Episodes

  • Conversations from the Greenhouse

    Conversations from the Greenhouse
    Oct 31 2021

    Grainne Rafferty is an actress, writer, producer and theatre facilitator. Her film "Selkie" - which was made during the lockdown, has received critical acclaim. 


    Grainne Rafferty has been involved in the arts for the past 15 years, last year during Covid, when theatres were badly affected after being forced to close their doors, she returned to her childhood dream of writing stories.

    Influenced by a seal who came to Clogherhead, Grainne penned and narrated the stunning film "Selkie" - the mythological creature from Irish, Scottish and Orkney and the Shetland Islands folklore.

    The mother of two who once feared swimming, has come to love the water and has developed a number of stories influenced by the sea. She focuses on women and children, particularly from old Irish stories.

    Grainne has also been influenced in her work by her beloved late mother Doreen Rafferty.

    Doreen who was a huge influence on her life, left a treasured card for Grainne after she passed, saying how much she loved her now, and always will, which is reflected in this beautiful film.

    Grainne has welcomed the reopening of the arts world and is currently putting the final touches to her new work.


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    40 mins
  • The time when Hollywood superstar Russell Crowe rang us live on air

    The time when Hollywood superstar Russell Crowe rang us live on air
    Oct 5 2021

    The superstar contacted the radio station after breakfast show team Liam Coburn and Alison O'Reilly tweeted him.

    There was huge excitement in Q102 this morning, when global superstar Russell Crowe rang into our breakfast show.

    The Gladiator star whose recent film Unhinged hit the cinemas, called the show after receiving a tweet from Alison and Liam.

    The duo, who are presenting the breakfast show together for the month of August, sent him a tweet last week, inviting him onto the show.

    They wrote: "Hi Russell, we are a Dublin radio station, we have just read about your generous donation to the Le Chef fund, we talk about you nearly every day on our breakfast show (all good!), we would LOVE to have you on our show. Go on, you know you want to! Liam and Alison".

    The pair tweeted him again the next day, in the hope that he would respond.

    Alison said: "I had taken a few selfies of myself and Liam for a bit of fun, never thinking in a million years he would respond. I got home from work on Friday morning, when my programme manager Matt Dempsey began ringing me frantically. I had no idea what was going on, until he said 'Russell Crowe has just responded to your tweet'. I couldn't believe it. I never expected him to reply. He is one of the greatest actors of our time, I think it's fair to say, you just would never anticipate a response".

    Russell told the presenters he would call at 7am on Monday, if they passed on the studio number.

    Liam said: "I got a message from his publicity manager at 6am this morning, (Monday) so I knew then it was really happening".

    Alison added: "I didn't believe it until I saw the red light come on in studio after Karen the receptionist patched him through. It was so surreal to hear him say 'good morning'. He was absolutely lovely, I could have chatted to him all morning, he didn't seem rushed or fussy, just very very down to earth."

    Listen to the full interview here.


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    20 mins
  • Surviving Anorexia

    Surviving Anorexia
    Oct 3 2021
    A recovering anorexic has hit out at mental health services here, saying she could have died only for her family’s support. Ulrika Keegan battled with an eating disorder for more than 10 years, which saw her weight plummet to 36kilos (5.6 stone) during the height of her sickness. Throughout her teenage years, her periods stopped, her hair thinned, her skin was damaged, and her nails and teeth were rotting. The now healthy 28-year-old personal fitness coach and body builder was speaking out in the wake of the death of Big Brother star Nikki Grahame who battled with anorexic all her life. The 38-year-old had battled anorexia for years and recently been admitted to a private hospital for anorexia.  Ulrika told the Doorstep “I was so shocked; I knew Nikki's story and she fought so hard, but it must have fully taken over and there was no going back. It is so heart-breaking. And it brings to life the dangers of eating disorders and another life lost. More services are needed. I had a terrible time accessing services here, you have to go private if you want to advance in any way.  On its website, Bodywhys, The Eating Disorders Association of Ireland it says, "due to the nature of eating disorders, it is not always possible to find reliable statistics."But their 2019 impact reports say, they received 2,171 emails to their service that year, while 687 phoned their support line. Ulrika suffered with anorexia from 15 years to her early twenties and said the services were very hard to access and she wasn't ready to share her feelings.She said: "It’s all in your head, your brain is the strongest part of your body they say, but a powerful eating disorder can take over. “I was dying in front of my family and I just couldn’t see it. All I saw was fat and the more I lost the better I felt. It is a toxic and powerful disease. “It came to the stage where I was counting calories in toothpaste. It was so toxic for my mind and health. It wasn’t food anymore, it was everything. “I would stand on the scales and it see it going from 38 to 36 kilos, in my head I felt I was going in the right way.“As a personal trainer now, I am pushing to boost my weight, in anorexic you are battling to keep it off. " Ulrika’s earliest memory of developing an eating disorder was when she was a teenager, growing up in Coolock with her two sisters and parents. She said: “I’m the eldest of three girls and one night I wore my sister’s jeans and my mother said ‘did you see her legs in those jeans’. I just lost my head. I decided I’m going to lose this. “I just stopped eating and lived only on breadsticks which were 18 calories, and I didn’t drink water I just drank diet coke. I did so much damage, thank god I was so young and I am in recovery years now. “But at the time, I was always cold, my hair was fine, my nails were broken, and my skin was in bits. I could cup my hand around my thighs. “It was all skin and I had no fat but if I saw lose skin, I’d be thinking ‘I need that to go’. I had barely any energy to walk. It was a struggle. When you decrease your calories, it wipes you out. “My stomach would be rumbling, but I would block it out. People were staring at me and starting to say it to me. But I would not listen. “I went from a size zero to a healthy size ten.  No matter where I went, I didn’t get the help I needed, you really need private care if you want a chance to survive, we found the services so bad. I had to go for osteoporosis scans. People don’t realise the carnage you can cause your body. Ulrika’s life turned around after she followed her sister to the gym, and she saw someone with a six pack and said, “I want that”. A man in the gym said, “you’ll have to start eating if you want that” and that was the turning point in Ulrika’s life. She said: “I did have knocks when I started recovering,  and things were creeping into my head, but I trusted this man and stuck to the meals and plans he gave me. He helped me all the way and I was able to eat and eat well. “My periods came back and I started to recover, and I got into body building and personal fitness and it has been so great for me. I know now the damage I did to myself and my family”. The young Dubliner said she believes social media is a “nightmare” for young kids today, particularly with photoshopped images. She said “I think social media is not helpful at all, if I had children, I’d ban them from social media if I could. I don’t find it helpful. You are seeing big influencers who are altering their images and it is distressing. “Khloe Kardashian is a real example, all that media about her last week when she used her PR team and money to request one image be taken down because it was not edited. It was not right. I’d rather see the natural image than a false one. Why did she want it taken down? It’s natural. “I just think you end up looking at someone ...
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    9 mins
  • Gerard "The Monk" Hutch charged with murder of David Byrne

