Irish Stew Podcast

Settle in for a spirited episode of Irish Stew with two pioneering women in the Irish spirits industry, Alice Carroll--the proud Limerick distiller and co-founder of Foxes Bow Whiskey, and Maura Clare--the Queen of Poitín and creator of the Smuggling Nun brand.They swap notes on their journey into the spirits business, the challenges and opportunities of operating in traditionally male-dominated sectors, their innovative approaches to reviving and reshaping perceptions around Irish Whiskey and Poitín, how they crafted their distinctive flavor profiles, and the intriguing backstories of the Foxes Bow and Smuggling Nun names.The conversations delve into the unique qualities of their spirits, their signature cocktail creations, the importance of women in the evolving Irish spirits industry, and who they’d most like to serve their libations to. Paging Beyoncé!Join us for the story of two women forging ahead in the Irish drinks industry--Alice, gaining shelf space globally for Foxes Bow in a crowded Irish Whiskey category, and Maura opening new markets for a newly legal elixir with her Smuggling Nun Poitín.Sláinte!LinksAlice Carroll & Foxes BowWebsiteTwitterFacebookInstagramLinkedInMaura Clare & Smuggling NunWebsite TwitterFacebookInstagramLinkedIn

Michael Meade spent over 20 years on Wall Street and then stepped away from the pressured world of high finance to do something totally different. Some, in his circumstances, may have opted for plenty of time on the golf course and cracking open a few brews, that’s not the kind of person Michael Meade is.  Intrigued by a visit to Ireland, Michael wanted to build a business that would connect to his Irish roots, work with a famous brewing dynasty, revive Ireland's oldest brewing brand and return beer making to Kilkenny,  the home of red ale.It has, and will continue to be, a journey for a son of Buffalo, one of America's most Irish of towns. Michael's partnership with the Smithwick family, the revival of Sullivan's Brewing in Kilkenny, an award winning beer developed by brewmaster Ian Hamilton, is a tale of both passion and the value in building a great team, that combination just might yield Ireland's next great export company.Michael Meade's LinksLinkedInInstagramTwitterSullivans Brewing CompanyWebsiteFacebookInstagramTwitter

As Chief Executive of the Western Development Commission (WDC), Allan Mulrooney is a tireless advocate for the Western Region of Ireland, promoting social and economic development for the counties of Donegal, Leitrim, Sligo, Mayo, Roscommon, Galway, and Clare.Why go west? Allan points to the region's mix of the old and the new, how it fosters a work-life balance,  the contrast of beautiful natural areas and vibrant cities, its expanding broadband internet and innovation-spurring connected hubs--and some of the best surfing in the world!Growing up in Strandhill, just west of Sligo, Allan first paddled out into the surf before he was a teenager—the water was cold, but then the sport wasn’t cool. It sounds pretty cool when Allan tells of traveling the world with a few surfboards and a guitar on his back.Talking to Allan, you see career threads spinning out in all directions—surf bum, web publisher, social enterprise entrepreneur, community advocate, business development executive, communications professional—and all those threads come together in his leadership role at the WDC, where he and his team work to tell the region’s compelling “Work Smarter, Live Better” story.Join us as we head west with Allan for an audio tour of the scenic beauty, appealing lifestyle, expanding business ecosystem, dynamic innovation hubs, vibrant cities and peaceful towns, growing business opportunities, emerging career possibilities, growing economy, and all that’s best about the West.But if surfing is your draw, Allan cautions it takes “more courage or madness” than he has to tackle the forty- and fifty-foot “mutant” waves off Mullaghmore Head!Links:Allan MulrooneyTwitter / XLinkedInWebsites:o   gostrandhill.com (Co-Founder at)o   gostrandhill.com/strandhill-indonesian-relief-fund  (SIRF Charity)Western Development CommissionWebsiteLinkedInTwitter / XFacebookInstagram

