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

In this conversation recorded at the 2025 Capital Irish Film Festival, host Martin Nutty sits down with two trailblazing Irish filmmakers who are pushing boundaries in their respective genres.

Aislinn Clarke discusses her groundbreaking Irish-language horror film Fréwaka, exploring how her childhood love of horror (she saw The Exorcist at seven!) and her father's commitment to preserving the Irish language converged into a unique cinematic vision. Clarke reveals the gift of discovering the perfect location for the film in Ravensdale Forest, and why horror fans have always embraced foreign language films. With international distribution through IFC Shutter and more projects in development, Clarke is proving that Irish-language cinema can compete on the global stage.

Tanya Doyle takes us behind the scenes of her five-year documentary odyssey Eat, Sleep, Cheer, and Repeat, which follows Ireland's cheerleading team to the World Championships in Florida. What began as a search for a film about women in sport became an intimate portrait of athleticism, identity, and belonging. Doyle shares the moment she knew cheerleading was the story—watching a young competitor vomit from sheer physical exertion—and defends the sport against anyone who questions its legitimacy. With 160 hours of footage to wrangle and characters lost to COVID shutdowns, the film became a testament to resilience both on and off screen.

Both filmmakers discuss the challenges of funding independent cinema in Ireland, the intimacy of the editing process, and the importance of creating spaces where diverse stories can flourish. Whether you're interested in horror, documentary filmmaking, Irish language revival, or women in sport, this episode offers rich insights into the craft and passion of contemporary Irish cinema.

Links

Films

• Preview: Eat, Sleep, Cheer, and Repeat
• Preview: Fréwaka

Aislinn Clarke

• IMDB
• Instagram

Tanya Doyle

• IMDB
• LinkedIn
• Griffith College

Solas Nua

• Capital Irish Film Festival

Irish Stew Links

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

Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 7; Total Episode Count: 148

Recorded at the 2025 Capital Irish Film Festival in Washington DC, this episode features a conversation with two Irish women who have both made significant transitions into film from other careers.

Kathleen Harris, a former Irish Times video journalist, discusses her environmental documentary Birdsong, which won the 2025 CIFF Audience Award for Favorite Irish Feature. Denise Deegan, a novelist, talks about her award-winning short, The Innkeeper.

Birdsong follows ornithologist Seán Ronayne as he attempts to record every bird species in Ireland, traveling to some of the country's most remote locations along the way.

The Innkeeper is a short comedy drama set around a school nativity play, which carries a quiet but powerful message about homelessness in Ireland.

Both guests left stable careers — Harris from journalism, Deegan from running a PR business — to pursue film making, and both talk candidly about the leap involved. A thread running through the conversation is how each approached social issues in their work: Harris structured Birdsong to balance wonder with concern about Ireland's biodiversity crisis, while Deegan deliberately withheld The Innkeeper's central point until the final moment. Neither wanted to lecture. Both wanted to leave the audience feeling something had shifted.

Links

Capital Irish Film Festival

Kathleen Harris

• Website
• LinkedIn

Denise Deegan

• Website
• Instagram

The Films

• Birdsong
  • Website
  • Preview
• The Innkeeper
  • Preview
  • IMDB

Irish Stew Links

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

Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 6; Total Episode Count: 147

Irish Stew wraps its Off the Beaten Craic in the Hidden Heartlands Series in Drumshanbo, the Co. Leitrim town rewriting the rural renewal playbook. What began as a desperate effort to save a shuttered jam factory has become one of Ireland's most remarkable community-led success stories.

At The Food Hub in Drumshanbo, cohosts Martin Nutty and John Lee hear from Cllr Enda McGloin and onsite manager Fergal McPartland how a voluntary local committee refused to let the abandoned jam factory slip away, spending years securing a long-term lease and funding while recommitting the site to food production rather than easier options like storage. The Food Hub now houses multiple thriving enterprises including The Shed Distillery, home of Gunpowder Irish Gin which put this Leitrim town on the global spirits map. Together, the Food Hub and the Shed have transformed Drumshanbo from a symbol of industrial decline into a vibrant food, drink, and tourism destination studied by other towns seeking renewal.

Inside The Shed, the podcasters hear how its managing director and founder P.J. Rigney and his team have fused global imagination with local soul in their distinctive gins, whiskeys and now vodka. At the distillery’s heart beats an Irish storyteller's instinct for character, place, and pride.

The podcasters get to see the magic happen on The Shed Distillery Tour, a popular hospitality experience made complete with a stop at the onsite Jackalope Café, a local foodie destination.

Now P.J. is restoring the town's historic Methodist Church as a community and visitor hub, continuing the ethos of regeneration that began with the Food Hub. He calls it a partnership of "guardian angels" between business and community, each nurturing the other through shared purpose.

This final episode of Off the Beaten Craic in the Hidden Heartlands captures the alchemy of curiosity and connection that defines Drumshanbo, a small town that turned crisis into creativity and built a legacy of craft, courage, and collaboration. From jam to gin, from empty factory floors to bustling innovation, Drumshanbo proves that when community and imagination meet, even the most hidden heartlands can become a global destination.

Irish Stew’s next destination is Washington, DC. Join them next week for the first of several episodes on Irish films featured by the Solas Nua Capital Irish Film Festival.

