1001 Gems
Composer Seán Doherty explores the story and dance tunes of Francis O’Neill.
FORTHCOMING: RTÉ lyric fm, Sunday 4th May 2025 at 6 pm.
The Blind Poetess of Ulster (working title)
The life and work of Frances Browne (1816-1879), poet, journalist, novelist, short-story writer and best-selling children’s author. Presented by Shirley-Anne Godfrey.
FORTHCOMING: RTÉ lyric fm. Autumn 2025.
Not to be taken at Bed-time (working title)
The life and work of the writer Rosa Mulholland (1841-1921), poet, novelist and, above all, writer of spine-chilling ghost stories. Presented by Sara Lodge.
FORTHCOMING: RTÉ lyric fm. Autumn 2025.
Where the River Rises
Poet Jane Clarke explores the Avonmore River in County Wicklow through poetry and conversation.
FIRST BROADCAST: RTÉ lyric fm, Sunday 2nd February 2025.
Among the Heather Rocks
Poet Annemarie Ní Churreáin goes home to Donegal, which has inspired her poetry through landscape, mythology and distant and recent history.
FIRST BROADCAST: RTÉ lyric fm, Sunday 9th March 2025.
The Shaky Bridge
Irish poet Louis de Paor goes back to Cork, recalling family, friends, places, and the Cork writers he grew to know and who would influence his work.
FIRST BROADCAST: RTÉ lyric fm, Sunday 16th March 2025.
Michael Longley’s Life of Poetry
Marking his 85th birthday on 27th July 2024, Belfast poet Michael Longley looks back, in conversation with Olivia O’Leary, and on a life of 60 years of poetry. Re-broadcast as a tribute to the poet’s life and work following his death on 22nd January 2025.
FIRST BROADCAST: BBC Radio 3 The Essay, 8-12 July 2024
RE-BROADCAST: BBC Radio 3 The Essay 10-14 February 2025
ADDITIONAL BROADCAST: Proms Interval (compilation of extracts from The Essay), BBC Radio 3, 11 August 2024
A Jamaican Poet in Dublin
Jamaican poet Jason Allen-Paisant tells the story of another Jamaican poet, Ferdinand Levy, who was a student in Dublin in the 1930s and 40s and asks why his poetry has been overlooked for 80 years.
FIRST BROADCAST: BBC Radio 4: 17 March 2024
Available to listen back 17 March to 21 April 2024.
Lament for Art O’Leary
The premiere of a new opera by composer Irene Buckley, with lyrics by poet Vona Groarke, inspired by the poem Chaoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire.
FIRST BROADCAST: RTÉ lyric fm, 15th December 2024.
RE-BROADCAST: RTÉ lyric fm, 6 April 2025.