Theo Dorgan explores poetic, mythical, historical and cultural links between Ireland and Galicia in north west Spain.

FORTHCOMING: Sunday 30th November 2025 at 6 pm on RTÉ lyric fm

Photo: Theo Dorgan watches currachs taking part in the Traditional Boat Festival in Ribeira.

PHOTOS Top row, left to right: Theo Dorgan with David Clark at the University of A Coruña; Theo Dorgan and Keith Payne in Vigo; Theo Dorgan with musician Su Garrido Pombo.

Bottom row, left to right: Theo Dorgan with Jack O’Keeffe; currachs taking part in the Traditional Boat Festival at Ribeira; the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.

In the radio programme ‘Our Half Lost Cousins’, poet Theo Dorgan explores poetic, mythical, historical and cultural links between Ireland and Galicia in north west Spain.

In A Coruña, he meets David Clark, who describes how the Celtic Revival inspired the Galician Revival. In Santiago de Compostela Manuel Gago traces links even further back to neolithic times.

Coming up to the present day, Irish poet Keith Payne talks about fostering exchanges between Irish and Galician poets and translating the work of Galician poets into English. Singer Su Garrido Pombo and her group, Traspielas, are reimagining traditional Galician music, while in Ribeira Brídín Cannon and Jack O’Keefe are part of a group which has brought three currachs from Cork to take part in a Traditional Boat Festival.

Theo discovers that Galicians know a lot about Ireland, but we have a lot to learn about Galicia.

Producer: Claire Cunningham. Sound supervision by Tinpot. A Rockfinch Production for RTÉ lyric fm.

After broadcast, the programme will be available to podcast on the usual podcast platforms and on the RTÉ Radio Player.

Funded by Coimisiún na Meán with the Television Licence Fee. Producer for Lyric fm: Eoin O’Kelly.