blog menu

Here are some quotes from our radio series ‘Urban Beauty, Urban Blight’ which begins its broadcast run on Newstalk 106 this Saturday.

1. Dublin (7am 28th March, 9pm 29th March)

Musician Shaz Oye: “I’m seeing these massive glass and steel structures, in a way they are erasing the character of the city. What I’m looking at, it could be a picture out of any European city and I think that’s not a good thing because where is the heart of the city? Where is the character of the city? What makes this city different?”

Sociologist Mary Corcoran: “If you throw something in, people won’t respect it. If you make something beautiful and particularly if you make it beautiful in consultation with communities you give everybody a sense of ownership in it and therefore you create a space that people want to defend and not that they want to destroy.”

City planner Dick Gleeson: “I think the level of change in Dublin is absolutely phenomenal, probably among the capitals of Europe. It’s among the top two or three experiencing the rate of change … There’s been an awful lot achieved in Dublin in the last ten, fifteen, twenty years and I think the key thing now is to pull it all together.”

2. Cork (7am 4th April, 9pm 5th April)

DIT lecturer Conor Skehan: “One of the reasons Cork gets it so right is that the city council corporation area is quite small and the county council comes way into town so Cork actually has the advantage of having very joined up thinking going on.”

Financial guru Eddie Hobbs: “The geographical split of a river creates two cites … A river does create a border and you can get two types of mini cultures growing up on both sides.”

Broadcaster John Creedon: “The whole notion of critical mass … if you live in a city that has four branches of Boots chemists, what advantage is there of living in a city that has thirty-eight branches of Boots chemists?”

3. Limerick (7am 11th April, 9pm 12th April)

Journalist Mary Coll: “We’re not stupid in Limerick, we understand it has problems with crime. But if you live here, unless you’re actually involved in crime in some way, you’re never going to really experience it.”

Developer Ger Clohessy: “To me it’s a city that’s on the move and people don’t realise that … We’re living in a city that’s a very sporting city, a very proud city, and a very prosperous city. We need to get the message out there that Limerick is a city that’s willing to do business and can do business and has a very bright future.”

UL lecturer Des McCafferty: “There’s potential to be unlocked in Limerick, probably more than any other city. When I look at the other major gateway cities I don’t see any that have this latent potential that Limerick has got, and I think if that is unlocked then the future for the city could be very rosy indeed.”

4. Galway (7am 18th April, 9pm 19th April)

Musician Leo Moran: “Somebody told me one time that they thought that where the energy in Galway comes from is the river running down through the middle, that it brings an energy and a creativity to the city. Just the fact that the city is situated on a vibrant piece of nature … It’s got a touch of the Gaeilge, the Connemara wildness and it’s got a touch of the cosmopolitan European-ness … and it’s situated in such a beautiful place, it’s a wonderful place.”

City planner Fidelma Mullane: “I don’t think the charm of a city depends on its size … Our city is rapidly expanding but I think we don’t have the vision for the kind of city we want to see for our citizens in fifty years time which is what we should be looking at. The city of Galway should be planned so it can expand as required … and so that we can live here as comfortable citizens and feel that we can participate in planning its future and our children will thank us for that.”

Our ‘Is It Just Me?’ series has finished its broadcast run on RTÉ – it remains online on RTÉ.ie and we’re hoping it will get another run shortly on RTÉ television. We know people are curious to find out what’s been happening to our young people in the series so we’ve been chatting to them about life since the series.

Daire

Daire has had a very busy few months since we filmed ‘Is It Just Me?’. She worked with us on our ‘Tower Songs’ documentary for RTÉ Lyric FM as she was one of the two teenage writers on the project. Daire’s songs were performed with the RTÉ National Concert Orchestra in the Helix in DCU and the documentary ‘Tower Songs’ went out on RTÉ Lyric FM on Valentine’s Day. She got to meet Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, at the launch of a new music centre in Ballymun. She has also joined the Youth Advisory Panel of Headstrong, the National Youth Mental Health Organisation, and helped supported their launch on March 25th in Dublin.

Akeem

Akeem is studying at UCG and still dreams of becoming a doctor one day. His love for the game of football burns brightly as he plays in the Galway League Championship, and he is also writing poetry. Akeem was involved in the launch of Headstrong’s Jigsaw Programme – community support for young people – in Galway.

Ennis Girls - Olwyn, Karen and Aisling

Having been so successful last year at the YSI (Young Social Innovators) competition, the girls have submitted their ‘Stomp Out Bullying, Take Two’ campaign and they will show the ‘Is It Just Me?’ episode as part of their anti-bullying campaign.

Frank

Frank is still involved in the Red Cross in Waterford with his Dad. He has started art classes to help progress his drawing and he helps out in his local school teaching students the skill of graffiti art.

Lucianne

Lucianne has returned from a trip to Russia for the charity ‘From Russia With Love’ who work with disadvantaged children in Russia. She has finished studying television presenting in the Bill Keating Centre in Dublin. Recently she won the Q102 ‘Search for a Star’ competition and will begin to work with the radio station very soon. She dreams of being a TV presenter and has added her showreel to YouTube.

Tim

Tim has finished his scholar exams in TCD, where he is in second year Arts taking English and French. Like Daire he helped Headstrong launch its policy document on March 25th and he is one of the founding members of the Youth Advisory Panel of Headstrong.

