An Irishman Abroad

Technological doping, the greatest thing since the stopwatch or the greatest fad since fidget spinners! Call it what you like, super shoes are changing running one carbon footplate at a time. Jarlath doesn’t have a pair. Sonia has a pair in every city she visits! Jarlath has a lot of questions. Are these shoes intended for the slow runner? Can they be harmful? Do they really work? Why are they so...

Catherina McKiernan joins Jarlath for a fascinating and rare conversation about the highs and lows of her life and career. Catherina is an Irish sporting legend and yet she often looks back on her glittering career with mixed feelings. She opens up about her battles with remaining in love with the sport when the business side of things took over. We hear about her realisation about the importance...

On Tuesday the House of Representatives voted to hold ex-president Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, in contempt of Congress and refer him to the US Department of Justice for prosecution after his refusal to testify to the select committee investigating the Capitol riot. This week Marion McKeone explains why she believes he played a critical role in the January 6th riot and why h...

The fear of injury is a constant conscious or unconscious fear for every athlete no matter what their experience level. For many it’s the reason they avoid running completely. Rather than feeling powerless over the prospect of injury, Jarlath asks Sonia O’Sullivan and another gold medal winning Irish athlete, our special guest David Gillick, if there is a formula to avoid picking up physical ailme...

Comedy isn’t just in Jack Whitehall’s genes it’s in his bones. Today on Irishman Abroad’s Selection Box Jarlath chooses Jack’s latest movie “Clifford The Big Red Dog” as his cinema recommendation for all of the family this Christmas and talks to the man himself about how it was made. This isn’t just a movie promotion interview though. Jarlath and Jack have been friends for years. Together they go...

If the Ghislaine Maxwell trial is proof of what money can let you get away with, the injustice that Anthony Broadwater suffered is an example of what can happen at the other end of the spectrum. He served 16 years for a sex crime he didn’t commit, was branded a sex offender and struggled to integrate back into normal life. As Marion details in today’s episode, a bizarre twist of fate and the help...

With storm Barra bearing down on Ireland there has never been a more appropriate moment to release our long planned but never recorded episode about coping with winter conditions. The temptation to roll over in bed on a Saturday is so vast that even the great Sonia O’Sullivan admits she nearly fell foul of it this past weekend. Instead, she scrambled down to Bushy Park while Jarlath shambled to St...

The headline might read, 'Claire Walsh - the only Irish person ever to compete at the Freediving World Championships' but there is way more to the story of this trailblazing Irish woman. Jarlath caught up with Claire at an unusual crossroads in her life. Before all hell broke loose, when she wasn’t travelling the world taking part in one of the toughest sports known to man, Claire Walsh taught bus...

With week one drawing to a conclusion the award winning US correspondent Marion McKeone explains what exactly took place. Jarlath wonders what kind of defence can be mounted for the business partner of a convicted predator such as Epstein. Discrediting the memory of the victims seems to be the path chosen by Maxwell's ferocious defence team. The key witnesses, the pilot who claims he saw nothing a...

Why do 99% of runners, including Sonia O’Sullivan, go too fast on their easy runs? Experts believe that 80% of your running each week should be done at a very easy conversational pace in order to build stamina and recover properly from harder sessions yet very few people actually stick within this pace window. Most will go a little too fast, some (like Jarlath) have gone so fast on their slow days...

This week actor, writer and activist Evanna Lynch joined Jarlath to discuss her astonishing new book. Evanna speaks about when and why her critical inner voice started to become toxic. She provides some invaluable advice to the parents of those battling eating disorders and reveals exclusive news of her next project. From her thoughts on the freeing nature of art's subjectivity to the importance o...

Three cases that directly impact the rise of vigilantism in America were decided this week. The lynching of Ahmaud Arbery shocked the world but only when the public got to see footage of what took place. The place saw the same footage and were content not to act. Jarlath asks Marion about what this says to the public on the other side of these convictions. Marion takes us through the trial step by...

