Explore Athena Media podcasts on our new Soundcloud channel, with over 200 uploads, from standalone radio documentaries to full podcast series. There’s something for every listener.
BRIGHT SPARKS:
Bright Sparks is an Athena Media production asking what happens when we enable bright people to follow their curiosity and solve the worlds problems. This 8 part series follows TCD physicist Dr. Shane Bergin as he talks to leading researchers and scientists in Ireland and uncovering why our small island is leading globally in many scientific fields.
CITIZENS:LOCKOUT 1913-2013:
A six part documentary series narrating the events that led to the landmark labour versus capital conflict in Dublin in 1913, exploring the leaders on both sides and questioning the legacy of Lockout 1913 for Ireland today.
DEATH OF AN EMPIRE:
Death of an Empire is a 5 part radio series exploring twenty years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union led by Seamus Martin, former Moscow correspondent of The Irish Times, and exploring what made the Soviet Union, what lead to its collapse and what its like inside modern Russia today.
JOYCE’S DUBLIN:
This audio podcast series showcases James Joyce’s short story ‘The Dead’ from his collection ‘Dubliners’ and explores themes within the story drawing on scholarly research and connecting it with the archive collections in UCD, the National Library and the National Archives.
In a special Christmas Day edition of Pantisocracy the ‘cabaret of conversations’ host Panti Bliss, the unofficial ‘Queen’ of Ireland, hosts a gathering exploring how we draw upon the traditions of being Irish, in language, music, song, poetry and dance to re-imagine anew ourselves and our place in the world.
In a special New Year’s Day edition of Pantisocracy, the ‘cabaret of conversations’ hosted by Panti Bliss looks towards a new year with guests; singers Luka Bloom, Aoife Scott and Steve Wall, paralympian athlete Niamh McCarthy and Syrian human rights advocate Razan Ibraheem.
The episode features Luka Bloom performing ‘Wayfaring Stranger’ and Aoife Scott performing the Bruce Coburn classic ‘Wondering where the lions are’. Steve Wall, actor and frontman of The Stunning, sings his song “Mama’s Going Back to Bed” and shares stories of his new movie about jazz trumpeter Chet Baker while Razan Ibraheem talks of her experience helping Syrian war refugees find a home in Ireland.
LISTEN TO THE PANTISOCRACY NEW YEAR’S PODCAST:
WATCH THE GUEST PERFORMANCES FROM THESE SEASONAL EPISODES
In a special Christmas Day edition of Pantisocracy the ‘cabaret of conversations’ host Panti Bliss, the unofficial ‘Queen’ of Ireland, hosts a gathering exploring how we draw upon the traditions of being Irish, in language, music, song, poetry and dance to re-imagine anew ourselves and our place in the world.
In a special New Year’s Day edition of Pantisocracy, the ‘cabaret of conversations’ hosted by Panti Bliss looks towards a new year with guests; singers Luka Bloom, Aoife Scott and Steve Wall, paralympian athlete Niamh McCarthy and Syrian human rights advocate Razan Ibraheem.
This January 1st 2018, Luka Bloom performs ‘Wayfaring Stranger’ and Aoife Scott performs the Bruce Coburn classic ‘Wondering where the lions are’. Steve Wall, actor and frontman of The Stunning, sings his song “Mama’s Going Back to Bed” and shares stories of his new movie about jazz trumpeter Chet Baker while Razan Ibraheem talks of her experience helping Syrian war refugees find a home in Ireland.
WATCH THE GUEST PERFORMANCES FROM THESE SEASONAL EPISODES
In this 14th instalment of Vocal Chords, Iarla’s guest in this episode is the Cork born composer Linda Buckley whose work explores and uses the human voice. Linda comes from a family of 9 from the Old Head of Kinsale and grew up in a traditional music environment before studying music at UCC and Trinity College Dublin.
Linda Buckley is a composer/performer based in Dublin/Kinsale who has written extensively for orchestra, and has a particular interest in merging her classical training with the worlds of post punk, folk and ambient electronica. Her work has been described as “fantastically brutal, reminiscent of the glitch music of acts such as Autechre” (Liam Cagney, Composing the Island) and “engaging with an area of experience that new music is generally shy of, which, simplified and reduced to a single word, I’d call ecstasy” (Bob Gilmore, Journal of Music).
Music for theatre includes work by Enda Walsh (Bedbound) and film by Pat Collins (Living in a Coded Land) and Tadhg O’Sullivan (Solas Céad Bliain). Awards include a Fulbright scholarship to NYU and the Frankfurt Visual Music Award 2011 (Silk Chroma).
Recent and upcoming collaborations include work with Mmoths, arrangements from This Mortal Coil, remixes for Augustus and John, as well as performances by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Icebreaker, Joby Burgess, Ensemble Mise-En and Crash Ensemble. Linda also lectures on the renowned Music and Media Technologies programme at Trinity College Dublin.
She is now an international artist of considerable reputation and her music has been performed by the Dresden Sinfoniker Orchestra, Crash Ensemble, Fidelio Trio, Orkest de Ereprijs, Janus Trio, Rothko Trio, University of York Javanese Gamelan, and featured at international festivals including the Bang on a Can Summer Institute of Music at MassMoCA, Gaudeamus Music Week Amsterdam and Seoul International Computer Music Festival.
She is herself a fine singer and her work, like her recent show at the Kilkenny Arts Festival – Antartica in collaboration with the uilleann piper David Power, features her vocal and electronic composition. In this episode Iarla explores Linda’s work and talks about their own collaboration Ó Íochtar Mara which was performed by Crash Ensemble at the Sounds from a Safe Harbour Festival in Cork. From January 2018 Linda will take up a new post as Lecturer in Composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, in Glasgow.
