Filed under: Radio | Tags: Belfast, Boxer, Braddock, Energy Orchard, Joby Fox, Music videos shot in Braddock, Northern Ireland, Pittsburgh, Rustbelt, Sailor Town
Joby Fox, the bassist for the Northern Irish band Energy Orchard, on the filming of the music video for their single “Sailor Town” in Braddock, PA, 20 years ago.
Filed under: Radio | Tags: American Ireland Fund, Belfast, Dan Rooney, Department of Education and Learning, Derry, Exchange Program, Foreign Investment, Ireland Institute of Pittsburgh, Jim Lamb, Northern Ireland, Pittsburgh, Strabane, The Troubles, Unemployment, Walsh Visa, Wider Horizons
Jim Lamb – Ireland Institute of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh
As the Troubles have petered out, Irish-American groups find themselves in a difficult new landscape. Funds for cross-Atlantic programs have dried up, the Walsh Visa program has reached its end, and the groups have to redefine their missions to match the new political reality of Northern Ireland.
The Ireland Institute of Pittsburgh, with its president Jim Lamb, is taking this transition in stride. It remains one of the most active Irish-American groups in sponsoring exchange programs, and it’s expanding its focus to include new ventures to promote links between Pittsburgh and Ireland. The Institute aims to contribute to community developmenton both sides of the sectarian divide, and to export the lessons it has learned to other deeply divided societies.
Produced for The Politics Show
Filed under: Radio-Video | Tags: Belfast, Busking, Corn Market, Hooligans, Music, Northern Ireland, Ricky McQuillan, Singing, Teenagers, Victoria Square, X Factor
Filed under: Radio-Video | Tags: Ardoyne, Belfast, Boxing, Broken Noses, Cystic Fibrosis, Drinking, Heart Attacks, Hospitals, Larne, Michael Mason Saunderson, Northern Ireland, Red Bull
Filed under: Radio | Tags: 69th Pennsylvania, Belfast, Bloody Sunday, British Soldiers, Civil War Re-enactments, Conflict Resolution, Dawn Purvis, Gaza Strip, Gusty Spence, Ian Paisley, Imperialism, Insurgencies, Iraq, Long Kesh, Murals, Northern Ireland, PUP, Republicans, Sam May, Shankill Road, The Troubles, University of Pittsburgh, UVF
Sam in Belfast
Sam May took an interest in Northern Ireland young. A history buff in school, he participated in Civil War re-enactments and ended up in the 69th Pennsylvania Infantry, a regiment that had been made up of Irish immigrants. His fellow re-enacters introduced him to Irish Rebel songs and Republican ideology — but at the same time Sam was conflicted. He had family links to Ireland — but to Protestant Ireland in the North.
Out of this confusion, Sam started to read up on Irish history, and it led him to Tony Novosel’s class at Pitt. But studying the Troubles hasn’t necessarily made it any easier to stake out opinions about what’s best for Northern Ireland.
Produced for The Politics Show
Filed under: Radio | Tags: Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, Alcoholism, Amateur Boxing, Ardoyne, Ballylongford, Belfast, Boston, Boxing, Catholics, Chiltenham, Class, Cystic Fibrosis, Drinking, Ireland, Larne, London, Marlon Brando, Martial arts, Michael Mason Saunderson, Northern Ireland, Protestants, RADA, Smoking, Tattooes, Travellers, Ultimate Fighting Championship
Michael
Michael Mason Saunderson started boxing at 11 with a tube in his stomach, thanks to his cystic fibrosis. He abandoned it around 17, when he was drinking heavily, getting tattoos and eating poorly. But now, at 21, he’s an amateur boxer in Belfast once again, living cleanly, and foraging careers in television and theater.
In today’s episode, Michael takes on an onslaught of questions. Does he expect to have a career in boxing? How is it to be from a Protestant background, fighting in a predominantly Catholic club? When he walks down the street, does he size up every passing man for whether he can take him? What’s his personality in the ring? And, if he’s so intent on never returning to a hospital, why does he fight?
Filed under: Radio | Tags: Afghanistan, Civil Rights Movement, Conflict Resolution, Creaative Writing, IRA, Iraq, Kelly Cullen, Loyalists, Marines, Nationalists, Northern Ireland, Pacifism, The Troubles, Tony Novosel, University of Pittsburgh, UVF
It’s Part 2 of the continuing series on American perspectives on the conflict in Northern Ireland. This time it’s Kelly Cullen, a senior at Pitt and a marine reservist, who explains why he took such an interest in the Troubles + what he learned from studying it.
Partly it’s a heritage thing for Kelly, having grown up in an Irish American family. But his interest in Northern Ireland also grows out of his impending deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan, and his creative writing projects.
Produced for The Politics Show
Filed under: Radio | Tags: Captain Britain, Comic Books, Ethnic Conflict, Ian Paisley, IRA, MI-13, Norman Osborn, Northern Ireland, Politics, Scott Nicolson, Sociopaths, Spiderman, The Green Goblin, Tony Novosel, Torture, UK, Unionists, University of Pittsburgh
Scott, in Avatar Form
University of Pittsburgh offers a class on the politics of Northern Ireland every semester. Tony Novosel teaches it with the intention that it will be the most challenging – and most involving – class the students will ever take.
