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Pod-a-Rooney: the Joe Rooney podcast

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Pod-a-Rooney: the Joe Rooney podcast
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Now displaying: 2017
Oct 1, 2017

Phil Chevron was a musician and song writer with the bands The Radiators From Space and The Pogues writing songs of the calibre of Television Screen, Enemies, Kitty Ricketts and Clery's Clock for The Radiators and Lorelei and Thousands Are Sailing for The Pogues. In this tribute to Phil recorded in front of a live audience I talked to Pete Holidai and Steve Rapid of The Radiators, writer/director Peter Sheridan and Phil's sister Deborah Blacoe. We discussed Phil's life and art right from the age of two when he experienced his first trip to the theatre and had to be bribed to leave until his far too early death at the age of 56 in 2013. 

Sep 13, 2017

Tara Flynn is an Irish actress and writer. She came to international attention with her satirical sketches "Racist B&B" which won her Satirist of The Year at the Swift Satire Festival and "Armagayddon" co-written with Kevin McGahern.

She has written two satirical books Your Grand; The Irish Woman's Secret Guide To Life and Giving Out Yards;the Art Of Complaint Irish Style.

She was a founder member of the comedy trio The Nualas and is a core member of The Dublin Comedy Improv.

Tara also had roles in Irish Pictorial Weekly, Line Of Duty, Moone Boy, Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, The Omid Djalili Show and she was a recurring cast member of Thank God You're Here UK. 

I met Tara for a chat in the home of Irish comedy and The Dublin Comedy Improv, The International Bar. 

Sep 6, 2017

Peter Sheridan is a playwright, Screenwriter and Director. His awards include the Rooney Prize for Literature. In 1980 he was writer in residence in the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. He has written several novels including "Forty Seven Roses" and "Forty Four; Dublin Made Me" and plays including "The Liberty Suit" and "Mother Of All The Behans". He wrote the pilot episode of the long running soap "Fair City" and he wrote and directed the film of Brendan Behan's "The Borstal Boy" which was released in 2002. He is the brother of film director Jim Sheridan.

I made his acquaintance when the American violinist Deni Bonet was staying at his house while she was touring Ireland and I dropped in to say goodbye before she headed home. Peter and his wife Sheila invited me in for tea. As we sat around the table Peter regaled us with stories about Behan and Beckett. I knew he'd be a brilliant guest on the podcast and so here we are. Enjoy it. 

Aug 24, 2017

This is a live show I did in Vicar St back in 2006 for a series of CDs with News Of The World newspaper. Des Bishop and Ian Coppinger were on the other CDs as far as I remember. I decided to stick it out on podcast as a relaunch of the podcast which I feel I have been neglecting in the last few months because of other commitments. There's a few bits on it that I had completely forgotten and other bits that I still do the odd time. 

Jul 20, 2017

Aidan Gillen is best known for his role as Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish in Game Of Thrones, Tommy Carcetti in The Wire (both HBO series), CIA operative Bill Wilson in The Dark Knight Rises, Stuart Alan Jones in the Channel 4 series Queer As Folk and John Boy in the RTE Television series Love/Hate. 

I met Aidan at a Q&A with ex Teardrop Explodes singer Julian Cope and he kindly agreed to have a chat on my podcast. However when we met he reminded me I had met him briefly before many years ago. Indeed he had to leave his own house for a few hours partly because of me. We had a long chat about film in general and some of his films including Treacle Jr, Stills and Some Mother's Son. 

This one is a bit of an epic. I could have made it a two parter but y'know there hasn't been one in awhile so you can do that yourself if you like. Enjoy an extra big helping of Podarooney!

Jun 26, 2017

Aisling O'Neill is perhaps best known for her role as Carol in RTE’s long-running and most popular soap FAIR CITY. I recently acted with her as she played the role of Suzanne in John B.Keane's THE CHASTITUTE directed by Michael Scott at The Gaiety Theatre, Dublin. She has also recently acted in Graham Cantwell's award-winning short film LILY and Kavaleer Production's live action/animated short CITY OF ROSES, directed by Andrew Kavanagh (winner - Director's Choice Award at the Boston Irish Film Festival 2016). ​I also chatted to fellow Chastitute actors Mark O' Regan and Andrew Kenny and singer musician Aine Duffy who's band Little Grit are really good. I witnessed a cormorant eating a live fish in Schull live on my podcast too!!!

