Siobhán O’Donoghue is one of Ireland’s leading community change makers. For over twenty years she has been blazing a trail to help improve the lives of others. Originally from County Clare in the West of Ireland, Siobhán is a former nurse who eventually got involved in youth and community work and in advocating for Travellers rights. She is a founding director of the Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland which she built up over 11 years, and more recently she has become the founding director of the U...
Oct 14, 2017•1 hr 8 min
Robert is an acclaimed artist and draft resister who risked prison for his conscientious objection to the Vietnam War. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1946, Robert is best known for his portrait series “Americans Who Tell The Truth” which he began as a personal response to the U.S war against Iraq. He has painted 100s of Americans who he sees as beacons for truth. People like Amy Goodman, Edward Snowden, Joanna Macy, Noam Chomsky and Pete Seeger. Robert has travelled the world as part of the America...
Sep 29, 2017•1 hr 6 min
Chaz Jewett, or Red Morning Star Woman, a native American woman from the Lakota tribe in central South Dakota. She has been active in the environmental movement since a young age and during her youth she had to overcome abuse and huge suffering in her community. Chas has been a leading light in the Standing Rock movement that inspired the world with its dignified native led resistance to the Dakota access oil pipeline. Chas is a community organiser who is passionate about reclaiming and honourin...
Sep 17, 2017•49 min
Irish-Australian peace activist Ciaron O'Reilly was once described by Martin Sheen as his personal hero. Ciaron grew up in Australia and has spent his life in the Christian anarchist pacifist Catholic Worker movement. Ciaron was mentored by the renowned anti-war priests Frs. Daniel and Philip Berrigan and for over 40 years now he has focused on supporting homeless communities and campaigning on Aboriginal, East Timorese, prisoner and refugee struggles. Part of this campaigning is explored in his...
Sep 01, 2017•59 min
A few words of reflection from podcast host Ruairí McKiernan. http://www.loveandcourage.org ........... About the podcast The Love and Courage podcast features interviews with inspirational people who are making a real difference in the world today. Guests are typically people passionate about social justice, and who have demonstrated courage and conviction in their lives. Host Ruairí McKiernan is leading Irish social innovator, campaigner, writer and public speaker. He is the founder of the pi...
Aug 12, 2017•30 min
Kathy Kelly is a renowned U.S peace activist, author, a founder member of Voices in the Wilderness and now Coordinator for Voices for Creative Non Violence. Kathy is a long-time resident Chicago where she is heavily involved in community organizing. She has travelled to Iraq over twenty five times, including during the early days of the Iraq war and she has spent time in war torn Afghanistan and Palestine. In the course of her activism Kathy has been arrested over 60 times for her non-violent ac...
Aug 06, 2017•57 min
Eamon Stack is a former priest who has a background in peace and justice work, including during the northern Ireland conflict. In 2006 he co-founded a charity and social enterprise called Enclude and as chief executive he has led it become the largest IT charity consultancy in Europe and they have now started working in Venezuela and elsewhere. ........... About the podcast The Love and Courage podcast features interviews with inspirational people who are making a real difference in the world to...
Jul 28, 2017•1 hr 2 min
Ellen Dorsey is the Executive Director of the Wallace Global Fund, a private foundation focused on progressive social change in the fields of environment, democracy, human rights and corporate accountability. It was set up by Henry A. Wallace, a former visionary vice President of the United States who championed what he called the ‘common man’ in the struggle to prevent financial elites attempts to control politics and the planet’s resources. Wallace once said the following words: “I am committe...
Jul 21, 2017•47 min
My guests in this episode are Senator Lynne Ruane and Joe Caslin, recorded at the Body&Soul music and arts festival in front of a live audience. Senator Lynn Ruane From Tallaght in Dublin, Lynn is a senator and campaigner for drug reform and other social justice issues, as well as being a powerful voice for many of those unrepresented in our political system. An early school leaver and single mother of two, she got away from a life of drugs and went on to set up addiction programmes before b...
Jul 16, 2017•53 min
Hyeonseo Lee was born in 1980 in North Korea, a country she thought was the best on the planet’ until she witnessed great suffering and starvation. At the age of 17, she left her family behind and escaped alone to China. Hiding her identity for ten years, her life in China was far from easy and she eventually decided to flee for South Korea. There she faced further challenges when the authorities initially didn’t believe she was North Korean. Some time later she returned to China where she met h...
