With COVID19 changing our world, and turning things upside down, we’ve been looking at ways in which we can help.
We know so many children are now at home and looking for stories to enjoy so we’ve released a podcast series of audio readings of Oscar Wilde’s short stories ‘The Happy Prince & Other Tales’ read by talented young Irish actors, Robert Sheehan, Brian Gleeson and Lauren Coe. Have a listen here and download the podcasts.
The readings are part of a major transmedia project we did a few years ago with the Irish composer Michael Gallen and the visual artist Felicity Clear.
You can enjoy all the stories: hear them, read them and listen to Michael’s work and see Felicity’s artwork on the website www.wildestories.ie
How the genetics of Iceland reveals its Irish female roots in story and song.
Acclaimed Irish composer Linda Buckley has a personal and professional affinity to Iceland and in this radio series she teams up with documentary maker Helen Shaw to trace the connections between the two places.
The Icelandic female line goes directly back to gaelic women, mostly taken as slaves, by Norwegian Vikings who settled the land over a thousand years ago. Buckley asks what is the legacy of that biology and what are the physical, cultural and aural traces of that relationship?
An evocative, music-led feature series exploring heritage, language, music, and gender while drawing out the little known stories of the women who mothered Iceland and the sisterhood between the two places.
This is Where We Live is an audio podcast and transmedia series exploring what it takes to shape great places to live and how Dublin is facing up to its future. A story of housing and homelessness, of living and waiting, and of challenges and solutions. thisiswherewelive.ie
In the series we’ll explore the challenges facing Dublin, starting with housing and homelessness, and we’ll look outside Ireland to see how other European cities are coping, from Vienna to Glasgow, from Amsterdam to Lisbon. You’ll hear from people in the know, policy-makers and academics, and from citizens renting, buying and living in the city. And from those dreaming of a home beyond a hotel room, a bed and breakfast house, a hostel or a tent.
Along the way we’ll share our stories, our photographs and our interviews, both on and off the street, like thisour first little visit to Marino, the iconic ‘garden city’ that Dublin City built in the 1920s and 30s, providing homes, and gardens, for the over-crowded inner city tenements.
If you’d like to be a part of this ongoing journey, consider becoming a supporter on Patreon.
Helen Shaw’s guest in this episode of The Family of Things is film-maker Frank Berry whose work tells stories of social realism in often tough suburbs from the documentary film ‘Ballymun Lullaby’ at the time of the tearing down of the Ballymun Towers to dramas like ‘I Used to Live Here’, touching on youth mental health and suicide.
In this episode of The Family of Things Helen Shaw’s guest is the psychologist and author Dr Tony Bates. Tony founded Jigsaw the National Agency for Youth Mental Health, after a long career in clinical psychology. His new book ‘Breaking the Heart Open‘ has just been published and the podcast was recorded as he began writing it.
In this episode of The Family of Things Helen Shaw’s guest is the psychologist and author Dr Tony Bates. Tony founded Headstrong, (now Jigsaw), the National Agency for Youth Mental Health, after a long career in clinical psychology.
He was the co-editor of Vision for Change, the mental health strategic review in 2006 and that work motivated him to create an NGO with a mission to provide mental health resources for young people. Jigsaw now has 13 centres across Ireland and has become a critical part of support services for young people in Ireland.
Tony is also credited as one of the people who brought the practice of mindfulness to Ireland following his own experience at the buddhist retreat centre in Plum Village, France with the spiritual leader Thich Nhat Hanh. He is the author of ‘Coming Through Depression, a Mindful Approach to Recovery’
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
Glen Hansard is in conversation with fellow singer Iarla Ó Lionáird about his life and work in song in this documentary for RTÉ lyric fm as part of this multi award winning series. The full documentary was broadcast at 6pm on October 29th 2017.
Glen Hansard’s vocal journey began as a young teenager busking on the streets of Dublin but it has taken him to some of the biggest arenas in the world and an academy award for best song in the film ‘Once’. That film was inspired by Glen’s own busking life and he also got to play the lead role.
His film work began in ‘The Commitments’ while he was fronting his band ‘The Frames’ and since then he has worked with his idols Bob Dylan, and the late Leonard Cohen, as well as sharing a stage with international performers like Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder.
Glen talks with Iarla of a life dedicated to music and shares a song ‘Didn’t He Ramble’ written after the death of his father.
