Moncrieff

The story of Irish Captain James Fitzmaurice from Laois, who piloted the first east-west Atlantic crossing in April 1928, is a fascinating one.Joining Tom Dunne to discuss the background of this achievement is Dr Patrick McGarty, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy at Munster Technological University.

If you’ve ever fancied seeing film classics such as ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ & ’Ryan’s Daughter’ in their full wide-screen glory, The Irish Film Institute is offering you the opportunity to do so. They are holding a 2-month, 16-film celebration of ’The Films of David Lean’ this April and May.Dr Ruth Barton is a Professor of Film Studies in Trinity College, and joins Seán to discuss.

For some people, sitting down to watch TV is the most relaxing thing, but now millions of people are taking this one step further and embracing a trend called ‘Slow TV’.And this week, ‘The Great Moose Migration’ from Sweden is proving to be wildly popular with viewers across the world tuning in to the livestream to see how the moose are getting on in Northern Sweden.Stefan Edlund is the Producer on this project and joins Tom Dunne to tell more.

A new sculpture of Gerry Adams is currently on exhibit at the Kilkenny Portrait Show. But, how do you go about creating the likeness of a living person in clay? It turns out the process of making a bust of someone is almost as interesting as the product itself!Joining Tom Dunne to discuss is Sculptor Aidan Harte…Image: @HarteAidan on Twitter

In this country we are only too familiar with the problems that can occur when someone draws a new line on the map between two nations, but ours is far from the only complicated border in Europe.Lewis Baston has walked many of them for his book ‘Borderlines: A History of Europe in 29 Borders’ and joins Tom Dunne to discuss.Image: Hodder & Stoughton

Do you find conversations boring to the point that you are constantly reaching for your phone?Research shows that within two minutes of chatting Gen Z are bored and turning to their phones for entertainment.But are we all as bad as each other?Journalist with the Irish Independent, Saoirse Hanley, joins us now…

What makes a winning cat?Over one hundred cats took part in the GCCFI Supreme Cat Show on Sunday, but only one cat was crowned the overall winner and that was five and a half year old Quevaga, a Maine Coon cat.Her owner, Claudia Wagner, joins Tom Dunne to tell more.Image: Friendly Ghosts

As European nations rearm at a rate not seen since the Cold War, one commentator believes that a more insidious actor needs to be addressed first: the algorithms pushing egregious content on social media platforms.Joining guest host Tom Dunne to discuss this is Dr Johnny Ryan, Director of Enforce, a unit of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.

If you’ve been lucky enough to visit Newgrange, you can attest to the fact that it’s a pretty impressive structure - so you can imagine just how impressive it was when first constructed over 5000 years ago.Accordingly, it has often been assumed that those who were buried there were part of some sort of ruling class, but new research from UCD suggests that rather than being a grave for an elite family, the tomb was a social hub for the people, frequented by travellers coming from as far away as Sligo.Dr Neil Carlin is a Lecturer in the School of Archaeology at UCD who was involved in the research. He joins guest host Tom Dunne to discuss.

More and more middle-aged Irish men are investigating the possibility of testosterone therapy, motivated by social media and podcasters such as Joe Rogan. But, can it work?Joining Tom Dunne to discuss is Dr. Emmet Byrne, a GP with a special interest in men’s health, based at the Optiman Clinic in Bray…