In the first of our “Irish Libations” series, we welcome Michael McKillop, who branched out from the 36-year-old Glens of Antrim Potatoes business to launch Glens of Antrim Distillery with its Lir line of Irish Whiskeys, amidst bucolic surroundings in Cushendall, Northern Ireland.We get a professional’s view of the growing, shipping, and marketing of Ireland’s favorite crop, and how his company is taking on the potato crisp business with its Glens of Antrim and Shindig brands with creative new flavors (Roast Beef & Mustard!) and packaging, including boxes and 10-pound bags!We learn how he revived the Lumper, the potato variety associated with the crop failure of “Black 47,” and how his Lumpers entered the curriculum of schools across the island in lessons about An Gorta Mor.Knowing it would be a gamble, Michael rolled the dice in creating his line of whiskey, with Green Crest, Red Crest, and Black Crest versions of his Lir brand, a labor of love, a tribute to his family's heritage, and to the stunning Glens of Antrim region.He rolled the dice again in planning a new distillery to strengthen the company’s ties with the local community, create job opportunities in the area, and launch a new tourist destination. A handsome structure it will be, and after a long journey the project got the go-ahead just after we recorded this episode.Michael shares stories of why he hates sheep, his adventures delivering potatoes with his father around Northern Ireland, the business reasons for moving into whiskey, the challenges of launching a distillery, why he’s committing to pot-still whiskey, and the benefits of the founders’ cask trade.We wrap with a wee, warming, amber dram of Lir Green Crest. Sláinte!LinksMichael McKillop Facebook LinkedInGlens of Antrim Distillery WebsiteFacebookInstagram LinkedInGlens of Antrim PotatoesFacebook LinkedIn InstagramTwitterGlens of Antrim Crisps WebsiteShindigs Boxed Potato CripsWebsite

Launching Season Six, we go behind the scenes of the woman-strong Irish film Lies We Tell, a brooding tale of angels and demons, light and shadow, manners and mores, family secrets and family crimes, which The Guardian called “a tightly laced, elegantly cut gothic period drama.”A total rethinking of Irish writer Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1864 novel Uncle Silas, the film centers on Maud Ruthyn, brilliantly portrayed by the rising young star Agnes O’Casey, great-granddaughter of the playwright, Sean O'Casey, who is trapped in the sprawling family estate Knowl (filmed at Ardgillan Castle in County Dublin) and by “the law being made and enforced by men.”The Guardian called her delivery “as sharp as a steak knife” and Screen International wrote, “A singular performance by Agnes O’Casey gives the pretty period piece a serrated edge.”Our episode starts with a prelude from Maedhbh Fiona Mc Cullagh, director of Washington, DC’s Solas Nua Capital Irish Film Festival, which kicks off on Feb. 29th with Lies We Tell. Then Director Lisa Mulcahy and screenwriter Elisabeth Gooch talk about how they transformed a century-and-a-half-old Gothic period drama into a compelling woman-centered story relevant to today. We learn why Elizabeth found the 1864 Maude so annoying and Lisa talks about the budget pressures that led to the film’s signature candle-lit ambiance, creating what Film Journal called “a tale of flawlessness and immersive beauty.”Then you’ll meet Agnes O’Casey and hear about her UK upbringing, her Trinity College Dublin theatre training, her embrace of the Sean O’Casey lineage, her TV breakthrough in Ridley Road, her recent roles in films with the likes of Maggie Smith, Kathy Bates, Laura Linney, Stephen Rea, and a Cillian Murphy film yet to be released, and the challenges of being on camera in almost every scene of Lies We Tell.Join us to meet the makers and learn the backstory of the brilliant, woman-forwards Lies We Tell.Links:Lies We TellWebsiteIMDbAgnes O’CaseyWikipedia IMDbPortfolio ShowreelLisa MulcahyWebsiteIMDbTwitterElisabeth GoochIMDbMaedhbh Fiona Mc Cullagh LinkedInTwitterSolas Nua Capital Irish Film Festival

