Irish Stew Podcast

So why learn Irish? "Studies have shown that learning your native language, learning any language, but especially your ancestral tongue, brings feelings of comfort and freedom. And especially when considering our past and our heritage, learning Irish is very revealing and very healing," says our latest guest Mollie Guidera, the Irish language teacher for Global Ireland. She grew up “with Irish in her ears all the time” and gave her first Irish lesson at age seven to a visiting American cousin. And even though her Irish language school expelled her for uttering one sentence of English, her love for the language grew. She’s taught over 6,000 students Irish online for a decade, currently through her engaging online global Irish language school simply named Irish with Mollie, a “blossoming community of worldwide Irish speakers, people from every background, every age, and just people who love Irish and are willing it forward.” Add co-host John Lee to the student roster--he registered after finding Mollie on Instagram and TikTok. With about 150,000 social media followers, she’s a leading Irish language influencer, spreading awareness of Irish in refreshing new ways. “We're hearing the echoes of our parents and grandparents and Irish writers in the Irish sounds and in the syntax and in the words themselves. It is such a tender and humorous language, replete with poetry and magic. It brings to life so many funny and quirky kinds of realizations and revelations.” Join us for an episode of Irish language “realizations and revelations” with Múinteoir Mollie. Links WebsiteInstagramTikTokIrish Times

Join us as we travel from Ireland all the way to New Zealand to explore a vision of Ireland from centuries ago in our conversation with Brian O’Sullivan. He’s an author, cultural researcher, strategic analyst, and founder of Irish Imbas, the only Irish publisher specializing in fiction and non-fiction based on the ancient Irish cultural knowledge and belief patterns of authentic Irish mythology. Hailing from West Cork, Brian lived in the UK and France before following his heart to New Zealand which he finds “a bit more like Ireland, more comfortable, like a comfortable shoe.” From this distant vantage point, he’s writing fiction that brings to life the Iron Age Ireland of Fionn mac Cumhaill, Liath Luachra, other legends from Ireland's deep past. His Beara Trilogy, Fionn mac Cumhaill Series; and Irish Woman Warrior Series turn ancient Irish cultural concepts into page-turning tales of action, adventure, blood, passion, and conflict. “You can't have a real sort of sense of where you are if you don't understand the context of how you got there in the first place. If you get your head around the history and the cultural belief systems, you’ll get a much better perspective on where you are and where you could go in the future,” he says. For his Seamus Plug, Brian hopes you’ll try his popular Liath Luachra series and watch for his work-in-progress to teach what mythology is, what it isn't, and how it can be personally relevant. Links: LinkedIn WebsiteBeara TrilogyFionn mac Cumhaill SeriesIrish Women Warrior (Liath Luachra) SeriesTwitterFacebook

A Trinity College graduate in economics and politics, he represented Irish business abroad, led The Ireland Funds for almost two decades, and now Kingsley Aikins combines his fervor for networking and diaspora engagement in the mission of The Networking Institute. “Kinger,” as he’s known to his friends, talks of how rugby became his global passport and the lucky break that landed him in Sydney, Australia to represent Enterprise Ireland and the Industrial Development Authority (IDA). Finding he “didn’t know a sinner” in the Southern Hemisphere, he started what has become one of the largest Irish business networking organizations in the world, and how that initiative helped him network his way into leading the groundbreaking diaspora initiative that became The Ireland Funds. Now his Networking Institute is helping people network their way to their full potential and nations from India to Nigeria to tap the power of their diasporas. His “Seamus Plug” is a call to action for Ireland to position itself “as an absolute center of excellence for diaspora engagements, the epicenter for this subject around the world¸ the thought leader in this space.” Join us for a warm, witty, quotable, and thought-provoking conversation with networking and diaspora thought leader, Kingsley Aikins. Links Kingsley Aikins LinkedInTwitterThe Networking institute WebsiteTwitterInstagramLinkedIn

