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We’ve been shooting on our documentary My Private Everest, the life and times of explorer Pat Falvey, since January and we’ve just waved farewell and good luck to Pat who has headed off to Yellowknife on the first leg of his trek to the North Pole without the aid of dogs (or 4×4s as per Top Gear!).

Its an amazing journey and it’s been fascinating to watch him and his team prepare for the trek gathering the food and supplies they will need to drag all the way there and equally training to shoot firearms so they are able to defend themselves against an attack by a polar bear. Just before he left we spend a day training with him on Ireland’s highest peak, the beautiful Carrantouhil in Co Kerry, just a stone’s throw from Pat’s own home and base in Beaufort. It was just days after the big thaw and you can still see how icy and snowy it was up hill.

Next stages in our shoot will be to continue filming with Pat’s family and friends in Cork, Kerry and Dublin while Pat himself will be filming along the North Pole trek using his bullet camera strapped to his head like a coal-miner and his own camcorder. We’re filming with the Sony EX1 and enjoying the experience. We’re keep you up to date with progress on the documentary as we go on. Its schedule for Setanta Ireland later this year and is being made through the support of the BAI Sound & Vision Fund.

So imagine this. You live in a country where 50% of the people are pink and 50% of the people are brown. You arrange a conference on the meaning of life but only get pink people to present. Maybe you let a few brown folk into the audience. If they are lucky they might get to ask a question. And then you wonder why the brown folk are a bit peeved?

Extreme it may seem but in the last week I’ve experienced that twice. Forget pinks and browns, we’re talking men and women. Last week I attended the Dublin Web Summit, a major conference in Trinity College Dublin with over 400 in attendance. Some great international speakers from wordpress and craigslist, some interesting local speakers from digital start-ups, but not an X chromosome on the platform. Even the chair/facilitator was male. (Which is often how many conferences squeeze in their token woman). So maybe you think the answer is there are no women in digital media or the Internet? Lists of outstanding women from national and international companies based right here in Ireland or available a flight away from UK, France, Germany, Spain and Brussels. The predominately male audience were happy enough. Someone nodded when I remarked on it but said what did it matter if it was interesting? Well think about the pink and brown land. Why exclude half the world when you are bringing together ‘people’ to discuss the future?
So you might say that is a blip and anyway the web space is very techy and biased to men, right? So then on Monday evening I head to the Royal Irish Academy and their Craig Barrett lecture for again some 400 in the Mansion House. Barrett was excellent, provocative, articulate and stimulating. But then the RIA did something strange and invited four people to respond to Barrett’s speech (they had been given it in advance I assume) and they had prepared short speeches. Great idea. They came from four walks of life; education, science, labour and local government. Only problem was they were all men. In the audience were some of the most outstanding women in Ireland - women who lead university faculties, research centres, government departments, women who run public and private enterprise, who employ hundreds, invent patents and create solutions. Barrett offered us his ten point plan for rescuing Ireland which revolved around smart people (education), smart ideas (creativity and innovation) and a supportive environment (to make things happen). I offer an additional one to the list. That none of this makes any sense unless Ireland is committed to full participation of all people in our society, regardless of gender, race or background. We have to see an end to male only platforms and national discussions which exclude rather than include. Ireland’s creative ’smart economy’ needs men and women working together and needs to showcase our full potential and leverage it. Women need to be 50% of our decision-makers; in politics, industry and society. Its not about women - its simply that that is the only way we can truly grow. Both Barrett and David Beggs (in his response) talked about the Finnish model and how we can learn from them. One of the fundamental realities of Finland is gender equality and the recognition that women need to be half of all decision-makers - not tokens or status symbols - but 50:50. Our daughters and nieces deserve a better future. But even more importantly our future needs them.

There’s always something good about February (besides my birthday). The sense that Spring is in the air - or not far off. For us here at Athena Media February 1st, St Brigid’s Day, has come with a sense of a new beginning. We’ve moved once again. Only this time its just around the corridor in 10-13 Thomas St, Dublin 8. More space, light and since we’re at the back we’ve lost the soundtrack of city tours and hospital ambulances. Peace at last. We’re also celebrating our new radio series ‘Field of Dreams’ which goes out on Newstalk in a special broadcast on St Patrick’s Day, March 17th. Its a series telling stories with a sporting angle but with a different twist - like ‘Count Us In’ which is a sports project run by Sport Against Racism in primary schools in Dublin’s inner city to open children’s minds and bodies to new sports, from badminton to basketball, and to show how sport can unite across all boundaries. There’s also a documentary following the uplifting story of Portumna hurlers, heading for their 3-in-a-row Club Championship. That’s a story of brothers, like Ollie and Joe Canning, but its also how parish pride out-weights anything else and how the Club Championship represents the very best of the GAA tradition and legacy. The third in that series is about competitive sisters like athletes and twins, Rebecca and Charlotte ffrench O Carroll and sisters Annalise and Claudine Murphy, who are both laser sailors. Its great a series which showcases inspiring sports stories and people goes out on the national holiday and we hope it will give more people a chance to catch them. (We’ll also release them as podcasts so visit our new blog site www.podcastingireland.ie and you’ll find the podcast there after march 17th).
So besides our Spring move we have also welcomed a new office member, Niall Brew, who joins us on work placement for the next nine months. Niall’s a rugby man from St Mary’s with a ton of interests so expect to see his name around our projects across the year. We’ve been busy in January shooting in Kerry with Pat Falvey who heads off shortly for his trek to the North Pole so we’ll be following his progress and I’m sure he’ll be doing lots of radio updates for shows like Gerry Ryan. Our shoot the other weekend brought us up the highest mountain in Ireland, Carraountouhil, which was amazing and we hope to share some of those shots with you soon.
Back here in Dublin we’ve been busy with our Belmayne project and we’re out there again this week, talking to 4/5 year olds about their world! One of them wants to be the pizza man when he grows up!
So a new month, a hint of Spring, new work in radio coming up and a new person in the centre. What more could we want this early into 2010?
(By the way the podcast download numbers on our www.joycesdublin.ie site are quite incredible - over two thousand in just over a month. Visit and tell us what you think)