They say that journalists write the first rough draft of history. In 50 years, we will be studying today's news reporting to understand how we handled the COVID-19 pandemic. In the final episode of the COVID Lives series, Gavin talks to print and broadcast journalist Alison O'Reilly about the stories she covered since March 2020. With a particularly fast news cycle, Alison shares how she has had to change her approach to covering the news. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informat...
Aug 14, 2021•22 min•Season 2Ep. 16
In October last year, Klara left her corporate job and embarked on setting up her own business. Care Box Collection allows people to purchase luxury boxes with self-care products for themselves or as gifts for loved ones. In the episode, she tells the story of what inspired her to establish the business and how the lockdown gave her the time and space to be entrepreneurial. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 07, 2021•15 min•Season 2Ep. 15
Brandon O'Connor is a 19 year-old from Donaghmede with an extraordinary story. He founded Dublin Homeless Awareness - a group which provides food, medical supplies and first responder services to those sleeping rough on the city’s streets. Brandon shares his personal story which spurred him to set up the organisation and how he feels COVID-19 has impacted homelessness in Dublin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jul 31, 2021•16 min•Season 2Ep. 14
Earlier this summer sisters Maeve and Blaithin embarked on an ambitious project in Cavan town. With the pandemic having made changes to their working schedules, they decided to set up a shop - The Eco Shack. But this isn’t any type of shop - it’s the first of its kind in Cavan. Maeve and Blaithin share their inspiration for launching their sustainable business and discuss what the past month has been like as first-time shopkeepers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jul 24, 2021•21 min•Season 2Ep. 12
Arguably it was the lives of students and young people which faced the greatest disruption over the past year. Emer Neville is the President of the Irish Second Level Students' Union. She shares her experience of sitting the Leaving Cert during the pandemic, how she coped and her plans for the future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 17, 2021•15 min•Season 2Ep. 11
The work of the arts sector has been significantly hindered by the restrictions imposed during the pandemic. Musicians, artists, actors and others in the creative industries have faced a cut to their income and fewer opportunities to hone their craft. Last summer David Reid founded the organisation Minding Creative Minds, looking out for those in the arts sector providing mentorship, mental health and career support. We discuss the kinds of challenges faced by creatives and how his organisation ...
Jul 10, 2021•15 min•Season 2Ep. 11
Stevo Timothy is an internet comedian from Galway, Ireland. He is best known for his 'Farmer Michael' character, who garnered a substantial audience throughout lockdown. Stevo shares his experience addressing difficult topics using humour. Alongside his comedy, Stevo is also an ambassador for the Irish Wheelchair Association. He has participated in a number of fundraising events for the charity recently. He speaks about his upcoming wheelchair boxing match against boxer Paddy Barnes. Hosted on A...
Jul 04, 2021•17 min•Season 2Ep. 11
Harry was a student in University College Cork throughout the pandemic and has been vocal in speaking up about issues facing young people over the past 16 months. He shares the challenges he faced and how he feels young people were unfairly blamed for being responsible for the spread of the virus. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 26, 2021•20 min•Season 2Ep. 9
In Transition Year of secondary school, Dublin student Kevin Owens launched his own shoe cleaning business - SneakerCleaner. Kevin now studying Visual Communications in college, didn’t waste a second of lockdown. He invested his free time in SneakerCleaner. They opened a location on Harcourt Street in Dublin and he has plans to expand around Ireland. He discusses his business journey and shares his experience of being a college student over the past year. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy f...
Jun 18, 2021•16 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Emma Murphy is a personal trainer from Dublin. During the lockdown, she focused on helping people to maintain their fitness through her home workout programmes. She created a group called the MomSquad, developing a community of mothers who work out at home. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 12, 2021•17 min•Season 2Ep. 7
In March 2020, Leonie Emdadian and her family were forced to close their restaurant ‘The Italian Connection’. Leonie didn’t rest. Instead, she set up her own food business - From Italy With Love - delivering at-home takeaway boxes. This idea morphed into ‘Glowberry’, her new project, which she will be opening in Brown Thomas soon. Leonie discusses her 18-hour workdays and how she has built a business from the ground up over the past year. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informati...
