With September comes a certain level of routine in the local news cycle so there's plenty to talk about on this week's LoveLaois Podcast.

Steven and Alan chat about the retirement of Donal Brennan from Laois County Council, a local link to the 9/11 memories, how Muhammad Ali's gloves ended up in Ballylinan, the latest Electric Picnic debate and Martina Mulhall's outstanding series of career interviews.

Electric Picnic is over for another year and Alan Hartnett and Steven Miller have sat down for a special edition of the LoveLaois Podcast to look back on their weekend in Stradbally.

From their live show alongside former Laois footballer Colm Parkinson and The Smaller Fish to navigating their way around the enormous festival site, the lads reflect on three very different days at Ireland's biggest music and arts festival.

For Alan, Friday was particularly music-heavy. He caught Darren Kiely, Jade, Zara Larsson, Sombr and Lewis Capaldi, with the latter bringing the opening night to a spectacular conclusion on the Main Stage.

Saturday brought another busy schedule as Alan took in Belter's Only, Duke Dumont and Le Boom, while there was also plenty of discussion about the general Electric Picnic experience and the challenge of getting around the sprawling Stradbally site.

And then came Amble. Alan had previously been less than complimentary about the Irish folk group – describing them as “boring” – but after seeing them live on Sunday, he performs a U-turn and offers an apology.

Steven's Sunday included two very different musical institutions as he caught The Saw Doctors and Van Morrison, but his Electric Picnic experience was less about ticking acts off a list and more about the people he encountered along the way.

That included bumping into plenty of familiar faces over the course of the weekend – not least a sizeable contingent of the Mayo footballers enjoying their time in Stradbally.

There is a more serious local discussion too, as Steven reflects on his conversation with Electric Picnic Festival Director Melvin Benn during the build-up to this year's event.

With around 80,000 people descending on Stradbally for the festival each year, Steven discusses whether Electric Picnic could and should do more to leave a lasting positive imprint on its host community once the stages come down, the campsites empty and the festival moves on for another year.

From Capaldi and Amble to Mayo footballers, Colm Parkinson and the relationship between Electric Picnic and Stradbally, the latest LoveLaois Podcast looks back on another memorable weekend on Laois soil.

Alan Hartnett made his annual pilgrimage to the Junket of the Year on Tuesday - the press day at Electric Picnic. 
It's a day of seeing the site, meeting the festival director, free lunch and a goodie bag. It's always a great day out and he was joined by our camera man Paul Dargan once again. 
He joins Steven for a chat about some of the Electric Picnic changes, the acts he's looking forward to seeing, the characters you're likely to meet and planning the LaoisToday coverage of an event that never fails to disappoint. 

LaoisToday will be in the Ah Hear tent in Mindfield on Friday 4pm interviewing Colm Parkinson from the Smaller Fish Podcast. Free LaoisToday hats up for grabs

Pearse Doherty from the Saw Doctors joins us on the latest episode of the LoveLaois Podcast as this year's Electric Picnic is now just days away.
The Saw Doctors are playing on Sunday at 5.30pm on the Main Stage and for bass player Pearse Doherty it is the latest moment of a remarkable career in the music and entertainment industry.
He was part of the band in their breakthrough years in the 1980s and throughout the 1990s before a career change brought him elsewhere, including a spell as site manager for Electric Picnic, when he'd arrive in Stradbally as the Steam Rally was finishing up and stay until the festival was over.
He chats about the enduring success of the Picnic and what it will be like to be on the Main Stage with the Saw Doctors. They are enjoying a surge in popularity and have been the sound of the summer with their iconic hit The Green and Red of Mayo getting countless plays since Mayo's stunning All Ireland final success.

From spending his teenage summers caddying in Adare Manor to launching an AI-powered golf app that is already making waves in Ireland and beyond, Killenard-based entrepreneur Barry Moroney is the latest guest on the LoveLaois Business Podcast.

Barry sits down with Alan Hartnett to discuss the journey that has taken him from Limerick to Laois, through careers in marketing, six years living in Dubai, life as a digital nomad across Europe, and ultimately to creating ApexGolf – an app designed to help amateur golfers improve through personalised practice and fitness plans.

The conversation begins long before ApexGolf came to life, with Barry recalling his first experience as a teenage caddie at Adare Manor, where carrying bags for visiting golfers became an unexpected education in business, confidence and communication.

He also speaks openly about changing career paths after deciding teaching wasn't for him, the lessons he learned from working in sales during the recession, and why starting a service-based business gave him the confidence to eventually pursue a much more ambitious idea.

Barry explains how his own frustrations as an amateur golfer sparked the concept for ApexGolf, why he shelved the idea for several years, and how the emergence of artificial intelligence finally allowed him to turn it into reality.

He offers a fascinating insight into the months of development, the pressures of launching a technology business and why first impressions mattered so much before releasing the app to the public.

Listeners will also hear why Barry believes many golfers are practising the wrong way, how fitness is one of the most overlooked aspects of the game, and how ApexGolf aims to give ordinary golfers the same structured approach that elite athletes use to improve their performance.

