The Sperrins: Mining, Power & Community in Northern Ireland

In this episode, I’m joined again by Gerry McGovern to talk about his new book, 99th Day. We stay with what the book is really about,  the mining being driven by the energy transition, the waste that follows modern technology, and the communities who end up living with the consequences long before any promises are made, and long after the attention moves on. It’s not an easy conversation, and it d...

End of Year Round-Up: 2025 | Save Our Sperrins In this special end-of-year episode, Save Our Sperrins looks back over a pivotal year in the campaign to protect the Sperrin Mountains from gold mining. From the suspension of the Public Inquiry in January, through moments of international solidarity, creative resistance and legal challenge, to the relinquishing of mineral prospecting licences in Octo...

In this episode of the Save Our Sperrins Podcast, I’m joined again by writer and activist Lynda Sullivan, fresh from COP30 in Brazil. Lynda spent just one day inside the official Blue Zone, focusing instead on the People’s Summit and the global gatherings organised by Yes to Life, No to Mining, alongside thematic forums examining the mining and extractive economy. She reflects on the stark contras...

In this episode, we sit down with two men who helped shape one of the most remarkable grassroots movements on the island of Ireland: the cross-border resistance to fracking along the Leitrim–Fermanagh border. Back in 2012, when few understood the scale of the threat, farmers, families and community organisers began to join the dots between their wells, their rivers, their land and the industrial p...

This week’s podcast features Kelan Grant, a successful professional mountain biker — and a childhood friend of my own children, with family ties that stretch back over forty-five years. Kelan has been on bikes almost since he could walk. He grew up in Knockmoyle, at the edge of the Sperrins, and now lives and races professionally  out of Morzine in the French Alps. I’ve watched his phenomenal prog...

Chris O’Connell, Trócaire In this episode of Protecting the Sperrins – Voices from the Frontline, Marella Fyffe speaks with Chris O’Connell, Senior Policy Advisor at Trócaire, about the growing global movement for a UN Treaty on Business and Human Rights. From decades of work across the Global South, Chris brings a deep understanding of how deregulation benefits corporate power, how trade agreemen...

In this week’s episode, I sit down with Julie from Dart Mountain Cheese, an artisan cheesemaking company rooted deep in the foothills of the Sperrins. What begins as a story about cheese quickly becomes something much bigger: a conversation about place, sustainability, and how to build a meaningful livelihood in a rural landscape often written off as economically limited. Julie  shares how Dart Mo...

In this bonus episode, I dig into the UK’s newly published Critical Minerals Strategy 2035 — a document dressed up as environmental responsibility, yet rooted in the same extractive logic that has driven ecological breakdown for decades. Behind its polished language lies a blueprint for expanded mining, weakened planning protections and a deeper entanglement between government, finance and the arm...

In this episode, Marella speaks with Dr Steven H. Emerman, hydrologist, geophysicist, and one of the world’s leading independent experts on mine tailings storage facilities. Dr Emerman brings decades of research and international experience to a conversation that cuts through technical jargon and gets to the heart of what’s at stake in the Dalradian Gold planning application for the Sperrins. He e...

Lynda Sullivan has spent years working with communities affected by mining, from the Andes to the Sperrins. She speaks about how Ireland became a “green sacrifice zone”, the myth of mining as a climate solution, and what happens when governments trade nature for profit. Her work with CAIM and the Yes to Life, No to Mining network connects local struggles into a wider movement for protection and ch...

In this episode, we visit Butterlope Farm near Plumbridge, in the heart of the Sperrin Mountains, where Annie and Vincent Mullan have built a life rooted in care — for land, people, and community. Annie, with her background in environmental education, and Vincent, a lifelong farmer, have created a social farm that shows how upland farming can be both sustainable and deeply human. Their approach of...

In this episode, Marella speaks with Dr Lorna Gold, Executive Director of the Laudato Si’ Movement — a global network inspired by Pope Francis’s call to care for our common home. From her long experience in climate justice and faith-based environmental work, Lorna brings insight into how moral and spiritual leadership can shape our collective response to the ecological crisis. As she prepares to t...