Jun 05, 2021•18 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Ryan Mack is a musician from Kildare and a former member of the Irish boyband Hometown. Over the past 14 months his covers, original songs and duets has led to his TikTok following growing to 1.2 million people. Ryan talks about his overnight success, not being able to perform live since early 2020 and how fame in and of itself doesn't always pay the bills. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 29, 2021•18 min
In late 2019, brothers John and Paul Blake embarked on setting up a new takeaway coffee business in Dublin. They set their sights on a 1965 Jeep Fleet Van, a former postal van which had been out of service since the 1990s. The van was shipped to Ireland, converted, painted and retrofitted. It has become the iconic 'Coffee Post 1965', seen selling coffee in various parts of Dublin. John and Paul explain how they transported the van across the world and why they set up a business during the pandem...
May 22, 2021•16 min•Season 2Ep. 4
RuthAnne Cunningham is a singer-songwriter from Dublin who has penned songs for Britney Spears, Niall Horan and John Legend. In lockdown she embarked on a different project. Bringing together nearly 40 of Ireland’s top female musicians, RuthAnne created Irish Women in Harmony. Their charity single which covered The Cranberries song ‘Dreams’ raised over a quarter of a million euro for Safe Ireland and made Irish music history. RuthAnne speaks about assembling a song without a proper studio, the m...
May 15, 2021•20 min
Presented with more free time than ever before, many of us took the opportunity to expand our culinary repertoires in the past year. When the first lockdown was announced in March 2020 Guy Sinnott knew he would have a quiet couple of months professionally. He works for MCD Productions, a company best known for organising large scale concerts and music festivals. This prompted Guy to don his apron and set up an Instagram account, sharing simple recipes for comfort food. Throughout 2020, his popul...
May 08, 2021•17 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Covid Lives is a podcast series that looks at Irish lives during this extraordinary time in history. The 16 part series will see host Gavin Dowd speaking with people all across the country who have unique and meaningful stories to tell about their lives during the Covid pandemic. Whether it involved looking out for others, starting something new or just finding ways to remain positive amidst the doom and gloom. In the first episode, Gavin speaks to Lena Tice, a player on the Irish Women's Hockey...
May 01, 2021•16 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Taoiseach Micheál Martin addressed the nation on Friday evening after clusters in Kildare Laois and Offaly saw measures put in place to try and prohibit further infection in the regions. The Irish Sun’s Adam Higgins brings all the latest news around what Ireland’s first localised lockdowns mean for the region, as well as whether the working conditions for those working in meat processing plants associated with the lockdowns were a cause for concern. Also, in a busy week of COVID related news aro...
Aug 07, 2020•14 min
Thursday night's press conference from The Department of Health in Dublin was one of the more memorable encounters of recent, as Ireland saw its largest spike in cases for a number of weeks, with worrying clusters developing in various work settings as well as a Direct Provision Center. With all eyes on August 10th, knowing that a further pause of the lockdown roadmap is very much possible, Ireland’s precarious position over the past few weeks continues as uncertainty grows over a second wave gr...
Jul 31, 2020•18 min•Ep. 38
Episode 37 of Viral: COVID-19 looks at the effects the pandemic has had on children and young people as well as the ins and outs of the July stimulus package published the Irish government this week, which includes €7 billion worth of economic incentives for businesses and workers. Paul O'Donoghue fromThe Times, Ireland Edition joins host Ian Doyle for a thorough run-through of everything you need to know about how the package will affect Ireland over the next 9 months. Emer Smyth who is a Resea...
Jul 24, 2020•18 min•Ep. 37
On Wednesday evening Taoiseach Micheál Martin announced the government's decision to stall its current position on the Irish roadmap out of lockdown until August 10th at earliest. The decision did not come as much of a surprise, as in recent days Ireland has seen a worrying trend of increased cases and clusters form around the country. From the outset of the roadmap it was made clear that it was a “living document”, and now the possibility of regressing towards a more confined society is becomin...
Jul 15, 2020•18 min•Ep. 36
Episode 35 of Viral:COVID-19 looks deep into what Ireland’s physical and political relationship with the United Kingdom means for our own autonomy and decision making when it comes to COVID-19 policy making. For a number of weeks speculation has mounted on when a “green list” of countries would be published, not requiring passengers to quarantine when arriving home from international travel, but on Tuesday the Irish Government announced an extension of their Covid-19 advice on overseas travel un...