Clondalkin Girls - Samantha, Ellen and Vanessa

The girls are continuing their studies in Dublin colleges. They are also busy attending auditions for both screen and stage with their drama classes. This summer Samantha will attend a drama competition in America and she is very excited about that.

Cathal

Cathal is working on a project about the structure of plants for UCD and is glad to be using his Botany degree.

Emma

Emma has just completed her Gaisce award (President’s award) and is celebrating with friends and family on March 31st. Well done! Emma is studying at Waterford IT and completing her degree in health promotion. She spoke at the Headstrong public launch, on behalf of the Youth Advisory Panel, and took part in a number of TV and radio interviews highlighting issues of youth mental health.

Ian and Luke

Both Ian and Luke are still studying but that has not stopped their love of music. Luke has teamed up with Colm Quearney, the musician who works with the Axis Centre in Ballymun, on some new musical projects.

As part of our involvement in DRACE, digital radio cultures in Europe www.drace.org, I’m currently researching and writing a book chapter on podcasting and radio. Anyone sitting in Ireland and thinking they have a handle on this or digital media content is likely to be in danger of missing the point unless they’re keeping on top of what’s happening in the UK, Germany, France and the US for example. While we still lag behind on any indices of convergence and digital media (due to our poor roll out of broadband) the global picture is changing quite rapidly. In the UK for example over 4 million people use podcasts every week and it has a national penepration of 14% compared to 18% in the US. In the US some radio stations are now more podcast than live radio, one is even broadcasting solely listener’s own podcasts, and Chicago Public Radio charges for its podcast archives of hit shows like ‘This American Life’. One of the more interesting pieces of information around is the recent Nielsen report on social networking which shows social networking is now more popular as an online activity than e-mail and over two thirds of the globe’s online population have used social networking sites. Globally Facebook is winning - and interestingly its not all young people - the biggest demographic growth for Facebook has been in the over 35s and as much as one quarter of its users are over 50. The book we’re writing Digital Radio in Europe is being published by Intellect so watch out for it next year. In the meantime some of our research is flowing into the Irish market as Athena Media and DIT are currently engaged in a research project about digital radio futures in Ireland. We’re conducting both qualitative and quantitative research; a detailed survey of all broadcasters and a interview stage with interested parties. Our assistant researcher is Agata - so if you want to know more about the project contact Agata (at) athenamedia dot ie.

Our cities series starts shortly on Newstalk 106 with Dublin going out first, then Cork, Limerick and finally Galway. Its a series exploring what works and what doesnt work in our cities, and we’ve talked to people who are decision-makers, like Dick Gleeson, Dublin City Planner or citizens like singer Shaz Oye. In each episode we’ve used the music of that city so expect a lot of U2 in Dublin and Cranberries in Limerick. Tune in next week (very early on saturday 7am or the repeat on Sunday at 9pm - or the podcast release that will follow).
Other radio projects include the final few weeks of our repeat of Women and Words on RTE Lyric FM which goes out Saturday evenings at 5.30. We’re also in production on Field of Dreams and Chris Clarke has been recording across the weeks with Portumna and their repeat victory in Croke Park on St Patricks Day. Field of Dreams is a three part sports series with each episode taking a different angle on sports from Club Heroes and Portumna to Sister Act - the story of two sisters who are champion sailers to a special on SARI children, sport and racism project. That series will go out in the Autumn on Newstalk 106.

Our young peoples series ‘is it just me?’ moves to Thursday nights from this week - so catch Emma’s episode on coping with and living with dark days - this Thursday and afterwards online on RTE 2 website via www.rte.ie

We’re currently shooting a special for Capital D, RTE on the new parklands on the north east fringe of the city called Fr Collins Park. Its a great good news story in a springtime with little spring in the air and we’re capturing the long journey to create this very special park (which will be fuelled by wind power) and the thinking behind it as well as the locals who will get to use it.

Its about what makes a city and what we think about the cities we live in. Urban Beauty, Urban Blight is a four part series focussed on the major cities in Ireland - Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway which starts later this month on newstalk 106. Urban Beauty, Urban Blight takes a look into the heart of urban planning and development, we find out what people on the street think, what planners plan and who gets it right or wrong in terms of city development. Tune into Newstalk from March 28th to find out more. The series was researched by Mike Hogan, Linda Stanley, Paula Cunniffe, Yvonne Redmond and the production coordinator is Susan Bourke. The series is produced and presented by Helen Shaw and is supported by the BCI Sound and Vision Scheme for broadcast on Newstalk.

Our TV series ‘Is It Just me?’ continues - on RTE 2 wednesdays at 5.30pm - its week 7 this week - so catch it if you can or see it online on rte.ie on the ‘is it just me?’ page. Our radio series ‘women and words’ showcasing world class Irish women writers from Anne Enright to Maeve Binchy is in week 3 this saturday at 6pm on RTE Lyric FM and again the entire series in online as a podcast on our own site www.podcastingireland.ie or on RTE Lyric FM. Marina Carr, the playwright, who has two news plays on show in Dublin at present, features in the series. In other audio-visual news from Athena Media we’ve just created a new version of our rugby women’s documentary ‘Scrum Queens’ which went out as part of the Winning Women series on Setanta Sports last year for the IRFU for over 1,0000 schools. The DVD will be used to promote rugby with young schoolgirls and encourage them to give it a try. The replication and re-print is issuing at a happy time for the women’s international game with a strong performance in the Six Nations - and a win after France! Best of luck with them in their journey towards a World Cup qualification.