Throughout the podcast, Barry reflects on the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, the importance of taking calculated risks and why he believes careers are rarely straightforward journeys.

It's an honest conversation about resilience, business, innovation and building something from scratch.

Whether you're a golfer, an aspiring entrepreneur or simply interested in hearing the story of a Laois-based business with global ambitions, this is an episode not to be missed.

Steven and Alan are back with a LoveLaois Podcast and they've plenty to talk about. 

- Zoning for up to 8,000 more homes in Laois and the challenges that brings
- Predictable council chamber rows
- Steven the imaginary chairman
- Alan and his doubled-barrelled bias
- Alan's first confession in 20 years
- Abortion debate
- British by-election

When Aymar Gourdet arrives at the LaoisToday offices a couple of minutes ahead of his scheduled podcast interview, it doesn't take long to learn that this is a man that absolutely loves what he's doing. 
His enthusiasm and energy is palpable and he bounds up the stairs. He's the French man behind the award-winning Le Skinny Chef range of pestos, chutneys, soups and sauces and this week he represents Laois at the National Enterprise Awards in the Mansion House in Dublin. 
He runs his operation out of a unit in Clonminam, tasting everything he produces and delivering most of it to supermarkets around the country. His product can be found in almost 80 SuperValu stores around the country and also Dunne's Stores and Aldi. 
Thirty three years after first coming to Ireland as a 17-year-old to work as a chef, the French accent is still strong, intensely proud of his roots though he has lived and worked all his adult life in Ireland. 
He grew up in a family guest house in Normandy, moved to Paris to train as a chef and then to Dublin to work before he was even 18. He has lived in Ireland ever since. 
Initially he worked in restaurants in Dublin, learned English during his split shifts and opened his own restaurant in Kildare Town when he was 26 which he ran for 16 years, through boom and bust. 
But he craved a new challenge and his experience in the restaurant showed him there was a market for his own range of sauces, which he founded in 2016. 
In this latest episode of the LoveLaois Business Podcast he talks about his journey, the story behind his nick name, his hopes for the future and the supports he has received from the Laois Local Enterprise Office. 

Kristine Golubovska, owner of Floral Essence in Portlaoise, sits down with Samanta Danne on the LoveLaois podcast to talk about her life in floristry and the realities of running a successful small business for the past 14 years.

Floral Essence first opened its doors in 2012, just before Valentine’s Day. 

Since then, it has grown into a much‑loved local flower shop, especially known for its wedding work.

The business was a finalist in the Kay’s Flower School Awards 2025 for the category of Retail Florist of the Year, and is now also a fully registered company.

In this episode, Samanta speaks with Kristine about her background — including her move from Latvia to Ireland at the age of 19, originally planning to stay for just a year — and how those early experiences eventually led her to establishing a floristry business in Laois. 

Known for her signature colourful bouquets, Kristine talks about what first drew her to floristry, her creative process, and her training.

Later in the conversation, she also shares the sources of inspiration that guide her work, giving listeners a deeper insight into her craft.

The discussion explores the challenges of building a business from scratch, the day‑to‑day reality behind the counter, and the important role the local community has played in helping Floral Essence grow.

From wedding bouquets to moments of loss, florists witness it all. Kristine reflects on how florists often do far more than arrange flowers. 

She also offers thoughtful advice for anyone thinking about starting a business.

It has a story line so wild, you'd consider it far-fetched if you watched it on Netflix. 
It's even madder when a large part of it is set in Rosenallis with contributions from people in Mountmellick, Portlaoise, Mountrath and Castletown. 
But Runaway Joe is no ordinary story. It is the story of an Irish-American called Joe Moloney who was arrested for the murder of his wife, June Fisk, at their son's fifth birthday party in Rochester in upstate New York in 1967. From there it has one twist after another. Escaping prison in the USA, being on the run from the FBI, arriving in Dublin and assuming a new identity, Michael O'Shea, falling in for money and purchasing Capard House in Rosenallis and living the life of a Lord of the Manor with his new wife. 
There's the fact that Gardai in Ireland figured out who he really was but couldn't do anything about it as there was no extradition treaty between Ireland and the USA at the time. Then there is his arrest, his court case, his attempted prison break out from Mountjoy, a return to Portlaoise prison and then freedom again on a technicality, where he flees again, assumed to have lived out his final years off the grid in northern Cyrprus. 
After being the subject of an award-winning RTE podcast, Pavel Barter has now written a fascinating, ultimate, unputdownable page-turner with even more detail and context and updates than the podcast had. Don't be surprised if it does come to your screens soon as film or series. 
Pavel joined us for an interview where he explained how his interest in the story came about, the various Laois connections and how the FBI now want to speak to him!
Runaway Joe is available to buy in all good bookshops. 

We’re back with a new episode of the LoveLaois Podcast and there’s plenty to talk about.

We have had three Municipal meetings since our last Podcast.

Alan attended Borris-Mountmellick and Graiguecullen-Portarlington while Steven was at Portlaoise. 

The lads run through the various motions and also give a shout out to Cllr Aisling Moran who is off to Uganda. 

Steven also recalls the 1984 By-Election and gives his thoughts on the Bertie Ahern comments fiasco.