From New Jersey to Sligo, Wales, London, Germany, to touring the globe and then to New York, Roger Clark stamps his passport as a leading citizen of the Global Irish Nation. And to millions around the world, he is an icon. An actor, filmmaker, voiceover artist of over 150 audiobooks, Roger’s claim to global fame is his performance-capture portrayal of the cowboy antihero Arthur Morgan in the massively popular action-adventure video game, five years in the making, Red Dead Redemption 2, a.k.a. RDR2. Roger takes us into the increasingly sophisticated world of gaming, why performance capture is so much more than just voiceover, the challenges of a 2,000-page script, and why he feels his RDR2 experience was more like being on stage than in a film, how video gaming now dwarfs the film industry, and the cult celebrity status he now enjoys as the alter-ego of Arthur Morgan. “It's a real privilege to be able to have such a large, appreciative audience for something that you've done. I still pinch myself up and down both arms now and I'm very, very grateful,” Roger said. But there’s a lot more to Roger Clark than one iconic role. His short film Hazardous is on YouTube, he’s in rehearsals for A Man for all Seasons in the role of Henry the Eighth, and on Mon., Oct. 30 he’ll headline New York’s Origin Theatre Gala as the winner of the George C. Heslin Artistic Leadership Award for his outstanding work in the theatre, film, and motion capture industries. Wouldn’t Arthur Morgan be proud. Links: Origin Theatre Gala ticketsIMDBInstagramX/TwitterYouTubeCameoDamn Handy Indigogo

In this Global Irish conversation, we search for the true origins of Western Civilization with a most global of guests, Naoíse Mac Sweeney, author of The West: A New History in Fourteen Lives. Her father is from Cork City, her mother is Malaysian Chinese, she grew up in London, studied the Greek and Roman world, and is a professor of classical archaeology at the University of Vienna. And to make her even more global, her husband is from Malta, which we visited in our episode with Malta’s ambassador to Ireland, Giovanni Buttigeig. She tells of how both Greek and Irish mythology pulled her into the ancient world, through the lure of the ancient Greek diaspora communities, her fascination with Troy, and her growing realization that “Western Civilization”—the concept of a single cultural inheritance extending from ancient Greece to modern times—is really a figment of our collective imagination. In The West, our award-winning guest thoroughly debunks that figment through the stories of fourteen figures who each played a role in the creation of the Western idea—from Herodotus, a mixed-race migrant, to Phylis Wheatley, an enslaved African American who became a literary sensation. From these narratives, a more nuanced, expansive, and intriguing view of the West emerges. Naoíse wraps up Irish Stew with the most unexpected “Seamus Plug” to date, which got your co-hosts thinking of approaching Dunnes Stores for sponsorship. And we’ll happily endorse her comment early in the conversation, when she said, “part of the joy of following Irish Stew is to hear the origin stories of so many people in the diaspora.” Links: The West: A New History in Fourteen LivesSmithsonian Magazine: The Myth of the ‘Dark Ages’ Ignores How Classical Traditions Flourished Around the World,University of Vienna: Naoise Mac SweeneyDunnes Strores, Helen James plates

Growing up in The Troubles in Northern Ireland, Jane Ferguson spent most of her life reporting on the global troubles in Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Iraq, Gaza, Syria, and Afghanistan, reporting for CNN International, Al Jazeera, PBS Newshour, The New Yorker and other outlets, always finding the human stories in inhuman wars and all revealed in her unflinching new memoir No Ordinary Assignment. The least surprising part of her memoir is when she wins the George Polk Award, an Emmy Award, and an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award for her stellar reporting. Jane takes us back to her young “hillbilly” childhood in County Armagh, growing up in a rural Protestant farming family, where security checkpoints along the roads and military helicopters in the skies was for her, normalcy. She escaped this normalcy through the pages of National Geographic, running her fingers over its maps, and the inspiration on women war correspondents she saw reporting from the front lines. Jane’s is a life lived through culture shocks, from a rustic Irish farm to a bucolic New Jersey prep school, from the ancient civilization of Yemen to the futuristic world of Dubai, from finding her tribe among the war correspondents at Kabul’s colorful Gandamack Lodge, to staying with her tribe to the bitter end in the fall of that city years later. With fear as her ally, she wills herself into some of the most dangerous places on earth, balancing her sense of service with her ambition, looking at each conflict through non-sectarian eyes, feeling privileged to tell the human stories amid geopolitical turmoil. She is largely off the road now, teaching at Princeton University while continuing as a PBS NewsHour - Special Correspondent and contributor for The New Yorker. On Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023 at 7:00 pm, The National Humanities Center will host “An Evening with Jane Ferguson,” at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. So much of Jane’s “beat” spun out of the tragedy of 9/11, so it was particularly meaningful that we recorded our episode with her on the anniversary of that somber day. Links Jane FergusonNo Ordinary AssignmentSeamus Plug An Evening with Jane FergusonSocial Media Twitter / XInstagramFacebook LinkedIn

