We are paying tribute this week to the late writer and researcher of all things Irish, Manchán Magan who has departed our current world for the next one. We talk about his influence on the recent fire under the belly of Irish culture and share a few pages of his book '99 Words For Rain'.

Good news for the artists of Ireland came in the form of the basic income scheme for artists being stamped as permanent. We hear from writers, playwrights and poets on what this news means and the reality of being an artist in Ireland.

We've got a load of Irish sayings courtesy of listenter Theresa McCormack, a circle of life poem from Tanaaz about her own Granny and a banger of a poem from Derek Walcott as a reminder to be kinder to ourselves.

Our Agony Aunt is back helping someone who has a certain itch to scratch. Filthy carry on, really.

Music this week is from Ciaran Lavery who was recently shortlisted for the Northern Ireland Music Prize.

Hopefully see a few of you at the Rising Tide event this Wednesday.

Ryan and Leon

Poems from the show

Mánchan Magan - 99 Words For Rain

https://www.easons.com/ninety-nine-words-for-rain-and-one-for-sun-manchan-magan-9781804583340?srsltid=AfmBOoqb6KOMGIik3tc1OAUqANYGgiHJ3iML-zn-Vz0QUicV1sOZRep4

Derek Walcott - Love After Love

https://allpoetry.com/love-after-love

Leon Dunne - Scars On The Landscape

Tanaaz Kothawalla - Mangoes And Granny

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/poe_tryforme/

Agony Aunt - A Man

Music by Ciaran Lavery

https://ciaranlaverymusic.com/

Support the show

Original music by Matthew Keating
Artwork by Paddy Downey
Introduction and co-produced by Lisa Downey

Alright, alright, alright...it was too tempting to type so leave us alone.

How else do you expect us to start this podcast description when we're celebrating the poetry of Matthew McConaughey? Exactly. There are many poems we could have shared from his new books 'Poems and Prayers' but we went with Tips Included. Its a 2 hour listen to complete the audiobook, so create some space in your week and listen to his new book on Spotify asap.

After a week in Benalmadena, Ryan came home to Ireland gasping for a bit of Irish craic and, as fate would have it, that is exactly the subject of Irish Times columnist Brianna Parkins' column in the weekend edition that we picked up on arrival home, so we share her piece.

We have poetry from Norma Gill about believing in the future when grief arrives, a poem about a lesbian date that came with an unexpected twist and we also have our first ever trilingual poem!

Thanks for everyone's support. We would love to see the show expand so if you do like the show, please do review, like and tell your mates.

Yup poetry

Ryan and Leon

Poems from the podcast

Tips Included - Matthew McConaughey

https://greenlights.com/

Brianna Parkins - Good chat? Only when you leave Ireland, you realise it isn't universal - Irish Times Weekend Magazine Column - 27th September 2025

https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/brianna-parkins/

Norma Gill - The Rocky Patch

https://www.instagram.com/_words_to_soothe_/?hl=en

Ola Majekodunmi - On Her Own Terms

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn9iQ_9lWi8

Hannah Porter - Lesbian Van

https://www.instagram.com/hannahkatep_/

Agony Aunt - Thought Invader

Music from Ben Reid - The Risen People

https://www.tiktok.com/@benreid___/video/7554574732532649218

Support the show

Original music by Matthew Keating
Artwork by Paddy Downey
Introduction and co-produced by Lisa Downey

We have a chonky boy of an episode for you this week!

Due to the magical powers of our sound man, the wonderful Finn O'Reilly (@finnreuben), we present to you our Culture Night episode recorded live at The LAB in Dublin.

This episode is an absolute banger, where we cover everything from poetry, comedy, storytelling and music ( interpretive dance doesn't transfer over to audio very well sadly).

First up we have the amazing Aoife Dunne (@aoife_is-never_dunne) who opens up our show and not only has our audience in fits of laughter, but also strums on the heartstrings with her personally reflective poetry. Ryan is in then for a post-performance chat with Aoife about all things writing.

