The Royal Irish Academy

In this bonus episode of Shelfmarks, Zoë Comyns chats to guest writers Niall and Christine about their own relationship with their garden and nature. Shelfmarks is a podcast by the Royal Irish Academy podcaster-in-residence Zoë Comyns. Every other week Zoë will sift through the Academy collection for Shelfmarks (biographies, manuscripts, books and reference from the collection) and invite a guest...

In this week's episode, podcaster-in-residence Zoë Comyns delves into the life of Cynthia Longfield and spends time with writer Amanda Bell in her Mayo garden. Cynthia Longfield (1896–1991) was an entomologist, specialising in dragonflies (Odonata). She was part of the St George Expedition that sailed to the Pacific in 1924. Her collection of memorabilia from the 1924 St George expedition is held...

In this Podcast, Megan Brien, historian of design and interior architecture, explores the history of the turret clock in the Clocktower building at Grangegorman on the northside of Dublin’s city centre. With horologists Julian Cosby and David Boles, Megan reveals the unique features of this extraordinary timepiece: the oldest known flat-bed clock in the world. Grangegorman Histories is a public hi...

In this episode, John Doyle and John FitzGerald discuss the subject of the UK financial ‘subvention’ to Northern Ireland, which has been dominating the public debate on the economics of a united Ireland. You can read John Doyle's paper, as it appears in Irish Studies in International Affairs, at https://doi.org/10.3318/isia.2021.32b.30 John Doyle is the Director of the Institute for International...

In this first episode of Shelfmarks Zoë Comyns looks at an expedition to Rockall off the north-east coast of Donegal funded by the Royal Irish Academy in 1896. The island is extremely remote and poor weather conditions meant it was impossible to land on Rockall. The crew of geologists, naturalists and biologists did collect dredge samples and bird specimens. This programme evokes his journey and t...

Shelfmarks is a podcast by our podcaster-in-residence Zoë Comyns. Zoë has spent time looking through the collections and library holdings in the Academy to explore how people have written about and observed our natural world over the centuries. In this Culture Night special to start the series Zoë explores nature writing as it was when the Royal Irish Academy opened in 1785 to now, and how its foc...

In this episode, Christopher McCrudden and Oran Doyle explore the legal constraints or soft-law guidelines that are relevant to the franchise in the north and in the south, potential issues that arise from tensions between the two franchises, and possible resolutions. You can read their paper, co-authored with David Kenny, as it appeared in Irish Studies in International Affairs, at https://doi.or...

In the final episode of this series, Professor of Immunology Christine Loscher discusses the vaccine rollout and answers questions on vaccines for teens, booster shots and more. As we reach 70 percent of the population of Ireland vaccinated against COVID-19, host Dick Ahlstrom chats to immunologist Professor Christine Loscher about how Ireland has performed in terms of its vaccination programme, w...

In Vaccine Questions Ep 7 behavioural economist, Professor Pete Lunn shares expert insights on how our behaviour impacts the spread of the COVI19 and what drives this behaviour. Pete is head of the Economic and Social Research Institute's Behavioural Research Unit and a member of a subgroup that advises NPHET on public response to the pandemic. He tells Dick what questions this group has asked abo...

In this episode Adele Bergin and Seamus McGuinness reflect on cross-border differences in living standards, opportunities and quality of life on the island of Ireland. So, who is better off? You can read their paper, as it appeared in Irish Studies in International Affairs, at https://doi.org/10.3318/isia.2021.32b.12 Adele Bergin is Associate Research Professor at the Economic & Social Research In...

Chief Bioethics Officer at the Department of Health, Dr Siobhán O’Sullivan talks about the difficult decisions officials and individuals must grapple with in this pandemic and the values and principles which underpin them. While science plays a vital role in informing decisions such as prioritisation for vaccination, these decisions are not made in a vacuum. They impact on all our lives and requir...

In this episode, Deirdre Heenan and Anne Matthews delve into how cross-border cooperation relating to health between Ireland and Northern Ireland really works. What collaborations are working? How did health co-operation really work during the COVID-19 pandemic? What are the best parts of each system? Does politics stand in the way of citizens' health? How could health outcomes for everyone on the...