When we last talked with Dan Mulhall, he was Ireland’s Ambassador to the United Stares. Since then, he retired after a 44-year career in diplomacy, but he’s been busier than ever as we learn in this check-in episode with Martin Nutty focused on his new book on W. B. Yeats.Recent invitations to New York University, Cambridge, and Harvard, provided opportunities to engage with students and pursue research into Yeats, a poet that he’d turned to throughout his diplomatic career. Early on, Dan realized the power of Yeats’s poetry, how the words of one of Ireland’s most important cultural icons could open diplomatic doors that were closed to other nations.Dan’s love of Yeats’s words and his understanding of the poet's role in Irish history is now told in “Pilgrim Soul: W. B. Yeats and the Ireland of His Time.”Join us as Dan explores the many aspects of the enigmatic poet’s life and how his legacy continues to be relevant in a turbulent world.LinksTwitterPilgrim Soul: W. B. Yeats and the Ireland of His TimeUnited StatesIreland

With a computer programming background and an instinct for reporting, Malachy Browne is on the vanguard of a new form of data-driven news coverage that is revitalizing journalism.Co-founder and enterprise director of the New York Times Visual Investigations team, Malachy is pioneering the use of digital sleuthing, collecting and analyzing troves of video and audio, satellite images and other data, and creating 3-D reconstructions of crime scenes and geopolitical events to hold the powerful to account and deconstruct important news events.These efforts have earned two Pulitzer Prizes, an Emmy, and other top-tier accolades for Malachy and his team.Not bad for a Limerick lad from the village of Broadford, population 276!He’d earn his master’s in international relations at the University of Limerick after getting his bachelor’s degree in engineering at University College Dublin.Malachy tells of navigating between his core computer competency and his journalistic instincts (which he “blames” on his uncle, the legendary journalist Vincent Browne) which would lead him to Storyful, where he’d collaborate with past guests Mark Little, David Clinch, and others in creating the emerging innovative data-driven style of reporting.Join us for an inside look at the way Malachy and his team are telling the world’s most critical stories—from the Arab Spring to the January 6th Insurrection—in an entirely new way. Malachy Browne LinksX/TwitterFacebookLinkedInNew York Times LinksVisual InvestigationsMalachy BrowneDay of Rage: How Trump Supporters Took the U.S. Capitol

Ted Smyth, former diplomat and C-Suite and current President of the Advisory Board of Glucksman Ireland House NYU,  joins Martin Nutty for a discussion on Irish and American politics. What does the recent November 2023 American mid term election presage for 2024? How differing are the American and Irish views on Gaza?  How should we understand the recent Dublin riots and the relationship between that violence and the competition for public resources?These are some of the questions asked in Ted's 4th appearance on Irish Stew and he tells us how he thinks the upcoming election in 2024 are going to play out on both sides of the AtlanticTed Links:WebsiteGlucksman Ireland House NYU Gala - March 5, 2024

Fin Dwyer of Irish History Podcasts pays a return visit to Irish Stew. We last hosted Fin two years ago.  Since then, Fin has continued to fascinate his listeners with in depth episodes on a broad range of Irish History topics.  Despite this frenetic pace, Fin has found time to publish a book titled:  A Lethal Legacy - A History of Ireland in 18 Murders. We'll be talking about two cases detailed in the book and what they can tell us about how Ireland has changed over the past 200 years. We'll also find out what Fin has in store for his listeners in 2024LinksIrish History PodcastA Lethal Legacy (Amazon)InstagramTwitter

Join us in a westward journey to the Irish enclaves of Butte, Montana and on to a chicken coop on Maryland’s Eastern Shore as Marybeth Shea guides us along little-known paths of Irish migration and through little understood profession of technical communications.She describes herself as a humanist and cites her Catholic education, specifically with the Jesuits, as foundational to her worldview and her career.She’s now a professor of English in the Professional Writing Program at the University of Maryland and a technical writer who draws on the Irish storytelling tradition to bridge the gap between scientific specialists and the rest of us. It was Marybeth’s research for a technical writing project that took her into that chicken coop as part of her hands-on research to develop the storytelling needed to get buy-in from poultry farmers on ways to decrease their ammonia output. It’s a wide-ranging conversation that adds to our understanding of the complexity of Irish immigration and the growing importance of effective technical communications.LinksUniversity of Maryland Professional Writing ProgramSeamus Plug: Ethnicity and Family Therapy