Next up the Corkonian Bard that is Daragh Fleming (@daraghfleming) speaks of the dark side of masculinity and how he plans to raise the baddest men on the planet (by making them be sound). Leon swoops in after for a sophisticated chat about Daragh's writing process.

Third up the amazing Eve (@allthingsevemusic) serenades us with her incredible lyrics and powerful voice. Leon chats with Eve about what it's like writing in a different language.

The last of our fantastic performers- Danni Culllen (@dannicullen_gypsy_soul) lures you into the ancient art of storytelling with a tale from the myths of Irish folklore. Ryan is up after to chat about where one can go to learn such a craft.

Finally to wrap up the show, we have several audience members grace the stage with some amazing poetry that they wrote on the night! It was amazing to hear such incredible pieces that were made up on the hoof. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you to everyone who contributed x

Support the show

Original music by Matthew Keating
Artwork by Paddy Downey
Introduction and co-produced by Lisa Downey

We don't agree with CMAT, even though we love her. We think Larkin would have been her biggest fan.

Not yet discussed on the podcast, we share Aubade one of Larkin's masterpieces.

We then talk about that ability of turning the mundane into art a lot on today's show. We also talk about men, and the value of the stories of men. We also talk about the almost zero value in male advice without a story.

Leon reads out a piece from Ernest Hemingway that hammers home the violence and devastating manipulation of man, before we take a look at the many different stories of the people who are claiming welfare with the help of playwright Graham Donlon.

A beauty of a track from Eve wraps up this week's show.

Hope you enjoy it! Stay away from men who advise!

Poems from the show

Craig Doyle - The Last Smoke

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf3ZMtOKF5w

Philip Larkin - Aubade

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48422/aubade-56d229a6e2f07

Ernest Hemingway - Hills Like White Elephants

https://anthologydev.lib.virginia.edu/work/Hemingway/hemingway-hills

Graham Donlon - A plastic floor tile one point five metres from the post office counter

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sbt_quiz/?hl=en

Music by Eve - June Moon

Support the show

Original music by Matthew Keating
Artwork by Paddy Downey
Introduction and co-produced by Lisa Downey

The President of ireland has a spoken word album

Let us do that one more time for you.

The President of Ireland has a spoken word album.

What a sentence, and you know what, it’s a brilliant piece of work. We discuss the release with chairman of Claddagh Records James Morrissey about the release, spoken word in Ireland and how the project came to be.

If you were at the live podcast of Keep It Light with Deidre O’Kane and Emma Doran at Electric Picnic, you’d have also heard the presidents voice. Well, it was a good impression at least by Lee Sheridan who took to the stage after the conversation between the comedians turned to poetry and that no one can recite a poem off the cuff…or so they thought

We also catch up on our own EP weekend, share the bad poems we forced festival goers to write for us and wrap up the show with Luke Clerkin who was brilliant in his set on the Sunday.

Thanks to all our new followers after James Mooney took one of Ryan’s poems and turned it into something special last week. Stick around and get some poems into ya!

Ryan and Leon

Support the show

Original music by Matthew Keating
Artwork by Paddy Downey
Introduction and co-produced by Lisa Downey

This podcast is an absolute must listen if you were lucky enough to be at the Oasis concert last weekend at Croke Park. Leon was there, and spends a lot of this podcast gushing over Liam and Noel Gallagher, which we should all be here for.

We look then to the Glastonbury of Ireland, Electric Picnic which kicks off August 29th. We take the best poetry of the festival and give you a peak into what is coming at The Word stage this year.

We also have Jan Brierton on, sharing the schedule for the Manifesto stage which includes Roisin Ingle and Rosie O'Donnell. Crazy.

Thanks again to everyone new to the podcast. If you like the show, we'd really appreciate you shouting about it, both offline and online ideally!

