The Recluse’s Cookbook Podcast

Welcome to Episode 11

I am thrilled to have the wonderful Eugene O’Brien on this episode.

Eugene is a legendary Irish writer of the stage and screen. His breakout hit Eden was first staged in the Peacock theatre in 2001. It transferred to London and since then it’s become a firm favourite of amateur dramatic theatre groups with frequent productions staged in town halls and arts centres up and down the country. In 2005 his tv series...

Welcome to Episode 10

My guest this week is Mick Rooney.

Mick is an investigative journalist from Dublin. He is also the founder of Radio Espial.

Mick has had an amazing career over the past three decades. Beginning as a court reporter he has published many books on several topics. He moved into self-publishing and is now the host of Radio Espial which is a talk radio channel that covers poetry, aviation, true crime and missing peo...

Welcome to episode 9

This week my guest is Jessica Jeffrey.

Following on from my conversation with Dave Sperling about the world of TEFL and TESOL teaching I speak with Jessica Jeffrey. Jessica is the Recruitment and Partnerships specialist with The TEFL Institute, which is based in Ireland.

In this episode Jessica speaks about how she began in the world of TEFL teaching and how she ended up broadening out her career options throug...

Welcome to Episode 8

My guest this week is Academy award nominee Tim Loane.

Tim is an actor, writer and director whose career spans over three decades. He began his career with the legendary Tinderbox which he co-founded and with this he launched the careers of many of Northern Irelands finest playwrights. His own career reached international heights when his short film Dance Lexie Dance was nominated for an academy award, and it s...

Welcome to episode 7.

It’s with great pleasure that I get to have a chat with Keith Fay from the legendary Irish heavy metal band Cruachan.

For nearly 30 years now Keith has been the singer and principal songwriter with Cruachan. What started as a teenage passion in music has become an international success story with 9 studio album releases that has resulted in legions of fans across the globe. To this day Cruachan’s debut album”T...

Welcome to Episode 6

My guest this week is Brian Matthews-Murphy. Brain is an Actor and film maker from Bray in Co. Wicklow.

Brian is a legend of folk hero standards in the independent film industry in Ireland. He is a well-known face on our screens and over the years he has amassed an impressive cv of screen credits. He is also the founder of No Wifi. No Wifi is the North Wicklow Film makers which is a group for aspiring film make...

Welcome to episode 5.

My guest this week is Historian, story teller and author Jonathan Trigg. To date he has authored 14 history books. Most of the publications are based on the German experiences of World War 2 but his latest book “Death in the fields: The I.R.A and East Tyrone marks a departure in a very different direction.

Anyone who knows me will tell you I am big History buff. I study whatever I can on the conflict in Northe...

Welcome to Episode 4

Have you ever thought about teaching TEFL or Tesol? Are currently doing so? Then this is the episode for you. 

In the world of TEFL Dave Sperling has been there and done that. In the 1990's he decided to use a new thing called the internet and from it sprung Dave's ESL Cafe. The website or webpage as it was called then has become one of the main go sites for recently qualified TEFL and TESOL teachers.

In this e...

Welcome to episode 3

My guest this time is film director Richard Waters.

On the 13th of October his latest feature film “Advent” will have its world premiere at the Newport beach Film festival. It will also have its Irish premier at the Richard Harris Film festival at the end of the same month.

Richard first hit our screens with the Irish Indie cult film “The O’Briens”. Since then, he has explored the medium of film making through ...

Welcome to episode 2!

My next guest is Aine Ryan. 

Aine is a playwright, actor and film maker. Her play's "Kitty in the Lane" and "Paddy goes to Petra" have enraptured audiences around the world. She also co-authored "From out the land" with Jack Reardon which was presented at the Clonmel Junction festival. At the time of publishing this episode she has been nominated at the London Pub Theatre Awards. The nominations include Best A...

Welcome back to Series 2 of The Recluse's Cookbook!

Have you ever wondered what to do in a survival situation? Have you ever dreamt of how you might cope? There are many answers that could be given in that event. 

My first guest has the answers for that very occasion. Rob Faughnan runs Survivalist Ireland. Survivalist Ireland is Ireland's premier survival training company based in Leinster. People from all over the world come to th...

Eoghan Farren A.K.A Not that we know is a dance music producer and DJ from Inishowen in Co. Donegal. Back in 2012 he began writing and producing his own dance music but it wasn't until 2020 and the arrival of the lockdown that he began releasing his material to the public. Since then in August 2021 he released his first E.P. "Not that we know". Eoghan joins me on the podcast to discuss his beginnings as a DJ, his ultimate goals and...

Kevin Toolis is an BAFTA award winning & EMMY nominated writer and film maker. Born in Edinburgh the son of two Irish immigrants from Achill Island, he studied English and Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh before becoming a journalist. Over the past three decades he has contributed to the Guardian, New York times and the Daily Mirror. 

He is also the author of several novels, the most recent being "Nine rules to conquer dea...

Some would say Dave Byrne is a legend, however more would say he is an icon in the Irish independent film making scene. In the 12 years since he started the Underground Film Festival, he has created a space for film makers to have their work screened that otherwise may not have been shown. 

He kindly came on to the show to chat about the Underground film festival and what it means to the independent directors, writers, producers, a...

In April of 2021, inspired by the vacuum created by the lockdown, musician and metal advocate Darragh O'Connor founded the All Ireland Metal Project. The aim was to create and release a compilation album called Aiséirí with the proceeds going to Barnardos Ireland. The album itself features the best of Ireland's heavy metal music community forming bands, writing and recording songs for the album. As soon as I heard about this projec...

Aideen McQueen is the best kept secret in Irish comedy. Already a veteran of the English comedy circuit, she is an experienced comic whose work ethic is both admirable and enviable in equal measures. After building a solid reputation as a stand up in Ireland after only a few short years, she made the decision to move to London and start from scratch, climbing the comedy ladder by starting again as an open mic to grow gradually wher...

Episode 6 of the Recluse’s Cookbook and that means we are halfway through the first series. In this conversation I am joined by producer Victor McGowan and Actor Abe Smyth who are currently promoting their short film “Pogonophobia” which was recently longlisted for the IFTA award for Best Irish Short Film.

Victor McGowan is the man behind Constant Motion Pictures and is responsible for some of Irelands acclaimed independent movies ...

Aidan Killian is the “Oliver Stone” of Irish Comedy. He can take sensitive niche subjects like wikileaks or the banking crisis and make them accessible to a mainstream audience, providing plenty of laughs and after thoughts along the way. Many try to do this but Aidan succeeds every time out. His adventures have taken him around the world several times and to great acclaim. On this episode we discuss striking a moment in a show, th...