Equal parts radio play, poetry and music, One Day / Lá dá raibh combines words by Irish poet Louis de Paor with music by New York-based composer Dana Lyn.

First broadcast in English and Irish on 14 March, 2021 on RTÉ lyric fm and in Irish on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta on 5 April 2021. Re-broadcast in both languages on RTÉ lyric fm on 27 February 2022.

The programme was awarded GOLD at the New York Festivals Radio Awards 2022 in the Culture and the Arts documentary category.

Somewhere in the Venn diagram of radio play, poetry and performance art, One Day / Lá dá raibh is a work of fiction which tells the story of a day in the life of a small village in the west of Ireland, where the dead and the living meet both historical characters and others from the speaker’s own imagination.

It was first performed live at the Irish Arts Center in New York as part of the Masters in Collaboration series, and has now been adapted as a captivating audio experience for broadcast on radio.

The work is narrated by Louis de Paor, who plays the role of a writer in his sitting room writing the poem and speaking it aloud to himself. As a cast of characters come and go, the story moves from morning, to afternoon, to evening, to twilight, all the while accompanied by Lyn’s music, scored for piano, violin, a music box, amplified bicycle wheel and a loop station.

Narrator/author: Louis de Paor, one of Ireland’s leading Irish language poets.

Music: Dana Lyn, New York-based multi-instrumentalist and composer.

Sound design: David Munro

Sound mix: Alan Kelly

With thanks to Ronan Browne for original recordings.

The programme is a Rockfinch Production for RTÉ lyric fm funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland from the Television Licence Fee.

Listen back to Lá dá Raibh in Irish here: https://www.rte.ie/radio/lyricfm/clips/22068065/

Listen back to One Day in English here: https://www.rte.ie/radio/lyricfm/clips/22068064/