Jun 4, 2017

Eoin Ryan Anthony is a singer song writer from Thurles who's band are called Seskin Lane. Their album History Of Things To Come is full of well crafted and beautifully played songs topped with Eoin's sweet melodic voice. We met up in The Central Hotel in Dublin, which is becoming my unofficial studio, for a chat about music, cows giving birth and not remembering peoples names. I also have a chat with Joan from the venue near Limavady called The Keady Clachan about how this venue on the side of a mountain has become so popular with musicians around the world. Then I chat with Don Piper (who accompanied violinist Deni Bonet at a gig in The Clachan) about his own music and if you hang on until the end even after I have said goodbye you can hear Deni Bonet playing a track live at the aforementioned venue.

May 4, 2017

Brent Pope is a New Zealand rugby analyst on RTE television, rugby journalist, charity worker, children's book author, founder of Outside in Art Gallery in Dublin Ireland and owner of POPE shirts. He was born, raised and spent his rugby playing career in New Zealand, but has lived and worked in Ireland for most of his broadcasting career. Brent was selected in the original 1987 New Zealand Rugby World Cup training squad, but had to withdraw a week before the tournament began due to a serious elbow injury in the final series of All Black trials. He then came back after injury to be nominated as one of New Zealand's outstanding domestic players of that year. I met Brent a couple of times at different events and each time I have had a very enlightening and deep conversation with him. I was delighted he agreed to do the podcast and we settled on meeting at his house in South Dublin. After talking about the demise of amateur sport and his early life growing up in New Zealand, Brent opened up about the difficulty of living so far from his elderly parents, his struggle with anxiety and his love of "Outside" art.

Apr 10, 2017

Ryan McMullan is Ed Sheeran's opening act for his 2017 summer tour. He is a singer songwriter with immense stage presence and songwriting skills. Deni Bonet is a fiddle player who has played with Cyndi Lauper, REM, Mundy and Sarah McLachlan. Her latest album Bright Shiny Objects has entered the US charts and is getting airplay all over Europe. It's her first completely instrumental album. Johnny Cronin is from the band Cronin. Their latest album The First Kiss Of Love is a big dramatic burning tower of love songs. They are also now officially Shane MacGowan's backing band. Mik Artistik is a Leeds based artist and performance comedian. His song David Bowie Was A Funny Man is worth checking out on YouTube. Shane Kennedy has a story to tell and works with fashion designer Paul Smith. I met all these people over a ten day period as I was on a tour that took in The Bronx, New York, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Chicago and ended on St Patricks night in Leeds. It was all great and exciting and stressfull and brilliant and its good to be back home again.

Mar 27, 2017

Mary Coughlan is an Irish jazz and folk singer best known for her rendition of Love Will Tear Us Apart, The Magdalen Laundry and I Want To Be Seduced. Her career kicked off at the age of thirty with the release of the independently produced and financed album Tired and Emotional. She suddenly became a massive star and her career sky rocketed from there but due to severe mismanagement she lost her house, her car and her record deal with WEA and began to drink heavily. Her drinking was also connected to her abuse by two family members at a young age which led a suicide attempt at the age of 15 and her incarceration in a mental home. In 1994 she received treatment for her alcoholism and since then has released many immensely popular albums including After The Fall (her American Debut), The House Of Ill Repute and Scars On The Calender. After many phone calls back and forth we eventually met up one Monday morning in The Central Hotel in Dublin. Mary was just so open and warm hearted. It was a pleasure to meet and chat with her.

Mar 11, 2017

Christy Dignam is the lead singer of the popular Irish rock band Aslan. His career of over twenty-five years has been characterised by numerous successes on the Irish charts such as "This Is" and "Feel No Shame" as well as recurring problems with drug addiction and recovery. Christy grew up in the North Dublin suburb of Finglas. He studied the classical art of bel canto singing with teacher Frank Merriman at the Bel Canto House School of Singing in Dublin. At the age of six, he was raped by a neighbour. This continued to occur over a three-year period until, at the age of nine, Dignam sought help from his best friend's brother, a man in his twenties. During the meeting with his best friend's brother, Dignam explained his situation and he was then raped by this man as well. Dignam later suggested his drug addiction may have resulted from the psychological trauma caused by these events. I met Christy at his home in Dublin and was made more than welcome by him and his wife Kathryn. I could have listened to him all day and I'm sure you will feel the same. He is a national treasure or as Bono said from the stage when they played at the Three Arena recently he is "The Angel Of Dublin"