Sonia heads to California to check out a potential training camp for her Nike athletes. On a whim she decided to run a half marathon. Hear how she got on in this great episode about all things snack related. There’s a brilliant letter from a listener who built her own snacks business from a very simple idea, Sonia’s tip of the week and a deep dive into pre, mid and post run snacks. Jarlath is 1600...

Richard Chambers sits down to discuss the storm surrounding his new book “A State Of Emergency - The Story Of Ireland’s Covid Crisis”. It’s an extraordinary piece of writing from within the storm. Each and every day while covering the news for Virgin Media News in Dublin, Richard had a rare vantage point of those in charge, those on the front lines and those who suffered most through this crisis....

With jury selection almost complete, Marion McKeone looks ahead to the most anticipated celebrity trial in recent memory. Ghislaine Maxwell stands accused of sex crimes, conspiracy and perjury related to the actions of the financier Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019, while awaiting sex trafficking charges. Attorneys have said that Ghislaine Maxwell “played a crit...

Whether you're failing to cool down, stretch properly, refuel or sleep adequately, you are making the next run harder than the last. This week the greatest Irish athlete of all time breaks down the keys to replenishing and restoring the body after the exertion. Jar drained the tank last week and felt sick at the end of his Sunday run. Together they laugh about the reasons why this happened. Sonia...

This week, Jarlath is joined by Kodaline frontman Steve Garrigan for a one of a kind conversation about his life and career. Steve speaks frankly about the painful shyness that dominated his early years and how his parents tried to help him. Later Jarlath asks about the devastating effects of tasting fame in your Leaving Cert year and how he wrote Kodaline's hit single High Hopes at a time when he...

This week the New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hit the headlines again when The White House condemned the Republican congressman Paul Gosar for tweeting a video which depicted him striking and appearing to kill her. The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said “threats of violence against members of Congress and the president of the United States must not be tolerated” and called on the House R...

This week Jarlath talks to Sonia about all the challenges facing women in sport and how we can keep young girls involved. Together they reflect on how few and far between the options once were for young girls interested in pursuing sport in a serious way in Ireland as recently as the early 90s. Has enough changed? Sonia gives her opinion what needs to happen for change to take place for this gener...

This week Damien Dempsey makes a much-anticipated return to the podcast for the first time since 2015. In this very emotionally raw conversation, Damien speaks about the meditative state he experiences while singing, his private battle with a shyness, his experiences of depression and the making of his powerful new documentary Love Yourself Today. Damien reflects on waiting on creativity to arrive...

It’s a year since Joe Biden won the White House and yet this week Democrats lost resoundingly in two states he won by a landslide. Marion McKeone joins Jarlath to try to shed some light on why this week’s events could be critical in deciding how the next three years play out. Later in the episode Marion explains why the battle ground has moved to the school curriculums. In the meantime the Supreme...

What can we learn from the greatest marathoner of all time? Cathal Dennehy travelled to Kaptagat and lived there for 3 days absorbing everything. He chats to Sonia and Jar about exactly what mere mortals can apply to their training. It’s eye-opening stuff to say the least. Sonia also gives us an update on her travels and explains the benefits of incorporating one track session into your training e...

With over 8 years and 500+ episodes in our ever-growing archive, this week we are delighted to bring you The Athletics Legends Episode which brings you a collection of classic moments in one jam-packed episode from over the years with Irish athletic and Olympic legends including Sonia O'Sullivan, Ronnie Delany, Sinead Diver, Derval O'Rourke and much more. Topics in this exciting bumper episode inc...

Marion McKeone has spent the past week investigating the death of Halyna Hutchins. The cinematographer tragically died when a live round was discharged during the filming of a western starring Alec Baldwin. In this week’s Irishman In America Marion examines the facts of the incident, what is known/unknown at this time and the role that budget cuts might have played in this tragedy that has rocked...

Whether you’re deep in training or just toying with the idea of running a marathon, today’s episode of An Irishman Running Abroad contains gems of information, tips and anecdotes from two of the most knowledgeable people you could find. One is of course our resident coach and all time athletics legend, the icon, the goat and the former World Champion Sonia O’Sullivan and the other is the brilliant...