Our Global Irish conversation with award-winning author Jane Delury centers on her second novel Hedge, a bildungsroman of an Irish American woman in her forties named Maude pursuing a career in the esoteric field of garden history, looking for clues in the past under the mounting challenges of the present. The theme of bringing a garden back to life threads through this novel of marital strains, infidelity, family secrets, personal discovery, endurance, and perseverance. Along the way, Jane leaves hints of her Irish roots, with mentions of porter cake, St. Patrick’s Day, the Clancy Brothers, and Maude’s family home in a neighborhood known as “Little Ireland.” Jane tells Irish Stew of her family roots in Cork, Mayo, and Sligo, her trips to Ireland, and her pride in her Irish citizenship. We discuss the symbolism of the garden, her literary influences, her love of short stories (she has one coming out soon in the Georgia Review), her first novel The Balcony and her experience publishing with the innovative Zibby Books. And she drops a few intriguing hints about what’s coming next, mentioning a “thing” she’s working on that she realizes is evolving into a novel and how she’s writing something new about her Irish Catholic upbringing. Her Seamus Plug is a call to support the exceptional work of Strength to Love II, a community-based program on a 1.5-acre Baltimore farm offering workforce development and employment to community residents and citizens returning from incarceration. So, join our compelling conversation with novelist Jane Delury, read Hedge, and stay tuned for what Jane has coming next! Links WebsiteTwitterInstagram

Join us on a stroll along North Circular Road from Phoenix Park to the Dublin Docklands with our guide Luke McManus, the documentary filmmaker of the award-winning North Circular which opens in New York City on July 28th. Rendered in graphic black & white over a soundtrack of local North Circular musicians, the film gives voice to narratives from the history of the city and nation, from colonialism to mental health, from women’s liberation to the battle to save the legendary folk revival venue the Cobblestone Pub from the wrecking ball. Growing up in Bray, the home of Ardmore Studios, Luke recounts that first moment he realized that he was a director, why Humphrey Bogart holds such a lofty position in his pantheon of film greats, and the many ways to make a living in film. Co-host John Lee diverts him into a conversation about horse racing which Luke explored in his film about the legendary ‘chaser Arkle and his TV series on the women in the sport, Jump Girls. Martin Nutty gets Luke talking about Crainn na hÉireann (The Trees of Ireland), the documentary series he did with past guest Manchán Magan . But the centerpiece of the episode is North Circular, where Luke celebrates the beauty in urban grit, the serendipity found along the street, the juxtaposition of squatters and the shadows of skyscraping construction cranes, and the expressive power of music to honor the tragic and celebrate the spirit, all ending on an exuberant high note provided by Irish women in music and sport. Step off with us on our trek through North Circular with Luke McManus Links Websites North Circular - Luke McManus - Luke McManus - Luke's Social Media LinkedInTwitterInstagram