Revelavit Linda Buckley Alice Cocteau Twins The Sensual World Kate Bush Song of the Siren Annette and Linda Buckley Corpus Christi Irene and Linda Buckley Do you remember the planets? Linda Buckley Torann Crash Ensemble O Pastor Animarum Hildegard von Bingen Eriu Linda Buckley An Lacha Bacach Eilis Ní Shuilleabháin Siúl a Rún Linda Buckley Draíocht na Nollag Pro Cathedral Girls’ Choir Haunt The Relay Project Revelavit Ergodos Beloved on the Earth RTE Philharmonic Choir and National Symphony Orchestra Íochtar Mara Iarla O Lionaird and the Vanbrugh String Quartet Fridur Isabelle O Connell Heckla Crash Ensemble Numarimur Linda Buckley Water Sugarcubes Hoppipolla Sigur Ros Drink all your Passion Michelle O Rourke Haunt The Relay Project Antartcia at Night Linda Buckley and David Power Jump Kate Ellis Chiyo BBC Symphony Orchestra Fall Approaches Ruthless Jabiru Chamber Orchestra Haza RTE Contempo Quartet Ekstasis Linda Buckley and Joby Burgess
The new season of Pantisocracy, the ‘cabaret of conversations’ hosted by Panti Bliss, is now available as podcasts. The new shows feature artists including Duke Special, Cáit O’Riordan, Julie Feeney, Eleanor McEvoy and Emmet Kirwan and were broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 across the Summer. The Pantisocracy website now has both Season 1 and Season 2 online with links to lots of additional content and information.
Pantisocracy is an Athena Media production
the producer is Helen Shaw and the audio editor is Pearse Ó Caoimh.
Iarla Ó Lionáird meets sisters Maighread and Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill, two of Ireland’s most respected traditional singers, and shares a conversation of family, song and language with them; from the stories of their father, the singer and folk song collector Aodh Ó Domhnaill, and his sister, the blind singer Neilí Ni Domhnaill, natives of Rann na Feirste, Donegal, to their own roots in the Meath Gaeltacht.
In this segment from the upcoming documentary feature Iarla talks to the sisters about that journey back to Donegal when they were children, to what they see as their spiritual home, and how their Dad would tip them sixpence for the first sighting of Errigal. In the piece you hear the song Níl sé ina lá that the sisters learnt as girls from their Aunt Neilí and recorded by them on the album Idir an Dá Sholas.
The full episode was broadcast on May 5th on RTÉ Lyric fm.
From their first band Skara Brae, with their late brother Micheal, the sisters share their work together and separately, Triona in the ground-breaking Bothy Band and Maighread in her acclaimed solo work. They sing together for Iarla a song once sung by their late Aunty Neili and collected by Maighread’s husband and traditional music devotee, Cathal Goan.
Listen back to the episode in full
Vocal Chords is an Athena Media production for RTE Lyric fm made with the support of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and the TV licence fee.
The producer is Helen Shaw, The audio editor is Pearse Ó Caoimh.
The digital editor (behind our website and podcasts) is John Howard.
www.vocalchords.ie
Photo image by Helen Shaw – all rights in Vocal Chords, recordings and images, rests with Athena Media Ltd. www.athenamedia.ie
Peter Gallagher leads solar physics and space weather research at Trinity College Dublin. Gallagher researches the Sun, in particular solar storms and their impact on Earth. He is Director of the Rosse Solar Terrestrial Observatory at Birr Castle and leads the Irish LOFAR radio telescope project. Gallagher says he was always fascinated by how things work when he was a small boy, even taking the television apart to see what made it work but was a lack lustre student at school.
He took physics and mathematics at UCD before his PhD in solar physics at Queen’s University Belfast. At UCD he met and married fellow scientist Emma Teeling who now heads the bat lab at UCD and is an internationally acclaimed geneticist. Gallagher spent six years in the US including working at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
His cutting edge work at Birr Castle connects Ireland’s space research history with its future since the 3rd Earl of Rosse in 1845 constructed the biggest telescope in the world – Leviathan – and identified the whirl pool galaxy.
Wilde Stories our radio series inspired by Oscar Wilde’s collection of fairytalesThe Happy Prince and Other Tales has now begun airing on RTÉ Lyric FM, for the ‘Lyric Feature’ – on Friday evenings at 7pm for the next few weeks, with Episode 2 (centred on the story of ‘The Devoted Friend’, read by Lauren Coe going to air this Friday the 15th of July.
Episode 1 was broadcast last week and is now available to download via iTunes.
Helen Shaw’s latest guest in The Family of Things is performer and accidental activist Rory O’Neill AKA the Queen of Ireland Panti Bliss.
Rory talks about his memoir ‘Woman in the Making’ (Hachette 2014) and his personal journey from growing up in rural Ireland to become a ‘national treasure’ as the drag queen Panti who he says has become a sort of ‘avatar for change’. Rory shares the highs and lows of the last two years since his celebrated speech on the stage of the Abbey Theatre which mobilised support for the Marriage Equality Referendum that was passed by the Irish public in May 2015.
Eleanor’s acclaimed biography of Oscar Wilde from the perspective of the women in his life ‘Wilde’s Women‘ opens new windows on both Wilde and his work.
Eleanor’s beautifully written and carefully researched study was published in Ireland in Autumn 2015 and is being released in the US this year. In this conversation with presenter Helen Shaw she introduces us to Wilde’s intriguing mother, Jane Wilde, a celebrated writer in her own time, and his much suffering wife Constance LLoyd as well as the women writers who influenced and inspired Wilde.
Eleanor describes her work as ‘recovering’ lost stories of women in history and sees her journey as akin to excavating the past; bringing forth what has been forgotten or obscured.
Wilde’s Women is published by Duckworth Overlook and you can follow Eleanor’s work and story via twitter.
