Show Notes
How can we create a socially sustainable future for tourism, and provide places for people to live in their own communities? Tourism has become vital for many places in the west of Ireland, providing customers and opportunities for everything from hotels and restaurants to arts and crafts. The annual influx of visitors has revitalised towns all along the ‘Wild Atlantic Way, sustaining many small businesses in areas once blighted by immigration and poverty. But the success of tourism has also brought social pressures, most notably through a housing crisis exacerbated by the proliferation of second homes and holiday lets. For young people in particular, finding somewhere to live in their own area has become impossible, leading to a youth exodus that endangers the social future of many communities, and the cultural future of Gaelic areas, with the Irish language speakers increasingly priced out by holidaymakers. At the same time, declines in tourist numbers caused by high prices and a lack of accommodation are also sounding alarm bells for many local businesses.
Today, three people from very different backgrounds share their stories and ideas with me: Peadar Ó Fionnáin is a local doctor in Dingle, where he also co-directs the annual arts festival Féile Na Bealtaine and is the local organiser for the Green Party, for whom he campaigns on housing and sustainability issues. Lynn Dyer is an activist in Cornwall, where she is director of the community food project Growing Links in Penzance, where she also directs the town's Street Food Project. And Didi Ronan is co-founder of NATIVE, a regenerative hospitality project in Ballydehob in West Cork, offering both a guest house and sustainably built cabins. She previously worked as a policy analyst for the OECD. They joined our regular host Chris Kissane in front of a live audience at Ireland's Edge in Dingle.
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Tá athéirí suntasach ag tarlú thart orainn i saol na Gaeilge – rabharta mór Gaeilge atá ann. Tá an teanga ina gné lárnach agus tathagach i zeitgeist ár linne, agus tá sí ag fágáil a lorg go láidir ar cheol, scannánaíocht, scríbhneoireacht, faisean, agus na meáin ar bhealaigh atá úrnua, fuinniúil, agus spreagúil. Cén borradh atá taobh thiar den rabharta mór seo? Cén tionchar atá á imirt ag cultúr agus ealaíon ar an teanga? Cén léargas a thugann sé seo dúinn ar ár bhféiniúlacht náisiúnta, agus cén buntáiste is féidir a bhaint as seo le leas na Gaeilge ó thaobh tacaíochta agus maoiniú de sna blianta atá amach romhainn? Beidh Emma Ferrari ag comhrá le triúr a bhfuil tionchar á imirt acu ar chúrsaí cultúrtha, ar an chomhcheangal agus idirspleáchas atá le sonrú idir theanga agus chruthaíocht, an borradh suntasach atá le sonrú in ealaíon Ghaeilge an lae inniu, agus an dóigh a bhfuil an Ghaeilge agus saol an lae inniu fite fuaite le chéile.
Audre Lorde described the margin as a site of radical possibility, a place to experiment, play, ask different questions, subvert, resist, and imagine the world anew.
What began as an issue in isolated pockets of Ireland’s cities has become a national crisis affecting every facet of Irish life. Though it consistently tops opinion polls as Irish people’s most important issue and continues to be debated and discussed at every level of media discourse, progress or even clarity on the issue of housing often feels beyond our reach.
In an age of mass production, craft offers a way of imagining a better world, a slow, human process that connects us to material, to place, and to one another. Artist Domino Whisker, knife-maker Hugh Byrne, and Anike Tyrrell, founder and artistic director of J. Hill’s Standard Glass, discuss the resurgence of Irish craft and its dialogue with design, memory, identity, and modern culture. From handmade glass to forged steel, tufting and embroidery, this conversation explores the preservation and reimagining of Irish craft, the relationship between art and function, and the quiet power of making as both resistance and renewal.
Left-wing journalists across the world continue to report on injustice and violence, but their work has become ever more difficult in the face of rising authoritarianism. Dimi Reider is an Israeli journalist living in London. He is the co-founder of +972 Magazine, the Palestinian-Israeli media collective that has undertaken many major investigations into the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and was a major critic of the rise of Israeli authoritarianism. After moving to the UK, he was also founding editor of The Lead, a group of progressive local and national publications in England. He has written and reported widely on politics in both the Middle East and Britain, and his articles have appeared with The New Statesman, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, and many others. As a facilitator and researcher, he has explored peace-building and dialogue in Northern Ireland. He is currently a Senior Fellow with the Othering and Belonging Institute at University of California, Berkeley.