So why learn Irish?"Studies have shown that learning your native language, learning any language, but especially your ancestral tongue, brings feelings of comfort and freedom. And especially when considering our past and our heritage, learning Irish is very revealing and very healing," says our latest guest Mollie Guidera, the Irish language teacher for Global Ireland.She grew up “with Irish in her ears all the time” and gave her first Irish lesson at age seven to a visiting American cousin. And even though her Irish language school expelled her for uttering one sentence of English, her love for the language grew. She’s taught over 6,000 students Irish online for a decade, currently through her engaging online global Irish language school simply named Irish with Mollie, a “blossoming community of worldwide Irish speakers, people from every background, every age, and just people who love Irish and are willing it forward.”Add co-host John Lee to the student roster--he registered after finding Mollie on Instagram and TikTok. With about 150,000 social media followers, she’s a leading Irish language influencer, spreading awareness of Irish in refreshing new ways.“We're hearing the echoes of our parents and grandparents and Irish writers in the Irish sounds and in the syntax and in the words themselves. It is such a tender and humorous language, replete with poetry and magic. It brings to life so many funny and quirky kinds of realizations and revelations.”Join us for an episode of Irish language “realizations and revelations” with Múinteoir Mollie.LinksWebsiteInstagramTikTokIn the Irish Times 

Join us as we travel from Ireland all the way to New Zealand to explore a vision of Ireland from centuries ago in our conversation with Brian O’Sullivan.He’s an author, cultural researcher, strategic analyst, and founder of Irish Imbas, the only Irish publisher specializing in fiction and non-fiction based on the ancient Irish cultural knowledge and belief patterns of authentic Irish mythology.Hailing from West Cork, Brian lived in the UK and France before following his heart to New Zealand which he finds “a bit more like Ireland, more comfortable, like a comfortable shoe.” From this distant vantage point, he’s writing fiction that brings to life the Iron Age Ireland of Fionn mac Cumhaill, Liath Luachra, other legends from Ireland's deep past.His Beara Trilogy, Fionn mac Cumhaill Series; and Irish Woman Warrior Series turn ancient Irish cultural concepts into page-turning tales of action, adventure, blood, passion, and conflict.“You can't have a real sort of sense of where you are if you don't understand the context of how you got there in the first place. If you get your head around the history and the cultural belief systems, you’ll get a much better perspective on where you are and where you could go in the future,” he says.For his Seamus Plug, Brian hopes you’ll try his popular Liath Luachra series and watch for his work-in-progress to teach what mythology is, what it isn't, and how it can be personally relevant.Links:LinkedInIrish ImbasWebsiteBeara TrilogyFionn mac Cumhaill SeriesIrish Women Warrior (Liath Luachra) SeriesTwitterFacebook

A Trinity College graduate in economics and politics, he represented Irish business abroad, led The Ireland Funds for almost two decades, and now Kingsley Aikins combines his fervor for networking and diaspora engagement in the mission of The Networking Institute. “Kinger,” as he’s known to his friends, talks of how rugby became his global passport and the lucky break that landed him in Sydney, Australia to represent Enterprise Ireland and the Industrial Development Authority (IDA). Finding he “didn’t know a sinner” in the Southern Hemisphere, he started what has become one of the largest Irish business networking organizations in the world, and how that initiative helped him network his way into leading the groundbreaking diaspora initiative that became The Ireland Funds. Now his Networking Institute is helping people network their way to their full potential and nations from India to Nigeria to tap the power of their diasporas.His “Seamus Plug” is a call to action for Ireland to position itself “as an absolute center of excellence for diaspora engagements, the epicenter for this subject around the world¸ the thought leader in this space.”Join us for a warm, witty, quotable, and thought-provoking conversation with networking and diaspora thought leader, Kingsley Aikins. LinksKingsley AikinsLinkedInTwitterThe Networking instituteWebsiteTwitterInstagramLinkedIn

