First Thought

The US election in November of this year will be one of the most consequential in many years. Can Trump be beaten by Joe Biden? If he is, will he accept the result? If not, what then? In this episode, hear from Marion McKeone of the Business Post, one of the leading reporters on the US political situation, in conversation with Larry Donnelly, lecturer in law at NUI Galway and frequent media commen...

One of the last remaining Holocaust survivors living in Ireland, Tomi Reichental did not speak about his experiences for many years after immigrating. Decades later, he went on to take part in a documentary about his attempts to meet one of his jailers. In this episode, recorded at Galway International Arts Festival in July 2018, Reichental speaks with human rights lawyer Saul Woolfson about his e...

First established in the year 2000 to house asylum seekers entering the Irish state in search of international protection, Direct Provision was intended as an interim accommodation system for a six-month period. That was not how it worked out. The average length of stay in Direct Provision was 23 months at the end of 2017, with some staying for as long as five years in conditions which have been c...

In this episode, celebrated food writer Bee Wilson joins Catherine Cleary, journalist and food writer with The Irish Times, to discuss our evolving relationship with food and the way we live (and eat) now. Bee Wilson is a journalist and historian and the author of five books on food-related subjects, the most recent being The Way We Eat Now: Strategies for Eating in a World of Change (2019). She h...

Perhaps Ireland’s best known journalist, Fintan O’Toole is well known for piercing political commentary and in this episode he ruthlessly dissects the psychology and politics of Brexit. His First Thought Talk Listen, recorded in 2018, is both pointed and prescient. Listen to learn how trivial journalistic lies became far-from-trivial national obsessions; how the pose of camp indifference to truth...

Kate Mulgrew is an actor and author best known for starring roles in Star Trek (Captain Janeway) and Orange is the New Black (Red). In this episode, Kate discusses her memoir How to Forget, which chronicles the time she spent caring for her parents at the end of their lives. Her moving, funny talk explores the universal themes of life, death, and family as well as the riotous stories and career hi...

A meditation on the theme of ‘Home’ exploring what it means to share a community, a future, and a planet, presented by President of Ireland Michael D Higgins at Galway International Arts Festival in July 2018.  You can also watch the video from this event here https://www.giaf.ie/talks/first-thought-talk-with-president-michael-d-higgins

Welcome to First Thought, a new podcast from Galway International Arts Festival. In this episode, Festival CEO and Artistic Director John Crumlish and Paul Fahy share what listeners can look forward to.  Visit  https://www.giaf.ie/ for more.