Episodes
Sunday Nov 07, 2021
Living it up with the Hiking Hens
Sunday Nov 07, 2021
Sunday Nov 07, 2021
“We are the Hiking Hens,” sang a group of women as we left the carpark near the Invisible Tree on our way via the river path to Cloughmore Stone last Wednesday evening.
That camaraderie and banter epitomised the next hour-and-a -half or so spent with around 20 members of the Hiking Hens.
The group, led and established by Fidelma and Maria, meets every Wednesday and Sunday, where they hike various routes and mountains in the Mournes - and a lot of fun is had.
Saturday Oct 30, 2021
Fiona sings her way to success at Flynn Performing Arts
Saturday Oct 30, 2021
Saturday Oct 30, 2021
Overnight success usually comes from an awful lot of hard work and for Fiona Flynn and her students that’s certainly the case.
It may seem like everything the talented soprano touches turns to gold, but behind the scenes at her music school, Flynn Performing Arts, it takes time as well as talent to bring out the best in her students.
The waiting list is long to get into the school that Fiona established six years ago – but that’s no real surprise.
Scrolling through its Facebook page brings up post after post on the terrific achievements by her students, from Feis to TV shows, to stage performances for the school and even some children performing across the water in the West End.
For this week’s podcast, Fiona tells us all about her journey from the Ulster orchestra to the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, as she built the career that she loves.
She speaks about the hard work that goes into any performance, the pride she feels for her students achievements – big or small, and tells us whether she believes anyone can carry a tune -or not!
Saturday Oct 23, 2021
Saturday Oct 23, 2021
You can train, train and train some more. You can prepare everything down to the finest detail, but sometimes the unforeseen happens and sometimes that leads to a near-death experience.
That’s exactly what happened to ultra-runners Hugh Morgan and Paddy Hamilton in the scorching Sahara Desert earlier this month.
It’s billed as the ‘toughest foot race on earth’ but the Marathon des Sables (Marathon of the Sands) became even more so this year.
A crippling stomach illness spread like wildfire through the camp at the start of the race and the organisers weren’t equipped with enough medical supplies to care for the victims.
The seven-day 156- mile event across the dunes, rocky jebels and white-hot salt plains in temperatures that normally reach around 50 degrees is the ultimate test for any athlete, but this year the temperature soared to almost 60 degrees and with illness and heat-related dehydration rampant, the situation became very serious, very fast.
Friday Oct 15, 2021
‘The Border Game‘ playwright Oisín Kearney tells tales from the border!
Friday Oct 15, 2021
Friday Oct 15, 2021
With the world opening up again slowly but surely, how does an evening out at the theatre sound?
I can promise you one thing, should you decide to take a run up to Belfast and pick up a ticket for ‘The Border Game’ in the Lyric Theatre, you won’t be disappointed.
Certainly if you watching anything that’s simultaneously hilarious and deeply tragic and also brilliantly acted.
But you don’t have to take my word for it. The reviews are in and the critics agree.
Warrenpoint playwright, director and filmmaker, Oisín Kearney, co-wrote ‘The Border Game’ with his writing partner Michael Patrick, after travelling the length of the Irish border and listening to around 100 people tell their stories about how it has impacted on their lives.
The play is based on a compilation of some of those stories. It deals with the issues the two protagonists, Sinead and Henry – played wonderfully by Liz Fitzgibbon and Patrick McBrearty - faced as a young couple, of differing political and religious backgrounds, growing up on the border.
Friday Oct 01, 2021
Friday Oct 01, 2021
In 2014, a petition was presented to Stormont with 10,000 signatures gathered from the streets and shops around Armagh, calling for the reinstatement of the local railway line.
Two years before that the Portadown Armagh Railway Society (PARS) was established with the same purpose in mind.
They also aim to educate the public on the history of the railway line between Armagh and Portadown and the huge impact its disbandment in 1957 has had on the area - not least from a connectivity point of view but also an environmental one, as cars increasingly clog our roadways.
For this week’s podcast we spoke to Chairman William Hutchinson and Committee member Willie Parr who told us all about the organisation and the progress their campaign has been making.
Saturday Sep 25, 2021
Puppy love with The Dog Guru, Keith Mathews
Saturday Sep 25, 2021
Saturday Sep 25, 2021
"I've heard you help people with horse problems," says Kristen Scott Thomas' character in the film ‘The Horse Whisperer,’ to which Robert Redford's character replies: “Truth is, I help horses with people problems.”
And that pretty much sums up this week's Armagh I podcast guest, Keith Mathews - albeit with a different species of animal.
Keith, or, ‘The Dog Guru’, as he is most famously known, has worked his magic with our favourite pets for over 25 years.
He is one of the most sought after dog trainers and behaviourists in the world – and the Armagh man wouldn’t wish for any other career.
It all began for Keith in a field at his house where, as a child, he discovered his innate gift for understanding dog behaviour and his ability to train the family dogs.
Sunday Sep 19, 2021
Ryan McShane takes us from Britain’s Got Talent to Dancing With The Stars
Sunday Sep 19, 2021
Sunday Sep 19, 2021
If you know your Paso Doble from your Foxtrot and winter weekends aren’t complete without a glimpse of the coveted glitterball and the tears and triumphs of a dance-off, then you’ll be very familiar with Ryan McShane.
The Lurgan native is one of the professional dancers on Ireland’s Dancing With The Stars since the show began in 2017, where he has taken his celebrity partners through their paces before facing the scrutiny of both judges and viewers alike.
For this week’s podcast, Ryan spills the beans on how the audition process at Britains Got Talent really works and what it’s like behind the scenes on Dancing with the Stars.
The talented dancer has had plenty of highs and lows on DWTS. He survived three dance-offs with Erin McGregor – the sister of UFC fighter Conor – more than any other professional in the history of the show.
He received three perfect 10s in the final of the first series with actress Denise McCormack. They didn’t win but Ryan won the heart of his model girlfriend Thalia Heffernan who was also a contestant.
Ryan was also partnered with B*Witched singer Sinead O’Carroll and Mrs Brown’s Boys star Eilish O’Carroll, who he says was one of the nicest human beings he has ever met.
Ryan fills us in on the secret to getting the best from his students – be they celebrities or kids or adults who teaches ballroom and Latin to. He tells us what his favourite dance is and which is the hardest to learn.
Ryan tells us about life in lockdown with Thalia and their two dogs. And what the future holds for them since Thalia signed for IMG – one of the biggest modelling agencies in the world.
Friday Sep 10, 2021
Emma McQuaid – Ireland’s CrossFit Queen takes the world by storm
Friday Sep 10, 2021
Friday Sep 10, 2021
The world is a pretty big place, so to be able to say you are one of the fittest women on planet earth in one of the most gruelling competitions in the world, is a claim reserved for the very few - but one that Emma McQuaid can shout from the rooftops.
Emma earned her place in the top echelon of the multi-disciplined sports movement, CrossFit, by finishing twelfth in the CrossFit Games held in Wisconsin last month.
The 31-year-old Lisburn fitness instructor has dedicated most of her adult life to the sport that she loves and has worked her way up to the highest level possible.
To put this achievement in perspective, Emma, who ranks number one CrossFit National Champion of Ireland for the past two years, was just one of over 263,000 athletes from across the globe who took part in the Open qualification for the CrossFit Games this year.
That number was whittled down through a series of workouts in the quarter and semi-finals, until just 40 men and 40 women were left in contention for the finals in the USA.
One would imagine that Emma would have been training hard and looking forward to the challenge ahead after she qualified, but there were even more hurdles – of a very different kind – to overcome.