Archives: Episode

Aside from being one of the best sportswriters in the country, Vincent Hogan is also a ghostwriter who has worked with such legendary sportsmen as Paul McGrath and Henry Shefflin. Vincent is the man the publishers call on when they want someone to tell a star’s story. He joined us at Banter at The Back Page in Dublin to talk about what’s involved in telling someone else’s story in their voice, the work it takes to get into the subject’s head and the changes he’s witnessed in the sports writing game over the last few years.

One of our favourite conversations at last month’s Banter weekend at Other Voices in Dingle, Co Kerry was the one with Jean Curran, the Waterford-born photographic artist and photojournalist joining us by the fire at Foxy John’s as Storm Desmond raged outside. Jean talked at length about her From Both Sides project, involving taking portraits of US military in Afghanistan which were then painted by hand by an Afghan artist, as well as such projects as Neither Here Nor There, about young middle-class Malawian students moving to Ireland, and The Shoreline Cast, focusing on fishermen working from a deserted beach in Kenya. Make sure to check out her work at http://jeancurran.com

We think that Eoin O Broin is a name you’ll be hearing a lot about in 2016. Currently a Sinn Féin councillor on South Dublin County Council, Eoin is also a key party strategist and a candidate for Dublin Mid-West in the forthcoming general election. Eoin joined us to talk at length about the rise of Sinn Féin as a political force, the party’s strengths and weaknesses, the Irish left’s political fortunes, the changing nature of Irish activism, Sinn Féin’s policies, his insights on what will come next for the party, the IRA Army Council and Gerry Adams’ tweets.

We’re joined this week by a bona-fide musical legend. Since the late 1960s, Dónal Lunny has played a pivotal role in the development and evolution of Irish music with Planxty, The Bothy Band, Moving Hearts, Mozaik, LAPD and dozens, probably hundreds, of other collaborations, projects, releases and tours. He continues to be as prolific today as he ever was, both as a solo artist and with groups like Usher’s Island. We were honoured that he joined us at Other Voices in Dingle for a conversation about his life and work, a Banter illuminated and illustrated by some tunes along the way, including a couple with Other Voices big kahoona Philip King.

We’re live from Dingle this week at another Banter recorded during Other Voices last month. Una Mullally joined us by the fire in Foxy John’s for a lengthy conversation about her work as a journalist and activist, covering everything from her early days as a freelance music writer and time at The Sunday Tribune to her current position at The Irish Times and her role in 2015’s marriage referendum. A great, meaty, fierce, funny and often emotional podcast.

It’s the end of the year as we know it… Recorded at MVP in Dublin earlier this month, we were joined for our annual review of the year by Kathy Sheridan from The Irish Times, Grainne Healy from the Yes Equality campaign and radio producer Zoe Comyns. They ran the rule over  a year of news stories from the weather and climate change to Syriza and Greece, from ISIS and Syria to the marriage equality campaign, from Jeremy Corbyn to Donald Trump, from the Land League to Denis O’Brien. They’re all here: the winners and losers, the heroes and villains, the great and the good of the last 12 months brought to order.

Here’s our first broadcast from 2015’s visit to Other Voices and Dingle, Co Kerry. We were joined by the fire in Foxy John’s by Nadine O’Regan from the Sunday Business Post and TXFM to review the year in the arts. From Adele and Anne Enright to Waking the Feminists and what’s in store in Twenty Sixteen, it’s all here with plenty of diversions, musings and a few suitable quips.

It’s time to check back in again with Neil Strauss. A decade on from his bestselling book The Game, Strauss has returned to the writing-about-the-other-sex business, but much has changed in the meantime. He joined us at MVP in Dublin to talk about his new book The Truth: An Uncomfortable Book About Relationships – or, if you like, what happens when a dude who’s all for freedom, sex and opportunity meets a woman he’s prepared to have a long-term life with.

To coincide with a recent screening of the Paris Is Burning documentary at Dublin’s Sugar Club, we talked to Tonie Walsh, Will St Leger, Conor Behan and Mimi Rouge about the changing nature of Dublin’s gay clubland over the last couple of decades and what might come next. It’s a story which takes us from Flikkers, Sides and Shaft to Powerbubble, Horny Organ Tribe, Gag and Ham and onto Mother, The George and Brazilian house parties with a few diversions along the way.

