RTÉ lyric fm have announced a new series of popular radio documentary strand The Lyric Feature and a new series of four audio meditations, entitled Taking Flight, on the work of Patrick Kavanagh to be broadcast as part of Niall Carroll's Classical Daytime.
The season begins on 5 September with Green White Enamel, which gives centre stage to a woman who has been long relegated to a footnote in Samuel Beckett’s story as his muse or 'first love’, the linguist and doctor Ethna MacCarthy. Claire Cunningham tells the story of how MacCarthy’s work was rediscovered following a medical consultation between the poet Gerald Dawe and his cardiovascular consultant.
On Sundays from 12 to 26 September, Anja Murray (Eco Eye, Nature File) brings us a timely three-part series tracing the past, present and future of the Irish landscape with an evocative soundtrack of original music composed and performed by Kevin Murphy of Slow Moving Clouds. In the series, Anja explores the themes of nature, culture and connection. Guests include Eamonn P. Kelly, formerly Keeper of Irish Antiquities at the National Museum of Ireland; Connemara farmer Gerard Walshe; and poet Jane Clarke.
Through these perspectives, the series goes beyond the soundbites of environmental debates to take a broad view of our engagement with land and nature, from the earliest people who settled in Ireland to the possibilities for a hopeful future. In so doing, it offers a convincing account of where we may have gone wrong - and the radical reset that is needed if we are to get back on track.
In Tenducci in Ireland, Michael Lee tells the story of the 18th-century superstar castrato Giusto Tenducci and the consternation he caused when his visit to Ireland resulted in his imprisonment for eloping with his teenage pupil Dorothea Maunsell. The programme features the playing of the Irish Baroque Orchestra with mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught from their recent album The Trials of Tenducci.
In A Place Of Stories, Patricia Baker visits Ireland’s oldest public library, Marsh’s Library, and tells the story of this perfectly preserved library of the late Renaissance and early Enlightenment along with the curious discovery of 800-year-old chants that have been found among the scraps used to bind some of the manuscripts in the collection. These scraps have now been pieced together by composer Sam Kavanagh (who found out about them on Twitter) and brought back to life by the Lalala Choir.
All through Autumn Niall will be playing his usual glorious mix of music from the heart of the classical repertoire via Niall Carroll's Classical Daytime, and at 11am each Friday in October he will feature a new series of radio essays, Taking Flight, bringing us four 21st-century sonic meditations on Patrick Kavanagh and his relevance for creatives working in Ireland today.
Made with the support of the Patrick Kavanagh Centre in Inniskeen, Co. Monaghan, the series will feature work from filmmaker Tadhg O’Sullivan (To the Moon, The Great Wall), writer Jaki McCarrick (Belfast Girls, The Scattering), poet Annemarie Ní Churreáin (Bloodroot), and writer and documentary maker Manchán Magan.
The Lyric Feature is broadcast on Sundays 6pm on RTÉ lyric fm and is available to stream or podcast from the RTÉ Radio Player and other podcast platforms. Niall Carroll's Classical Daytime broadcasts from 10am to 1pm each weekday. The Taking Flight series will also be available as a podcast.