From New Jersey to Sligo, Wales, London, Germany, to touring the globe and then to New York, Roger Clark stamps his passport as a leading citizen of the Global Irish Nation.And to millions around the world, he is an icon.An actor, filmmaker, voiceover artist of over 150 audiobooks, Roger’s claim to global fame is his performance-capture portrayal of the cowboy antihero Arthur Morgan in the massively popular action-adventure video game, five years in the making, Red Dead Redemption 2, a.k.a. RDR2.Roger takes us into the increasingly sophisticated world of gaming, why performance capture is so much more than just voiceover, the challenges of a 2,000-page script, and why he feels his RDR2 experience was more like being on stage than in a film, how video gaming now dwarfs the film industry, and the cult celebrity status he now enjoys as the alter-ego of Arthur Morgan.“It's a real privilege to be able to have such a large, appreciative audience for something that you've done. I still pinch myself up and down both arms now and I'm very, very grateful,” Roger said.But there’s a lot more to Roger Clark than one iconic role. His short film Hazardous is on YouTube, he’s in rehearsals for A Man for all Seasons in the role of Henry the Eighth, and on Mon., Oct. 30 he’ll headline New York’s Origin Theatre Gala as the winner of the George C. Heslin Artistic Leadership Award for his outstanding work in the theatre, film, and motion capture industries.Wouldn’t Arthur Morgan be proud.Links:Origin Theatre Gala ticketsIMDBInstagramX/TwitterYouTubeCameoDamn Handy Indigogo

In this Global Irish conversation, we search for the true origins of Western Civilization with a most global of guests, Naoíse Mac Sweeney, author of The West: A New History in Fourteen Lives. Her father is from Cork City, her mother is Malaysian Chinese, she grew up in London, studied the Greek and Roman world, and is a professor of classical archaeology at the University of Vienna. And to make her even more global, her husband is from Malta, which we visited in our episode with Malta’s ambassador to Ireland, Giovanni Buttigeig.She tells of how both Greek and Irish mythology pulled her into the ancient world, through the lure of the ancient Greek diaspora communities, her fascination with Troy, and her growing realization that “Western Civilization”—the concept of a single cultural inheritance extending from ancient Greece to modern times—is really a figment of our collective imagination.In The West, our award-winning guest thoroughly debunks that figment through the stories of fourteen figures who each played a role in the creation of the Western idea—from Herodotus, a mixed-race migrant, to Phylis Wheatley, an enslaved African American who became a literary sensation. From these narratives, a more nuanced, expansive, and intriguing view of the West emerges.Naoíse wraps up Irish Stew with the most unexpected “Seamus Plug” to date, which got your co-hosts thinking of approaching Dunnes Stores for sponsorship.And we’ll happily endorse her comment early in the conversation, when she said, “part of the joy of following Irish Stew is to hear the origin stories of so many people in the diaspora.”Links:The West: A New History in Fourteen Lives Smithsonian Magazine:  “The Myth of the ‘Dark Ages’ Ignores How Classical Traditions Flourished Around the World,”  University of Vienna: Naoise Mac SweeneySeamus Plug: Dunnes Strores, Helen James plates

