Former champion boxer John Duddy from Derry and one-time construction worker Newry’s own Ciaran Byrne share their unlikely paths to acting on stage and in film in part two of our first live podcast recording for Origin Theatre’s 1st Irish Festival.

The two friends delve into how their life experiences inform their performances, personal traumas from The Troubles, and the critical role of theater in post-conflict healing and education. Sharing compelling narratives throughout, Ciaran and John underscore the significance of their Northern Irish roots and the transformative power of storytelling, but don’t stint on the Irish craic.

Massive thanks to Origin’s Theatre’s artistic director Mick Mellamphy (who we featured in this 2023 episode) for envisioning our live podcast event and curating our stellar guest list, to the Northern Ireland Bureau for their generous support, to Bill Schultz for recording and editing the episodes, and to Jimmy and the crew at Ryan’s Daughter for their above-and-beyond hospitality.

Links

Ciaran Byrne

• Website
• IMDb
• X
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Facebook

John Duddy

• IMDb
• Instagram
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

Origin Theatre

• Website

The Northern Ireland Bureau

• Website

Episode Details: Season 7, Episode 15; Total Episode Count: 118

After Origin Theatre’s artistic director Mick Mellamphy welcomes our paying (!) audience to the 1st Irish Festival’s first live podcast event, we introduce theatre makers, Derry’s own Labhaoise Magee of Fair Play Productions and Big Telly Theatre’s Crissy O' Donovan who was raised in Dublin, worked in GB, and is now based in Northern Ireland.

Fair Play brought Sinéad O'Brien's "storytelling masterclass" No One is Coming to Origin 1st Irish this year, while Big Telly staged the immersive Granny Jackson’s Dead.

Labhaoise and Crissy talk about their theatrical journeys, how storytelling can process collective memory, how theater can promote democratic culture in post-conflict Northern Ireland, and the transformative power of dramatic arts in fostering connections and understanding.

Join us Upstairs at Ryan’s Daughter for our first live podcast recording, made possible by the support of the Northern Ireland Bureau.

Links
Labhaoise Magee

• IMDb

Fair Play Productions

• Website
• Instagram
• X

Crissy O' Donovan

• LinkedIn

Big Telly Theatre

• Website
• YouTube
• X

Origin Theatre

• Website

The Northern Ireland Bureau

• Website

Episode Details: Season 7, Episode 14; Total Episode Count: 117

We found the right guides for Belfast’s burgeoning food and festivities scene in Michael Stewart and Caroline Wilson.

Caroline is a lawyer-turned-serial-entrepreneur of food and drink experiences. She founded Belfast Food Tour, co-founded Taste and Tour, Ahoy Belfast, Fooday and Belfast Gin Fest and she’s on the Board of Visit Belfast and The Strand.

A well-known man about Belfast, Michael Stewart, spent close to 40 years in hospitality--and was he ever hospitable to us, helping us arrange for the lion’s share of our #LostinBelfast interviews.

A past president of the Belfast Chamber, Michael now reigns as Belfast’s Night Czar, tasked with promoting the nighttime economy of the City Center, Linen, Cathedral, and Belfast One Business Improvement Districts.

We met the mad duo at The Common Market, an indoor international street food festival, open to all--including dogs--in a cavernous old fruit market in the Cathedral Quarter, with our mics picking up all the background craic in this on-location recording session.

There’s a seat for you at the table, so join us!

Links
Michael Stewart

• Bar Czar
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn

Caroline Wilson

• Taste and Tour
• X
  • Taste and Tour
  • Ahoy Befast
• Instagram
• LinkedIn

Episode Details: Season 7, Episode 13; Total Episode Count: 116

Join us as we get “Lost Outside of Belfast” when we take a 25-minute cab ride from the city center to Hinch Distillery in bucolic County Down. With Head Distiller Will Stafford as our guide, we explore the sensory journey of whiskey making from the meticulous process of mashing, fermentation, and distillation to savoring the heady aromas of the “angels’ share” seeping from the aged wooden barrels shacked ceiling-high in the cavernous Hinch whiskey warehouse.

Next, Claire McLernon guides us through a tasting of Hinch's range of whiskeys and its Ninth Wave gin, highlighting the different flavor profiles achieved through the distiller’s alchemy and artistry.

Founder Dr. Terry Cross then joins in to share what it takes to succeed in the increasingly competitive whiskey business and talks up the business opportunities he finds at the Belfast International Homecoming, a yearly marquee business event that your co-hosts attended the previous evening, which we’ll explore in a future Irish Stew episode.

Pull up a stool and join us for a happy hour at Hinch.

