JACK BYRNE, one of the founders of NearFM chats to John Healy about the station’s beginnings. North Dublin community radio station Near FM, which marks its 20th anniversary next week, had very humble beginnings. Its first studio was an empty car crate, wallpapered with egg boxes, located in a vacant school dormitory in Coolock. From…
ODREN REID talks about the closure of the Active Parents service in Finglas. The service is facing major funding cuts. He tells Pat Meehan about what the service provides for parents, including teaching young adults parenting skills, linking back into families, a drug and alcohol awareness programme and various activities for service users. Child charity…
EMMA NOLAN, Organiser of the Maternity and Infant Awards joins Yvette Reid in studio to discuss recently released statistics that suggest some 80% of parents are concerned about the quality of care in creches. Emma says parents paying up to €1200 per month for creche care and many of them feel that too much time…
Ronnie speaks to FATHER DEREK FARRELL about how the conference went and what they hope to achieve in the time between this conference and the next conference. Father Derek spoke of how integrated the travelling community are to the parish and their relationship with the local church…
MICHAEL WALSH is the Regional Coordinator for North Dublin for Coastwatch Ireland. He tells Pat Meehan that Coastwatch aims for informed public participation in environmental protection and management, especially in the coastal zone. He says that the Coastwatch annual survey is now used in 23 European countries. The survey is designed to give an overview…
Noel interviews DECLAN MEENAGH, Labour Party candidate in May’s Local Elections about his campaign. He talks about his reasons to join Labour Party, the changes they brought and they expect to keep bringing to the community. He mentions projects like bringing the Luas to Finglas for 2017…
Councillor ANDREW MONTAGUE talks to Noel McGuinness about how he came up with the idea of a Bram Stoker Halloween Festival. Stoker, who died in 1912, was a true Dubliner. He lived in Marino, studied at Trinity, and married one of Oscar Wilde’s ex-girlfriends (who knew?). Oh, and he also wrote Dracula…
ROSE HENNESSY from the Friends of Londiani speaks to John Healy about the “Harambee project”. Rose talks about the work that the Friends of Londiani does in Kenta, the lack of medical services and spaces in the Londiani area, the volunteers that come to help, how people can finance the trip and the results of…
The Presidency of the Council of the European Union is responsible for the functioning of the Council of the European Union, the upper house of the EU legislature. It rotates among the member states of the EU every six months. The presidency is not an individual, but rather the position is held by a national…
GRACE WILENTZ, NEAR FM Cultural Coordinator, and PEG McMANUS from the Intercultural Group tell Pat Meehan what’s coming up on the Culture Shots programme. A major issue under the microscope is FGM (Female Genital Mutilation). It is estimated that some 3000 women in Ireland have undergone this ritual, many of them being abducted in order…
Mark Finnegan is joined in studio by Director of the upcoming Finglas Festival 2015, SEAN MOONEY. Over the last couple of months a voluntary committee of enthusiastic and caring people of the community joined together to organize the Festival for July 2015. The Festival was a huge success in the past and with the hard…
Flavia speaks to several people during the Joint Housing Conference held in Dublin Castle on Saturday 28th November 2015. Flavia firstly speaks to JOHN BISSETT from Housing Action Now. He talks about the objectives of the conference, the different workshops that took place during the conference, Housing Action Now’s approach and thoughts to the upcoming…
NESSA POWER speaks to Pat Meehan about her drama group “Drama Power”. They talk of what the group does, when classes take place and the cost of attendance. They also speak of the self benefits of taking part in Drama and the impact it can have on your overall life. They talk of the gender…
Conor Doyle is chatting with author STEPHEN MOORE about his book ‘Pearse Street 100’, which chronicles a century of activity at the station and the stories of the men – and women – who served there down the years. From the 1916 Rising to Ned Broy and Michael Collins, from protecting the institutions of the new…
Noel Mc Guinness speaks to Deputy TERENCE FLANAGAN independent TD for Dublin north bay regarding his dart survey & the pac visit to Howth. TERENCE talks about the vacant premises on the pier in Howth & the huge potential it could create if the department of agriculture could do something about the usage of theses…