The Limerick Lady Podcast

Happy Halloween! This month we're joined by thanatologist and Death Café host Jennifer Moran-Stritch. Jennifer is a lecturer at the Technological University of the Shannon in Limerick. The focus of her teaching is in personal development, therapeutic group work skills, and loss and grief for the caring professional. In addition to lecturing, Jennifer is the primary principal investigator of the Loss and Grief Research Group which is part of Social Sciences ConneXions Research Institute at TUS. She also teaches on the RCSI/Irish Hospice MSc in Loss and Bereavement and is a certified thanatologist and the current Irish representative to the Association for the Study of Death and Society. In 2015, Jennifer co-hosted the first Death Café event in the Limerick area, where people gather to eat cake, drink coffee and tea and celebrate our mortality.

She is a steering group member of the Global Dying Well Initiative and one of the founders of the Limerick Bereavement Network.

In this podcast we look at global funeral rituals and traditions; Irish attitudes toward death; how long is too long to try and hold on to the memory of somebody; and whether modern technology is helping or hindering the natural healing process of grief.

Follow Jennifer on Facebook at Death Cafe Limerick, reach her by email at [email protected] and she's also findable on the TUS website at www.TUS.ie

Find tickets to Ann's/The Brad Pitt Light Orchestra's gig as part of Comhluadar's Féile Na Samhna at https://www.tickettailor.com/events/comhluadarluimnigh/1034259?fbclid=IwAR2JHetdnFK2k3W-4CMA65o8gqGoldG_8Eck2K6XzFbclLqifl3HG63V5OE

Check out all of Lumen Street Theatre's Samhain Festival events at https://samhain.lumenstreettheatre.ie/

The Limerick Lady is a grassroots movement based in Limerick, Ireland, with a focus on promoting conversation around gender, visibility, gender balance and the arts. It was founded in 2016 by award-winning (and losing) singer-songwriter Emma Langford, who hosts the podcast alongside fellow award-winning (and losing) Limerick woman, theatre-maker and musician Ann Blake.

Find the Limerick Lady Podcast on all your favourite streaming platforms. New episodes drop once a month, on the third Thursday (or Thirdsday, if you will).

The Limerick Lady is sponsored by Ormston House and supported by The Limerick Post Newspaper.

Follow Ormston House at www.ormstonhouse.com Support the Limerick Post at www.limerickpost.ie

Emma and Ann chat to theatre maker Róisín Stack whose show No Woman Is An Island is premiering at Dublin Theatre Festival 2023. The discussion covers the ins and outs, ups and downs of the creative process, which she humorously describes as 'stumbling blindly through the dark'. Given that Ann happens to be directing the play, the episode also explores the dynamic between performer and director in the rehearsal room.

One conclusion that is decidedly drawn from this chat is the importance of 'the craic' when it comes to making artistic work.

No Woman Is An Island is previewing in Galway Oct 4th-7th in Bank of Ireland Theatre

Book: https://tht.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173646948

And premiering in Dublin Theatre Festival Oct 11th - 14th in The Project Arts Centre(Cube)

Book: https://dublintheatrefestival.ie/event/no-woman-is-an-island/#0

Follow Róisín on Insta @rostack_ www.roisinstack.com/ #NoWoShow

The Limerick Lady is a grassroots movement based in Limerick, Ireland, with a focus on promoting conversation around gender, visibility, gender balance and the arts. It was founded in 2016 by award-winning (and losing) singer-songwriter Emma Langford, who hosts the podcast alongside fellow award-winning (and losing) Limerick woman, theatre-maker and musician Ann Blake.

Find the Limerick Lady Podcast on all your favourite streaming platforms. New episodes drop once a month, on the third Thursday (or Thirdsday, if you will).

The Limerick Lady is sponsored by Ormston House and supported by The Limerick Post Newspaper.

Follow Ormston House at www.ormstonhouse.com Support the Limerick Post at www.limerickpost.ie

This month we talk to beloved Limerick-based collage artist, writer, and coffee slinger Tiffany Glenn aka Instagram's "Fannyland". Tiffany runs a monthly collage night at the Wickham Way market in Limerick City, and can be found in her blue/teal/robin-egg coloured shed in the same marketplace every Saturday and Sunday serving some of the best coffee in town.

