Our Man In Stockholm

Unlike yours truly, who needs to have a serious think about his life choices, MMA journalist and podcaster Petesy Carroll was in New York to see Katie Taylor make history against Amanda Serrano last Saturday, and he joined me to tell me exactly what it was I missed on a magical week in the Big Apple.

This week we pay a visit to the basement of Wirströms Pub as a group of people got together to practice speaking Irish. There's news of Paddy Kelly's new book "We Can English" and the latest Spuds & Sill theatre production, and a journey down south to Malmö to hear from Kevin Dunne about his route to Sweden and his new company kitting out sound studios all over the country. You can find the Ir...

This week there's new music from the legendary Brian O'Connor and we hear how Dan Hickey went from Scandinavian Gaelic games star to professional golfer over the course of a couple of seasons. He also gives a few tips about how to correct your swing, so with the golf courses of Sweden opening up for the season, there's never been a better time to listen!

Later this week Stockholm Gaels will kick off a historic first season as the club's soccer team makes its debut in Division 7D of the Stockholm Football League - player-coach Seán "The Drogheda Destroyer" Donnelly joins me to set the scene for the season. You can keep up to date with the games and everything else happening in the Swedish-Irish community by subscribing to the community calendar her...

A bumper week of Irish sport in Scandinavia leads to a bonus podcast here during Easter week, with visits to a Gaelic football tournament in Helsinki, the Friends Arena in Stockholm and Gamla Ullevi in Gothenburg for Ireland's thrilling 1-1 draw in their World Cup qualifier with Sweden. We hear from Galway's Emma Ridge, Michelle Cotter from Clare speaking Finnish, Meadbh Murray on pride in the jer...

As Ireland take on Sweden in Gothenburg, former Eskilstuna defender Louise Quinn joins the podcast to talk about playing here, selling tickets in the rain and learning the language, and another brilliant footballer Alex Orphanides tells us what you can expect from the language courses at Folkuniversitetet. Support the show: Swish: 1232424166 patreon.com/ourmaninstockholm Advertising/sponsorship: i...

A friend's shared spooky experience struck a chord with writer and broadcaster Danny Robins, but little did he know it would pretty much change his life. A number of hugely successful podcast series and a West End hit featuring singer Lily Allen have led to a TV deal - and thousands of people getting in touch to share their stories of the supernatural. But what is it about ghost stories that appea...

This week we visit Eskilstuna where Irish artist Alannah Robbins provided the visuals for an uplifting musical experience, and I chat to Rory Moore in Örnsköldsvik about how he wound up in Sweden and the Swedish-Irish Chamber Of Commerce, which has really taken off in the last couple of years. We open with a mention of the Swedish-Irish community calendar, which you can subscribe to here - do so a...

It may seem amazing now, but Sweden's Roland Nilsson was one of only 11 foreign players to play on the very first weekend of the Premier League back in August 1992. The mild-mannered defender was brought to England by "Big Ron" Atkinson and quietly went about hammering opposing wingers as he became a cult hero at Sheffield Wednesday and Coventry City in the Premier League. Find out who the toughes...

Sally Hayden's book "My Fourth Time, We Drowned" is the most important book that will be published in Europe this year. It painstakingly documents the brutal path to Europe for many migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia, containing shocking tales of political indifference, human trafficking and misery, as well as tiny glimmers of hope. Listen to the podcast, then go buy the book.https://w...

On one of our more eclectic episodes so far, Hazel Reilly from Dublin talks about her work trying to find a cure for cancer, as well as her desire to find young people in Stockholm to play some traditional Irish music with. Later we sit down at Sponge Cookies with pastry chef Mark Farrell, whose cookies are really taking off in the capital. Mark, who has worked in some of the finest kitchens in En...

On Saturday the Swedish-Irish community gathered in Stockholm for the first parade since 2019, and what a day it was. Guinness Zero, wolfhounds, pipers, representatives from Luleå and Gävle - even a rogue Cork jersey made an appearance! Listen back to the sounds of a great day for the Irish In Sweden!