In this podcast series host Rory Montgomery talks to ARINS authors about their analysis of the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south, post-Brexit. ARINS, Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame'...

In episode five Dick chats to Professor Jane Suiter, Director of the Institute for Future Media, Democracy and Society at DCU about what drives the spread of disinformation and how it can undermine vaccination programmes. What is the difference between misinformation and disinformation and are they the same thing as fake news? Dick asks Jane to explain what these terms mean and they discuss the ev...

Emer Cooke, Head of the European Medicines Agency explains its role in assessing and authorising COVID19 vaccines, and Dick asks why should we trust the EMA to ensure that all the vaccines we receive are safe and reliable? COVID19 vaccines can only become available to us here in Ireland once they are authorised by the European Commission following evaluation by the European Medicines Agency (EMA)....

The fifth in the series of the History of Emotions Podcasts 'From grief to wonder: Exploring emotions in Irish History' examines the intersection between emotions, space and place in the context of Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. Established in 1832 Glasnevin Cemetery is still in operation today and has always been committed to burying the dead of ‘all religions and none’. As Ireland’s first non-sec...

This the forth of six podcast explores revolutionary solidarity among Irish and other international radicals as a feeling of belonging: 'Belonging: feeling solidarity in the interwar world', Dr Maurice Casey This emotional experience is traced through a series of radical spaces that shaped the lives of socialists and communists in the 1920s and 1930s; the border between Soviet Russia and the wider...

History of Emotions Podcasts. No.3 in the Series 'From grief to wonder: Exploring emotions in Irish History' Illan works on questions of protest, public order and critical legal theory. His latest book is Law & Disorder: Sovereignty, Protest, Atmosphere is published by Routledge. The book focuses on the moment when social unrest takes hold of a populace, bringing the state structures of government...

Dr Lucy Jessop is Director of Public Health at the National Immunisation Office. In this episode she explains when, where and how people will get their vaccination shots, and answers lots of your questions around what side effects to expect. Here's the link to a factsheet on vaccination for pregnant and breastfeeding women: https://www.hse.ie/eng/health/immunisation/hcpinfo/covid19vaccineinfo4hps/...

This, the second of six podcasts deals with the emotion of detachment. 'Detachment: The Bellfield Plantation', Finola O'Kane Crimmins MRIA. Finola O’Kane-Crimmins is Professor in Architecture at University College Dublin. Her research interests include History of Designed Landscape, Architectural and Landscape Conservation, Architectural History & Theory, Irish Social History, Architectural and Sp...

The first podcast introducing the series is by Associate Professor Katie Barclay, University of Adelaide whose brief keynote provides an overview of the study of the history of emotions. Each week we will be releasing a new podcast covering a range of emotions from detachment through anger, solidarity, grief and finishing with wonder and excitement. Katie Barclay is Deputy Director of the ARC Cent...

An introduction to the series. The first podcast introducing the series is by Associate Professor Katie Barclay, University of Adelaide whose brief keynote provides an overview of the study of the history of emotions. Each week we will be releasing a new podcast covering a range of emotions from detachment through anger, solidarity, grief and finishing with wonder and excitement. Katie Barclay is...

Professor Philip Nolan explains the numbers we hear on the news and virologist Dr Gerald Barry answers your questions on vaccines. News coverage of the pandemic is full of numbers and statistics. Daily figures of new COVID19 cases, hospitalisations and deaths are provided alongside other numbers like 7-day average case number, incidence of disease per hundred thousand, positivity rate and growth r...

Listen to Members Fintan O'Toole and William Crawley who discussed the future of Northern Ireland in this conversation style Discourse sponsored by Mason Hayes & Curran LLP. This event also marked the launch of ARINS -- Analysing and Researching Ireland, North and South, a joint project led by the Royal Irish Academy and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at the University of Notre Da...

Luke O'Neil, MRIA speaks to Dick Ahlstrom, in the first episode of our new Vaccine podcast series, about the first COVID-19 vaccine given on the Island of Ireland, why this is such exciting news and why it is such an amazing achievement for science. The first COVID-19 vaccine on the island of Ireland was given to a nurse in Belfast on 8 December 2020, and with the European Medicines Agency due to...