Originally from Colorado, Tiffany has run the gamut of career-paths in her time, from sex-shop sales-assistant to the military, and from phlebotomist to flight attendant – not necessarily in that order.

This episode is something of a frenzied collage of conversation, bouncing from cancel culture and the "bonnet cop", to all-consuming obsessions with certain Disney characters, to Ann and Tiffany's Christian rock-star crush, Keith Green. We also of course chat about the loss of the great Sinéad O'Connor, and the cultural touchstone she was.

Find Tiffany at www.Instagram.com/FannyLander or support her on her webshop fannyland.sumupstore.com

Check out the Women's Collective Open Day on the 7th of September at this link: https://womenscollective.ie/latest-news/wci-limerick-open-day/

And listen to the dreamy Keith Green for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em5gL0Rw4Aw&ab_channel=monum

The Limerick Lady is a grassroots movement based in Limerick, Ireland, with a focus on promoting conversation around gender, visibility, gender balance and the arts. It was founded in 2016 by award-winning (and losing) singer-songwriter Emma Langford, who hosts the podcast alongside fellow award-winning (and losing) Limerick woman, theatre-maker and musician Ann Blake.

Find the Limerick Lady Podcast on all your favourite streaming platforms. New episodes drop once a month, on the third Thursday (or Thirdsday, if you will).

The Limerick Lady is sponsored by Ormston House and supported by The Limerick Post Newspaper.

Follow Ormston House at www.ormstonhouse.com Support the Limerick Post at www.limerickpost.ie

This month we talk to Galway artist Tracy Bruen. Tracy was on the lineup of the first ever Limerick Lady event at the Limerick Milk Market in the summer of 2016. She joins us 7 years on to catch us up on her life and career. Over the last ten years, Tracy has toured extensively throughout Ireland and Europe. Her debut album "Mirror" was released in 2017. Singles from her sophomore album, "Waiting", released in January 2023, have received extensive national and regional radio play, with "Dream Away" and "Silence Crawls" both reaching the top ten in the RTÉ Radio charts.

Over the years, Tracy has shared stages with some of Ireland's best loved acts such as Mick Flannery and Mary Coughlan, as well as playing many of Ireland's major festivals including Electric Picnic, Body & Soul, Sunflower Fest and the Galway Arts Festival. She is continually and consistently developing her audience both at home and abroad, and was dubbed Original Solo Artist of the Year in 2015 by the Galway Advertiser.

On this episode, Tracy talks about the cost – personal, emotional, and financial – of being an independent artist, and the investment of energy that every show and new release takes. She talks about hitting her limits; about coming through breast cancer, and the age-old issue among the self-employed of not listening to her body when it told her it needed rest.

We explore how hard it is to survive in the music industry; how an artist chooses the order of songs on a record; the current landscape of the industry in terms of gender balance; and why Tracy no longer plays old songs that she doesn't connect with.

Find Tracy at www.facebook.com/TracyBruenMusic or on Instagram at @tracybruen

"..a gentle beauty, Bruen's folk and classical stylings crystallising in the pure notes of her voice" — Evoke.ie

You can download her music at www.tracybruen.bandcamp.com

Special guest on the podcast this month is El Reid Buckley. El Reid-Buckley (they/them) is a sociologist, writer, and collage artist based in Limerick, Ireland. They are currently completing a PhD in Sociology on bisexualities in post-marriage equality Ireland – they're currently waiting on their viva voce! "Free 'Til Viva" in their own words.

Their research, writing and artistic practice is broadly focused on issues of genders and sexualities; with research interests in a wide number of areas such as trans theory, pop culture, media studies, archival and memorial practices, and the politics of space. Overall, their work aims to connect art, academia, and activism, to celebrate the beauty, joy, and diversity of queerness and trans identity. You can find El on Twitter at @ereidbuckley.

El says that you can't live in a room if you don't clean it or at least re-organise it a bit. This episode explores the impulse many LGBTQIA+ people feel to mold themselves to cis-het expectations of them, rather than being and embracing their authentic selves.

We look at queer identity, self-reflection within the community, the perception of events like Stonewall as "amorphous" in discussions around queer visibility and activism, and the importance of rage in making things happen. We also learn why sober events during Pride are so vital.

