A language returned
Mollie Guidera returns to the Irish Stew for a second conversation. Since her first appearance in November 2023, she has published The Gaeilge Guide and grown Irish with Molly into the fastest-growing Gaeilge community in the world — more than 10,000 students across 75 countries. But what Mollie is really doing is harder to quantify: dismantling the barriers that sit between Irish people and their own language.

The problem was never the language
Fourteen years of compulsory classes, taught through the very language you were trying to learn, left a generation feeling guilty for failing at something that was never properly taught. Mollie's argument is simple: the language is logical, patterned, and far more learnable than people believe. The problem was always the delivery.

Hidden in plain sight
We spend time on Hiberno English — the way Irish survives in everyday speech. "Is the dinner not ready yet?" Nobody in America says that. Say it in Irish and it makes perfect grammatical sense. From Wilde to Joyce to Sally Rooney, the Irish literary tradition is Hiberno English in action — a colonized people turning the language of their oppressor into a thing of beauty.

The key holder
The episode carries the presence of Manchán Magan, who passed away last year. Mollie recalls asking Manchán for advice on a documentary about her offshore students — Hong Kong, Moscow, Alaska — and his reply coming back immediately: go for it. His wife's words at the Irish Book Awards said it best: Manchán opened the door and showed us all the way through. We just have to walk.

The language is yours
Fluency is a myth. What matters is showing up consistently, with curiosity, and without shame. The language is yours. It always was.

Episode Quote
"People have this negative reaction to Irish — and yet this regret for not learning it. There's a very complicated relationship. But I don't think the language itself is complicated."
— Mollie Guidera

Links

Mollie Guidera

• Website: Irish With Mollie
• Book: The Gaeilge Guide
• Podcast: Irish with Mollie
• Instagram
• TikTok

Irish Language Resources

• TEG: Irish Language Certification
• An Siopa Leabhar - Irish Language Book Store

All Irish Stew Irish Language Episodes - Ten episodes. All in one place.

• Irish Language Episodes

Irish Stew Links

• Website
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Bluesky
• Mastodon
• Media Partner: IrishCentral

Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 11; Total Episode Count: 152

Award-winning director, producer, and writer Ruán Magan joins Irish Stew for a timely conversation ahead of his double appearance at this weekend’s Solas Nua Capital Irish Film Festival, where he’ll present two very different visions of Ireland on screen.

Ruán reflects on a creative life that has taken him from early collaborations with his brother, writer and broadcaster Manchán Magan, through decades of boundary-pushing work that has reached audiences around the world. He talks about growing up in a family steeped in story, language, and history, and how that background propels him toward projects that dig beneath the surface of Ireland’s past and present.

One of his festival offerings is the new documentary “Daniel O’Connell – The Emancipator,” which marks the 250th anniversary of O’Connell’s birth and revisits the life, legacy, and global impact of “The Liberator.” Ruán describes the film as “a chance to step back from today’s noise and remember how one determined Irish lawyer changed the democratic DNA of the modern world,” connecting O’Connell’s campaigns for Catholic Emancipation to later movements led by figures like Frederick Douglass, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr.

He then turns to his Irish-language drama “Báite,” a feature that takes his fascination with Irish history and identity into more intimate, psychological territory. Ruán calls it “a story where the past seeps up through the floorboards of ordinary lives,” using the rhythms of the Irish language and the coastal landscape to explore guilt, memory, and the pull of old ghosts.

Throughout the episode, Ruán shares his approach to filmmaking as “trying to make the invisible visible—whether that’s buried history, an overlooked revolutionary, or the quiet truths people carry inside them.” He talks about balancing scholarship and emotion, why collaboration matters, and what keeps drawing him back to Irish subjects for a global audience.

Irish Stew will be the Podcast in Residence at the Capital Irish Film Festival, Feb. 26 – Mar. 1, appearing on stage after the Friday 6:30 p.m. screening to discuss Northern Irish film with a panel of Northern Irish filmmakers.

Links

Solas Nua

• Website
• Capital Irish Film Festival
  • Báite
  • Daniel O'Connell: The Emancipator

Ruán Magan

• Website
• IMDb
• LinkedIn

Irish Stew Links

• Website
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Media Partner: IrishCentral

Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 10; Total Episode Count: 151

For it’s 150th episode, Irish Stew podcast welcomes back a clear-eyed optimist for troubled times, Michael J. Dowling. Glucksman Ireland House is honoring him with the Outstanding Public Service and Lifetime Contribution to Public Health Award at its New York City Gala on Tuesday, March 3, 2026.

After decades of work transforming Northwell Health into an American healthcare leader, Michael has segued into a CEO Emeritus role, but it sounds nothing like retirement.

“Life is a series of changes, a series of journeys,” says the former top-class hurler from Knockaderry, Co. Limerick. “I have stepped down, but I haven’t stepped away. I could never retire. I enjoy the battles. I'm working at Northwell full-time for the next two years on the succession with the new leadership team.”

On the episode hosted by John Lee, Michael shares his well-honed views on compassionate leadership, how to address social media’s effect on youth mental health, the promise of healthcare progress, the impact of the Irish on U.S. history, immigration’s enduring value, why the US must continue to be a beacon for democracy globally, and his commitment to Irish America.

“I want to spend a portion of my time continuing to build and enhance the Irish influence in the United States and vice versa.”

Listening to the episode, it’s easy to see why New York University’s Glucksman Ireland House chose to honor Michael at its Gala at New York’s Mandarin Hotel. For Michael, the admiration is mutual.

“Glucksman House is at the center of Irish and Irish‑American studies. It reminds us about heritage, history, and contribution,” he says. “Loretta Glucksman is an icon, an extraordinary individual. And it's not just her work here in the US, it is her work in Ireland, too, and all she does to bring people together and promote a sense of humility, strength, and kindness to the world around us.”

What’s next for Michael Dowling? He tells of his work in youth mental health addressing the perils of “so many young people living in a virtual world and not living in the real world,” the book he’s writing on leadership fueled by optimism, and his plans to deepen involvement with Irish institutions in the US and in Ireland.

“We need more people to be spokespersons about the values of decency and respect and humanity and caring,” he says.

Irish Stew is off to DC this weekend to be the Podcast in Residence at the Solas Nua Capital Irish Film Festival, Feb. 26-Mar. 1. Filmmaker Ruán Magan, who has both a feature film and documentary in the festival, headlines the next episode of Irish Stew.

Links

Glucksman Ireland House

• Website
• Gala Tickets for Tuesday, March 3 at the Mandarin Hotel

Michael Dowling

• Northwell Health
• LinkedIn
• X

Irish Stew Links

• Website
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Media Partner: IrishCentral

Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 9; Total Episode Count: 150