Jul 09, 2017•40 min
Alastair McIntosh is a well-known Scottish author, Quaker, environmental activist and visiting professor at the University of Glasgow. Born and raised on the isle of Lewis of the west coast of Scotland, the birth place of Donald Trump’s mother, Alastair is a passionate voice for change on land reform, cultural renewal, climate change and global peace and justice. ........... About the podcast The Love and Courage podcast features interviews with inspirational people who are making a real differe...
Jun 29, 2017•54 min
Dil Wickremasingheis a broadcaster, comedian, journalist and social entrepreneur who grew up in Italy and Sri Lanka before moving to Ireland 16 years ago. Dil’s incredible journey has involved struggles with her Jehovah’s Witness parents who disowned her in her youth because of her sexuality. Dil is a courageous survivor of childhood abuse and has overcome depression and thoughts of suicide to transform her life in amazing ways. She has been a flight attendant, a dish washer, a recruitment consu...
Jun 25, 2017•1 hr 2 min
John Lillis is a DJ, producer and teacher, based in the West of Ireland. He is one third of the Rusangano Family, a high powered hip hop act who in 2017 won the Choice Music Prize, Ireland’s biggest music award. Growing up in rural County Clare, John immersed himself in music culture - collecting records and entering radio competitions daily. His approach has always been a D.I.Y one and he has been a major part of growing the hip hop movement in Ireland. A passion for community music and event m...
Jun 16, 2017•1 hr 10 min
Frances Black is a well known Irish singer, campaigner, politician, addiction counsellor, and social entrepreneur. She achieved fame early in her life as part of Irish folk super group Arcady and then later with her family in the band the Black Family. She featured on the renowned Woman’s Heart album which became the biggest selling Irish album of all time. Frances has recorded a total of 10 solo albums to date and has toured the world including the U.S, New Zealand and Iraq. Frances battled wit...
Jun 09, 2017•1 hr 3 min
77 year old New Yorker Ray McGovern is a veteran CIA officer turned peace activist. He was a CIA analyst from 1963 to 1990, including during the administrations of John F Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and George Bush senior. Ray’s duties included chairing National Intelligence Estimates and preparing the President’s Daily Brief. He received the Intelligence Commendation Medal on his retirement, returning it in 2006 in protest at U.S involvement in torture. In 2011, during a speech at George Washington ...
Jun 02, 2017•47 min
Sister Stan is one of Ireland’s most well known and respected social visionaries. She is a founder of four leading Irish organisations - Focus Ireland, the Sanctuary, the Immigrant Council of Ireland and Young Social Innovators. Now in her mid seventies, she has been a tireless voice for justice for over fifty years and has been a huge champion for the benefits of mindfulness and meditation. A former member of the Council of State, a keynote speaker, and an author of numerous books, there is no ...
May 25, 2017•56 min
Chuck Collins is one of America's leading economic equality campaigners. He grew up in Detroit and went to school alongside some of the elite the United States including former Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Chuck could perhaps be known as the man who gave away all his money after he chose to give away a massive inheritance in his twenties. Chuck is a powerful voice for justice, he is a Senior Scholar at the Institute of Policy Studies, he's a co-founder of several organisations and project...
May 21, 2017•1 hr 17 min
Ivor Browne is an 88 year old retired Irish psychiatrist, author, former Chief Psychiatrist, jazz musician and Professor emeritus of psychiatry at University College Dublin. Educated in Harvard, he is known for his opposition to traditional psychiatry, and his scepticism about psychiatric drugs. Browne has experimented with LSD as part of therapeutic process. Well known friends and supporters include Colm Tóibín, Sebastian Barry, Mary Coughlan. In 1993 he had a famous run in with the Catholic Ch...
May 11, 2017•52 min
Sonia 'Sunny' Jacobs spent 17 years in prison, including 5 in solitary confinement, for a crime she didn’t commit. Sentenced to death at the age of 28 for the murder of two police officers in Florida. When she was imprisoned, her two young children were cast into the foster care system. Nearly 17 years after her arrest, Sunny’s conviction was overturned on appeal. Her story, along with those of five other wrongfully convicted death row inmates, became The Exonerated , a play put on by the nonpro...
May 11, 2017•1 hr 1 min
A short introduction episode where you can find out more about host Ruairí McKiernan, his motivations behind the podcast and what you can expect to hear. About the podcast The Love and Courage podcast features interviews with inspirational people who are making a real difference in the world today. Guests are typically people passionate about social justice, and who have demonstrated courage and conviction in their lives. Host Ruairí McKiernan is leading Irish social innovator, campaigner, write...
May 11, 2017•8 min