Links

The Food Hub

• Website
• Facebook

Cllr Enda McGloin

• Website
• LinkedIn
• Facebook

The Shed Distillery

• Website
• Instagram
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• PJ Rigney on LinkedIn

Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 5; Total Episode Count: 146

Irish Stew’s latest “Off the Beaten Craic” adventure in County Leitrim discovers three new ways to slow down, tune in, and taste this corner of Ireland, through food, forest, and a gentle spin along the Jackalope Trail.

First, we meet Malaysian‑born chef and restaurateur Sham Hanifa. At age 20 he answered an ad to work in Ireland, arriving in Carrick‑on‑Shannon jet‑lagged and short on money, but today he anchors the local food scene with The Cottage, My Kitchen, and Buffalo Boy, blending Irish ingredients with his Thai‑Chinese‑Indian‑Malay heritage.

And he loves Irish Stew, though he was referring to the edible not the audio version.

“What I say is Irish stew is comfort food, packed with flavor and a good‑hearted dish,” he explains, insisting he won’t “mess around” with its unique Irish character even as he adds subtle Asian notes elsewhere on the menu. That respect for Irish produce interpreted with Asian flavors has turned Sham’s Leitrim restaurants into dining destinations

The episode moves next to the Drumhierny Woodland Hideaway, opened to guests in 2022 and featuring 11 self‑catering lodges tucked seamlessly into mature woodland. Sustainability, local partnerships, and wellbeing shape the experience, from an onsite café and private‑chef dinners to a sanctuary with seaweed baths, sauna, and cold plunge.

“They arrive stressed on Friday, and when you meet them on a Sunday they’re completely Zen, which I think is what we’re all about,” says co-founder and marketing manager Alison Moffatt.

The podcasters then roam towards Drumshanbo for a “slow adventure” on the Jackalope Trail with Eileen Gibbons of Electric Bike Trails. Inspired by seeing e-bikes on Ireland’s Greenway network, Eileen and her husband Seamus created guided rides that trade speed for stories—linking canal-side cycling with local heritage and the wider tourism scene.

“We take people along at a slow rate, stop along the way at interesting spots, all with a little bit of joke and a little bit of fun, and maybe even a bit of song,” she says.

The Jackalope Trail leads to The Shed Distillery of PJ Rigney, distillers of Drumshanbo Whisky and Irish Gunpowder Gin, part of Co. Leitrim’s innovative culinary incubator The Food Hub, both to be featured in the next and final episode of Irish Stew’s “Off the Beaten Craic” series.

Links

Sham Hanifa

• Website
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Instagram
• My Kitchen
• The Cottage Restaurant

Drumhierny Woodland Hideaway

• Website
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Alison Moffatt LinkedIn

Electric Bike Trails

• Website
• Facebook
• Instagram

Irish Stew Links

• Website
• Media Partner: IrishCentral
• Travel Partner: Tourism Ireland

Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 4; Total Episode Count: 145

It may be the smallest county in Connacht, the smallest by population in Ireland, with the smallest stretch of beach on the Wild Atlantic Way, but in their latest episode the Irish Stew podcasters learn that Leitrim is capitalizing on its offer of a great quality of life, relative affordability, entrepreneurial energy, appeal to a more mobile workforce, and its “slow adventure” approach experiencing its natural allure.

Arriving in Carrick-on-Shannon, the cohosts head to the offices of the Leitrim County Council, the local government organization committed to building an economically strong, creative and inclusive county, making Leitrim the best place to live, to work and visit.

Though County Council Chief Executive Joseph Gilhooly opened the doors to Leitrim for Irish Stew, for the interview he gave the floor to his able lieutenants, Director of Services David Minton and tourism officer Sinead McDermott.

You’ll hear how Leitrim’s economy is strong on small-scale entrepreneurship and growing sectors like fintech, food innovation, engineering, and renewables. They also detail the County Council’s integrated support system including the Local Enterprise Office, The Hive incubation hub, and the Carrick Campus for growing firms.

They share that tourists from across Ireland, the U.S, and Europe come for Leitrim’s authenticity, natural beauty, slower pace, farm to table food, tranquillity, and eco-tourism. They sense that climate change is subtly shifting European travel patterns northward, making Ireland a “cool” alternative to overheated southern Europe.

With Leitrim’s tourism value proposition top-of-mind, the podcasters head to the Landmark Hotel to meet with Sales and Marketing Manager Ciara Maxwell, who came to Leitrim for a one-year work experience 15 years ago and never left, which tells you everything you need to know about the pull of this place.

She tells how founders John and Ciaran Kelly envisioned a new riverside hotel that would be a real landmark looking out over “The Marina Capital of Ireland” and in the center of Carrick-on-Shannon’s lively weekend nightlife of pubs, shows, and restaurants.

There’s more tastes of Leitrim on Irish Stew next week, including the story of the Malaysian chef who’s upending the local food scene, the new woodland lodging hideaway set on 100 acres of Irish history, and the slow adventure e-bike option for traversing the Jackalope Trail to Drumshanbo, home of The Shed Distillery of P.J. Rigney.

Links

Leitrim County Council

• Website
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Instagram
• X

Leitrim Tourism

Sinead McDermott

• LinkedIn

Landmark Hotel

• Website
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Instagram

Ciara Maxwell

• LinkedIn

Irish Stew Links

• Website
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Media Partner: IrishCentral

Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 3; Total Episode Count: 143