    Gerard "The Monk" Hutch charged with murder of David Byrne
    Sep 30 2021

    Gerard ‘The Monk’ Hutch has appeared before an out of hours sitting of the Special Criminal Court this evening, charged with the murder of David Byrne who was shot dead at the Regency Hotel in 2016.


    He was brought to the Special Criminal Court tonight by heavy security after he was extradited from Spain to Dublin.


    He had been living abroad for the past number of years and was recently tracked down in Spain.


    What was tonight's out of hours sitting at the Special Criminal Court about? Listen here.


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    10 mins
  • Mother asked for tickets to her own son's funeral

    Mother asked for tickets to her own son's funeral
    Sep 28 2021
    Alison O’Reilly  A petition has been posted online by a grieving family who have hit out at “shocking Covid restrictions” after their mother was initially refused into her son’s service, because she didn’t have one of 50 tickets for funeral. David Redmond, 34, was buried on Thursday 26th August after passing away suddenly from a heart-attack at his home in East Wall in north inner city Dublin on 20th August. His heartbroken family say, the funeral service was “ruined” by a series of strict rules related to Covid. They include, admission only by 50 tickets, banning an offertory procession, no live streaming of the event and no prayers said in the home prior to his funeral. Speaking last night, devastated Leah Redmond, David’s only sister, said her family are still in “complete shock” at the way her late brother’s funeral mass was organised. She said: “We are just heartbroken, David’s funeral was chaotic. We had a lot of difficulty first of all trying to get the priest Fr Richard Shannon to say mass. David died on Friday 20th August and we wanted to lay him to rest on the Monday or Tuesday. But the priest wasn’t available and he said he doesn’t work on Wednesdays. He said he could do it on the following Friday, but that was just too late for us, he died the previous Friday. So Jennings Funeral Home really helped us and Fr. Richard agreed to do that Thursday, 26th August. “But he never came to the house at all to say prayers with David. We understand about Covid, but he could have come to the gate or something, we live opposite the church. In the end, when the lid of the coffin was going on, we had to get an elderly neighbour in to say the rosary. My older family would be religious, so they wanted the rosary. We were already dealing with David’s sudden death. He died from heart problems which run on my mother’s side, she had two brothers who died suddenly at 36 and 45 and David was attending hospital. “Then Fr. Richard said they don’t do live streaming of the funeral and people in East Wall wanted to see it, and other family who couldn’t travel. So we hired a camera operator, his correct title is ‘Drone Operator’ and I told the priest that. He had a tripod and was going to stream the funeral for us on a camera. “The next thing was, we were given 47 tickets for the funeral – we were meant to have 50. We were so stressed out we didn’t know who to give them to. On the day of David’s funeral, everyone was stopped going into the church with the tickets and my mother Catherine forgot hers, she was too busy grieving for her son, she was heartbroken. Two people collecting the tickets, stopped my mam from going into the church. Only for one of them knew my mam and that she was David’s mother, I don’t know what would have happened. They were also asked the people carrying David’s coffin for tickets. “Once we got inside, the priest came down suddenly and said ‘you can’t have a drone operator in here’. I was explaining to him there is no drone that is just his title. Then he wouldn’t let us bring up the offertory gifts, we had to had them up on the alter when the coffin arrived there. “We didn’t know who to give tickets to and then we ended up with three short, but also, ten people didn’t come in, but the priest was telling us ‘there was too many in the church’, even though the limit is 50 and these were the church’s tickets but only 37 were there. “We were also told we could have no readings and only holy songs. The eulogy was said at the start of the mass but not a single member of David’s family was on the alter saying any prayers. Sr. Helen at the church did a reading. “You couldn’t make this up, it was crazy, we didn’t know what was going on”. Leah said things “got worse” when they brought David to Balgriffin cemetery for his final resting place. She said: “We went to went to Balgriffin and the priest didn’t show up at all and we were waiting twenty five minutes, we had to get our cousin Abbie, a teenager, to sing at the graveside, Sr. Helen came late and said a few prayers but that was after David was lowered into the grave. “We all still in shock, and hurt and we paid the church for the service but it was Jennings who were brilliant, only for them, we don’t know what we would have done. “They were apologising for the church even though it was nothing to do with them”. Leah said her family has made a complaint to the Archbishop Damien Farrell, she has also set up a petition “Grieving family, friends and local residents treated with the right respect and support” highlighting her concerns. Leah said: “We just want answers as to how this was allowed to happen. David deserved better and we are just heartbroken”. When contacted Sr Helen who was involved in the funeral service with Fr Richard Shannon said “It’s a very difficult time for everyone and we...
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    14 mins
  • Anthony Flynn highlights sexual abuse in the homeless sector

