The ClearOut

In this episode, Dara has further thoughts on the ongoing Middle East conflict after listening to the concerns of a good friend who has a certain amount of skin in the game. He wonders if a peaceful end will ever be possible when key combatants on both sides are so determined to eradicate each other. It raises the existential question of what value one human life has over any other. The deaths occ...

In this episode, Dara tries to get his head around the riots that took place in Dublin recently after a violent knife attack on young children outside their school in the middle of the day. The subsequent outpouring of shock and anger escalated into a night of destruction, rioting and looting in the city centre, fuelled by anti-immigrant rhetoric. Dara wonders about the bad actors involved in inci...

In this episode Dara admits he didn't realise it was International Men's Day, and a tweet suggesting what men should be reflecting on for the big day triggered something defensive in him. Before examining that reaction, Dara talks about a recent night in with his cousin and their respective daughters that didn't go quite as he anticipated, but was arguably the better for it. In the context of sexu...

In this episode, Dara reflects on some Jewish insights into the Israel-Palestine conflict which he found both helpful and inspiring. He posits that in the act of dehumanising Palestinians, Israel ends up dehumanising itself, which is its own kind of tragedy. Dara considers the interpretations of the phrase 'our shared humanity'. He argues that it could be taken as good or bad, but explains how it...

In this episode Dara reveals that he is unaccustomed to the comfort of pajamas. This fact is relevant to a very recent late-night incident that he shares. That same incident concluded with an inherent contradiction relating to the presence of both love and rejection. In acknowledging that tension, Dara begins to talk about romance as a form of idealism. He argues that the conscious demonstration o...

In this cultural episode, Dara is in awe of two recent Shakespearean recitations he caught on small screens, delivered fifty years apart in almost identical settings by two masters of the form. He makes an effort of his own and is embarrassed by the resulting evidence of his lesser skill. Before that, he briefly shares last thoughts on the final of the Rugby World Cup, which was won by a dogged So...

In this episode, Dara is exercised by the things we don't say. Why is it so difficult to express how we really feel to those we have known longest? Why do we communicate so tangentially and clumsily? What intricate layering process happens to put truth so far out of easy reach? Dara presents a theory he calls relational dislocation, in which we can find ourselves occupying very different areas of...

In this pendulum swing of an episode, Dara is dancing between joy and pain. It is a journey that takes him from Ireland's expulsion from the Rugby World Cup last week to the birth of his daughter 10 years ago. Raking over the rugby loss, Dara tries to understand exactly why it hurts so much. He knows it has something to do with a peculiar mixture of national pride and insecurity. He also discusses...

In this episode Dara looks at dynamics of giving and receiving in relationships. He argues that having a true exchange with someone is impossible unless that dynamic is present and healthy. Talking about an upcoming project, Dara explains why he has called it The Receptive Mind and concedes he could try to access more of that mindfulness in his parenting. Do men really not talk, or is that just a...

In this episode Dara is agitated by an interview with a US politician that he has just listened to. He is frustrated by the public representative's combativeness and disingenuous line of argument. He wonders why politicians are so incapable of being honest. Dara looks at Lawrence Kasdan's 1983 film The Big Chill, considered by some to be a key generational text, in a context of racial politics and...

In this episode Dara is looking into the void and trying not to feel frightened. Thinking about the construction of identity and personality, he is curious about how comfortable or not we are with what lies beneath. He asks if you can handle being left alone with yourself. He argues for coming to peace with oneself and entering into a state of acceptance of what he calls the unnamed being that may...

In this episode, Dara goes on a deep dive into Peter Ustinov's 1962 film of Herman Melville's Billy Budd. He recalls being struck by Terence Stamp's remarkable performance and beauty when he first saw it over 25 years ago. A naval setting provides the battleground for innocence vs evil, but what was most memorable to Dara was the gay subtext and the grim denouement that it provoked. Staying on tha...