Referenced in the conversation:

"queerness in a heteronormative world is like sitting in an uncomfortable chair" – Sara Ahmed

"My Words To Victor Frankenstein Above The Village Of Chamounix" by Susan Stryker

RTÉ's coverage of the LGBTQIA+ community: https://gcn.ie/reeling-in-the-queers-rte-archives-70s-80s/

"The place in which I'll fit will not exist until I make it." – James Baldwin

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself." – George Bernard Shaw

"There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives." – Audre Lorde

"Screaming Queens" documentary by Susan Stryker: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0464189/

TLC (Trans Limerick Community): https://twitter.com/translimerick?lang=en

Event being run by El: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/the-ireland-we-dreamed-of-tickets-647128307187

The Limerick Lady is a grassroots movement based in Limerick, Ireland, with a focus on promoting conversation around gender, visibility, gender balance and the arts. It was founded in 2016 by award-winning (and losing) singer-songwriter Emma Langford, who hosts the podcast alongside fellow award-winning (and losing) Limerick woman, theatre-maker and musician Ann Blake.

Find the Limerick Lady Podcast on all your favourite streaming platforms.

New episodes drop once a month, on the third Thursday (or Thirdsday, if you will).

The Limerick Lady is sponsored by Ormston House and supported by The Limerick Post Newspaper.

Follow Ormston House at www.ormstonhouse.com

Support the Limerick Post at www.limerickpost.ie

Gráinne O'Brien has been the Children's Book Buyer at O'Mahony's, one of the largest independent booksellers open since 1902, for the last ten years.

She's taught creative writing workshops at 3rd level, and is the Head of Publishing at Walls of Limerick. She co-founded Silver Apples Magazine in 2014 and has gone on to publish many talented emerging writers within it. In 2018, she completed the MA in Creative Writing in UL and received an Irish Arts Council Agility Awards in both 2021 and 2022.

She is represented by Sallyanne Sweeney from MMB Creative. Her first book, "A Limerick Fairytale" was published by The O'Brien Press in Spring 2023 and debuted as a bestseller. Gráinne has spent the last decade of her life sharing her love of books and reading with children. This book is inspired by them.

Founder of Rontu Literary Services, her philosophy for feedback on writing is that it shouldn't be coarsely critical, but rather respectful of the work that's been presented with constructive critiques. She's been published, and rejected, many times. Rontu grew from the ashes of her own negative experiences in the publishing world

Gráinne says that Limerick is like a "scrappy little sister" and powerful women are "her brand." In this month's episode she tells us about her favourite childhood books, moving from California to Bunratty in her formative years, drawing on her teens at Villiers School to write her forthcoming "verse novel", and gives some vital guidance to other writers looking to get published. She also gives shout-outs to fellow writers, Alex Dunne, Sarah Gilmartin and Dan Mooney, and a big thanks to her O'Mahony's colleague, Jack, for teaching her to TikTok.

Find out more about Gráinne at https://www.rontuliteraryservice.com/about

Link to buy A Limerick Fairytale children's picture book: https://www.omahonys.ie/a-limerick-fairytale-p-10545101.html

Photo of Gráinne by Nicole Roche

The Limerick Lady is a grassroots movement based in Limerick, Ireland, with a focus on promoting conversation around gender, visibility, gender balance and the arts. It was founded in 2016 by award-winning (and losing) singer-songwriter Emma Langford, who hosts the podcast alongside fellow award-winning (and losing) Limerick woman, theatre-maker and musician Ann Blake.

Find the Limerick Lady Podcast on all your favourite streaming platforms. New episodes drop once a month, on the third Thursday (or Thirdsday, if you will).

The Limerick Lady is sponsored by Ormston House and supported by The Limerick Post Newspaper.

Follow Ormston House at www.ormstonhouse.com Support the Limerick Post at www.limerickpost.ie

This month, Emma Langford and Ann Blake have a return guest in the form of IFTA nominated and award winning director, writer and actor Laura O'Shea. Having spent a number of years working in call centre and then a shoe shop, Laura's professional trajectory in film has been steadily rising. Taking the power into her own hands and making short films to get her face and her work out there she talks about the importance of making work despite limited resources. "You don't really need money to make people feel things."

Her latest short film 'Wednesday's Child', which she wrote and directed, is nominated for an IFTA. Laura talks about wearing a number of creative hats at once and how it's actually a good time to be a woman in the film industry.

