She’s one of Ireland hardest working and best-known performers, and her honesty and sense of humour is an absolute tonic, making Linda Martin a great podcast guest. Linda started singing professionally when she was just 16 yrs old and still in school, and she has pretty much been performing regularly ever since. During that 50-year career, Linda has been a nine-time National Song Contest contestant, a Eurovision winner, a chart-topping singer, a mentor, a TV host, a stage actor – the list goes on!

Linda tells me some great stories about her life in music, the hey day of the Irish showbiz scene and what she has learned from some of the greats that she has worked with. We chat about her love of animals and her beloved Dublin Dog Hub sanctuary. And she also lets off some steam about modern day celebrity and work ethic, why politics and music should never mix, and why there’s no such thing as mega artists any more.

COMEDY – Tommy Tiernan, Marty Whelan, and Ronan Keating have some interesting ideas about how to revive Ireland’s Eurovison glory days…

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand

You’ve heard of the book Gulliver’s Travels, but did you know that it’s by far the most successful book ever published by an Irish author? And that it contained such dangerous political commentary that Jonathon Swift was never able to put his name to it during his lifetime? Today we have cancel culture, but back then people were ‘pilloried’ – tied up in wooden stocks, publicly shamed, and sometimes had parts of their body cut off.

These are just some of the fascinating things I learned during my conversation with writer, performer, and former political strategist, Gerry Mullins. Gerry has become something of an expert on Swift (he literally wrote the musical!). He describes Swift as ‘the original Irish satirist’ and even though he was around 300 years ago, so much of what he talks about feels familiar today.

In this episode, Gerry and I talk about the remarkable life he led, his complicated love life, freedom of speech (or the lack of it) back then and today, Trump, cancel culture, and Swifts incredible contribution to mental health in Ireland.

COMEDY – It’s the most hotly anticipated movie in years – its Michael… (Healy Rae!)

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand.

What does your home reveal about you? Celebrity architect Dermot Bannon’s new show, Celebrity Super Spaces, brings us inside the front doors of well-known people where we learn something different about them. Because I guess our homes reflect our personalities, whats important to us, and maybe what we want people to think about us.

Dermot tells me about visiting the homes of people like Joanne McNally, Vogue Williams, Andrew porter and a few others, and what he learned about them during his time there. He also talks about growing up in Cairo in Egypt and how that experience shaped who he is today; he rants about our obsession with modular homes as the solution to the housing crisis when there are far bigger things we should be focussing on. Dermot also tells me about a recent major health scare that could have been fatal for him, and how it’s affecting his day to day life now. And we also talk Gift Grub and my impressions of him!

COMEDY – its seems that everyone wants to get their house done by Dermot, including some very well-known people, who left messages for him on the Mario Rosenstock Podcast hotline this week..

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand