It was with great Harte that we went into our first days of podcasting,  Sligo born Writer Jack Harte was the very first writer to come on board with us and now 2 years later we proceed into our 3rd year with Donegal Singer songwriter Mickey Harte.  Last Sunday 29th of January 2012,despite his busy schedule,  we met up with Mickey at The Ballina Manor Hotel and chatted about his career and his love of song writing.  Mickey, ably assisted by Gary Porter on percussion performed some of his most popular self penned songs.  As usual we have posted the interview for the moment and will happily bring you the performance podcast in the next week or so.  In the meantime if you want a sneak preview, you need just check out our 20th Showcase which is due for production on Monday next and is almost certain to contain one of the tracks from our session with Mickey.

We are delighted to eventually get around to this marvelous reading by Grace Wynne Jones.  The reading was performed by Grace in front of a roaring fire at her home in Bray back in February 2011 but such was the popularity of her previous reading we are only changing podcasts now.  We have been a wee bit quiet of late because we have been working hard in the backround planning various projects for 2012 and making contact with writers who want to become featured on Podcasts.ie and we begin our series of new recordings this coming weekend.

In the meantime we are also preparing for the January edition of The Calendar Road which is gaining popularity daily.

We are delighted to have this opportunity to wish you all a very happy new year on what is for us our 2nd anniversary.  It was on the 1st of January 2010 that Podcasts.ie first went public and we have been very much encouraged by your response ever since.  2012 will see us bring you even more great Irish writers, people and places, a continuation of The Calendar Road and The Showcase and we are planning some new podcast subjects for this year too.  In the meantime we’d like to remind you that  that because of their seasonal nature, our special Christmas podcasts, namely, The Gift, Sally and The Snowy Path, The Voice of Christmas and The Showcase at Christmas will be removed tomorrow so you only have a few hours to listen to them before they are packed away for next year.

 Thank you once again for your support whether you have been with us from the very beginning or have just discovered our site.

Well it will shortly be Christmas here for us at Podcasts.ie but our friends in the southern hemisphere have already had their visit from Santa, some are an hour less away and other severl hours nehind but the amount of good will we have received this holiday season suggest that the only difference between is is that of time.  We would sincerely like to thank all of you who are subscribed to Podcasts.ie for your support and encouragement and to remind you that our special Christmas podcasts, namely, The Gift, Sally and The Snowy Path, The Voice of Christmas and The Showcase at Christmas will only be available until early January.  We are looking forward to our third year in existance.  We already have many new podcasts lined up for 2012 and are planning new ideas all the time.  We hope we can rely on your continued support.   Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone.

Last year we made some very special Irish podcasts especially for Christmas.  Since early January they have been lying in safe storage and over the past few days the podcasting elves have busy digging them up and dusting them off.   They could not wait to get their hands on this one in particular.  Our Christmas showcase features yuletide music from Johnny Duhan and Ursula Connolly while Alice Taylor recounts growing up on The Cork/Kerry border based on her book called ‘ The Night before Christmas’ and we see what Christmas is like on The Calendar Road .  We will have more free Christmas podcasts for you as the season progresses but remember, they will only be available for the holiday season.

The Christmas Showcase [ 25:55 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

To listen now click PLAY or right click/ctrl click DOWNLOAD and Save Target As to listen later.

Our podcasting elves are busily working on a showcase Christmas special for you which will be ready in a week or two but the meantime our penultimate Podcasting Showcase for 2011 features 3 writers who were involved in our Arts Council of Ireland funded series ‘The Writers Passage’.  From the series itself we visit episode 3 as we venture to the bogs above the town of Lanesborough County Longford with Jack Harte as he explains the premis of his novel ‘ In The Wake of The Bagger’ and though not from the series Tommy Sands who presented episode 6 for us based on his book ‘The Songman’, sings a song about going back to  his native County Down and the presenter of episode 5 author and historian Steve Dunford reads from ‘The Irish Highwaymen’ which was the subject of his episode of ‘The Writer’s Passage’.  We also have poetry from Alan Murphy and music by Michele Ann Kelly .  If you are new to hyperlinks and the web you can click on the highlighted text to go straight to the pages mentioned, simply click on the writers name to visit their own page her on Podcasts.ie or on the episode number to visit ‘The Writers Passages’ we mention or on the name The Writer’s Passage to go to the landing page for the series.

We have a bit of a catch up to do for you on Ireland’s Top Independent Podcasting site www.podcasts.ie.   It has been a busy time for us since our last news posting .  Not least was the  fact that our international server was hacked yesterday and we were just one of 700,000 websites affected by mindless hackers with nothing better to do.  We are back in full swing and hopeful that your enjoyment of our podcasts was not spoiled in anyway during this short but annoying spell.   On the positive side we has a few days away to charge the batteries during which time we discussed ideas to make changes to the site but not the service, which we hope you will like them, truth is you may not even notice them but time will tell.   On the podcasts side we are honoured to bring you a man who can perhaps be called the father of Irish poetry.  John F Deane is not alone one of our most distinguished writers, he also started Poetry Ireland, The Poetry Ireland Review and Daedalus Press each one instrumental in developing poetry in Ireland

We have finally managed to upload a story that captured Irish radio listeners when it was first printed. ’ The Presbyterian Cow’ is included as part of the readings included on Hazel Mc Intyre’s page.  Also new this week is a revised interview and readings for Pauline Fayne‘s page as we eventually managed to meet up with her following the release of her 4th collection ‘Mowing In The Dark’.  We have also been asked by our good friend Paula Lahiff to tell you about her latest project ‘Mid Life Slices’  she and her panel are looking for submissions for a photo-book anthology of poetry, prose and visual arts,which celebrate positivity in the face of mid-life challenges from, or relating to, women in the mid-40s to mid-60s, in Sligo, Leitrim and West Cavan.  All details are on the website www.mid-lifeslices.com. Closing date for submissions is 31st October 2011 and they hope to launch the book on International Women’s Day – 8th March 2012.

 We bring you car’s, black widows, aunties, grannies and angels in our latest Podcast Showcase featuring the best of Irish writers of Music, poetry and prose.  Pauline Fayne reads from her latest collection ‘Mowing in The Dark’ as she reads ‘ The Granny’ and ‘Angel’  While Pat Flynn was The Garda Superintendent at the time of the Tom Nevin murder recounts his arrival on the scene from his book ‘Catherine and Friends’ (Liberties Press)  while our music is provided by Tony Reidy with a song called ‘Renault 4′ (pictured) and from his album ‘ The Note that Lingers On’ Colum Sands gives us an exclusive rendition of  ‘ Going Down To The Well With Maggie’.  We have have news that Vincent Caprani is to launch his much anticpated ‘ Rowdy Rhymes and Rec-im-itations’ (Gil & Macmillan) at The Teachers Club in Dublin on Thursday next 15th of September.  We have also added several writers since our last showcase including Pat Flynn, David Metcalf, Hazel Mc Intyre and Mark Roper as well as The August edition of  The Calendar Road.   Our series of 10 podcasts based on the locations of 10 great Irish books is now completed with a great showing on iTunes, Chrissy Orborne whose books are based on the life of Michael Collins is at No.1 for Irish writers with all the others featured in the top 15 and Chrissy is at No. 7 of the top 200 Irish podcasts again all of our series is in there as well as several editions of The Showcase and The Calendar Road.  What with that and news that we are now patrons of The Ireland Monument in Canada, we are as as proud as punch.  We have lots more in the pipeline but more of that as it happens