How can a kneecap bone change the history of Ireland? We answer that question during our conversation with Dr. Ruth Carden, a paleo zoologist with a particular interest in the animals that roamed Ireland over the last 50,000 years. Ruth's research focuses particularly on the skeletal remains of those animals, since that is all that usually remains after the passage of time. Find out what Ruth can learn from a single bone and how adavanced laboratory analysis can yield multiple clues on the nature of the animals that she researchs. We discuss how a single knee bone or patella, found by Ruth, in a poorly labeled collection, has changed the date of the earliest continuous human habitation in Ireland. Before that discovery, it was thought the earliest modern human settlers of Ireland dated to 7,900 BCE. Ruth's work has pushed that date back to soemwhere between 10,860 and 10,641 BCE. In addition to deep prehistoric research, Ruth is also coordinating the Viking Dublin Dogs project, a grassroots effort which seeks to understand the nature of dogs in Ireland over a thousand years ago and how they interacted with their humans. The project is supported by a number of Irish schools which are supporting and learning about this kind of scientific research. Cohosts John Lee and Martin have decided to support Ruth's Viking Dublin Dog project and hope we can encourage our listeners to sponsor research on a single dog. We have decided to name our dog Seamus Plugson, although in truth we don't know if this Seamus is a male or a female. Through the money gathered, Ruth will be able to determine the gender of the dog and more importantly provide a date indicating exactly when that dog lived If you want to help support our fundraiser you can find the Irish Stew Viking Dublin Dog at this link => https://gofund.me/d346d5c3 Both Ruth and your Irish Stew cohosts will be thankful for your support as we attempt to put some flesh back on Seamus Plugson's bones Ruth's Links Websites: Viking Dublin DogsIrish Cave BonesSocial Media: Ruth CardenViking Dublin DogsIrish Cave Bones Viking Dublin DogsIrish Cave Bones Ruth CardenRuth CardenRuth Carden

Our latest global Irish conversation goes behind the scenes of the globe’s most significant international organization, the United Nations, courtesy of Ireland’s Ambassador to the UN, Fergal Mythen. He didn’t rise to one of Ireland’s most significant diplomatic postings without an impressive diplomatic career behind him. Fergal has worked on Irish-Canadian, Irish-Latin American, Irish-Caribbean, and Irish-British Affairs, including Brexit. He was on the European Community monitoring mission to the former Yugoslavia, and joined the representation of Ireland to the European Union in Brussels. We discuss his growing up in an Ireland on the cusp of change, what the opening of free second level education meant to him, the lessons he learned at the embassy in Rome about looking after people in real need, the challenges of the peripatetic diplomatic life, and his takeaways from six months representing Ireland on the UN Security Council. He has a clear-eyed view of the UN, saying, “it's imperfect, but it can try its best to prevent hell on earth.” He’s enjoying New York’s vitality and its surprisingly warm welcome, getting to know the Irish-American community, and weekends spent getting his children out to play Gaelic sports. Speaking of sport, his “Seamus Plug” is a call to action to ensure a pathway for young girls and women to stay actively involved in sport and to raise awareness of the UN’s sustainable development goals. Our conversation opened with a quote from John F. Kennedy which the Ambassador feels is spot on: “Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.” Links Permanent Mission of Ireland to the UNIreland’s UN AmbassadorIreland’s UN MissionFergal Mythen (Personal)

When Seamus Heaney wrote, “Walk on air, against your better judgement,” he could have been writing about Pauline Turley. From Newry to New York, Pauline has paired hard work with serendipity to arrive at her pivotal role charting the impressive trajectory on New York’s Irish Arts Center from a cramped tenement building to its expansive new home. She tells of how winning the Green Card lottery led this Trinity College Drama and Theatre Studies grad to depart for New York on something of a lark, of hustling her way into work in bars and restaurants, and of picking up the telephone book to discover the Irish Arts Center, where two weeks after starting work she’d find herself in charge of the whole thing as its executive director. And the IAC would be her professional and spiritual home for the next 26 years and counting, first as its executive director and for the past 16 years its vice chair with Aidan Connolly bringing his government and non-profit management chops to the executive director role. Imagine the patience, ingenuity, energy, collaboration, and cajoling that went into conceiving and then realizing the dream for a new home for Irish arts in New York. And as opening day approached, Pauline had another major project in gestation, her daughter Lily who conveniently held off her arrival until after Pauline had wrapped up the year’s IAC Gala. The migration from its old home has opened new possibilities for Irish arts in New York, with bigger venues for music and dance, spaces for visual arts, and new ways to play a growing role in the multicultural vitality of the city. IAC is a place where you could find the punk rock musical Good Vibrations from Belfast’s Lyric Theatre on the main stage, while in a studio space around the corner a decidedly non-punk crowd is having good craic with traditional Irish set dancing. From The Troubles in Northern Ireland to the triumph of the Irish Arts Center in New York—join us in our conversation with the “Muse of Irish Arts in New York,” here on Irish Stew. For Tickets to “Good Vibrations: A Punk Rock Musical” (June 14-July 16, 2023) go to: https://irishartscenter.org/event/good-vibrations-a-punk-rock-musical Links Pauline Turley TwitterLinkedInIrish Arts Center WebsiteTwitterFacebookInstagram

