Our Man In Stockholm

In this week's episode we talk to Ben and Jerry from Castleknock Community College about their upcoming trip to Gothenburg to play in the world's largest youth handball tournament, the Partille Cup. The All-Ireland champions know that competition will be stiff, but they aim to represent the country with pride on the west coast, and they're hoping that our community can help them with t...

The Nordic GAA season got off to a flying start in Stockholm over the weekend as Gävle won the men's tournament with Copenhagen triumphant among the women, but it was Gävle's new ladies team who brought the sunshine on a rainy day in the capital. We also hear form Seán Collins directly after his brilliant gig at Wirströms City on Sunday May 18 where he wowed the crowd with his own songs an...

With his debut single having finally seen the light of day, the incredibly talented Seán Collins is coming back to Sweden for a gig in Wirströms City on May 18. Nephew of community powerhouse and long-time Stockholm resident Theresa O'Shea Ogenstad, Seán started playing guitar at age 10 and has recently graduated with a degree in music, but perhaps his best education has come in the school of...

The Easter holidays saw an exodus back to the Green Isle for many in the Swedish-Irish community, and the podcast was no different! I caught up with Zack Elbouzedi and Axel Sjöberg in Dublin where the pair are currently playing on the right wing for St. Patrick's Atheltic. Zack's sojourn at AIK made him a much-loved player with the fans there, but a desire for playing time saw him head hom...

This one took a little longer to get out than expected due to a visit to Rory McGrath at Northvolt in Västerås, but no it's finally here! Jen O'Sullivan is back to talk about her adventures in the wonderful world of Italian food, how coming from a big family made her seek the solace of individual sport, and how an active childhood is her recipe for success for her young son!

Spring is here and that means Alannah Robins is back in town taking part in the Supermarket Art Fair, together with a host of hugely talented Irish artists! Former Sweden resident Alannah moved back to Ireland and the west coast, but she's no stranger to these shores, promoting strong links between the Irish and Swedish art scenes and doing her best to encourage others to come and exhibit thei...

Saturday March 15 will go down in history for the west-coast Swedish-Irish community as the city of Gothenburg held its first official St. Patrick's Day parade. The "Irish in Sweden" podcast was privileged to be on hand to document a great day for those in the west, and you can hear all the voices from the day in this very special episode!

This week Ian Moloney joins med from Gothenburg to talk about his new pub venture with the Flying Barrel, the first celebration of St. Patrick's Day in the city and how the local community is working hard to re-instate a direct flight to Ireland that is sorely missed. There's also news of the St. Patrick's Day concert on Stockholm on March 11 - you can get tickets for it here: https://...

There is no end of talent in the Swedish-Irish community, and out in front right now is drag queen Dee Bugg, who is likely to get us all deported with her new single "Queen Of Sweden", in which she expresses her undying love for Prince Carl-Philip. Dee joins me to talk about the inspiration of Melodifestivalen, the process of making a smash hit, and why she wants a TV show to poke fun at...

This week's guest is the incredibly talented Lorcan O'Neill, whose remarkable career in dance, particularly contemporary and ballet, eventually brought him to Stockholm, where he now resides among us. We talk at great length about going against the grain in his native Cork and how dancing took him around the world before landing him here in Sweden. An unmissable conversation with one of th...

At long last we get to the interview with the brilliant Simon Chretién, our Irish-Belgian-Kiwi footballer smashing into tackles int he far north of Sweden! Simon's cosmopolitan background and adventurous nature have taken him around the world several times, and now he's up just shy of the Arctic Circle playing for IFK Luleå to see how far he can climb. There's also news about an intrig...

Swedish-Irish music fan Alva Dunne from Malmö is one of three hosts for a new podcast about Melodifestivalen - the annual competition where Sweden's Eurovision entry is chosen - that is flying up the charts! The 11-year-old is a life-long lover of all things Eurovision and Mello, and she talked to the Irish In Sweden podcast about what she likes about the competition, this year's entries a...

Plans to talk to Kevin Walker in his home town of Örebro took a turn this week with the news that a school shooting had occurred there on Tuesday. I've been working in the town ever since, and decided to drop out to Kevin's house to talk to him about what happened, as well as his career in professional football and his new path as a full-time songwriter and musician.

