Show Notes
Morgan McIntyre from Belfast and Gemma Doherty from Derry met as students at Trinity College, Dublin, and formed the duo ‘Saint Sister’. Their debut album, The Shape of Silence, was nominated for both the Choice Music Prize and the Northern Irish Music Prize in 2018. That year, in the run-up to the referendum to repeal Ireland’s constitutional ban on abortion, they wrote a song called ‘Manchester Air’, which explores a young couple’s journey across the Irish Sea after an unexpected pregnancy.
For decades, tens of thousands of women had been forced to make such costly and traumatic journeys to access reproductive healthcare. While 2018’s momentous vote has finally seen the introduction of safe and legal abortion services in the Republic, women seeking such services in the North of Ireland are still being forced to travel abroad.
‘Manchester Air’ which was written on the island Inisheer off the west coast of Ireland was released on May 25th this year, the third anniversary of the referendum, and is featured on Saint Sister’s new album, ‘Where I Should End’, which comes out this month.
Molly King, Head of Development at Other Voices, spoke to Saint Sister about music, memories, and the story behind ‘Manchester Air’. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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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.