Feb 24, 2017

Eric Lalor plays Cathal Spillane in the long running soap Fair City and is a stand up comedian. His first foray into comedy was a bit unusual. In 2006, as one of the participants of RTÉ Two’s Des Bishop’s Joy In The Hood, his first ever gig was filmed on his home turf of Ballymun in Dublin and broadcast to the entire nation. Eric has been a mainstay on the Irish comedy scene since and has written and performed two solo shows Lalorpalooza and Here! No Evil. He has acted in RTE’s The Importance of Being Whatever, Love/Hate and Amber (directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan for RTE). Eric has also appeared in the short films No Messages and Breath In and appeared in the hit play Singlehood, written and directed by Una McKevitt and Dan Coffey.

Feb 13, 2017

Kristin Vollset is a Norwegian singer/songwriter documentary maker and traveller who ended up in Dublin after travelling through Denmark, Holland, England and Scotland in her van. She was looking for a free spot to park her van in Dublin city centre when she accidentally reversed into a wall and broke a tail light. Then a horse came out from a hole in the wall and the rest is history. In this interview Kristin tells me how she happened upon a group of inner city lads who have a horse stables on Cork St. She ended up hanging around with these lads for the next 2 years and filmed a documentary about her experience. She wrote and recorded the song No Plan with some of the lads and the video for the song went viral. I chatted to her via Skype in her home town of Bergen.

Feb 3, 2017

Kenyan comedian Njambi McGrath’s first stand up comedy gig was a disaster. In a half empty club in London, her audience was as ill at ease with her jokes about Africa as she was delivering them. McGrath persevered, in part, because of her upbringing in Kenya. "When you grow up in Africa you see people in much, much more difficult situations than you could ever be in and they just keep going,"Three years later, the thirtysomething is making a name for herself in an industry few black African women have successfully cracked. One of a rising number of African-born comedians making waves in the UK, McGrath says the shock of seeing how the continent was portrayed when she moved to England three years ago encouraged her to use a comic touch to raise serious issues. I met up with her at the Belfast Out To Lunch festival after she performed her show “One Last Dance With My Father”. The show is more than just a stand up show touching on subjects like abortion, domestic violence and the social consequences of a colonial past. It was a pleasure to chat with her. She is such a strong survivor and a courageous woman.

Jan 20, 2017

From 1969 until 1991 Fiachra Trench worked in London as composer, arranger, musical director, keyboardist and record producer. In August 1991 he returned with his family to live and work in Ireland. Fiachra's film and television scores include those for Dear Sarah, Moondance, A Love Divided, The Boys and Girl from County Clare (nominated in 2005 for an IFTA for Best Music) and the major BBC documentary series, People’s Century. He has collaborated with Shaun Davey, Michael Kamen, Hans Zimmer and others on many film scores, including Twelfth Night, Die Hard and Pearl Harbor. He has conducted The BBC Concert Orchestra (with The Corrs), The Ulster Orchestra, L'Orchestra del Teatro Massimo, Palermo (with The Chieftains), the RTÉ Concert Orchestra (with Marti Pellow) and The Irish Film Orchestra. As arranger/musical director Fiachra has worked with many performers, including Altan, Paul Brady, Kate Bush, The Corrs, The Chieftains, Elvis Costello, Phil Lynott, Paul McCartney and Van Morrison. I chatted with him in Boyles pub in Slane where he spent some of his early years (in Slane not the pub).

Jan 6, 2017

Andrew Ryan is one of the most exciting talents in recent years; in demand as an act and an MC at the biggest comedy clubs across the UK. Andrew’s quintessentially Irish storytelling abilities and cheeky, friendly demeanour make him a natural observational stand up. He performed his debut hour show ‘Ryanopoly’ at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2012, receiving rave reviews. In 2014 he returned with his latest show ‘The Life of Ryan’ playing to packed out rooms. In 2015 he was at the Edinburgh Festival with his show ‘Perfectly Inadequate’. Selling out his run at the Festival and having to put on extra shows. I met him for a chat at the 2016 Edinburgh festival where he was performing his latest show "Ruined". He is without doubt a sound man. Find out more about him at www.andrewryancomedy.com

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