The Shaking Bog Podcast

In September 2021, The Shaking Bog Festival had the immense pleasure of welcoming renowned poet Michael Longley to the Glencree Valley, County Wicklow. This Christmas offering looks back to the archive and presents the full version of this memorable reading and conversation with Dr Margaret Kelleher. We hope it might be something to sink into and provide solace and hope as the solstice comes in and the new year dawns.

Produced by The Shaking Bog in collaboration with Coillte Nature and Mermaid Arts Centre. Written & presented by Catherine Nunes, edited by Bjorn MacGiolla, mixed and recorded by Steve McGrath, with theme music composed by Ray Harmon.

Further information:

Michael Longley - One of Northern Ireland’s foremost contemporary poets, Michael Longley was born on July 27, 1939. He is renowned for the quiet beauty of his compact, meditative lyrics. He is the author of many poetry collections, including Angel Hill (2017); The Stairwell (2015), which received the 2015 International Griffin Poetry Prize; The Ghost Orchid (2012); The Weather in Japan (2000), which won the Irish Times Literature Prize for Poetry, the Hawthornden Prize, and the T.S. Eliot Prize; and Gorse Fires (1991), winner of the Whitbread Poetry Prize. In 2001 Longley was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

“Longley’s poems count the phenomena of the natural world with the particular deliberate pleasure of a lover’s fingers wandering along the bumpy path of the vertebrae.” – Seamus Heaney

Professor Margaret Kelleher MRIA - is Professor and Chair of Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama at University College Dublin. She is a Board Member of the Museum of Literature Ireland and was academic lead for UCD in the foundation of this landmark public humanities initiative and collaboration with the National Library of Ireland. From October 2023 she will hold the Parnell Fellowship in Irish Studies at Magdalene College, University of Cambridge. Margaret is former Chair of the Board of the Irish Film Institute. In Spring 2020 she was Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Glucksman House, New York University, and from September 2022 to May 2023 she was a Cullman Center Fellow at the New York Public Library.

This Shaking Bog podcast was recorded amidst the trees of Knocksink Wood at the bottom of the Glencree Valley, Co. Wicklow, against a backdrop of birdsong, the scent of wild garlic and the budding foliage of a new season. Our guests include, renowned filmmaker, cameraman and presenter, Colin Stafford Johnson, the acclaimed poet Moya Canon and the extraordinary folk musician John Francis Flynn.

Produced by The Shaking Bog in collaboration with Coillte Nature and Mermaid Arts Centre. Written & presented by Catherine Nunes, edited by Bjorn MacGiolla, mixed and recorded by Steve McGrath, with theme music composed by Ray Harmon

A special podcast episode that looks back at The Shaking Bog’s Festival last September. Presenting a montage of excerpts from the festival programme this podcast is just a small taster of what happened over that magical weekend.

Artists featured in this Festival Podcast, in order of appearance, include: Michael Longley, Paddy Glackin, Liz Berry, Alice Oswald, Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Kerrí ní Dochartaigh, Dara McAnulty, Lisa Lambe, Marty Rae, Melissa Harrison, Mary Coughlan and Roddy Doyle.

This podcast is produced by The Shaking Bog Festival in collaboration with Coillte Nature & Mermaid Arts Centre, with funding from The Arts Council.

It’s summertime at last and in celebration of the season, The Shaking Bog heads to the West of Ireland to meet some of our finest artists, all of whom draw inspiration from the landscape and nature of the region.

It’s springtime. Once again the seasons have turned and the sense of renewal and hope that is ushered in with springtime is very welcome. This Spring episode of The Shaking Bog’s seasonal podcast draws mainly on the voices of artists who live either within, or close to the Wicklow County borders.

The year has turned and it’s deep mid-winter. Guided by the mood of the season this episode of The Shaking Bog Podcast explores memory, mythology and some of the hidden recesses of the natural world.

Presenting a blend of conversations, readings and reflections, the Winter episode features writer Kerri Ní Dochartaigh, writer, herbalist and activist Oein DeBhairduin, poet Nuala ní Dhomhnaill and artist Chanelle Walshe in conversation with herpetologist Collie Ennis.

Produced by The Shaking Bog Festival in collaboration with Coillte Nature & Mermaid Arts Centre. Written & presented by Catherine Nunes, edited by Bjorn MacGiolla, mixed by Steve McGrath with theme music composed by Ray Harmon.

From The Shaking Bog podcast - where art and nature meet.

Join us for a short festive offering - featuring the remarkable Dara McAnulty and the Glencree Valley wren boys.

A gentle meander through the world where art and nature meet. As the seasons turn towards autumn and the swallows prepare for their great migration, Catherine Nunes, Director of Wicklow’s Shaking Bog Festival leads us through the countryside with an interwoven tapestry of conversations, readings and reflections. 

This episode features poet Sean Hewitt, memoirist & farmer Selina Guinness, Trinidadian/Scottish poet Vahni Capildeo, historian and tree enthusiast Thomas Pakenham, and artist Gráinne Cuffe in conversation with botanist Prof. Jane Stout.