Writer and broadcaster Dawn O’Porter joins Miriam O’Callaghan’s Picnic Brunch, there’s a live edition of The Blindboy Podcast, hear from the likes of comedian Dylan Moran, CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan and Game of Thrones actor and activist Liam Cunningham across the weekend, and even enjoy an aria or two at the Irish National Opera. Nicola Tallant returns with her Crime World Podcast, while Athletics legend and European gold medallist Ciara Mageean joins comedian and podcaster Jarlath Regan to speak on life, love, loss and the persistence of craic in the face of adversity.
America looms over the whole weekend. Having celebrated 250 years on 4th of July, MindField spends three days picking through what’s left of the party: Leviathan’s ‘Divorcing the Superpower: The US, Europe and the Next 250 Years’ and ‘Move Fast and Break the State: The Politics of Populism and the Broligarchy’, both hosted by Andrew Maxwell with panellists including CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, economist Eric Lonergan, Mark Little and Jennifer O’Connell; ‘Stealing Culture, Selling It Back: The USA at 250’ with Liam Lynch and Patrick Freyne; a History Ireland Hedge School on a century of the Ireland–US ‘unique relationship’.
Donie O’Sullivan also joins director Colin Peppard to discuss My Friend Kev, winner of Best Short Documentary at the Galway Film Fleadh.
Europe gets the other half of the argument. With Ireland holding the EU presidency, the ambassadors of Ukraine and Moldova join Barry Andrews MEP and journalist Shona Murray for ‘Europe: Accession’, while the ONE Campaign’s ‘Fair Play’ asks whether a generous Ireland can persuade the rest of Europe to invest in a common global future. Amnesty International brings its Republic of Conscience hour, and on Manifesto, Game of Thrones star Liam Cunningham and Mikey Cullen discuss the Gaza Flotilla.
If America is the head of this year’s programme, music is its heartbeat. Happy Mondays legend Rowetta sits down with Tom Dunne, Terry Christian takes the Manifesto stage back to its Teenage Kicks as part of Jan Brierton’s Wild Words strand, and the Beatles face cross-examination by actual barristers when legal podcast The Fifth Court takes on the most litigated band in history. Club culture gets an inquest of its own: No Filler’s ‘Who Killed the Dancefloor?’ rounds up the usual suspects, while photographer Brendan Duffy opens his 15,000-image archive of Irish clubbing in the 1990s and 2000s for ‘The Only Camera in the Room’.
Sunday belongs to the writers. Dylan Moran, comedian and artist, sits for a rare in-conversation event on the Manifesto stage, followed by Dawn O’Porter on ‘Feeding the Hunger: A Life Told Through the Fridge Door’ with Sinéad Gleeson. O’Porter also joins Miriam O’Callaghan’s Picnic Brunch in The Theatre alongside Alison Spittle, Frank McNally, Colm O’Regan and Deirdre O’Kane, after a live Sunday-morning broadcast of RTÉ Radio 1’s Brendan O’Connor Show from the same stage.
The Theatre also puts opera and dance in a field. Irish National Opera performs twice on Saturday and CoisCéim Dance Theatre brings its award-winning ‘Dancehall Blues’ on Friday and Niall Breslin and the Polaris Quartet bring their new immersive live show, The Place That Has Never Been Wounded, featuring Bressie’s blend of music, spoken word, and visual design. On the Ah, Hear stage, RTÉ’s Documentary on One gathers three composers of original commissions: Paddy Flynn, Úlfur Eldjárn and Alma Kelliher.
When MindField opened its first tent in 2006, the word podcast still needed explaining. Twenty years on, a whole stage is given over to them: Crime World with Nicola Tallant, The Irish Times Inside Politics, Mike and Vittorio’s Guide to Parenting, Ross O’Carroll-Kelly, Louise McSharry and Carl Kinsella with Emer McLysaght all play Ah, Hear across the weekend. The Word runs spoken word and music from morning until midnight for three days, An Puball Gaeilge programmes the entire weekend through Irish, from Music Generation Laois to the late-night Seisiún Rúnda, and Jan Brierton’s Wild Words strand brings Rowetta, Terry Christian, Caryn Franklin, Brendan Courtney and Maia Dunphy to Manifesto.