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

Filmmaker Nuala O’Connor joins Irish Stew cohosts Martin Nutty and John Lee for a “Global Irish Nation Conversation” on her documentary In Time: Dónal Lunny, her filmic tone poem in black and white on the enigmatic innovator of Irish music.
Co‑founder of the seminal groups Planxty, The Bothy Band, and Moving Hearts, Dónal introduced the flat-back bouzouki to Irish music and broke through with new time signatures, revolutionizing the sound and status of Irish trad music without breaking its fundamental architecture.

Previously an RTÉ radio producer, Nuala is now an Emmy Award-winning writer and director whose work in music and arts documentary filmmaking spans more than three decades.

The director explains how the title In Time carries intertwined meanings that mirror the musician’s life and work. “You know sometimes things come to you for no reason and then they seem to be very reasonable after they’ve arrived,” she says of the name. “There’s the idea of time signature in music. Dónal explored time signatures previously unheard in Irish music and he has been at the forefront of Irish music for so long, you know, literally in time.”

The episode also delves into Dónal’s deep relationships with fellow musicians, his creative collaborations with his Planxty bandmates, and newer sonic explorations as he is still pushing boundaries in his late seventies.

He also pushed boundaries in his personal life which the film unflinchingly shows and the podcasters explore.

Nuala explains that she wanted to paint a portrait of an artist still very much in motion, not a nostalgic retrospective, a commitment captured powerfully in the film’s climactic scene where an ailing Dónal and his Planxty colleague Christy Moore reunite.

“I took Dónal out of hospital, drove him to where we shot that, and then put him in the car and brought him back to hospital after,” she says, “I honestly didn’t know, will he be here when the film comes out?

In Time: Dónal Lunny will screen on Day 3 of the Solas Nua Capital Irish Film Festival, Feb. 26 through Mar. 1. Irish Stew will once again be the festival’s Podcast in Residence and will record an episode on stage with filmmaker guests following the Fri., Feb. 27, 6:30 PM Northern Ireland Spotlight screenings of Three Keenings and No Ordinary Heist.

Links

Solas Nua

• Website
• Capital Irish Film Festival
• In Time: Dónal Lunny

Nuala O’Connor

• IMDB

South Wind Blows Productions

• Website
• LinkedIn
• Facebook

Irish Stew Links

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

Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 8; Total Episode Count: 149