Join us as we pick up the conversation with Doug Devaney who interviewed us last fall on The Plastic Podcasts. A talented podcaster, Doug’s also an actor, writer, journalist, and self-proclaimed "songster, funster, punster, hamster." In this episode we delve into the core concept of The Plastic Podcasts, which centers around the notion that “we all come from somewhere else.” Doug explores Irish diaspora narratives in England by engaging in lively discussions with actors, activists, artists, writers, academics, builders, and singers, while offering a platform to often overlooked people, including those with both African and Irish roots, as well as members of the Traveler community. We explore why Doug believes that discussing Irishness necessitates addressing Britishness, how Irish Americans differ from the Irish in England, and why they use terms like London Irish or Birmingham Irish instead of Irish English or Irish British. We delve into Doug's deep connection to his Irish identity despite growing up in England with an English mother, his County Clare roots, the instinctual bond among Irish people in England, the downplaying of Irish heritage in England during the 70s and 80s, his shift away from pursuing a career as a TV-inspired “verbose crime-busting lawyer” his ventures into playwriting, his commitment to preserving the stories of the Irish diaspora, and the backstories of his highly personal one-man plays. Doug's talent for captivating storytelling, inventive writing, free-spirited performance, engaging conversational style, and mastery of the comic aside, make him a savory new ingredient for our Irish Stew. But we never did find out about the hamster thing. Links The Plastic Podcasts WebsiteTwitterFacebookEpisodesIrish Stew on The Plastic PodcastsAnthony Ekundayo LennonDoug’s Social Media TwitterInstagramFacebook

For Dublin’s own David Clinch, media is serious business. He’s been working on the front lines of innovative journalism and the complete overhaul of the news business for the past 30 years. He jokes that he’s been called “the Zelig of the media,” an “accidental journalist” popping up in key roles at the companies driving the changing media landscape, including ITN News in London, CNN where he helped manage the CNN International Desk in Atlanta and pioneered the use of social media for international newsgathering, a direction he pursued to help our previous Irish Stew guest Mark Little build Storyful, the social media news agency at the intersection of media and technology. Currently, David concentrates on the core elements that enable journalism to thrive, particularly the financial underpinnings that sustain modern news media. He serves as the VP of Partnerships at Mather Economics, assisting companies in formulating sustainable business strategies and curating the influential “Mather Report. As the founder and consultant for Media Growth Partners he’s helping keep small news organizations viable, while developing a framework for capturing the value of local news reporting.” Born in England to Irish parents, David stayed there just long enough to develop an English accent that was “beaten out of me” he jokes when the family moved to Dublin. He studied at Belvedere College and Trinity College Dublin, saying “it was your fate if you were a Clinch in Dublin at that time.” David shares how Bono opened up his world view, his start in media with a pirate radio station, why he was told he’d never work for RTE, how he found his way into television, his move to Atlanta to work for the emerging global news powerhouse CNN, the growth of digital forensic journalism, why he’s so concerned with establishing the value of local media, and his open invitation to anyone in media to show them the framework he’s building to build local media through what he calls “organized laziness.” Join us for “a short history of the future of news,” with media innovator, David Clinch. Links Websites Mather Economics Media Growth PartnersSocial Media David Clinch David Clinch Mather Economics Media Growth Partners

