DAVE O CONNOR, secretary of the NEAR Media Co-op, gives Noel McGuinness a round up of events at the co-op in the previous months. Dave says it has been a tough year financially for the sector but that thankfully NEAR has been able to keep going. Dave tells of the Sound and Vision fund, to…

Bealtaine Festival Communicates Ancient Traditions to New Generations
The Bealtaine festival celebrates creativity as we age. MICHAEL FOLEY, Head of Evaluation and Public Affairs with Age and Opportunity, talks to Noel McGuinness about the huge variety of events that will take place. see also http://bealtaine.com/ An estimated 120,000 people now take part in the Bealtaine festival, making it one of Ireland’s biggest arts…
Culture Shots – Intercultural Project
PAT GUERIN has GRACE WILENTZ, Intercultural Dialogue through Community Media Coordinator at Near Media Co-op, to talk on updates of “Culture Shots” programme and the Intercultural Projects, as well as an analysis of the first round of the project and the following rounds recruiting and training…
School of Cosmic Physics at Dunsink Observatory
SENIOR PROFESSOR LUKE DRURY, HEAD OF ASTROPHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY SECTION, talks to Mark Finnegan about National Science Week and the international significance of Dunsink in terms of research into outer space. It is rocket science! The Irish Astronomy Trail, taking in Cork, Galway and Newgrange is also discussed. Over 4,000 people a year visit Dunsink…
Removal of Literacy Post in TARGET, Donaghmede
Noel speaks to Cllr. MICHAEL O’BRIEN from the Anti Austerity Alliance about the removal of a literacy post in TARGET, Donaghmede. He talks the situation where the Education and Training Board is not funding a replacement for TARGET, the disruption that it may cause to people taking adult education in the area and the lack of…

Tales of Medievil Dublin 2013
GILLIAN KENNY of Friends of Medievil Dublin joins Pat Meehan to discuss “Tales of Medievil Dublin”. A series of talks that have been run each year since 2010. All of the talks are free to the public. Gillian outlines some of the talks, in particular one based on Medievil coins. Seperately, Gillian will give a…
DCTV and the Irish TV Digital “Switch-over”
John speaks to CIARÁN MOORE from Dublin Community Television. They begin by explaining the difference between community television and commercial television. Ciarán explains how and where DCTV broadcasts, and then how the switch-over to digital will affect the station as well as what it is likely to change with the digital introduction. Ciarán explains what has happened in the…
Cafe O Play celebrates first anniversary
MICHELLE BARRY CASHMAN and HANNAH LOPEZ, the operators of Cafe O Play at Clonliffe & Croke Park Community Centre explain how this new concept in play groups operates. They provide a cafe service for parents, and full playgroup facilities for children. This means parents and children can socialise at the same time. There are some very…
Beaumont Woods Residents Association’s Fear Of A “Through Road”
COLIN FENNELLY of Beaumont Wood Residents Association speaks to John Healy to talk about the plan to put a “through road” at the back of the estate, to the west side of Beaumont Hospital. Colin talks about his fears of the potential problems that may arise during the development of the new road, Beaumont Hospital’s…
Christmas Pop-up Shop for St Michaels House
John Healy interviews DEIRDRE WALSH from St Michaels House, about the Christmas Pop-up Shop to raise money for the two centre of Santry Centres, and how the service users decided to help out another good cause, and they chose the Children Hospital in Crumlin. She also wanted to thank the Near FM listeners for the response and all…
FLAC’s 8th Dave Ellis Memorial Lecture
FLAC (Free Legal Advice Centres Ltd) invited renowned US public interest lawyer BRYAN STEVENSON to speak at this year’s Dave Ellis Memorial Lecture. Mr STEVENSON’s speech brought home some very powerful points about justice in the US that have great relevance for us here in Ireland. The justice and imprisonment statistics in the US are…
Active Retirement Art Exhibition
Mark speaks with PAT BYRNE, a member of the Raheny Branch of Active Retirement Ireland talks about an art exhibition on display in Raheny Library. She talks about how they meet once every week to paint and how the exhibition takes place on the free premises of the library, where the proceeds for the exhibitions go, the…
NEAR Media Intercultural Co-op
GRACE WILENTZ pops in to update Noel McGuinness on the progress of the Near FM & MediaCorp Intercultural Project. With her she has two members of the latest group to come together: Maleka and Ecaterina. At this point there are 17 participants in the project. They are learning a wide range of skills in the…
Lorraine Clifford Lee and the FF Ticket
LORRAINE CLIFFORD LEE talks to Conor Doyle. Fianna Fáil added Lorraine as a second candidate to the party ticket in the Dublin Fingal constituency. Lorraine Clifford Lee, who unsuccessfully contested the Dublin City Council ward of Pembroke-South Dock in last year’s local elections, will run alongside Senator Darragh O’Brien. Ms Clifford is a member of…
American Country Singer Casey Black
Amanda Ni Ghabhann interviews American country singer CASEY BLACK, who will be at Whelans on May 20th along with Niall Connolly. He plays three live songs: “Happiness” @ 4’55”, “Flowers” @ 21’31” and “Museum made of Glass” @ 29’18”…