Never Have I Ever with Claire Byrne

Claire's guest is former Garda forensic examiner and the host of the Lines of Enquiry Podcast - John Sweetman. If there was a body, a gun, fingerprints, blood... what could you do to find out what happened? There are people whose job it is to walk into those scenes and figure it out. And John Sweetman spent 25 years doing exactly that... Today Claire tries to find out what it’s actually like to walk into a crime scene when everyone else is looking at the chaos... and you’re looking for the tiny detail that might explain it all. 

Aoife Dunne is a comedian, poet and storyteller who shot to fame with her hit show “Good Grief”, which blendied humour, heartbreak and insight with its exploration of the strange and hilarious ways we survive trauma.  Aoife Dunne grew up in Galway, the second oldest of two girls and two boys. Her parents separated when she was 14 years old. By the age of 23 she was an aspiring actress having attended the same Galway drama school as Nicola Coughlan. Then the unthinkable happened while she was back packing through South America. Her mother died suddenly. Aoife’s life was thrown into turmoil and she returned to Kinvarra to mourn her mother’s passing and assume her role as head of the family.  It was not until more than a decade later that she would find a new calling as a comedian through the telling of that very story. It’s been quite the journey but today Claire wants to explore a different sort of journey.  Because according to Aoife, a major turning point in her life came in Brazil when she was 35 and she had a profound psychedelic experience with ayahuasca.  So Claire’s never been on a psychedelic journey, but Aoife Dunne has…Email the podcast on [email protected]

Claire's guest is Mentalist, magician and hypnotist– Keith Barry.For most of us our experience of hypnotism doesn’t go far beyond watching the likes of Paul McKenna on the TV back in the day or seeing your mate doing something mad on stage during Freshers Week.  Those are examples of stage hypnosis but hypnosis is also used for therapeutic purposes in what is known as hypnotherapy.  For the lay person the whole area is one that is shrouded in intrigue, suspicion and sometimes controversy. But it’s something Claire has always been fascinated by, at a distance. In this episode Claire speak with Keith Barry. He is a multi award winning entertainer and magician with a Merlin Award and a James Joyce Award to his name.  And hypnotism has always played a central role in his outstanding career. Indeed he is probably the world’s foremost TV hypnotist. Can he hypnotise Claire?Email the podcast on [email protected]

Claire's guest is actor and comedian Pat Shortt. If you’ve ever seen Easy Rider or The Motocycle Diaries you will be familiar with the rebellious allure of getting your motor running and heading out on the highway.At least in the movie world, taking a motorbike out on the open road is an expression of freedom, a journey of self discovery. People long to travel the likes of Route 66 in the US, or cross the Mongolian steppe or even just wind their way down our own Wild Atlantic Way.But in order to feel the wind in your hair and freedom in your soul, you need to be able to ride a motorbike in the first place… and Claire can’t.In this first episode of Season 2 of Never Have I Ever Claire speaks to Pat Shortt.Pat is one of Ireland’s most popular comedians, an award winning actor and a musician.He is currently starring in ‘Animals’ which runs at the Abbey Theatre until November 7.  And of course he has a longstanding passion for motorbikes which stretches back to when his father bought himself and his brother Peter an old BSA motorcycle to fix up when they were teenagers. Can he persuade Claire to put on a leather jacket and hit the road?Email the podcast on [email protected]

Ulysses occupies a curious place on the bookshelf. It's a novel we're told we should read. A masterpiece we're expected to admire. And a book that many of us have never actually made it through. Claire Byrne is one of them. This week’s guest is Richard Boyd Barrett, the Dún Laoghaire TD whose love of James Joyce stretches far beyond politics. Together he and Claire explore why Ulysses has earned its fearsome reputation, whether it's really as inaccessible as people believe, and why a story about one ordinary day in Dublin captivates readers more than a century after it was published. As Christopher Nolan's film The Odyssey sparks fresh interest in the ancient epic that inspired Joyce, Richard makes the case for rediscovering Ireland's greatest novel—not as an academic exercise, but as a funny, human, and surprisingly rewarding read. Can he persuade Claire to finally turn the page? Or will Ulysses remain firmly on her "Never Have I Ever" list?  This is the last episode of the current series. Never Have I Ever will return in Autumn 2026.