For Richard Donavan running the grueling 26.2 miles of the Boston Marathon was only a way to stretch his legs before getting up the next morning to run across America…for the second time. Running seven marathons on seven continents in seven days sounds impossible, so he did it in under five. Richard is also the first person to run marathons at both the North and South Poles and now lures other likeminded athletes to join him in some of Earth’s most extreme endurance races, including the North Pole Marathon, Antarctic Ice Marathon, Volcano Marathon, and World Marathon Challenge (7 Marathons 7 Continents in a leisurely 7 Days). Where to next? Space. His Space Athletics Federation is hoping to stage a race in space by early 2026. Quite a journey for an economist from Mervue, County Galway. On Irish Stew he tells of the trauma that led to his embrace of ultra long-distance running, improvising his way to becoming the first person to run a marathon at the North Pole, the friend who motivated his two cross U.S. runs, dodging coyotes while running across the American West, overcoming the mental and physical challenges of running in some of the world's harshest environments, and his push into the final frontier of extreme sports in space. Join us in a conversation that spans the continents and looks to the stars with our guide to the exquisite loneliness of the long-distance runner, Richard Donovan. Links Websites o World Marathon Challenge o Ice Marathon o Space Athletics Federation Social Media o Twitter - Richard Donovan o Twitter: Space Athletics Federation o LinkedIn o Facebook - Antarctic Ice Marathon Seamus Plug o Triumph Foundation

For over 25 years Manachán Magan has been at the forefront of Irish cultural affairs. He first rose to public attention with the 1996 launch of Irish language television now known as TG4. Together with his brother Ruán, Manachán produced a ground breaking series of television programs exploring indigenous cultures across the globe Since those early days, Manachán continues to drive the cultural conversation through multiple mediums. He has proved to be an accomplished journalist, theatrical performer, podcaster and author. The recent publication of 32 Words For Field and Listen To The Land Speak is redefining how Irish people interact with their ancient language and culture Join us as we explore Manachán’s deep rooted Irishness and how he has carved out a space in public consciousness that differs from his extraordinary family. How he chooses to live a life unbounded by modern day conventions through the exploration of his unique perspective Manachán Links WebsiteInstagramTwitterFacebookAlamanac Of Ireland

From “The Island of Malta and the Ireland of Malta,” Malta’s Ambassador to Ireland tells Irish Stew of the unexpected connections between the island nations of Ireland and Malta, especially for his hometown of Floriana. Ambassador Giovanni Buttigieg traces the Irish connection back to an 1895 visit to Floriana by an Irish Cardinal who went to Rome to advocate for the sainthood of one of their own, and a 1905 football match when the Royal Dublin Fusiliers gave the Floriana side their green and white striped jerseys, colors the Floriana Irish, as they are still known, wear to this day. The ambassador relates how football helped renew the Irish connections when Malta “turned green” as thousands of Irish fans set up base camp for flights to Sicily for the 1990 World Cup matches there. The Irish have been coming back ever since as tourists who fill Malta-bound planes to capacity. He tells of his time as Consul for Malta in New York and as Deputy Permanent Representative of Malta to the United Nations, how reading an Irish poem a day prepared him for his dream posting to Dublin, presenting his diplomatic credentials to President Michael D. Higgins, Ireland and Malta’s shared legacy of British colonial rule, whether he is related to that other Buttigieg…and why he likes Irish weather. Ambassador Giovanni Buttigieg— “Maltese by birth, Irish by the grace of God.” Links TwitterEmbassy of Malta in IrelandVisit Malta

A Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, Barbara Walsh started her career in Galway as a newspaper photographer and has gone on to work for newspapers and magazines in Florida, Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire. While at the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune, Barbara reported on the notorious murderer William Horton Jr. and Massachusetts’ flawed prison furlough system, a series that played a crucial role in the U.S. Presidential election where George H. W. Bush defeated Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis, changed Massachusetts sentencing laws, and won a Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting in 1988. “The Horton story also taught me that journalists have tremendous power and responsibility to inform, to tell stories that need to be told,” she said. A raft of other journalism awards would follow, as would several children’s books, one illustrated by renowned artist Jamie Wyeth. But she faced the most challenging story of her life when she asked her father about his childhood pain. The process led to heartrending odysseys: one into a deadly Newfoundland hurricane and the lives of schooner fishermen, mostly of Irish descent, who relied on God and the wind to carry them home; the other, into a squall stirred by a man with many secrets, a grandfather who remained a mystery until long after his death, all captured in her book August Gale. We talk about how as a child she preferred writing over talking, how she rebounded from failing her final college journalism paper, her dread of deadlines, the state of journalism today, the Irish experience in Newfoundland, her connection to her Irish heritage, her travels to Ireland, and the two “guardian angels” she met on the ferry to Belfast who diverted her from a perilous path. Links: ·Website: https://barbarawalsh.net ·Twitter: https://twitter.com/BarbWalshAuthor · Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/barbarawalsh.author · Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barbaraawalsh ·Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Barbara-Walsh/author/B005TL1RRA · August Gale: A Father and Daughter's Journey into the Storm on indiebound.org: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780762761463

