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WHETHER YOU’RE COOKING in the kitchen or going for a stroll in the park, you’re never alone when you’re listening to a great podcast.
Podcasts are in no way a new phenomenon, however, their popularity – both in terms of people getting behind the mic and listeners expanding their library – considerably grew throughout the pandemic. In Ireland, there are numerous podcasts focusing on a myriad of topics from current affairs, pop culture and, of course, the ever-popular true crime.
With so many great Irish-made podcasts available, it can be overwhelming to know which ones are worth your time. We’ve compiled some of the best Irish podcasts, each with a terrific back catalogue of episodes, to sink your teeth and ears into.
Who knows, once you’ve made it through some of these shows, you may even feel inspired to start your own!
What: Hosted by broadcaster and journalist Fionnuala Jay, Flop Culture explores some of the biggest pop culture failures in music, film, tv and beyond. There’s something for everyone given the breadth of topics covered across Flop Culture’s excellent 2 seasons. Each episode, Fionnuala speaks with a new guest about their chosen flop, detailing its context and cultural impact and how the item is perceived today. From Taylor Swift’s 2019 album Lover to the sudden disappearance of Fade Street from our television screens, and the fascinating partnership of a chocolate bar and a celebrity wedding, you’ll easily spend hours listening to Flop Culture due to its abundance of humour and fascinating insights.
What: Globally, Ireland is known for arena-filling artists and acts such as U2, Hozier and Fontaines D.C.. Alongside these mainstream successes, there are countless underrated albums produced across the country being celebrated on To Here Knows When, a brilliant podcast presented by broadcaster and documentary producer Paul McDermott. In this ongoing series, McDermott takes an Irish album (previous picks include The Clock Comes Down The Stairs by Microdisney and The Waterboys’ Room To Roam) and explores the making of the work with someone directly involved in the release. Not only does McDermott conscientiously tell the story of the music, but the listener is given a vivid picture of the social backdrop, as well.
What: A poignant 6-part series, produced by The Journal, Redacted Lives shares the stories of several women who experienced Ireland’s mother and baby homes first hand. Orla Ryan investigates the ways the women and children suffered emotional and physical abuse in these institutions and the lack of support they received from the State. Separate to Redacted Lives, which came out at the end of 2022, Sinead O’Shea’s emotive documentary Pray For Our Sinners, looked at the history of corporal violence in Ireland’s schools as well as the Mother and Baby Homes in the country. Whilst the subject matter and the experiences are extremely challenging and upsetting, Redacted Lives is essential listening.
What: There are several informative Irish history-based podcasts available with episodes specialising in particular topics and ages in our country’s storied heritage. The Troubles, however, is an extraordinary series which goes through the complex history of one of the most violent periods in Irish history. Host Oisin Feeney explains, in detail, the different events, organisations and individuals involved across the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Amongst some of the topics covered include a guide to The Good Friday Agreement, a profile on Dolores Price and the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.
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The mindless distruction of Wood Quay by Dublin City Council deprived future generations of what was possibly the most important archaeological site in western Europe and a major lucrative tourist attraction. Instead we have possibly the ugliest building in Europe.
@Brian MacCarthaigh: Agreed. http://www.historyireland.com/volume-22/heritage-outrage-wood-quay/
@Honeybadger197: I was on that march, thanks for the link.
@Brian MacCarthaigh: Good man, no problem.
@Brian MacCarthaigh: Absolutely 110% correct. This was mindless vandalism by Dublin City Council and if The Minister of Arts and Heritage has her way they will destroy the Moore Street 1916 Battlefield site too. Our future generations heritage is in the hands of mindless individuals who’s motivations are seriously suspect.
@Brian MacCarthaigh: didn’t the Danish government lobby the oiks here in trying to realize the significant nature of woodquay
What happened at Wood Quay is one of the greatest scandals in modern Irish history, the largest Viking Settlement in Europe discovered in our capital city, the revenue that could have been made from tourism, and they built that horrendous obscenity on top of it. The DCC offices should be torn down and the site preserved.
During the time of Brown Envelopes
@Mick Cullen: you say that as if somehow it were in the past Mick. It isn’t. It’s the same as ever and with NAMA getting worse no doubt. Unaccountable, enormously wealthy NAMA. The ultimate ‘hong bao’ (red packet) as they say in China. But plenty more besides it.
Caffrey (my own mother’s surname) stems from the son of Godfred (Viking). McAuliffe, from son of Olaf. McAuley, also from Olaf. In the Irish language, we have margadh, scilling, bád, garraí, seol, etc. They left a very rich heritage in our history. Doyle, Gallagher, etc. have also been linked to the Vikings, but we’re not 100% certain
We know one thing. Sam Stephenson proved them bones dem bones dem dry bones make great hardcore for office block foundations.
Amazing really. To look at those bones and reflect that when they were animated it was in a world so far removed from ours, topographically and geographically the same but in every other aspect far removed as ours as the next habitable planet from us is. To look at their goods and see they’re not so different from ours yet though. Those are the goods of civilized people, at least civilized towards each other and perfectly barbaric to everyone else. And are we so different today, with our foreign wars and colonisations (as in we in the West)? But we absorbed them, despite two hundred years of largely turning the other cheek it seems to me, booted them out at Clontarf and kept what they left behind. So they’re us too. We should have respect for them even if they, setting fires at the bottom of round towers and smashing up the altar vessels while robbing the gold and silver, killing the monks and burning their books of knowledge that were the only things preserved the accumulated wisdom of the Classical Age, did not much respect us. Suppose few hundred years from now archaeologists will be excavating the ruins of Anglo-Irish houses and churchyards and we’ll be saying the same and holding no heart hearts towards their descendants in England no more than we do to the Vikings now. Time heals all as it erodes all.
@John O’Driscoll: well written
It was the Vikings that brought red hair to this country, now every c#nt on the planet thinks everyone with red hair is Irish. Thanks a bunch Vikings
@Blue Moon rising: And the cancer gene as some believe? But is red hair not Celts???
@Blue Moon rising: Did you mean to say blue eyed and blond?
@Alois Irlmaier: I had that perception too until a visit to Denmark; I was expecting blonde & fair but was surprised to discover that red hair & freckles predominates
Those two buildings should be to torn down what lies beneath is worth more to Dublin now and in the future than for office space for civil servants
Very interesting, thank you. A word of caution though. Radiocarbon dating has a pretty wide potential error margin. During the Early Medieval period written historical evidence is usually far more reliable for chronological stuff in Ireland in particular. Wish it weren’t so, to cast doubt on such a good story, but lets enjoy the possibility anyway…..
Well their hardly going to meander into the national history museum and say pull a chair up we have something to tell you lovely people of Ireland. The Vikings were savage they played a part in this world but there gone.
The part about the man getting on with it in spite of having a bad back is definitely appropriate to me. Since 2015 I’m waiting for help with a bad back and still waiting under the HSE. I guess I’ll take it to to my grave like this guy. The only difference is my grave won’t be robbed because the Viking dies with more possessions than I have.
The Viking’s were not really see off there were other settlements around the place apart from Dublin
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