How Irish Music Conquered the World (mostly thanks to Horslips)

In 1972 there were thousands of showbands in Ireland (or that’s how it seemed) cranking out covers. The 60s had bypassed Irish music, bar Van, Rory, Gilbert and Phil. But by 1977 the Rats and Lizzy were top of the British charts and we’d got our own rock festivals.

Tom Dunne credits Horslips, who introduced us to rock and roll one ballroom at a time, wiped out the showbands, invented U2, and had great hair.

Recorded live at Hinterland Festival of Literature and Arts.

For more episodes and artist information, visit:

www.hinterland.ie

https://www.facebook.com/HinterlandFestivalKells/

https://www.instagram.com/hinterlandfestivalkells/

music by https://soundcloud.com/xcaliberbeats

Our final dip into the 2024 Hinterland archive for Episode 8 - Stephen Walker.

Peacemaker, politician, Nobel laureate: John Hume was a titan of Irish political history and a key architect of the Good Friday Agreement, bringing peace to Northern Ireland after decades of conflict. But who was the real John Hume? What sustained him during the bloody years of violence and how did he convince the IRA to end its long-running campaign? How did he persuade presidents and prime ministers to take risks and back his vision for Northern Ireland? In his biography of the SDLP leader, former BBC correspondent Stephen Walker combines over 100 interviews with many of Hume’s colleagues, critics and family members, with never-before-published interviews with Hume himself, to present a comprehensive portrait of one of the most significant political figures in Northern Ireland and around the world. Stephen was in conversation with Myles Dungan.

Recorded live at Hinterland Festival of Literature and Arts.

For more episodes and artist information, visit:

www.hinterland.ie

https://www.facebook.com/HinterlandFestivalKells/

https://www.instagram.com/hinterlandfestivalkells/

music by https://soundcloud.com/xcaliberbeats

Hinterland The Podcast returns to the archives of our 2024 Festival to bring you Episode 7.

Dirty Linen: The Troubles in My Home Place is an intimate, personal history of the Northern Ireland conflict told through the testimony of the friends and families of more than 20 victims who died violently in Martin Doyle’s own rural parish in County Down. The author enjoys access that only a trusted local could gain and layers this with the literary sensibility of a books editor (the job he does for the Irish Times), the storytelling ability of a veteran journalist, and the sensitivity of a writer who has experienced personal bereavement. Martin was in conversation with Myles Dungan.

Recorded live at Hinterland Festival of Literature and Arts.

For more episodes and artist information, visit:

www.hinterland.ie

https://www.facebook.com/HinterlandFestivalKells/

https://www.instagram.com/hinterlandfestivalkells/

music by https://soundcloud.com/xcaliberbeats

For Episode 6 we delve into the archives going back to Hinterland 2024.

The fact that he was christened in the same Belfast church as George Best might suggest that George Hamilton was pre-destined to become the country’s leading TV soccer commentator. Either way, that’s precisely what happened. Anyone with even the vaguest interest in the great Irish male soccer squads of the 90s and 2000’s and the women’s team of the 2020’s, not to mention Champion’s League football, has been guided through countless matches by this most erudite and cultured of broadcasters (and let’s not forget his twice-weekly Lyric FM broadcasts). George will take us through the stellar highlights of his recent memoir The Nation holds its breath.

Recorded live at Hinterland Festival of Literature and Arts.

For more episodes and artist information, visit:

www.hinterland.ie

https://www.facebook.com/HinterlandFestivalKells/

https://www.instagram.com/hinterlandfestivalkells/

music by https://soundcloud.com/xcaliberbeats

Richard O’Rawe is a Belfast author, playwright and a former IRA member who was press officer for the Provisional IRA in Long Kesh in 1981 during the IRA hunger strikes.

His controversial revelation that British terms for ending the hunger strike were accepted within Long Kesh, but rejected by the IRA leadership (in his book Blanketmen) put him at odds with many of his erstwhile Republican comrades. He is the author of two works of comic fiction featuring the memorable Ructions O’Hare

His most recent work Stakeknife's Dirty War: The Inside Story of Scappaticci, the IRA's Nutting Squad and the British Spooks Who Ran the War, made a timely appearance a few months before the March2024 interim Kenova report, compiled by Chief Constable Boutcher and the Kenova team after a number of years spent investigating allegations that Freddie Scappaticci, head of the IRA’s execution squad was a British intelligence assent.

Richard O’Rawe was in conversation with Myles Dungan in June 2024.

Recorded live at Hinterland Festival of Literature and Arts.

For more episodes and artist information, visit:

www.hinterland.ie

https://www.facebook.com/HinterlandFestivalKells/

https://www.instagram.com/hinterlandfestivalkells/

music by https://soundcloud.com/xcaliberbeats

Linda Ervine earned an MBE as a language rights activist in the somewhat unexpected location of unionist East Belfast.

She is a speaker and fervent supporter of the Irish language and is the project lead of Turas which "aims to connect people from Protestant communities to their own history with the Irish language". Turas is operated through the East Belfast Mission of the Methodist Church in Ireland. Linda, who comes from a working class socialist background has overcome many obstacles to gain two degrees (in English and later in Irish) from Queen’s University.

She was in conversation with Gerry Foley at Hinterland 2024

Recorded live at Hinterland Festival of Literature and Arts.

For more episodes and artist information, visit:

www.hinterland.ie

https://www.facebook.com/HinterlandFestivalKells/

https://www.instagram.com/hinterlandfestivalkells/

music by https://soundcloud.com/xcaliberbeats

Anne Enright is one of Ireland’s leading writers.

The author of eight novels, two books of short stories and many essays, she is a winner of the Man Booker Prize (2007), the Andrew Carnegie Medal for fiction (2012) and the Irish Novel of the Year (2007 and 2015).

Anne was the first Laureate for Irish Fiction (2015-2018) and she is Professor in Creative Writing in UCD. Her most recent novel The Wren, The Wren won The Writers’ Prize for Fiction (2024).

Anne Enright was in conversation with Eileen Dunne at the 2024 Hinterland Festival.

Recorded live at Hinterland Festival of Literature and Arts.

For more episodes and artist information, visit:

www.hinterland.ie

https://www.facebook.com/HinterlandFestivalKells/

https://www.instagram.com/hinterlandfestivalkells/

music by https://soundcloud.com/xcaliberbeats

Would the Good Friday agreement ever have happened had it not been for OperationChiffon? Peter Taylor’s book Operation Chiffon: the Secret Story of MI5 and MI6 and theRoad to Peace in Ireland takes us inside the top-secret intelligence operation whose roots go back to the bloodiest years of the Northern Ireland conflict in the early 1970s, involving officers from MI6 and, later in the 1990s, MI5. The remarkable story, which has remained hidden for forty years, is now revealed by legendary BBC journalist Peter Taylor with unique access to the intelligence officers involved. Drawing on exclusive interviews and Taylor's fifty years of covering the conflict, the book narrates in first-hand detail how those involved risked their careers-and their lives to help secure the fragile peace that exists today.

PeterTaylor was in conversation with Myles Dungan at the 2024 Hinterland Festival

Recorded live at Hinterland Festival of Literature and Arts.

For more episodes and artist information, visit:

www.hinterland.ie

https://www.facebook.com/HinterlandFestivalKells/

https://www.instagram.com/hinterlandfestivalkells/

music by https://soundcloud.com/xcaliberbeats