In this episode, I speak with Kerry McCrory, who lives in Coneyglen in the heart of the Sperrins. Through her holistic practice, Kerry helps people reconnect with balance, colour, and the deeper rhythms of nature — but over the years, her care for human well-being has become inseparable from her care for the land itself - through her  opposition to the gold mine  to challenging the spread of indus...

In this conversation, James Orr — Director of Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland — joins us to reflect on decades of environmental work, solidarity, and vision for change. From his long-standing support for the Save Our Sperrins campaign to his calls for an independent environmental agency and a just settlement for Lough Neagh, James brings a rare combination of grounded experience and deep eco...

In this conversation, Marella speaks with Emma Conway, founder of Sperrin Soul Forest School — a mother, educator, and member of an extended  local family whose differing views on the goldmine mirror the wider divisions playing out across this rural community While parts of Emma’s family have engaged with Dalradian, others, including Emma herself, have spoken out against the mine.  It’s a story th...

What happens when the drive for endless growth leaves nothing but waste behind? Gerry McGovern, author of the After the Goldrush podcast , joins me to explore how mining — and the mindset that fuels it — mirrors the same destructive patterns we see in the digital world. Our conversation looks at what it means for communities like ours in the Sperrins to stand against extraction, and how waste is n...

In this episode I speak with Sinéad Ní Mhearnóg Uí Ghéibheannaigh, a young mother, poet, and advocate for the Irish language from ConyGlen near Greencastle. Sinéad works with Glór na nGael, supporting communities to keep the language alive, and has long been a passionate voice in the Save Our Sperrins campaign. We talk about her roots in the Sperrins, the role of language in shaping identity, and...

In this episode, I speak with Dr Amy Strecker, Associate Professor at the Sutherland School of Law in UCD and one of the volunteer expert witnesses supporting the Public Inquiry into goldmining in the Sperrins. Amy brings her expertise in land law, justice, and cultural landscapes, helping us understand how law can both protect and endanger communities and the places they call home. She speaks abo...

This update brings you inside the Council chamber as Fermanagh and Omagh District Council refused Dalradian’s latest attempts to delay site restoration until 2025. From explosive claims that their works are “miniscule” to councillors openly admitting unfamiliarity with the site, it was a meeting that laid bare the contradictions and the politics around mining in the Sperrins. Tune in to hear what...

In this episode, I sit down with Mary McGuiggan — A Derry woman, retired primary school teacher, renowned Irish dancer and dance teacher, activist, mother, grandmother, and  Gaelic speaker are just some of her many talents . Mary has been at the heart of building the Rights of Nature campaign in Northern Ireland and is one of the founders of The Gathering, which brings activists together from acro...

What is it really like to live beside a mine? In this episode of the Save Our Sperrins Podcast – Voices from the Frontline, we hear from sisters Nuala and Mairéad Heaney of Navan, County Meath. Their family home sits in the shadow of the Randalstown tailings dam — a toxic reservoir that has grown stage by stage since the late 1970s. For communities across Ireland facing the threat of new prospecti...

From community halls to the council chamber, Emmet McAleer carried the voice of the Sperrins into local government. Here he reflects on that journey. In 2019, Emmet made history when he was elected to the Fermanagh and Omagh District Council on a single issue: stopping the goldmine. Against the odds, he unseated a sitting SDLP councillor and became a strong, independent voice for Mid Tyrone over t...

In this episode I sit down with V’cenza Cirefice — activist, researcher and long-time supporter of Save Our Sperrins. V’cenza has been a constant presence in the campaign, bringing not only her energy on the ground but also her skills in counter-mapping and visual storytelling. We talk about how these creative tools give power back to communities, helping people to see the land differently, to cha...

In this episode I talk with Olivia and Tish, two young mums living just a stone’s throw from where the mine and processing plant are planned. Their concerns go far beyond their own families — they speak about the heart of Greencastle itself, where neighbours lean on each other, traditions are carried on, and community is the lifeblood of village life. They share, with warmth and fighting spirit, h...

Human Rights in the Hills: Mary Lawlor on Defending the Defenders What happens when a rural community stands its ground for ten years—and the world begins to take notice? In this special anniversary episode, we’re joined by Mary Lawlor, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, to reflect on the ongoing campaign to protect the Sperrin Mountains from gold mining. Mary shares...