He’s the quintessential New York Irish cop who rose up through the ranks from walking a beat to becoming a highly-ranked detective. He’s also a respected leader of New York’s Irish American community and a man at the center of a major controversy playing out now in New York as the American Irish Historical Society’s irreplaceable Beaux-Arts townhouse home on Fifth Avenue in New York City was put up for sale. Brian always seems to be in the middle of it all, from his roots amidst a big Irish family, as a cop keeping the peace as a detective during some grim times in New York, in the middle of important peace-building efforts in Northern Ireland, and now in the middle of efforts to save the AIHS. Brian came into the AIHS as Chairman of the Executive Council, hoping to air out the old building, welcome Irish arts and culture, and return the 125-year-old organization to relevance. And the work was well underway when his situation there became untenable. The situation soon became vastly more dire as the AIHS announced its plans to sell its landmark building and move its collection to who knows where. Join us as Brian talks of his Irish American childhood, his adventures scurrying across rooftops in pursuit of “perps,” how he got to know the people in the neighborhoods he served, and the effort to save the AIHS, and the breakthrough when New York attorney general Leticia James blocked the building’s sale. All that and a bit of “paddywackery” too. Links for Brian McCabe LinkedInFacebookBylines on the Irish EchoAmerican Irish Historical Society Articles Plans afoot to block the sale of the American Irish Historical Society in New YorkThe Battle For the Future of the American Irish Historical SocietyOn a Storied Stretch of Fifth Avenue, a Symbol of Irish America ReelsAttorney General James Announces Plan to Preserve and Revitalize the American Irish Historical Society

Growing up with one foot in Dublin and the other in Cork, Michael “Mick” Mellamphy now has a foot in Ireland and one in New York, where he’s in starring in Ronán Noone’s The Smuggler at the Irish Repertory Theatre, part of the Origin Theatre’s 1st Irish Festival he curated, on stages around NYC for Jan. & Feb. 2023. And he still made time to sit down with us a couple of hours before The Smuggler’s final dress rehearsal before opening night a few hours later. But as well known as Mick is in the New York theater scene, but for avid gamers he’s famed as the performance capture artist of the cheeky Irish gunslinger Sean MacGuire from Rockstar’s hugely popular video game Red Dead Redemption 2. It all started when his grandmother took him to the Cork Opera House to see a Christmas “panto” – the traditional holiday season performance of songs, gags, comedy and dancing – and told him “you could be up there, doing that for a living.” Mick shares tales from the Irish stage, his early days in New York, his time bartending at and later owning the popular New York pub Ryan’s Daughter, his first forays into New York theater, why he likens his video game work to performing on the stage, while sliping into an impressive array of accents along the way. Join us for an engaging conversation with a Global Irish Citizen of stage, screen, and video games, Michael Mellamphy! Links TwitterInstagramLinkedInOrigin Theatre/1st Irish Festival:Origin Theatre TwitterThe Smuggler at the Irish Repertory Theatre

Veteran diplomat and C Suite executive, Ted Smyth, joins Martin Nutty, on The Stew for the third time. With the conclusion of the final election of the US Midterm election season, it seemed like a good time to take the political temperature of not just the United States, but also of Northern Ireland and the Western European democracies. Ted is a member of the Irish Americans for Biden committee and has a thoughtful take and matters political which spans both sides of the Atlantic. Join Ted and Martin as they chew the fat on what just happened and what to expect in 2023