Claim OwnershipSpoken Stories: The State of Us
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© RTÉ 2024
Description
SPOKEN STORIES is a themed-led trilogy of 36 original stories. Commissioned from some of the most dynamic contemporary writers associated with Ireland and the short story, they navigate the imaginative breadth of what it is to be alive in the world in our time. The three series that make up SPOKEN STORIES are Independence, Creatures of the Earth and The State of Us. The stories are in English and in Irish as well as by writers whose first language is other than Irish nor English. They are voiced by a cast of actors and the contributing writers. This RTÉ Radio original concept was made with the support of Coimmisiún na Méan.
36 Episodes
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A woman meditates on change and loss and becoming, when as a young artist she stayed in Florence with her boyfriend who was working there as a restorer, and their baby, and on how what happens to us impresses on our lives.
Austen, a photographer, enjoys playing golf and is a member of a club in the midlands of Ireland. He also aspires to golf-course design, an aspiration that proves to be one deemed by others to be too far above his station.
Sarah was assaulted two years ago. It changed her life. She lies awake beside her sleeping husband and is expecting their first child. Her day in court has arrived. There she sees her attacker, hears the judge's address and garda report, and reverts to stories from her childhood for reassurance.
Lena came of age against the rise and fall of the Celtic Tiger. She is reconciling the role of money in our lives having been a student unable to afford Dublin rents taking two buses and a train to UCD full of posh Southsiders, present at a high-profile kids-gone-wild murder party, and what they reveal about herself and us more generally.
A near head on collision on a remote mountain road brings two women together who know each other since their school days, but who have been avoiding each other for years. Everyone knows these people, some of us might even be them, as they passing judgement on the state of each other, and on our passions, prejudices, sorrows and joys.
A widower is reeling from the death of his wife. In the tradition of his Igbo tribe of Nigeria, and as a musician, he turns to proverbs and songs to make sense of what has happened and to bring peace to him and his son, Odeke.
Ag taisteal ó thuaidh ó Dheilginis ar an Dart, músclaítear cuimhní a bhí múchta le fada i bpaisinéir, a thapaíonn agus a shoiléiríonn le gach nóiméad dá thuras. Is machnamh é an scéal ar chuimhne, ar thuiscint, agus ar bhogadh ar aghaidh. | On a rare Dart journey into town, a passenger is stirred to meditate on memory, understanding and moving on.
A rare date for Julie and her husband Frankie turns sour when a toddler in the restaurant is let roam free, uncontrolled. Their own children are being minded by auntie Terry. On the way into Belfast city centre earlier, Julie and Frankie had passed near The Bray, where when she was a child her father had been shot dead for no reason at all.
Verity has bad physical health and her adult daughter, Lillis is trying to reach a state of mental balance. They are navigating their complicated relationship, having moved from Dublin to Dingle to start afresh. The place and a saint connected with the area may provide the succor they both crave.
Early on Malachi learns that there is them and us and ways of behaving when out in the world. At seventeen he gives more cash than he need for a copy of An Phoblacht on a night out near Enniskillen. It is noted. He feels pride, something he seldom enjoys. He seals his future.
Read by Peter Coonan. Swimming, addiction and longing collide in this Dublin pandemic story. Its flow, stops, starts and changes of direction, are that of the sea.
Read by Mark O'Regan. A retired teacher is navigating recent widowhood. He is in Italy for the first time, a place he has always wanted to go, but never thought he would do so alone.
Read by Annie Ryan. Erin, a young woman from Minneapolis visits Ireland for the first time, a country mad for sporting heroes. Landing into the country of her parents with an open and adventurous heart ultimately leads to catastrophe.
Read by Cathy Belton. Told in the form of a public information pamphlet it tells a story that begins in 1980s Ireland. It is an elemental, gut-wrenching account of the life changing nature of teenage pregnancy, motherhood, loss, longing and love.
Léite le Caitríona Ní Mhurchú. Cé go bhfuil cónaí ar Mhóna in Éirinn, tá sí préamhaithe i gcré a tír dúchais cé gur cré na hÉireann a ghreamaíonn di anois.
Read by Maria Doyle Kennedy. A mother with limited custody of her children and believing they are in danger from falling space debris takes them out of school to shelter for the time being.
Read by Dmitry Vinokurov. As his hard-won personal freedom is being coming to be realised a global pandemic is also unfolding and will shut down the narrator's new-found freedom of movement.
Read by Aidan Kelly. When a writer resident at an artist retreat in a remote part of Finland falls in love he starts thinking about his life and his home country, Ireland.
Read by Naoise Dunbar. It is Leaving Cert night in a small Irish town. School is done. Eoin is all buoyed up thinking how the whole world lies ahead of him when off-guard he recognises a childhood friend whose life is on a different path.
Read by Pat Shortt. A middle-aged man returns to his hometown he left twenty years ago, desperate to escape its confines and the traumas that it held for him. He hopes to find sanctuary and perhaps face some of the demons that have troubled him.
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