    Anthony Flynn highlights sexual abuse in the homeless sector
    Sep 26 2021
    Dublin Councillor Anthony Flynn described the widespread sexual abuse in the homeless sector as “disturbing” and "traumatic" – just weeks before he was suspended for allegations of a similar nature. Inner City Helping homeless CEO Flynn was found dead in a house in East Wall in North Dublin on Wednesday 18th August. The discovery was made after he was suspended from the homeless charity after a number of clients in the service claimed that he had sexually assaulted them. Yesterday (Sun) it was reported that gardai are expecting more victims to come forward in the wake of the allegations made against Anthony Flynn. However, the Star can reveal, a month before Gardai interviewed Flynn about the allegations, he conducted a long interview outside the Dail about the risks the homeless face from sexual predators. On 19th April he launched the “Our Voice, Homelessness Survey, Empowerment to Rights” report which was conducted by BABS Empowerment Project and Inner City Helping Homeless. Flynn who was also a Dublin City Councillor said the report was “damning” and highlighted the personal experiences of people “in a traumatic system” who were too afraid to report crimes against them. Speaking to FM104 and Q102, he said: “Up to a third of the people that were interviewed from the 100 people, had said they experienced some form of sexual assault within homeless services. A lot of the wording that was used, it’s ‘our voice’ – that’s what we are coming out with, the voices of those, that have been in homeless services or entrapped. “A lot of the experiences were traumatic experiences and people feeling they’ve been institutionalised within homeless services and that there was no way out. “A lot of the wording around the report is alone, depressed, there’s significant issues in regard to substance misuse and mental health. Our partners BABS are the mental health team that work with us, and we found that many of the individuals that are accessing homeless services don’t enter with mental health problems but do insure whilst they are in homelessness services.   “The report is damning to say the least, what we need to hear are the voices of the people in the need to hear the services. It is a traumatic system. Flynn said a third of the one hundred people interviewed (54%) as part of the survey, said they had experienced sexual abuse within the homeless When asked, if the sexual abuse was happening in the services or with family and friends or while living on the streets he said: “It’s a range of whether it would be whilst people were sleeping rough or whilst people were in homeless emergency accommodation. He said it was “both men and women”. He said a lot of the information that came back in the report “was expected” saying “these are issues that we have seen over the last number of years. “These issues are ongoing they have been ongoing; they have been ongoing for a very long period of time within homeless services and we need to review exactly how were managing our homeless service system. “Some of the wording in the report looks at the transparency in regard to money spent within homeless services as well….. “We haven’t seen an audited report from the Dublin Regional homeless executive in four year, that should be done every four years. “But back to the actual voices of the actual individual’s people that are in the report. There is a very high number of people who were interview say they significant mental health issues within service. “Many of the individuals have incurred those while in the homeless services. The report also found that a high number of people were not reporting the sexual crimes against them. Flynn said: “Many of the individuals feel, basically that they won’t be heard and that nobody is listening to them and that there isn’t a proper complaints procedure in regard to reporting. Or even they do report that that report won’t be heard of or won’t be investigated. Many feel that they might lose their bed if they report in regard to whether they report an issue of sexual assault or whether it be an issue with regard to their rights being violated within homeless service systems. “We are not doing what we need to be doing with regard to the proper provision service for individual. The NGO sector seems to be getting brushed out (by the private sector).” When asked how it was going to be possible to protect people in the vulnerable homeless people who are afraid to report sexual abuse he said “What we need to do is engage better and have proper staff on site, many of the staffing of the units over the last number of years in the private sector haven’t got the proper qualifications in terms of supporting people within those services. Many hotels are just desk staff they are not people who can actually engage with individuals within that level of assault. “But with regard to reporting it...
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    9 mins