Jul 09, 2020•17 min•Ep. 35
Nearly four months since their initial closure, Schools around the country received confirmation and guidance this week on how they will reopen come September, as new Education Minister Norma Burke released a framework on the logistics battle facing teachers, principles and classrooms in the months ahead. Today on the podcast host Ian Doyle speaks to Deirdre O'Connor, Assistant General Secretary of INTO, who details the challenges and difficulties that the sector face in the coming months. The s...
Jul 02, 2020•20 min•Ep. 34
Only a matter of weeks ago, many across the country believed that it could be Autumn at the earliest, before the prospect of any recreational travel would be feasible. Like many aspects of this health crisis, things move quickly and as has Ireland successfully contained the spread of Covid - 19 within the community reducing its R Number in the process, the feasibility of both domestic and international holidaymaking has increased dramatically. As the country heads into the final weekend of Phase...
Jun 25, 2020•18 min•Ep. 33
Since the beginning of the COVID - 19 outbreak globally, the effectiveness of face-masks and face-coverings has caused widespread debate here in Ireland and internationally. In comparison to other European countries, Ireland has yet to implement mandatory covering in enclosed spaces such as supermarkets or on public transport. On episode 32 of Viral COVID-19, host Ian Doyle speaks with Professor Anthony Staines of Dublin City University on why he feels that facemasks are one of key factors in ge...
Jun 11, 2020•17 min•Ep. 32
At the beginning of May, Iran (one of the world's worst affected COVID - 19 regions) began to reduce their own lockdown measures, opening up Mosques and public transport systems in a move deemed by many as irresponsibly premature. In the four weeks since, Iran has seen a mass resurgence of the virus, as positive case results pass its previous worst heights from mid-April. Episode 30 of Viral COVID - 19 looks at whether the first instances of international resurgences should act as a warning sign...
Jun 04, 2020•16 min•Ep. 30
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the scientific practises of Virology and Epidemiology have come into the daily conversation like never before, with a large majority of the population holding some grasp on the science behind COVID - 19. Shane Bergin is a Physicist & Assistant Prof in Science Education at UCD, and joins host Ian Doyel of Fridays edition of Viral:COVID - 19 to discuss what scientific method entails, and why it is so important. In the conversation Shane speaks about the nec...
May 29, 2020•16 min•Ep. 29
The economic and social fallout from the COVID 19 outbreak is still unclear, and the shape in which the global economy is impacted is a continually developing story. Early indications suggest, that unlike the financial crash of 2008, which predominantly affected “blue-collar, middle-aged, male workers” in industries such as manufacturing and construction, the fallout from COVID 19 is likely to most impact industries that are female-dominated. A growing concern is that will create a much greater ...
May 26, 2020•13 min•Ep. 28
From early on in the fight against the Coronavirus outbreak, the Government’s most challenging issue has been limiting the spread of infection among Ireland’s residential care homes. In Ireland over 840 people have lost their lives to the virus while living in residential care facilities. This represents over 60% of all COVID-19 related deaths around the country. It has been no secret that how this continues to be handled, will in years to come, be one of the lead stories in how we remember the ...
May 21, 2020•23 min•Ep. 27
The past 10 weeks, has seen vast global changes in nearly every part of peoples daily routines. The world has adapted how they work, travel and socialise all in a truly effective global effort to limit the spread of the virus. More impressive was the ability for this to happen in such a short space of time. On the podcast today we look at whether the impact of COVID 19 can help us prepare for the climate crisis - the worlds next global emergency. Norman Crowley is one of Ireland’s most successfu...
May 19, 2020•17 min•Ep. 26
Viral is a podcast series looking at the spread of COVID - 19 as it continues to affect Ireland and the international world in a growing capacity. On the podcast today we look at the future of airline travel, and what holiday options are available to consumers this year and next. Ryanair, one of the worlds busiest airlines announced this week that it intends to resume 40% of its commercial flights by July 1’st, but unfortunately, the 3 month’s of grounded aircraft has lead to mass job loses with...
May 12, 2020•17 min•Ep. 25
