An Irishman Abroad

With two weeks to go to the Antrim Coast Half Marathon, Sonia O'Sullivan is here to walk us through the basics of tapering back your training so that you can run your best race on the big day. What is the theory behind the two week taper? Is it possible to feel worse when running less in this period. It's time for Sonia to blow some myths out of the water while our squad captains Aisling and Neil...

It’s been a week like no other. He was a President like no other. Now something is happening to him that has never happened to any President before him. Marion gives us a play by play review of what exactly happened at Mar A Lago and what could happen next. Trump went into full court press on the spin cycle as soon as his least favourite kid delivered the news of the raid. Was it really a raid? Or...

With a million and one muscle soreness remedies available over the counter Sonia and Jarlath go in search of the most unusual but effective recovery aids with the help of the listeners. It’s week 8 of Sonia’s half marathon training plan and time to start the taper. Captain Neil Fusco lead a gang of hardy Irishman Abroad runners around his favourite trail in Bray county Wicklow on Sunday. We check...

Today we have a very special retrospective episode to mark the 9th anniversary of the Irishman Abroad. Looking back on the most awkward, funny and pivotal moments and episodes across hundreds of hours of conversation with the most fascinating Irish people ever to leave our shores. It's also a chance to say thank you to everyone who has played a part in making our show what it is today and to annou...

Marion McKeone (Sunday Business Post US Correspondent) takes a trip to Liz Cheney's homeland and comes to understand the Republicans that reside there a little better. She describes to Jarlath Regan here interactions with locals while attending a rodeo festival, taverns and parks. Later in the episode she looks at the assignation of Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul. The most surgical of US airstrikes to...

With 4 weeks to go to the Antrim Coast Half Marathon, Sonia O'Sullivan asks us all to breathe out and listen to what our bodies are telling us. It’s a tough thing to do at the best of times but when your training hasn’t been going exactly to plan, it can feel impossible. She walks me and our team captains Neil and Aisling through the plan for this week, examines their progress, offers some unique...

In April 2021, for the first time since 1851, the population in the Republic of Ireland was estimated to have passed the five million mark. Many believe a big part of this story has to do with returning Irish nationals. This weekend I became one of them. According to CSO findings, 65,200 people immigrated to Ireland in the year to April 2021, 30,200 of whom were returning Irish nationals, the high...

This week we got short glimpse of what to expect from Donald Trump if he runs for office in 2024. This time it seems angrier, more out there and at its core, driven by revenge. Marion McKeone of the Sunday Business Post has been taking in the reaction to former the President's speech at the America First Policy Institute's event in Washington. There were a few notable omissions from the speech and...

You don't have to be coaching at the world championships, moving house, raising kids or trying to recover from COVID to feel like you are using energy you don't have to run in the evenings. There can come a point in any training block where we feel like the tank is empty. That's where I got to this week and strangely, many of our listeners reported the same experience. Week 5 of Sonia's half marat...

My Hidden Race is the story of Olympic medallist Anyika Onuora, who stood on the podium at every major championship in athletics. Behind all the success and smiles lay something sinister that she could not speak about for years. The she has written with Jonathan Drennan doesn't go into detail about the technicalities of her sport. Instead, it gives an unflinching testimony of what it takes to purs...

Just when you thought the January 6th Select Committee Hearings were over, they reveal there's going to be a new season in September. Last night's climactic instalment didn't disappoint with the focus turning to Trump's apparent failure to do anything during the entire three hour period during which his supporters attacked the Capitol Buildings. Today Marion takes us inside the key take aways from...

Sonia ducks away from the IAAF World Championships to give us another masterclass in training for the half marathon distance. She has a big announcement that only Patrons can hear and I have a huge prize for one lucky listener. I've been getting emails all week from squad members who have picked up bumps, niggles and of course the dreaded virus. We all know the road to any big race is never smooth...

In 2019 Iain Ward signed up for a medical trial. As part of the trial an MRI was done on his brain and a small, supposedly harmless, tumour was detected. A later scan showed it growing so, two weeks after his 31st birthday he was scheduled for brain surgery, during which he had to be awake and talking the entire time. A week later it was confirmed that he had Stage 3 brain cancer, which normally c...