This may well be the most meta Bantercast ever – a podcast about podcasts. We talk to Ken Early (Second Captains), Lisa Farrelly (Abbey Talks), Andrew Mangan (Castaway Media) and Roisin Ingle (The Irish Times) about the new golden age for podcasts, what it takes to get them right, the future for their own podcasts and the future for podcasting in general.

This week, we’re talking hospital food. For the last year or so, chef and owner of Dublin restaurants Bon Appetit and Cleaver East, Oliver Dunne has been engaged in a campaign to improve the food available in our hospital wards. He joined us at Banter during the Bloom festival in the Phoenix Park to talk about the reasons behind his activism, the campaign so far and the road ahead.

Jonathan Hunt is the Global Vice President of Marketing and Partnerships at Vox Media, a man with his finger very much on the pulse of where the engagement between brands and media is going. He talked to us about his previous career experiences at Clear Channel in Florida and Vice in New York, his work on the Creators Project, the attractions for him of Vox as a new school media company and the challenges for editorial and brands in exploiting such new channels as Snapchat.

Chris Kaskie is the president of Pitchfork, the go-to site for millions of music fans worldwide. He joined us at Banter to talk about the growth of the site, the recent deal with Conde Nast, pitchfork’s plans for live events and his views on then such fabled millennial males

Daire Hickey is one of the co-founders of Web Summit so, as you can imagine, he has a lot to say about the avalanche of issues and news stories around this year’s event. He joined us at Banter to talk about the growth of the event, their interactions with government, Enda Kenny, the issues with the Dublin event, the Lisbon angles, media agendas, food gate and, yes, that Sharon Ní Bheoláin interview

Brian Message has been on the Banter interview wishlist for ages and it was a pleasure to welcome him to our studio at Web Summit. He manages such acts as Radiohead, PJ Harvey and Nick Cave and is the man behind management company ATC. In a wide-ranging interview, Brian speaks about his 20 years in the business, how he got his start in management, the growth of ATC, his views on the current label ecosystem, his thoughts on the live industry, the new PJ Harvey album and the qualities it takes to be a great manager.

Peter Nelson is the boxing fan who hit pay dirt. Now the vice president of programming at HBO Sports, he started his career as a journalist with Vanity Fair and Sports Illustrated before joining the broadcaster. In this interview, Peter talks to us about who inspired him to start writing in the first place, the great stories around boxing, the colourful characters around the sport and HBO’s place in the landscape

Joe Canning first togged out for a senior hurling team when he was just 15 years of age. Since then, the Portumna man has blazed  trail for club and county. He joined us at Banter to talk about his playing life to date, the pressure which players face at inter-county level, why he doesn’t believe the GAA will turn pro in his lifetime, his views on how Kilkenny foster a culture of winning, his thoughts on Brian Cody and what he may do when he hangs up his boots – though it’s worth remembering that there may be some time to go seeing as his brother Ollie is still turning out for Portumna at the age of 39.

Jonathan Reichenthal is the Dublin-born Chief Information Officer of the city of Palo Alto, California. But as we discover in this wide-ranging interview, Jonathan had a rich and varied life before he moved to Silicon Valley. He talked to us about his past life as a member of Nineties’ Dublin band The Wilde Oscars. the evolution of technology, the use of data to build civic engagement, the role of the IoT in cities like Palo Alto and lessons to be learned for his city – and indeed places like Dublin – from how urban spaces worldwide are working with technology and data.

For the first in our special series of Banter podcasts from Web Summit 2015, we talk to Leinster and Ireland rugby player, tech investor and bar and restaurant co-owner Jamie Heaslip. As befits a man with many hats, Jamie had much to say about such topics as the recent Rugby World Cup, pundits, the future of rugby, the growing use of data and metrics in the game, rugby’s economic success and the road ahead for young players.

Does Neven Maguire require an introduction at this stage of the game? We caught up with the nicest man in the Irish restaurant and food business during Banter’s residency at Bloom in the Phoenix Park in Dublin to talk to him about food, kitchens, restaurants, the TV business, cooking for babies and kids and keeping high standards in his brilliant restaurant in Blacklion, Co Cavan.