Saoirse Ronan reads Shorn for Spoken Stories Independence
Updated / Tuesday, 2 Feb 2021
14:21
Spoken Stories Independence collection on RTÉ Radio 1, now available as a podcast here.
Before writing her story, Rainsford asked herself ‘what does independence mean explicitly for women, especially in relation to war and violence and the roles their bodies play, that are often obscured after the facts.
Shorn is a story about forced hair cutting, a rampant practice that was carried out by both sides during the (Irish) Civil War.’
Sue Rainsford
All the writers contributing to the series consider independence today, a hundred years after Ireland’s War of Independence. The resulting collection is as varied as the writers themselves, as the stories are set across different times, locations and circumstances.
Updated / Monday, 25 Jan 2021
19:07
Sinead reports from the Department of Health
RTÉ s Arts and Media Correspondent Sinead Crowley recalls the switch in assignment which saw her reporting live from the most famous conference room in Ireland.
In terms of my own work, a lot has changed since I filed my first working from home diary. At that time I was still working full time as Arts and Media correspondent, and most of my reports concerned the devastating blow dealt to the arts sector industry by Covid-19 restrictions.
Shortly afterwards however I was assigned to covering Covid-19 itself and soon found myself down at the Department of Health, reporting live from, as one friend put it, the most famous conference room in Ireland. Some people wondered if the move from Arts to Health was a difficult one for me, but to be honest, the basic journalism remained the same.
by E.M. Reapy
Elizabeth Reapy’s Natalie is one of those characters who stays with you long after you’ve finished the book she occupies. If “occupies” is even the right word, given Natalie’s preoccupation with not taking up too much space in the world. Fixated on her body and her tendency to binge at times of stress, she takes the reader on a journey – both literal and metaphorical. As she moves through the world, the book begins to resemble a series of linked short stories more than a novel, but there’s something very fitting about where the chapter breaks tend to fall. The girl we first meet in Bali is very at odds with herself; but by the time she finishes up in Dublin, she is much more comfortable in her own skin, and well able to stand up for herself and articulate her needs and desires. Along the way she meets a host of interesting characters – some interesting, some off-putting – and learns something about herself in the process. Skin is a book to be savor
Saoirse Ronan to star in RTÉ series to mark Ireland’s Decade of Centenaries
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In a landmark contribution to the Decade of Commemorations, RTÉ Radio 1 has commissioned a series of 12 half hour stories from the finest writers associated with Ireland for a radio and podcast series.
Spoken Stories Independence will start this Sunday at 7pm on RTÉ Radio 1.
Among the writers are Dublin Literary Prize winners, a Booker Prize winner, an IFTA award winner, an Oscar winning writer, authors whose work has been awarded Irish short story of the Year, as well as numerous other international awards and short-listings, along with major national and international publishing contracts.