Moncrieff

The Copenhagen restaurant Noma, one of the world’s top restaurants, with three Michelin stars, will close at the end of 2024 to reinvent itself as a full time food laboratory. The restaurant redefined what fine dining was and influenced chefs all over the world, including here in Ireland. Chef JP McMahon was fully inspired by Noma when opening his Michelin-starred restaurant Aniar and I’m delighte...

Hiberno-English is the dialect of English that most Irish people speak. But, in Cork, do locals speak a different language altogether? Henry McKean went to the real capital to see if he could understand anyone?

Newstalk's Simon Tierney joined Sean in studio to tell him why he finds the bald emoji ageist and degrading... Image: HotEmoji

Ireland's smallest mammal, the pygmy shrew, is under catastrophic threat from an invasive and non-native shrew. But why has this happened? Sean was joined by Dr Allan McDevitt of the Atlantic Technological University to discuss...

What do Orlando Bloom, Cameron Diaz and Cheryl Cole have in common? They all have dimples, a physical trait that more and more people want to have for its apparent attractiveness. And many are now undergoing dimpleplasty in order to achieve it. Dr Aamer Khan, the Clinical director of The Harley Street Skin Clinic in London joined Sean to discuss...

There is a venue in the heart of Dublin’s city centre that is a pub but offers no alcohol and doesn’t charge you for what’s inside, but instead charges you for your time. The Clockwork Door is a “time house” and allows you to use the space as you would like and you just pay by the hour to be there To explain this concept and how it works, Sean was joined by by Ciarán Hogan, founder of the Clockwor...

Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit is due to rocket-launch satellites over Irish water later tonight. The military and commercial satellites will be the first launched from UK territory. However, a space launch hazard area will be in place off the coast of Cork and Kerry between 10 o'clock tonight and 1 am tomorrow, in case anything goes wrong with the rocket. Patrick Murphy, CEO of Irish South and We...

Sean was joined on the show by Yvonne Conner, who lives in a village in Yorkshire that has been plagued by a mysterious sound for the past 3 years, the so-called Holmfield Hum...

With the first full week of school ahead, lots of parents will be dreading the return to the homework battle every evening. However, Jennifer Horgan is a teacher who believes there should be absolutely no homework in primary school, and for more reasons than family harmony at dinner time. Jennifer joined Sean on the show to discuss...

Senator Tom Clonan joined Sean on the show today to recap the stories making the headlines this past week...

Just before Christmas every year ice hotels around the world begin building their annual, and of course very seasonal, accommodations which usually open this week. But what is it actually like to stay in one? Sean was joined by travel journalist Devorah Lev-Tov to discuss...

Red Sky at Night, Sailor’s Delight. A Green Christmas makes a fat Churchyard. If it be clear, a happy year. These are some of the common sayings in Irish folklore about the weather, but were they really trying to, or able to, predict the weather? Dr Marion McGarry is a Lecturer in ATU in Galway and author of 'Irish Customs and Rituals: How our ancestors celebrated life and the seasons' and she joi...

A Nobel prize winning scientist shocked the world earlier this week when he suggested an unusual and cost-saving method for cooking pasta. Now, a team of researchers in the UK have tried and tested it while also discovering their own even better way of doing it. Sean was joined by Dr. David Fairhurst, Physicist at Nottingham Trent University...

A survey has found that 60 percent of people aged 18 to 29 have never used a phone box. What was once a lifeline for families and communities has been made obsolete by mobile technology. However, there is still a strong nostalgia for the old phone boxes, and none more so than for Paul Murphy, aka The Phonebox Man who has been restoring them over the last decade. He joined Sean on the show today to...

2022 saw a 13% rise in road fatalities. This was the highest number for 5 years. But what is causing this and is the EU’s protocol on speed limiters a possible solution? Sean was joined by Conor Faughnan, transport commentator to discuss..

If you’ve ever had the opportunity to taste American chocolate you’ll know it’s an odd experience. The chocolate is not as creamy, it’s dry and crumbly and has an wierd underlying taste of vomit. Why is this and how do American’s make their chocolate compared to Ireland? To discuss, Sean was joined by Daniel Linehan, chocolatier from Bon Chocolatier in Athlone...

For almost 20 years, Fr Aquinas Duffy has worked with missing persons cases and set up missing.ie in 2000. Last month on National Missing Persons Day it was shown that there are 897 missing persons cases on the island of Ireland still outstanding. Fr. Aquinas continues to urge people with any information, no matter how irrelevant you might think, to come forward. He joined Sean on the show today t...

When we hear the word “UFO”, many will think about science fiction, little grey men and The X Files. But for Dr Eamonn Ansbro, his research paints a very different picture. He’s an astronomer who works with the European Space Agency, but he’s also been documenting and researching these unexplained objects in our skies for more than 30 years. Eamonn joined Sean on the show to discuss...

It’s easy to forget that most musical instruments start out as a block of wood. Slowly, and over time, they are manipulated into beautiful objects that make music. And this is very true in the case of the traditional Irish banjo, which are still handcrafted in Co. Galway today, and indeed for the past 40 years. But what is involved in the process? Tom Dunne was joined by Fintan Cussen of Clareen B...

Lisa de Jong is a women’s health coach or what people call a period coach and educator. Before this role and after years of suffering, Lisa felt no one was taking the pain caused by her menstrual cycle seriously. She travelled abroad for treatment and was eventually diagnosed with endometriosis. Lisa now helps women in Ireland, and all over the world, to manage the symptoms of chronic pain and tra...

How do twins differ? How are they exactly the same? There are many misconceptions about twins and how similar and different they can be. Could a pair of identical twins score the exact same on a test without even knowing it? Tom Dunne was joined by Professor Nancy Segal Director of the Twin Studies Center at Cal State Fullerton...

Anja Bakker started her pilgrimage last April, from Cork to Jerusalem on foot. Now, 9 months later, she is currently in Serbia and she joined Tom Dunne on the show to discuss... Image: The Flaunting Harper

For this weeks 'How To' slot we’re looking at how to sell your house. Tom Dunne was joined in studio by Barry McDonald, Estate Agent and Spokesperson for the REA group to discuss...

Perhaps one of the big questions facing the creators of artificial intelligence is how to replicate human touch. Now, a robot has been created that is able to give hugs. It’s called the HuggieBot 2.0 and one of its creators, Alexis Block of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems joined Tom Dunne on the show...

A new palliative care centre is to be built on Midlands Prison campus. This is a decision made as the elderly population in the prison continues to rise Conor Lally, Security and Crime Editor of The Irish Times joined Tom Dunne on the show to discuss..