This week I'm joined by the wonderfully talented Lydia Lafferty to talk about the upcoming production of Oscar Wilde's play "The Importance Of Being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde. The holder of a degree in drama, Lydia talks about how she fell in love with the footlights at a local drama group for kids in Tyrone, and how that led to a life-long love of the stage that will no doubt be i...

Irish film-maker Dennis Harvey won the award for best short film at the Swedish Guldbaggen awards, which are the Nordic nation's equivalent of the Oscars, and he popped by the studio to talk about what this means for his work making movies about the politics of migration. There's also some good news around sponsorship - we're very close to having the podcast funded for the remainder of...

The build-up to Christmas continues, so we have another shout-out for our small businesses, plus a great gift idea - tickets to the "Trad On the Prom" show featuring Irish music and dancing, which is to Växsjö, Norrköping and Gothenburg on Jan 4/5/6. I am joined by show creator Chris Kelly and promoter Sten Cranner to find out about the show itself, the musicians and dancers performing, and how th...

There was a strong Swedish-Irish connection when Ireland went to the polls around ten days ago as former Gothenburg resident and current South Dublin council member Eoin O'Broin stood in the Dublin Midwest constituency for the Social Democrats. Standing in the same race as Sinn Féin's housing spokesperson of the same name, Eoin got involved in party politics after coming to Sweden in 2004, and des...

Saturday Nov 23 saw the biggest attendance yet for the ICCS annual gala and Beacon Award ceremony, which was held at the Elite Marina Hotel in Stockholm, and needless to say the Irish In Sweden podcast was there to record what went on behind the scenes! Hear from board members, guests, keynote speaker Brian O'Toole and award-winner Jim Dowling among others as we re-live what was an incredible nigh...

On a great day for Swedish-Irish relations, Sweden has opened a brand-new embassy on Pembroke Row in Dublin, ending a 14-year spell without one in the Irish capital. Ahead of the very first event held at the embassy featuring author and journalist Alexandra Pascalidou, I sat down with new ambassador Lina van der Weyden to talk about what this means for the future of the relationship between the tw...

This week I'm joined by the legend that is Alan Mahon, a mechanic and engine-whisperer of unmatched skill and one of the most sought-after men in the business. Al has been head-hunted by basically every major car brand in the Nordic region and is now working with technical support for the new breed of electric cars on the market - we spoke about them, the older petrol and diesel models still on th...

As winter approaches and the evenings get shorter, stand-up comic and Sweden's number 13-ranked snooker player Brian O'Grady dropped by the studio for a chat about his life on stage and at the table. We talk about how he came to live in Sweden, what happened when he first saw live stand-up comedy in the Liffey, and how a lot of what he has done since has been to impress the ten-year-old lad growin...

It's been a minute, as the cool kids say, but we are back with a podcast to tell the community about the latest Arrivals exhibition featuring 18 Swedish-Irish artists at Galleri Assessor, Assessorsgatan 14 in Stockholm on Oct 24-27. Created and curated by Sarah Galligan and Sophie Lundkvist McCormack with support from Tara O'Neill, the artists, the Irish Embassy and the Irish Chamber Of Commerce I...

With Ireland's Girls In Green set to face Sweden in two crucial Euro qualifiers in the space of a week, I sat down with Sweden coach Peter Gerhardsson to talk about football, the Fontaines DC, Drogheda hospitality and a whole lot more!

This week's guest is Patrick Hamilton Walsh, who as a teenager in Tyrone realised he wasn't actually much good at anything - but he had some dreams, and a plan, and nothing was going to get in his way. Since then he has visited more than 150 countries and is now based in Sweden with his family in the midst of a life that touches on sport, business and experiencing all that the world has to...

The Irish In Sweden podcast is calling it - winter is OVER and the Gaelic football season is underway, so this week's episode comes to you from the Danish capital of Copenhagen, where Stockholm Gaels, Malmö GAA and Sandviken Gaels were all flying the flag for Swedish Gaelic football! There's a range of voices old and new from all over Ireland, brought together by the big ball game that has...