.kimberlycampanello.com/motherbabyhome. 

In her conversation with Georgina Nugent, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin reads several poems from her latest collection The Map of the World (2023). She also talks about the motif of hair in her poetry and the themes of death, history, water and time; the limits of knowledge and language her poems come up against; the timetable of cats; poetry as an attempt to reach through to those we have lost; and her poem-writing process and how she structures her collections.    

In her conversation with Fiona McCann, Kerri ní Dochartaigh discusses the writing and editing process of Thin Places (2022) and the importance of form; the community of writers and how citation is an act of love; the real power we find in one-anotherness and interconnectedness; resilience and its link to the land; and language learning as a way back to the core of oneself. Kerri also reads from Cacophony of Bone (2023).  

In his conversation with Alex Alonso and Jessica Bundschuh, Scott McKendry talks about and reads from his recently published poetry volume GUB. He discusses the new orthography he designed for his North Belfast accent in this volume; the importance of dialects and his research on dialect in Irish poetry; the balance between the serious subjects and the irreverent spirit of his poems; and the inescapable influence of Ciaran Carson. 

In her conversation with Lucy Cullen, Sharon Dempsey reads from and discusses her novel Who Took Eden Mulligan? (2021). She also talks about how her critical work as a PhD candidate influences her creative work; how crime fiction is the best genre to deal with unresolved issues from the past, and to negotiate class and gender inequalities – in general, and in Northern Ireland in particular; how she often draws on tropes from other genres, such as horror and the gothic; and how the choice of form really depends on the theme of the story.  

In his conversation with Irene De Angelis, Joseph Woods discusses his time as director of Poetry Ireland; his nomadic life and how linguistic and self-chosen exile helped him find his voice as a poet; his various poetry volumes and their connections to people and places; his work with the Mashonaland Irish Association while living in Harare, Zimbabwe; and his life as a jobbing writer and how 90 percent of the work is showing up. He also talks about his current PhD project, a work based on the life of Maurice Collis, and his forthcoming poetry collection.  

In her conversation with Hedwig Schwall, Sheila Armstrong discusses and reads from her first novel Falling Animals (2023). Sheila talks about the neoliberalism at the core of her novel; about how we went from small scale, traditional industries to much bigger, largely hidden industries we have little understanding of; about how she uses small, but striking details from real life to create whole worlds; about the importance of forgiveness and how guilt and shame are central to her novel; about fiction being an attempt to bridge the gap between people and try and understand how others feel; about the potential of liminal spaces and leaving threads we do not get answers for; and about how finding the right sentence feels like a door is gently closing.  

In his conversation with Helen Cullen, Gavin McCrea discusses Irishness and how writing has been important in the process of going away from and coming to terms with Ireland. McCrea also talks about creating a voice for women without a voice in his novels Mrs Engels (2015) and The Sisters Mao (2021); about how he starts writing from the materiality of his characters’ world, not only in historical fiction, but also in his memoir Cells (2022); about exploring the relationship with his mother in his earlier novels and in his memoir; and about ”looking outwards” as a writer from a small island. He also reads from his three books.  

In his conversation with Marisol Morales-Ladrón, Denis Rafter discusses his career as an actor, director and theatre artist in Spain; the fact that sometimes he feels like a fish out of water, struggling to express himself and to break down language barriers. He explains that these obstacles are what inspires and motivates him and that by blending his three cultural influences, from Ireland, England and Spain, he brings a unique vision in his approach to using theatre as the common language to communicate the universality of human feelings. Denis Rafter also reads one of his poems and two theatre fragments from his work. 

In his conversation with Nathalie Lamprecht, Alan Gilsenan discusses his documentary film The Laughing Boy (2022), which tries to uncover how the song The Laughing Boy, written by a young Brendan Behan and later used in his play The Hostage, travelled via Paris to Greece and there became an anthem of defiance for the Greek left. Gilsenan discusses the circumstances that facilitated this process; the importance of translation and the way the documentary draws attention to it; the image of Behan as a kind of James Dean that obscures his talent as a writer; and Brendan Behan’s collaboration with theatre director Joan Littlewood.