Ed Guiney, co-founder and CEO of Element Pictures, has spent his career blending creative instinct with strategic acumen to shape one of Europe’s most influential film and television production companies. From early days making student shorts at Trinity College Dublin to producing globally acclaimed works like Room, The Favourite, and Normal People, Guiney’s journey is rooted in a deep love of storytelling and a clear understanding of how to bring it to market.
In this episode of Arts Matters, Guiney tells Alison Cowzer that he sees intellectual property ownership as the cornerstone of a sustainable industry and is a strong advocate for supporting emerging writers through initiatives like the Story House festival. While others speculate on the impact of AI, Guiney remains confident in the irreplaceable value of human creativity.
As the Irish Ambassador to Malaysia, it fell to Dan Mulhall to find and repatriate Irish citizens impacted by the horrific 2004 Tsunami. He arrived at his next posting, in Berlin, when “Ireland was in the dog house” after its economy collapsed. Mulhall toured the country extensively, with a simple message: “Ireland has its troubles. We need help from you but don't worry, we have strength, and we will come back and we will repay every single penny of the money that we borrow from the European Union.”
From Berlin, he moved to London, at a time when Ireland’s nearest neighbour was preparing for the Brexit ballot, and Mulhall was there after the vote as relations between Ireland and the UK deteriorated. And, for his final posting, he was dispatched to Washington in the middle of Donald Trump’s first term.
Now retired from the diplomatic corps, he holds a number of consultancy positions in business and academia and is working on a project to develop an animated children's brand based on leprechauns from Carlingford.
In this podcast with Ian Kehoe, Mulhall talks about his career, diplomacy, Brexit, and the decision by Israel to shutter its embassy in Dublin.
George Hamilton was the voice of many of Irish sports greatest moments. From Italia '90 to Giants Stadium, Hamilton called the games that shaped a nation. He talks to Dion Fanning about being part of the Lost Age of broadcasting coverage, the vision of the former Head of Sport at RTÉ, the late Tim O’Connor, and why he had to leave.
Trevor Birney’s career has been defined by curiosity. As the producer of the Kneecap Movie, he might be heading to the Oscars next year, but he has written a book which tells the story of the Loughinisland Massacre and the day he was arrested for making a film about it. He talks to Dion Fanning about creativity in Northern Ireland, Say Nothing and the film he has produced about Saipan.
Pat Rabbitte is well-schooled in the art of government formation. He was there in 1994 when the Rainbow coalition came together, and he was there too in 2011 when the Labour Party coalesced with Fine Gael after the collapse of both the economy and Fianna Fail. In the former government, he was a member of Democratic Left, while in the latter, he was a Labour cabinet minister. In between, he helped negotiate a merger of the two left-wing parties, while also serving a stint as the leader of the Labour Party.
As the thorny issue of government formation continues, Rabbitte joins Ian Kehoe to discuss why Labour should not enter government, if it should merge with the Social Democrats, and whether Sinn Fein can ever offer a true path to power.
Lucinda Creighton, a former Fine Gael TD and one-time Minister of State for European Affairs, believes that the general election campaign was lacklustre, and was defined by a lack of big ideas or policy debate.
In this podcast with Ian Kehoe, she argues that the lack of policy clash is due to the fact that Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have moved to the centre-left and are now coalescing around the same ideas.
Plus, Creighton argues that the only thing that differentiated most of the political parties was how much money they were willing to spend soliciting votes. In this podcast, she also talks about Ireland’s waning influence in Europe, the issue of government formation, and ideology in politics.
In his new book 'Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom', Carl Bernstein tells the story of how he found his calling, and meaning, in journalism. It is an absorbing tale, crammed with anecdotes about the characters he stumbled across through the journey.
Bernstein occupied a rarified place in the world of journalism. Together with his fellow Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, he ranks among the two most famous journalists in the world, renowned for their work bringing down President Nixon. He understands power, and the importance of holding it to account.
In this podcast with Sam Smyth, he delves into the relationship between power and politics, examining the impact of Trump on US society. He also talks about the decision by Jeff Bezos to pull an editorial by The Washington Post endorsing Kamala Harris, his reporting on the Vatican, and his recollections of his early days in the newsroom.
The attorney and law professor Barry Scheck was one of the first to link the complicated science of DNA with criminal law back in the 1990s. In the decades that followed, The Innocence Project, the non-profit organisation that he co-founded with Peter Neufeld, has used DNA evidence to help exonerate hundreds of people who were wrongly convicted. In this podcast with his friend Sam Smyth, Scheck talks about the evolution of science in criminal trials and explores how AI could be the next breakthrough. He talks about the work of the Innocence Project, the nature of criminal defence, and some of his most prominent cases, including OJ Simpson and Louise Woodward.
Manchester City are collapsing and it seems like the end of the Pep Guardiola era but what does this tell us about the Abu Dhabi project. In this podcast, Miguel Delaney talks to Dion Fanning about his book States of Play and how City took over the Premier League. He speaks about the uncertainty at the club now as they wait to hear the result of the 115 charges they are facing and why Rubem Amorim chose Manchester United over City because of this uncertainty.
The former managing partner of PwC Feargal O’Rourke has written a new book chronicling the history of the Irish rugby men’s team during the professional era. The book, From Rags to Riches; The Irish Men’s Team in the Professional Era, is an encyclopedia containing teams and match statistics of each game over the past 29 years, accompanied by more than 700 pictures and QR codes linking to online video highlights.
In this podcast with Ian Kehoe, he discusses how Irish rugby has evolved over the past three decades, and the structure that has allowed it to succeed. He also talks about his new role as chairman of IDA Ireland, what Trump’s trade policies could mean for Irish FDI and his late mother, the political trailblazer Mary O’Rourke.
Gary Murphy has long been one of the country’s most prescient and articulate political analysts. And, unlike many of his academic contemporaries, Murphy is not afraid to share his views. However, in an age of online abuse, he understands why many of his younger colleagues opt to stay off the airwaves. In this podcast with Ian Kehoe, the DCU politics professor also talks about his roots in Cork, how he got interested in politics, and how politics itself has changed over the decades. He also talks about how Irish political parties have shifted to the left, as evidenced by the economic platforms of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. He gives his views on Sinn Fein, the independents, and the electoral malaise of the parties of the soft left.