Growing up in The Troubles in Northern Ireland, Jane Ferguson spent most of her life reporting on the global troubles in Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Iraq, Gaza, Syria, and Afghanistan, reporting for CNN International, Al Jazeera, PBS Newshour, The New Yorker and other outlets, always finding the human stories in inhuman wars and all revealed in her unflinching new memoir No Ordinary Assignment.The least surprising part of her memoir is when she wins the George Polk Award, an Emmy Award, and an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award for her stellar reporting.Jane takes us back to her young “hillbilly” childhood in County Armagh, growing up in a rural Protestant farming family, where security checkpoints along the roads and military helicopters in the skies was for her, normalcy.She escaped this normalcy through the pages of National Geographic, running her fingers over its maps, and the inspiration on women war correspondents she saw reporting from the front lines.Jane’s is a life lived through culture shocks, from a rustic Irish farm to a bucolic New Jersey prep school, from the ancient civilization of Yemen to the futuristic world of Dubai, from finding her tribe among the war correspondents at Kabul’s colorful Gandamack Lodge, to staying with her tribe to the bitter end in the fall of that city years later.With fear as her ally, she wills herself into some of the most dangerous places on earth, balancing her sense of service with her ambition, looking at each conflict through non-sectarian eyes, feeling privileged to tell the human stories amid geopolitical turmoil.She is largely off the road now, teaching at Princeton University while continuing as a PBS NewsHour - Special Correspondent and contributor for The New Yorker.On Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023 at 7:00 pm, The National Humanities Center will host “An Evening with Jane Ferguson,” at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.So much of Jane’s “beat” spun out of the tragedy of 9/11, so it was particularly meaningful that we recorded our episode with her on the anniversary of that somber day.LinksWebsite:  Jane FergusonBook: No Ordinary AssignmentSeamus PlugNational Humanities Center: An Evening with Jane FergusonSocial Media Twitter /  XInstagramFacebook LinkedIn 

Our Global Irish conversation with award-winning author Jane Delury centers on her second novel Hedge, a bildungsroman of an Irish American woman in her forties named Maude pursuing a career in the esoteric field of garden history, looking for clues in the past under the mounting challenges of the present.The theme of bringing a garden back to life threads through this novel of marital strains, infidelity, family secrets, personal discovery, endurance, and perseverance. Along the way, Jane leaves hints of her Irish roots, with mentions of porter cake, St. Patrick’s Day, the Clancy Brothers, and Maude’s family home in a neighborhood known as “Little Ireland.”  Jane tells Irish Stew of her family roots in Cork, Mayo, and Sligo, her trips to Ireland, and her pride in her Irish citizenship.We discuss the symbolism of the garden, her literary influences, her love of short stories (she has one coming out soon in the Georgia Review), her first novel The Balcony and her experience publishing with the innovative Zibby Books.And she drops a few intriguing hints about what’s coming next, mentioning a “thing” she’s working on that she realizes is evolving into a novel and how she’s writing something new about her Irish Catholic upbringing.Her Seamus Plug is a call to support the exceptional work of Strength to Love II, a community-based program on a 1.5-acre Baltimore farm offering workforce development and employment to community residents and citizens returning from incarceration.So, join our compelling conversation with novelist Jane Delury, read Hedge, and stay tuned for what Jane has coming next!LinksWebsiteTwitterInstagram

Join us on a stroll along North Circular Road from Phoenix Park to the Dublin Docklands with our guide Luke McManus, the documentary filmmaker of the award-winning North Circular which opens in New York City on July 28th.Rendered in graphic black & white over a soundtrack of local North Circular musicians, the film gives voice to narratives from the history of the city and nation, from colonialism to mental health, from women’s liberation to the battle to save the legendary folk revival venue the Cobblestone Pub from thewrecking ball.Growing up in Bray, the home of Ardmore Studios, Luke recounts that first moment he realized that he was a director, why Humphrey Bogart holds sucha lofty position in his pantheon of film greats, and the many ways to make a living in film.Co-host John Lee diverts him into a conversation about horse racing which Luke explored in his film about the legendary ‘chaser Arkle and his TV series on the women in the sport, Jump Girls. Martin Nutty gets Luke talking about Crainn na hÉireann (The Trees of Ireland), the documentary series he did with past guest   Manchán Magan .But the centerpiece of the episode is North Circular, where Luke celebrates the beauty in urban grit, the serendipity found along the street, the juxtaposition of squatters and the shadows of skyscraping construction cranes, and the expressive power of music to honor the tragic and celebrate the spirit, all ending on an exuberant high note provided by Irish women in music and sport.Step off with us on our trek through North Circular with Luke McManus LinksWebsitesNorth Circular - Film websiteLuke McManus - Personal siteLuke McManus - VimeoLuke's Social MediaLinkedInTwitterInstagram

