Stand Out

This weeks guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is crime Journalist and bestselling author Paul Williams. Paul is one of Ireland’s most respected journalist known for his fearless investigative reporting on organised crime and covering high profile cases. Paul lived with fulltime police protection for several years. After the 1996 murder of Veronica Guerin, Williams took over from her...

This weeks guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is Waterford man Adam Sweeney. Adam has recently become the youngest Irish person to summit Mount Everest at just 22 years of age. Adam and his teammates were the first all-Irish crew to complete an Everest summit in over two decades. After a gruelling 47-day expedition in May of 2026.

This weeks guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is Daniel Fildes. Daniel is an award-winning Irish wildlife photographer and a marine and freshwater biologist. He has won Irish Ocean Biodiversity Photographer of the Year and is now living the dream doing what he loves over in Vancouver, Canada.

This week’s guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is Brendan Maher. Brendan is a former Tipperary inter-county hurler. Maher enjoyed a 13-season career, winning 3 All-Stars and was a Hurler of the Year nominee in 2010. Winning 3 All Ireland medals and 5 Munster titles before hanging up his boots in 2021 after a fantastic career in blue & yellow jersey.

This weeks guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is Waterford man David Keohan. He is single handily on a mission to revive, reanimate and document the lost Irish ancient tradition of stone lifting. Using archival information, old folklore stories and mythologies he tracks down these stones, some which haven’t been lifted for generations.

This week’s guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is Dee Newell. Dee is a open water endurance swimmer. Dee swam the English channel and was a member of the Antarctica 2020, a series of ice swimming challenges inside the Antarctic Circle. She also swam from Robben Island to Cape Town just to name a few of her achievements.

This weeks guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is Mary O’Donnell. Mary has a Masters in Aeronautical Engineering, from a dream to become an astronaut going to space school, to a high-performance long-distance triathlete, she became Irish triathlon national champion and is now exploring aerodynamic advancements in cycling.

This weeks guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is Christina Desmond. Christina is from Cork and is a professional boxer and a full-time Garda with An Garda Síochána. She is undefeated as a professional and has won nineteen National Irish titles, including six at senior elite level, and a silver medal at the 2022 European Boxing Championships.

This weeks guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is Noel Browne. Noel Browne is a retired Garda anti-gang investigator who spent 41 years fighting organised crime and worked on some of Ireland’s well-known cases during his career working as a Garda inspector as well as spending 3 years in Colombia as a Garda liaison officer. He also was part of the operation that tracked the MV Matthew...

This weeks guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is Fintan McCarthy. Fintan is from Skibbereen and is an Irish lightweight rower. He is an Irish national champion, world champion and double Olympic gold medallist. Alongside Paul O’Donovan they at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics where he set a new world's best time for that event.

This weeks guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is Nicole Lonergan. Nicole is an award winning musician. She is the solo electric violinist in the renowned Block Rockin’ Beats and a member of the all-female supergroup BIIRD, recently completing a European arena tour supporting Ed Sheeran, including performances at Dublin’s 3Arena.

This weeks guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is Katie-George Dunlevy is an English born para-cyclist competing in tandem events for Ireland. Dunlevy was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa aged 11 and is registered blind. She is amongst the most successful Para Athletes ever to have represented Ireland having medalled consistently at World and Paralympic Games since 2014.

This weeks guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is Celine Byrne. Celine is from Kildare and is internationally recognised as one of the most sought-after Lyric Soprano singers having performed for presidents and in world famous venues, Claire performed to her largest audience to date of 45 K people in Rotterdam as well as some of the biggest names.

This weeks guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is Séamus Lehane. Séamus is a comedy content creator from Limerick. Known for his observations on Irish culture, he has carved a niche. For himself in the world of comedy through sketches on social media. His content resonates with People, blending humour & relatable insights of life in Ireland.

This weeks guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is Killarney native Kayleigh Cronin. The Dr Crokes player played a huge part of the Kerry’s ladies success before making the move down Under in Australia to play AFLW with the Adelaide Crows. She’s had a career of ups and downs but she has overcome every barrier that was put in front of her.

This weeks guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is Becky Gilmour last year Becky set off on a skateboard skateboarding the 3,000 Km journey along the Wild Atlantic Way of Ireland to raise awareness of suicide prevention raising money for the Samaritans after she lost a close friend to Suicide. As a mural artist she’s also painting murals along the way.

This weeks guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is former journalist with the Irish Examiner. Donal began his journalistic career back in 1971 with the Kerryman newspaper. He was recruited as a junior reporter at a time when the newspaper employed over 120 people, 10 of whom worked in the newsroom. He covered some of the country's most memorable stories like the Kerry Babies story from...

This weeks guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is Anna McGann. Anna is an Irish international rugby union player from Athlone. She was drafted into the Ireland women’s rugby sevens squad in March, 2023. She was dealt an unexpected card when an ACL injury left her out of action for a number of months. She found a new spark of inspiration that led to the creation of her jewellery busin...

This weeks guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is is Fiona Murtagh. Fiona is an Irish Olympian rower. She made history winning Bronze in the Women’s 4 at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics which was Irish rowing’s 1st women’s Olympic Medal. This year she won gold in the women's single sculls at the 2025 World Rowing Champs in Shanghai.

This weeks guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is Danny Buckley. Danny failed to get an ADHD assessment through GPs and private clinics here, and ended up being diagnosed in the UK. In 2023 he Co-Founded ADHD Now to help build an end to end diagnosis and treatment solution for his own ADHD which previously did not exist in Ireland.

This weeks guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is Harry Greaney. At just 20 years old, Harry was told he had synovial sarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer. He's battled it not once, not twice, but three times. When doctors could no longer save his arm, Harry had to undergo an amputation.

This week’s guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is Caroline Kay. Caroline is a Dublin-born Writer, Composer, and Performer, living in London. She has released 3 EPs of original music including Overnight, which was long-listed for a Grammy Award. Caroline is currently going through her own journey after being diagnosed with cancer.

This weeks guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is Danny Mullins. Danny Mullins is a national hunt jockey from Kilkenny. He took the Irish & UK racing world by storm with many Grade 1 winners under his belt. Blood is thicker than water in the Mullins family, with horse racing running through their veins. Danny is a son of successful trainers Tony & Mags Mullins, which makes him neph...

This weeks guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is Fergus Farrell. Fergus knows what it means to hit rock bottom and to rise again. After a workplace accident in 2018 left him paralysed from the waist down, he was told he’d never walk again. But through relentless determination and a refusal to be defined by limitation, he walked out of the hospital and walked 206 Km across Ireland.

This weeks guest on Stand Out with Ian O’Connell is Debbie Hally. Debbie has 12 years of experience as a paramedic with the ambulance services. Debbie is Ireland’s second ever winch man working with the Irish coast guard search and rescue helicopter team. She also featured on RTE’s hit show Ultimate Hell Week.