Hinch Links

• Website
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
  • Hinch
  • Dr. Terry Cross
  • Will Stafford
• X

Episode Details: Season 7, Episode 12; Total Episode Count: 115

We commemorate the 100th Anniversary of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby this week with Patrick O'Sullivan Greene, author of Gatsby: Death of an Irishman.

Patrick guides us through F. Scott Fitzgerald's troubled Midwest upbringing, his quest for status, his ambivalence towards his Irish heritage, the sociopolitical climate of early 20th-century America, and the careless Jazz Age excess portrayed in Gatsby.

Patrick peels back the intricate layers of Fitzgerald's character, revealing the underlying themes of identity and self-rejection in his work, his shifting views of Irish issues, and how his personal battles influenced his writing and contributed to his tragic life.

The episode also touches on Patrick’s own Irish heritage and his journey from business and finance to writing.

We end the conversation as The Great Gatsby ends, with the novel’s closing line, “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

Links:

Patrick O'Sullivan Greene

• Website
• LinkedIn
• BlueSky
• X
• Instagram

Gatsby: Death of an Irishman

• Amazon
• TheBookshop.ie

Episode Details: Season 7, Episode 11; Total Episode Count: 114

In this episode of the Irish Stew Podcast, host Martin Nutty discusses his experience celebrating St. Patrick's Day at the American Irish Historical Society, meeting its executive director, Dr. Elizabeth Stack. Despite her success in revitalizing the society, news of her removal for cost-saving measures casts a shadow on its future.

The episode reissues a conversation from July 2024, when cohosts John Lee and Martin Nutty met Dr. Stack at AIHS to discuss her background, her efforts in promoting Irish American history, and the Society's then-state. The conversation also explores the importance of storytelling, historical preservation, and community involvement in sustaining cultural institutions.

Links

Irish Stew Blog Post, which will be updated as new information becomes available

• Turmoil Revists the American Irish Historical Society

Elizabeth Stack

• LinkedIn

Articles on the Latest Turmoil at the American Irish Historical Society

• Irish Echo: Firing and Resignations Rock the AIHS
• Irish Echo: AIHS Board Issues Statement After Firing, Resignations
• Irish Central: American Irish Historical Society faces new "transition"

Episode Details: Season 7, Episode 10; Total Episode Count: 113

Join us as Larry Kirwan spins us back to the vibrant, violent New York City of the 1980s and the lives of the mostly undocumented Irish who called a patch of turf there home, in his novel Rockin’ The Bronx.

Best known as the frontman for the legendary Irish-inflected rock & roll band Black 47, Larry delves into themes of immigration, Irish and Hispanic cultural intersections, the shifting fortunes of the navvies and the nannies, the unnamed scourge of AIDS, Reagan-era politics, and his creative process in writing plays, novels, and music.

“I could tell you how to write a novel, and how to write a play, basically in five minutes each,” he says. “With songwriting, I still don't understand it. It's that moment when the hammer hits the anvil, and sparks fly.”

Now the Wexford native is combining his songwriter and playwright skills in a new musical on labor organizer Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.

And stick around for Martin’s reading of a Rockin’ The Bronx passage reminiscent of the closing section of James Joyce’s “The Dead.”

Links

Book Orders:

• Fordham University Press: Rockin’ The Bronx

Larry Kirwan

• Wikipedia
• Black 47
• Celtic Crush with Larry Kirwan
• Celtic Crush Facebook
• Prior Irish Stew Episode

Episode Details: Season 7, Episode 9; Total Episode Count: 112

“St. Patrick’s Day Today, Hungover Tomorrow.”

Seeing that slogan on a St. Patrick’s Day T-shirt sent William Spencer Reilly on a mission to “reclaim the day” from negative stereotypes to what is best about Irish culture. So, he created the Sober St. Patrick’s Day® Grand Celebration, a culture-rich, family-friendly, attractively priced, alcohol-free way to enjoy the “great day for the Irish.”

We delve into Bill’s life in theater production, how it served him in developing Sober St. Patrick’s Day, the movement’s early supporters including the Consulate of Ireland in New York, the event's growing success, the dangers of binge-drinking associated with St. Patrick’s Day, the champion Irish musicians and dancers highlighting this year’s program, and his plans for future Sober St. Patrick’s Day expansion.

As Bill says, “I’m not anti-drink, I’m anti-drunk. Sober St. Patrick’s Day is about all the best things about the Irish, just without the alcohol.”

As this episode drops, tickets are still available but act soon because the event sells out every year!

Links

Sober St. Patrick's Day

• Website
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• YouTube

William Spencer Reilly

• LinkedIn

Episode Details: Season 7, Episode 8; Total Episode Count: 111