US Correspondent Marion McKeone joins Jarlath for a round up of the US news and the latest developments at the January 6th hearings. Elon Musk's attempt to buy Twitter backfires in his face while Joe Biden visits Israel but refuses to shake hands! There's so much more to this conversation available on Patreon.com/irishmanabroad. Get access to double size episodes, more craic, more fun and more con...

Cathal Dennehy, Ireland’s most respected athletics writer joins us to discuss the upcoming World Athletics Championships while Sonia helps her athletes prepare for the biggest event of the year. Things are definitely heating up. Week 3 of Sonia’s training plan for the Antrim Coast Half Marathon tested our listeners with a 5 mile repeat session and a 100 minute long run. We get the feelings and que...

Award winning journalist, author and special correspondent for the Irish Examiner, Mick Clifford speaks to me about the new cold case investigation into the murder of French filmmaker Sophie Toscan du Plantier. With multiple documentaries, podcasts, endless media coverage and rumours around the crime and the one man suspected of committing it, is it possible that a new piece of evidence  prompted...

Marion reflects on a July 4th unlike any she can remember. With many Americans experiencing complete shock and disillusionment with the senseless mass shooting in Highland Park, our friend and US correspondent for the Sunday Business Post examines the details that are emerging around this awful event and what we know about the shooter. Is there a new type of juvenile extremist phenomenon growing u...

Before handing out our half marathon training plan for the week, Coach Sonia O'Sullivan gives us a look inside a record breaking night for Union Athletics Club in Oregon. Jessica Hull's attempt to claim another Australian record has parallels with the journey of our squad to the Antrim Coast Half Marathon. If you climb the mountain too fast or skip certain steps, you can easily plummet from where...

Born in Belfast, George Hamilton has worked in broadcasting for four decades. In that time he his voice and ability to tell a story as it unfolds have made him the undisputed voice of Irish football. George’s commentary like John Motson, is the soundtrack that sung by little boys and girls dreaming of winning world cups and scoring goals in the backyards when nobody is watching . He has captured t...

Last week seems like an eternity ago when the Supreme Court is doing everything it can to turn back the hands of time. This week Marion McKeone explains the sense of bewilderment across much of America as 6 conservative judges make their mark, one brave Republican stands up to the bullies, Ghislaine Maxwell goes down with two fingers in the air and the prospect of violence in the streets seems ver...

After week one on the road to the Antrim Coast Half Marathon Sonia asks us to review and adjust based on what we have learned. We dial in our team captains and a few squad members to get their takes on how the plan felt. Then coach Trevor Cummins jumps on the Irishman Abroad LiveLive (00447543122330) to advise us on what to do with the cross-training days within the plan. Sitting on the deck of he...

Irish swimming legend and campaigner for justice, Dr. Gary O'Toole sits down with to talk on the podcast this week. Gary explains his complicated relationship with the sport of swimming and how it has changed over the years. We look into George Gibney's efforts to preempt Gary's attempt to gather a case against him and the grotesque way in which Irish swimming turned a blind eye when presented wit...

Joe Biden says yesterday's ruling ‘should trouble us all’ as the conservative Supreme Court majority struck down laws requiring ‘proper cause’ to carry guns in public. Marion unpicks what just happened and explains why these rogue judges are intent on bringing America back to the 50s. It's a bombshell piece of news that makes it hard to talk about anything else on the podcast this week but so much...

Sonia sets out the plan for week one of her ten-week-half-marathon training block. (Full plans available to download and print in the episode notes) Why is calculating paces at the centre of this week and why do so many people struggle to accept the pace they should be running at? We get a detailed look at the theory behind the training Sonia has designed and a walk through of how to get the most...

Padraig Harrington comes back to Jarlath and the Irishman Abroad podcast after 6 tumultuous years to talk about alternative sports psychology, getting your mojo back, coaching your kids, farmers with messages for other golfers and of course the LIV Golf tour. In the extended bumper cut of this episode (available via www.patreon.com/irishmanabroad ) we get to hear the raw unfiltered opinion of one...