Roll on the picnic

Ryan and Leon

Poetry from today

Noel Gallagher and John Cooper Clarke - Beasley Street

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37QUUwp9xIs

Dave Hynes - Motley Crew

https://www.poetryireland.ie/education/writers-directory/david-hynes

Hollie Hughes - Stop The Feeling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z95NleyqPg

Kate Dempsey - Mash

https://www.doirepress.com/writers/kate-dempsey

Niamh Bagnell - Useless Things

https://stingingfly.org/author/niamh-bagnell/

The Poet Geoff - January 1919

https://www.broadsheet.ie/2019/01/21/january-1919/

Dom Byrne - Working Hard Or Hardly Working

https://www.instagram.com/dombyrnepoetry1

Music from Blue Lilac - Let In The New Light

https://open.spotify.com/track/6wSTXMsswjz7uZoqdcWPvI?si=907482daf8d540db

Support the show

Original music by Matthew Keating
Artwork by Paddy Downey
Introduction and co-produced by Lisa Downey

On today's pod, we celebrate the release of the second album from For Those I Love, as well as hearing Olivia Rodgrido’s advice about poetry being the foundation for all songwriting, which we’d be on board with.

We also dive into the work of Nikita Gill the hidden-in-Instagram-captions genius poetry from Teyindhi Ramsewak and talk about Alice Kinsella’s new collection ‘The Ethics of Cats’

We also share a powerful and completely unique poem about Joan Of Arc by Pip McGough that’ll get your blood pumping before we help a listener problem with our agony aunt section all about feeling misunderstood.

Great to be back and thanks to everyone who listened to last week’s return of the podcast.

In the words of David, go enjoy that good drying

Ryan and Leon

Poems from the show

Alice Kinsella - The Walkout

https://www.rte.ie/culture/2025/0704/1521257-the-ethics-of-cats-alice-kinsellas-new-poems/

Nikita Gill - If You Asked Me How To Live Forever

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7757886.Nikita_Gill

Pip McGough - Joan Delux

Instagram - @manifest_gothic

Tenidhi Ramsewak - If I Leave The House

Instagram - @syllabic_nomad

David Balfe - Of The Sorrows

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp-f6cG6rco

Support the show

Original music by Matthew Keating
Artwork by Paddy Downey
Introduction and co-produced by Lisa Downey

Difficult third series? F*** that!

We missed you guys and are delighted to return to your moistened ears as you go on your jog around the park that you hate to help you through another 5k.

Or whatever you're up to listening to us, we're very bloody grateful.

We have had a lovely few months off, so lots to fill you in on. From poems in English village pubs to bopping to The Fleadh.

As for poems, we've both been writing a ton so have some poems to share, as well as poems from the competition winners for our prompts. A huge congrats again to Joe and Hayley for winning a place in our second anthology that will be out this Christmas, absolutely deserved.

Our agony aunt is back, helping someone who needs a little career advice.

We'll be back until December, so get used to us keeping you company for a while :)

Ryan and Leon

Poems from the show:

Andy Porter - Unsuitable Activity For Poets

Neighbour's Got a New Hot Tub: Amazon.co.uk: Porter, Andy: 9798280992061: Books

Passage from The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath | Goodreads

Ryan Duggins - Men In Group Chats After Diogo Jota Died

Ryan Duggins (@ryanduggins) • Instagram photos and videos

Leon Dunne - lámh

Leon Dunne (@nomanticz) • Instagram photos and videos

Hayley Louise McDonnell - All Roads Lead To The Quiet

https://www.instagram.com/hayleylouisepoetry?igsh=MWxld2k1NHVrajJtOA==

Joe Spivey - The Step

Joe Spivey | Substack

Barbagianni - Out Of My Head feat. Katie Ryan

https://open.spotify.com/track/0KZ71kIJcZtESD032yU3iT?si=1f5b80c3eedc47f0

Support the show

Original music by Matthew Keating
Artwork by Paddy Downey
Introduction and co-produced by Lisa Downey