How can a kneecap bone change the history of Ireland? We answer that question during our conversation with Dr. Ruth Carden, a paleo zoologist with a particular interest in the animals that roamed Ireland over the last 50,000 years. Ruth's research focuses particularly on the skeletal remains of those animals, since that is all that usually remains after the passage of time. Find out what Ruth can learn from a single bone and how adavanced laboratory analysis can yield  multiple clues on the nature of the animals that she researchs.We discuss how a single knee bone or patella, found by Ruth, in a poorly labeled collection, has changed the date of the earliest continuous human habitation in Ireland. Before that discovery, it was thought the earliest modern human settlers of Ireland dated to 7,900 BCE. Ruth's work has pushed that date back to soemwhere between 10,860 and 10,641 BCE.In addition to deep prehistoric research, Ruth is also coordinating the Viking Dublin Dogs project, a grassroots effort which seeks to understand the nature of dogs in Ireland over a thousand years ago and how they interacted with their humans. The project is supported by a number of Irish schools which are supporting and learning about this kind of scientific research.Cohosts John Lee and Martin have decided to support Ruth's Viking Dublin Dog project and hope we can encourage our listeners to sponsor research on a single dog. We have decided to name our dog Seamus Plugson, although in truth we don't know if this Seamus is a male or a female. Through the money gathered, Ruth will be able to determine the gender of the dog and more importantly provide a date indicating exactly when that dog livedIf you want to help support our fundraiser you can find the Irish Stew Viking Dublin Dog at this link => https://gofund.me/d346d5c3Both Ruth and your Irish Stew cohosts will be thankful for your support as we attempt to put some flesh back on Seamus Plugson's bonesRuth's LinksWebsites:Viking Dublin DogsIrish Cave BonesSocial Media:Twitter: Ruth CardenTwitter: Viking Dublin DogsTwtter Irish Cave BonesFacebook Viking Dublin DogsFacebook: Irish Cave BonesInstagram: Ruth CardenLinkedIn: Ruth CardenMastodon: Ruth Carden

Our latest global Irish conversation goes behind the scenes of the globe’s most significant international organization, the United Nations, courtesy of Ireland’s Ambassador to the UN, Fergal Mythen.He didn’t rise to one of Ireland’s most significant diplomatic postings without an impressive diplomatic career behind him.Fergal has worked on Irish-Canadian, Irish-Latin American, Irish-Caribbean, and Irish-British Affairs, including Brexit. He was on the European Community monitoring mission to the former Yugoslavia, and joined the representation of Ireland to the European Union in Brussels.We discuss his growing up in an Ireland on the cusp of change, what the opening of free second level education meant to him, the lessons he learned at the embassy in Rome about looking after people in real need, the challenges of the peripatetic diplomatic life, and his takeaways from six months representing Ireland on the UN Security Council.  He has a clear-eyed view of the UN, saying, “it's imperfect, but it can try its best to prevent hell on earth.”He’s enjoying New York’s vitality and its surprisingly warm welcome, getting to know the Irish-American community, and weekends spent getting his children out to play Gaelic sports.Speaking of sport, his “Seamus Plug” is a call to action to ensure a pathway for young girls and women to stay actively involved in sport and to raise awareness of the UN’s sustainable development goals.Our conversation opened with a quote from John F. Kennedy which the Ambassador feels is spot on: “Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.”LinksWebsite: Permanent Mission of Ireland to the UNTwitter: Ireland’s UN AmbassadorTwitter: Ireland’s UN MissionTwitter: Fergal Mythen (Personal)