The Nerve: An English and Arts Podcast

Ho, ho, ho, and happy Christmas! In this festive episode of the podcast, Jenny is joined by Aoife Hearne, dietician and lecturer in the Department of Health Sciences (and previous contributor to TV’s Operation Transformation), Dr John McNamara who lectures in Social Care, Social Science, and Sociology in the Departments of Social Care and Early Childhood, and the Department of Arts, and Dr David S...

Joining Dr Jenny O’Connor in studio for this episode is the award-winning Canadian author Alexander MacLeod. A Professor of Creative Writing at St Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Alexander has been published in the prestigious New Yorker and Granta magazines and has won the Atlantic Book Award, the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award and the O.Henry Award. His first collectio...

This episode of the podcast features a discussion with the facilitator of this semester’s English and Theatre Studies Day, Martin Tyrrell. Martin is the author of the forthcoming George Orwell: from Class War to Cold War and a contributing editor for the academic journal George Orwell Studies. His highly entertaining lecture on Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Orwell’s essays offered context...

In this episode, members of Waterford’s newest theatrical company, Shakespeare Squared, join Jenny in the studio to talk about the genesis of the organisation and their recent production of Twelfth Night, an open air promenade piece that used the backdrop of Waterford’s Viking Triangle to bring their interpretation to life. Along with theatre professional Eimear Cheasty, co-directors Joe Meagher a...

In this first episode of a new season of the podcast, Dr Jenny O’Connor is joined by Pete Windle, the Head of the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning at SETU, and Dr Kate McCarthy, researcher and lecturer in Theatre Studies to discuss the way generative artificial intelligence (GenAI, e.g. Chat GPT) has affected the teaching of subjects that traditionally relied on the essay (or other text-bas...

Andy Kelly is a nationally recognised archivist and collector of photography and film in Waterford and in this episode, he discusses the collection he has amassed, his time as a projectionist and filmmaker, and the innovative methods he employed when faced with technical challenges over the years (like building cranes and setting fire to a specially built thatched cottage for a movie set piece!)....

Molly Twomey grew up in Lismore, County Waterford, and graduated in 2019 with an MA in Creative Writing from UCC. She has been published in The Irish Times, Banshee, The Stinging Fly and Poetry Ireland Review and her first poetry collection, Raised among vultures, is now available from The Gallery Press. The collection’s unflinching style deals with the complexities of modern living, the realities...

Frank Bosman of the Tilburg School of Catholic Theology in The Netherlands visited SETU in March 2023 to deliver a lecture as part of the Theology in the Public Square series on the connection between culture, theology and religion in three recent TV series. Each of the shows (Squid Game, Jaguar and The Good Place) explores theological themes such as morality, theodicy, truth and hope, and in this...

StoryCenter has worked with nearly a thousand organisations around the world and trained more than fifteen thousand people in hundreds of workshops to share stories from their lives. Through its wide-ranging work, it has transformed the way that community activists, educators, health and human services agencies, business professionals, and artists think about the power of the personal voice in cre...

In this first episode of the new semester, Jenny welcomes Deirdre Grant, a dance practitioner and choreographer who also works as a lecturer at SETU Waterford, teaching on courses as diverse as Theatre Studies, Early Childhood Studies, and Social Care. She is also the current Dance Artist in Residence at Garter Lane Arts Centre, Waterford. During Covid, when her work with community groups and regi...

This episode of the podcast features award-winning author, journalist and broadcaster Aingeala Flannery, whose debut novel The Amusements has won high praise from the national press, and from authors such as Anne Enright, Donal Ryan and Marian Keyes. Set in Tramore, Co. Waterford, the story revolves around Helen Grant, who dreams of escaping the seaside town and running away to art college, and fo...

On Tuesday 25thOctober, poet and essayist William Keohane visited SETU to perform ‘Boxing Day,’ a 52-poem sequence that offers one poem for each week of the year. Each one offers a fragmentary glimpse into the experience of gender transition and taken together, the 52 poems present a narrative account of a year of change, apprehension, and grief. The event was organised by English lecturer Dr Chri...

In this episode of the podcast, Jenny talks to the facilitators of this semester’s English and Theatre Studies Day, Dalal Sayed and Lani O’Hanlon, as well as Sinead O’Higgins of Waterford Libraries. Dalal’s recent memoir Escape from War to Live in Peace tells of her family’s experience of fleeing from Syria and settling in Cappoquin, Waterford and Lani has recently won the Trócaire Ireland Poetry...