Find out more about Laura at https://www.lauraoshea.com/

Link to 'Free To Fall' music video: https://youtu.be/wSJXQuVh2pE

The Limerick Lady is a grassroots movement based in Limerick, Ireland, with a focus on promoting conversation around gender, visibility, gender balance and the arts. It was founded in 2016 by award-winning (and losing) singer-songwriter Emma Langford, who hosts the podcast alongside fellow award-winning (and losing) Limerick woman, theatre-maker and musician Ann Blake.

Find the Limerick Lady Podcast on all your favourite streaming platforms. New episodes drop once a month, on the third Thursday (or Thirdsday, if you will).

The Limerick Lady is sponsored by Ormston House and supported by The Limerick Post Newspaper.

Follow Ormston House at www.ormstonhouse.com Support the Limerick Post at www.limerickpost.ie

Emma Langford and Ann Blake talk to Dr. Susan Liddy, founder of Catalyst International Film Festival, about the festival which is set to take place from the 30th of March to the 1st of April at various venues around Limerick City. The three consider the challenges faced by new and emerging festivals in gaining an audience, and they discuss the key elements needed to allow such a thing to grow and survive.

Established in 2019 on the cusp of the impending pandemic, the festival was forced to go virtual in its first year but has grown ever since and has extended its tendrils into live venues around the city in 2023 as well as attracting A-list ambassador Ruth Negga. The mission of Catalyist IFF is to present a film programme that prioritises stories and storytellers currently under-represented on screen and behind the camera; to create a more inclusive industry; and to ensure that films screened throughout promote gender equality, diversity and inclusion whether in content, key creative roles, or crew.

Find out more at https://catalystinternationalfilmfestival.com/

The Limerick Lady is a grassroots movement based in Limerick, Ireland, with a focus on promoting conversation around gender, visibility, gender balance and the arts. It was founded in 2016 by award-winning (and losing) singer-songwriter Emma Langford, who hosts the podcast alongside fellow award-winning (and losing) Limerick woman, theatre-maker and musician Ann Blake.

Find the Limerick Lady Podcast on all your favourite streaming platforms. New episodes drop once a month, on the third Thursday (or Thirdsday, if you will).

The Limerick Lady is sponsored by Ormston House and supported by The Limerick Post Newspaper.

Follow Ormston House at www.ormstonhouse.com Support the Limerick Post at www.limerickpost.ie

This month our episode, once again, is going out a week later than usual.

Just a short one this month, but a good one all the same!

Singer/Songwriters Emma Langford and Wallis Bird talk about their forthcoming show, "Daughters Of The Pirate Queen: Spirit of Grace O'Malley" which will take place on the 8th of March (International Women's Day) at the National Concert Hall in Dublin.

The show was dreamed up by composer & conductor Eímear Noone in 2021, and at long last is coming to life with the help of the National Symphony Orchestra and a diverse cast of voices including Nina Hynes, Celine Byrne, Aisling McGlynn, Dawn Kenny, trumpeter Helen Doyle, costume designer Claire Garvey and lighting designer Philip Geist.

Credit for the photo of Wallis in the episode artwork: Tobias Ortmann

Find Wallis on Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok and Facebook by searching Wallis Bird, and buy aaaall her music! Her latest album "Hands" is available here: https://lnk.to/HandsAlbum

The Limerick Lady is a grassroots movement based in Limerick, Ireland, with a focus on promoting conversation around gender, visibility, gender balance and the arts. It was founded in 2016 by award-winning (and losing) singer-songwriter Emma Langford, who hosts the podcast alongside fellow award-winning (and losing) Limerick woman, theatre-maker and musician Ann Blake.

Find the Limerick Lady Podcast on all your favourite streaming platforms. New episodes drop once a month, on the third Thursday (or Thirdsday, if you will).

The Limerick Lady is sponsored by Ormston House and supported by The Limerick Post Newspaper.

Follow Ormston House at www.ormstonhouse.com Support the Limerick Post at www.limerickpost.ie

Follow The Limerick Lady on Facebook at TheLimerickLady, on Twitter at LkLadyHQ and on Instagram at thelimericklady

Tweet about us using #LKLadyPod so we can see what you have to say!

Intro music: Demon Darling by Emma Langford Outro music: Closed Book by Emma Langford