The veterans of the class — like Scott Nicolson, heard here — leave with an intricate understanding of the Troubles, as well as some insight into the unexpected comic book connections + psychological conditions of the province.
produced for The Politics Show
Filed under: Radio | Tags: American Politics, Anarchists, Belfast, Bombings, David Holmes, Gary Lightbody, Good Vibrations, Ian Paisley, John Peel, Nazis, Northern Ireland, Nuclear Weapons, Paisleyites, Punk, Radio Caroline, Rock in the North, Rory Gallagher, Rudi, Snow Patrol, Special Branch, SS RUC, Stiff Little Fingers, Taste, Teenage Kicks, Terri Hooley, THe Audiables, The Clash, The Electric Prunes, The Seeds, The Standells, The Troubles, The Undertones, Them, UDR, Van Morrison, Viet Cong, Vietnam War
Terri Hooley
Terri Hooley, purveyor of the Good Vibrations record shop in Belfast, and the man who released The Undertones’ “Teenage Kicks” talks about the evolution of the music scene in the city. Even as his contemporaries abandoned Northern Ireland for less bombs and more culture, Terri stuck to the city. From Them + Van Morrison playing the Martime Hotel in the 1960s, through the coming of punk with shouts of SS RUC, to the current crop of young Belfast talent, he walks us through his unprofitable, trouble-making, fame-brushing career.
Filed under: Radio-Video | Tags: Belfast, Belfast City Hall, Body-building, Donegal, Hunger Strikes, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Republicanism, The Troubles, UK Strongest Man, Weightlifiting
Filed under: Radio-Video | Tags: Belfast, Bodhrán, Irish Drum, Irish Music, Northern Ireland, St. Malachy's, The Markets
Filed under: Radio-Video | Tags: Belfast, Egypt, Immigrants, Kebab Shops, Marriage, Northern Ireland, Sopranos, Teachers
Filed under: Radio | Tags: Belfast, Bombs, Cliftonville Road, Falls Road, Ireland, Jordanstown, London, Marks and Spencer, Nervys Young, North Belfast, Northern Ireland, Northern Irish Accent, PSNI, Queen's University Belfast, RUC, Sectarianism, Shankill Road, University of Ulster
Belfast past midnight
Thriteen years ago, Nervys Young came from a village outside of London to Northern Ireland. She intended to stay for a three year degree program and has not left since. Ned talks about how totally naive she was when she first moved here, whether she’s ever considered herself a local, how people react to her accent, and why she hasn’t run for the hills yet.
Filed under: Radio | Tags: Ancient Order of the Hibernians, Belfast, Bikers, Hitchhiking, Ireland, Irish-Americans, Kornel Andrys, Mt. Lebanon, Normandy, Northern Ireland, Pittsburgh, Poland, Service Stations, Smoking, The Celtic Cross, Tom Macic, Truck Drivers
Kornel in Normandy
This summer Kornel Andrys quit his job as an architect in Belfast and hitchhiked back home to Poland. In today’s episode, he recounts his journey: how he found truck drivers to take him, which countries were best and worst for hitchhiking, how he stayed hygienic, and whether he’d ever trade office work for life on the road.
In the second half of the show, Tom Macic, the owner of The Celtic Cross, in the South Hills of talks about his Irish shop. He sells all kinds of Irish clothing, sweets, music, and miscellany to Pittsburghers and Irish and British expats. Tom explains what sells, what tea makes American tea taste like boiled popsicle sticks, and what the Irish American scene in Pittsburgh looks like.
Filed under: Radio | Tags: Ballymena, BBC, Belfast, Bill Hicks, Clerical Work, Colin Murphy, Comedy, Dublin, Gender, Humor, Insecurities, Iris Robinson, Jackie Hamilton, Jokes, Laughter, Les Dawson, Liam Watson, Lies, Matthew Collins, Nausea, Neuroses, Northern Ireland, Paddy McGaughey, Puns, Queen’s Student Union, Rubix Cubes, Seinfeld, Sitcoms, Stage Fright, Stand- Up, The Black Box, The Empire, The Money Pit, The Pavilion, The Safehouse, Tom Hanks, Vulgarity
Liam Watson
Two Belfast stand-up comedians on today’s episode. First, Liam Watson, who started performing earlier this year and now is organizing and compering a fortnightly gig at the Pavilion. Liam talks about when he learned he was funny, what finally pushed him into taking the stage, and what he envisions for the future of Belfast comedy.
Then Paddy McGaughey sizes up how tortured his soul is, why he’s invented a girlfriend, whether he can perform with a stomachful of beer, and why stand up comedy is the best career ever. Plus!: his newest joke, written fresh that day.
The comedy night Liam organizes is every other Monday night at the Middle Bar at the Pavilion on the Ormeau Road.