In this episode of the podcast, we check in with third year English and Theatre Studies students Dawn Murray and Naja Klemme, who discuss what they have gained from taking part in extra-curricular activities at SETU. They discuss how they got to know one another via online bingo sessions organised by the Students’ Union during Covid, how important it is to connect with lecturers and guest speakers...

In this special, fifth anniversary episode of The Nerve, author Aislinn O’Loughlin discusses writing in the Young Adult genre in advance of the release of her new book, Big Bad Me. The novel tells the story of Evie and her sister Kate, who encounter a litany of suspicious murders in the wake of Evie’s revelation that she is a werewolf. A novel about identity, difference, family and love, it relies...

In this final episode of the podcast for this academic year, Jenny is joined by poet, scholar, harper and Arts curator, Emily Cullen. Emily is currently the Poet in Residence in the University of Limerick and combines that role with poetry writing as well as curating literature and poetry events. On foot of Poetry Day Ireland, Emily talks about the importance of poetry in Irish life, her “scenic”...

In this episode of the podcast, Jenny is joined by the artist Vincent Devine, who recently travelled the country with his painting ‘The Vicky Phelan Triptych,’ and its owner, David Brennan. Vincent attended WIT’s International Women’s Day celebrations, where he talked the audience through the symbolism of each section of the painting, and the collaborative process that he and Vicky went through du...

On Wednesday 9th March, students of English and Theatre Studies at WIT attended a workshop on Shakespeare facilitated by actor Jamie Beamish in the wonderful environs of Waterford’s Theatre Royal. Jamie is the current Theatre Artist in Residence in the Theatre Royal and in this episode, he joins Jenny in studio alongside the manager of the theatre, Mary Boland, who has an ambitious new vision for...

In this episode of The Nerve, we are guided by our third-year students, who have lots of questions about how to find the right postgraduate course, and how to navigate the PAC and UCAS systems. In studio with Jenny are Angela Collins, Head of Careers and Careers Advisor at WIT, and final year English students Katie Chance and Ben Harper.If you’re still not sure what you want to do, how do you go a...

In this episode of the podcast, Dr Jenny O’Connor chats to WIT’s own Edward Hayden in his capacity as editor of the Drama League of Ireland magazine. Edward is the course leader for the Higher Certificate in Culinary Arts and is well known to viewers of Virgin Media’s Ireland AM where he occupies a guest chef slot. In his spare time, Edward is a very active member of the award-winning New Ross Dra...

In this episode, Dr. Jenny O’Connor talks to the award-winning poet Annemarie Ni Churreáin, who gave an online seminar this semester at WIT on the way in which literature can develop a critical consciousness in students. This event was organised by English lecturer Dr Christa de Brún, who joins Jenny to chat about using one of Annemarie’s poems to challenge and stimulate students’ thinking. Annema...

In this episode, Jenny is joined by Luke Cassidy, the author of the novel Iron Annie, and writer of the stage show adaptation of the text, the Iron Annie Cabaret. Luke talks about setting his debut novel in his home town of Dundalk, writing two female lead characters, and what is involved in getting a stage show off the ground in Covid times. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informa...

In this episode of The Nerve, Jenny talks to theatre makers Deirdre Dwyer and Nicholas Kavanagh, who facilitated this semester’s English and Theatre Studies Day at WIT. Deirdre’s new work is the audio drama The Little Robber Girl, which, along with the accompanying postal pack, brings to life the story of tearaway Mattie and her dog, Arthur. This work was written by Deirdre in her role as Theatre...

In this (celebratory!) episode of The Nerve, Dr Jenny O’Connor is joined in studio by second year student Anthony Finn and third year students Aoife Manville and Katie Chance, who have returned to the WIT campus after 18 months. They discuss the remote online learning experience, making friends with people who used to be virtual classmates on Zoom and what it’s like preparing for your first ever c...

Welcome back to the first episode of The Nerve for the new semester. In this episode, Dr Jenny O’Connor speaks to Lucy Moore of the Write by the Sea Festival which normally takes place in Kilmore Quay, Co. Wexford. This year, the festival remains online and will host the likes of Douglas Kennedy, Christine Dwyer Hickey, Colm Tóibín, Melatu Uche Okorie, Billy O’Callaghan and WIT’s very own Dr. Fion...