Conversations at the Áras

This short series of programmes follows on from last year’s Presidential Lecture Series. Again it is a collaboration between the office of the President and RTÉ.

Its origins lie in the view of President McAleese that this is a time of reflection and a chance to look at the kind of Ireland we want to build for the future.

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This year’s programmes are a series of conversations featuring the President and a number of invited guests from different walks of Irish life. This year’s series also feaures a musical or artistic interlude during each programme.The series is presented by Joe Duffy and the emphasis is on reflections and hopes for Ireland at the turning of the year and the decade. The first four programmes cover a different theme of this overall topic as follows – Culture and Heritage in Ireland; Working and Living in Ireland; Growing up in Ireland and Growing Older in Ireland. The Friday, New Year’s Day programme seeks to arrive at some conclusions to the conversations.

The hope of President McAleese and RTÉ is that this series will stimulate further conversation on the kind of Ireland we are seeking to build for the future.

An extended version of each programme is available as a Podcast. The programmes were recorded at Áras an Uachtaráin earlier in December.

Comment

If you would like to leave a comment on the series, you can do so here.
Click here to read various comments made on the Presidential Lectures.

Programme 1

Monday 28th December: 1.30pm – 2.00pm

The first programme reflects on Irish culture and heritage, in the company of Actor and writer Gabriel Byrne, poet Paula Meehan and former Cork hurling manager John Allen. Paula Meehan read a specially commissioned poem for the occasion ‘December in the Phoenix Park’.

Programme 2

Tuesday 29th December: 1.30pm – 2.00pm

The second in the series.Mark Pollack, who this year the first blind person to reach the south pole is joined by Sean Coughlan of Social Entrepreneurs Ireland and Nobuhle Ncube, Womens Development Coordinator at AkiDwA discuss working and living in Ireland .

The musical interlude on this progamme features a friendship and collaboration from both sides of the globe, from Argentina , Ariel Hernandez, and from Dublin Dermot Dunne, with a song about leaving home and heading overseas in search of a better life called P’al que se va.

Programme 3

Wednesday 30th December: 1.30pm- 2.00pm

The third programme in the series, features Emma Farrell, youth ambassador with Headstrong, Emma Teeling from UCD and Farmer and journalist Darragh McCullough. They join Joe Duffy and President McAleese to discuss growing up in Ireland today. The music on this programme is from two young musicians from Inis Oir Oisín and Conal O hIarnáin . They played two reels, Lucy Campbell’s and Lad O’Byrne’s...

Programme 4

Thursday 31st December: 1.30pm-2.00pm

The fourth programme in the series features Novelist Maeve Binchy, Miariam Headerman O’Brien and singer Sean O Se, reflecting on growing older in Ireland in conversation with President McAleese. Sean O’Se provided the entertainment with a rousing rendition of an Puc Ar Buile, accompanied by Martin Donoghue on accordion.

Programme 5

Friday 1st January: 1.30pm-2.00pm

Joe Duffy presents the final programme in the series hosted by President McAleese. The final part of the conversation reflects on some of the issues raised during the series, this time with the help of Tony Bates, CEO of Headstrong. The final musical turn of the series comes from the young musician of the year for 2009, Violinist Patrick Rafter, accompanied on piano by his mother, Maura Duggan Rafter, with Caprice Viennois, by Fritz Chrysler...

Conversations at the Aras Podcasts

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