In this episode, Dara argues that in the process of 'othering', many are guilty of thinking only in monolithic terms, i.e. attributing unchanging characteristics to all members of the othered party. This reduces people to stereotypes and cliches, and robs them of both their individuality and the presumption of no bias. He wonders if this isn't a huge part of the problem with discourse around ident...

In this episode, Dara responds to a confronting conversation about the podcast that raised issues of self-worth, purpose, and the validity of the podcast itself. He looks at the specific criticism levelled at the show and what he does on it and makes a case for the defence. In a broader sense he looks at situations of personal conflict and how to remove emotion from the equation in order to view t...

This power-cut interrupted episode picks up where last week's episode left off - with no clothes on! Dara wraps up his thoughts on nudity by addressing some omissions from last time. He briefly looks at a couple of male movie nudes before talking about his life modelling experience while in acting school in England in the mid-nineties. An article on a new photo exhibition that replaces Helmut Newt...

In this episode, Dara realises he omitted to mention three things in relation to the theme of nudity: shame, Viggo Mortensen's willingness to bare all, and a ridiculous story from his acting school days that featured nudity, singing, and money! Things he may have to return to next week... What you will hear is a discussion of nudity and nakedness in different contexts. Dara thinks the idea of bein...

In this episode, Dara is perplexed by the moral ending of Jennifer Lawrence's new comedy, No Hard Feelings. What is the purpose of such moralising? Does the audience benefit from the character's personal edification? Should we care about a dissolute character's redemptive arc? He compares the sexual politics of that movie to Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot. A contrasting comedy voice is that of We...

In this episode, Dara shares his thoughts on the late William Friedkin, of whose films he has long been an admirer, particularly The Exorcist and the lesser-loved Sorcerer, his 1977 remake of 1953's La Salaire de la Peur. Those movies are discussed along with a general appraisal of Friedkin's voice and greater artistic significance. Dara considers the changing astronomy of the world as more and mo...

In this episode, Dara takes his time to say goodbye to Sinead O'Connor and speaks of her relevance to him from the early days of her career right up to more recent times when life presented her with a terrible burden to bear. He includes a clip from Ep 34 of the show when he spoke about the death by suicide of her son in January 2022. Before he does that, Dara talks about his own recent mental hea...

In this episode Dara reviews some recently watched movies, including William Friedkin's To Live and Die in LA (1985), and Sidney Lumet's Prince of the City (1981), two much-lauded cop thrillers that each have their strengths and weaknesses and are very much products of their time. Once again Dara finds himself interrupted by strangers just as he is about to get in water. What exactly is the energy...

In this episode, Dara's aged cat has gone to the toilet in the wrong place, and the cause is not feline terrorism but dementia and disorientation. The loss of bearings is a very difficult thing to negotiate because it can result in dislocation. Dara argues that as fundamentally relational beings, we need landmarks and touchstones to position ourselves in the world. From institutions to abstract em...

In this episode, Dara wrestles with the conundrum that is Richard Gere. Self-satisfied narcissus or instinctive, id-driven sex animal? Is he a good actor? Is he just a fantasy figure beloved of Generation X moviegoers? Is he forever the man who rescued Julia Roberts from the streets? Dara examines Gere's legacy through some of his most memorable performances and discusses in detail Breathless , th...

In this week's episode Dara is bothered by the current controversy in Ireland's national broadcaster, RTE. He is bothered, but not surprised by it, because it is simply another example of institutional corruption and moral complacency. He looks at why people continually fail to rein in their greed and dishonesty. He believes a culture of 'permission granted' must be the default setting in ins...

In this week's episode, Dara is trying to work out who he should trust. After watching the current Arnold Schwarzenegger documentary on Netflix, he finds himself unsatisfied with the Austrian bodybuilder's account of past indiscretions, but what would satisfy him? A little more honesty and insight would be a good place to start. The online world, where so many of us spend so much time, is particul...

In this episode, Dara considers the randomness and unpredictability of human interaction over a lifetime. He argues that we simply never know what is going on with another person when we encounter them, even if we have had a relationship with them for years. We never know what they're bringing to that particular moment, which means that if anything close to harmony or connection occurs, it is almo...