On Saturday night, at the age of 44, Casey Leydon will swap press row and his regular work as the best video creator in combat sports for a place in the cage, where he will meet a man half his age in an amateur MMA bout. He talks to me about how he has transformed from "not being a sports guy" who was carrying a few extra pounds while covering the world's premier MMA events to being a lean, mean f...

A bonus podcast during the finest week of the year - St. Patrick's Week - as Minister Damien English sits down with me to talk about our two countries, our diaspora and what we can expect from each other, as well as trade, neutrality and the possibility of voting rights for the Irish abroad. The minister is in Sweden to talk to Team Ireland at Ireland House, as well as political and business repre...

Every day is a good day to be Irish, but St. Patrick's Day has that little extra, and in Sweden it will be once again celebrated with a parade on March 19.  Sofie Murphy from the Swedish-Irish Society joins me to talk about the celebrations, and Sofi and Sarah from Lys Förlag pay a visit to the studio to talk about the books they publish, learning Swedish and ad fails in English by big Swedis...

The first in a new series of football podcasts telling the stories behind Sweden's Premier League stars. First out is Arsenal and Everton legend Anders Limpar, the mild-mannered wizard of the wing who ignited a white-hot rivalry between Arsenal and Manchester United before going on to play for the club as he supported as a boy - Everton F.C. Anders speaks about how his football journey took him to...

With the pandemic seemingly receding, I visited Dublin where I took the chance to see how the other half live - the Swedes who have made Ireland their home. Anton Berglund moved to Ireland for a job last November, whereas Vanessa Moore arrived in Cork to study and in 1999 and is still in Ireland. Answering perhaps the most important question of all, writer, comedian and spoken word artists Kalle R...

This week I've been talking to Max Ortiz, the man behind the revival of the Irish language in Stockholm, and musician Karl Murphy joins me to talk about playing the pubs, the pandemic and the sense of purpose that singing gives him. As always, a huge thanks to Martin and the staff at Wirströms Pub, proud sponsors of the podcast. 

Behind the scenes at the Beijing Olympics, the genius of photographers and why the outbreak of more illustrates why we need the Olympics now more than ever... 

This week Glenn Karlsson of Hyresgästförening tells us about the pitfalls of renting in Sweden and what you can do if you end up in a dispute with your landlord, and Stephen Farran-Lee recounts his career as an editor, publisher and translator of some of the most talented Irish writers of the last three decades.

Hannah Fraser talks to me about the work Enterprise Ireland is doing in Sweden and the great success stories of Irish companies here, while Kieran and Tom from the Mälardalen Brewing Company say goodbye to "Dry January" with craft beers from Strängnäs.

Teenager Aoife Leacy moved to Ireland at the age of six and became a bit of a sporting prodigy, but it is the very Swedish sport of ice hockey that won her heart, and she's now playing in the elite with AIK. They play a derby against Djurgården on Feb 26 at 1300 so let's mobilise all the listeners and the entire Irish community to go watch her - link below to the tickets website! There's also a ch...

The 1970 World Cup changed football forever as a swashbuckling Brazil team won the Jules Rimet trophy in fine style, and it's all documented in a new book, "The Greatest Show On Earth" by Andrew Downie - but how do you write a book about an event over 50 years ago that some insist on being paid to speak about, if they are still alive at all? Andrew tells the story behind this great slice of footba...

With the Winter Olympics on the horizon, our attention turns to all things snow and sliding. Now living in Stockholm and working at IES, Aoife Hoey Printz shares her amazing story of careening down the bobsleigh track at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010, and Karl Lambert tells the tale of how a discussion over a few pints led to the formation of Team Ireland to take on the gruelling 90km cross-count...

While the whole world was going nuts over "Get Back", I was giving it a major body swerve - do we really need another endless documentary about lads playing music? Turns out we do, and I got award-winning producer Pat O'Mahony to explain to me why it's a great documentary, and what goes into making one.