The HedgeRadio Podcast

is produced and presented by Chris Hayes & Alan Boland. It was established 5 years ago by Chris as a creative outlet and a way to bring a little bit of Wexford and Ireland to the world. We are part of the HeadStuff Podcast Network, which is Ireland’s largest podcast network. It’s a collective of shows covering everything from comedy to true crime, arts and culture to politics and food, interview shows to narrative storytelling. If you enjoy the stories we tell please consider subscribing to the show, you'll find it on HPN, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google or wherever you get your podcasts.

Our latest episode - 

Not sponsored by The Luftwaffe PART 2

In episode 2 of Not Sponsored by the Luftwaffe, we get up close and personal with retired Commandant Larry Scallan as he helps families re-remember the lost lives of their relatives who died in WWI. Ben is our guide as he tells how he heard Larry give a lecture and it jogged his memory about his great-granduncle from Castlecomer in Kilkenny, he reached out to Larry who pieced together the lost story of James Heffernan. Larry points to our new Irish Republic and the identity politics that tried to bury these stories and punish their families.
More of Ben's poetry can be found here
Stay, and have a listen
Support the show by clicking the HeadStuff+  logo below

Ray D'Arcy was delighted to get the chance to meet our very own Chris to hear all about the latest episode of the HedgeRadio Podcast. (Ray is the one on the right) Huge thanks to Ray and all his team RTÉ Radio 1. If you want to listen to the interview that it seems everyone in Ireland is talking about click below. https://www.rte.ie/radio/utils/share/radio1/21961469

All Episodes

Not sponsored by The Luftwaffe


In this episode, we discover the first of two incredible stories from one family and their involvement in both World Wars. Historian Ben MaCoillte tells us about his journey along with his grandfather back to his landing spot on D-Day in 1944.
Ben shares the details of that landing and what his grandfather encountered on that beach and what it was like to go back for the first time 60 years later.
More of Ben's poetry can be found here
Stay, and have a listen

Not sponsored by Antonio Banderas - Part 2

Sometimes the amazing stories of real life characters are hijacked by myths and the essence of what makes them great are sometimes overlooked. This episode is about one such character, a legend in Mexico but almost unheard of in his homeland of Ireland.
William Lamport lived an incredible life, from the tender age of 14 he had a King's ransom on his head and in Mexico he would write a Declaration of Independence that shook the foundations of the Spanish Empire and marked him out as a someone ahead of his time. So why did Zorro hijack him and hide him from us for all these years?

Not sponsored by Antonio Banderas - Part 1

Sometimes the amazing stories of real life characters are hijacked by myths and the essence of what makes them great are sometimes overlooked. This episode is about one such character, a legend in Mexico but almost unheard of in his homeland of Ireland.
William Lamport lived an incredible life, from the tender age of 14 he had a King's ransom on his head and in Mexico he would write a Declaration of Independence that shook the foundations of the Spanish Empire and marked him out as a someone ahead of his time. So why did Zorro hijack him and hide him from us for all these years? If you would like to to read the graphic novel mentioned in the the episode please click here.

Sponsored by the Irish Hospice Foundation


The pandemic has changed so many of the patterns in our lives. None more so than around death and dying. Following on from a project we did for the Irish Hospice Foundation, we catch up with some of the people charged with caring for not only those we have lost but also those of us left behind.


Not sponsored by Roadstone


HedgeRadio ignores the old advice of not following stones and does just that. We try to discover the secrets held by neolithic rock art that was hidden for hundreds of years in a farmers hedgerow while at the same time we go wandering with local artist and folklorist Michael Fortune as he explains the attraction to wart stones and bullaun stones. What we didn't expect to find was the stone crosses that Oliver Cromwell destroyed on his rampage through Ireland.

Not sponsored by The Sisters of Bon Secours

The HedgeRadio Podcast talk to Deirdre Wadding, a survivor of the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home and we investigate the shameful history of institutional abuse of those deemed unworthy. Stay Have a listen...

Not sponsored by Lance Armstrong

HedgeRadio discovers the secrets behind the Furlong homestead, a small cottage on Forth Mountain in Wexford, Ireland where music and love held sway. The home was nearly lost until a local group gathered to restore it, and we found the pike wielding rebel who used to sit by the half door listening to music and watching the world roll by. Read the Blog post here.

Not sponsored by Her Majesty's Government

Jack Matthews talks to HedgeRadio about his poem, Bloody Sunday 1920. After reading The Bloodied Field by Michael Foley, Jack wanted to do his bit to humanize and remember those killed by the British army while watching a GAA football match at Croke Park in 1920.

Not sponsored by Horse Racing Ireland

HedgeRadio spent the day with Laureate na nÓg Eoin Colfer on his Once Upon A Place tour at St Catherine's Halting Site, Wetlands, Kilkenny. Eoin talked with the kids, swapped stories and had a go on a sulky.

"when I was a younger man, I thought everywhere was probably a magic place,
I just didn't know because I wasn't there"

Eoin Colfer - Irish Author

Not sponsored by AstraZeneca

His kids see a drug pusher, his wife doesn't get it. He just wants the perfect start to his day. Thought the habit by his mother, it's  easy to see how addictions perpetuate.

"so when it's cold and lumpy, I'm not really tasting it, I'm remembering that bowl from when I was a kid"

Chris Hayes - HedgeRadio Host

Not sponsored by IKEA

Meet master craftsman Tommy Kelly and get a taste of what it is like to make your own handcrafted furniture with Tommy at the Irish National Heritage Park in Wexford

"I find it as pleasurable to teach somebody something as I do to make something myself"

Tommy Kelly - Master Craftsman

Not sponsored by The Glastonbury Festival

HedgeRadio followed Eoin Colfer's 'Once Upon a Place Tour' all the way to the Electric Picnic in 2015. His tour of Ireland, with many authors in tow, rocked into the Picnic and left its literary mark.

"When I was a kid I was told the seanchaí  were the rock-stars of Ireland! I said I like the sound of that"

Eoin Colfer - Irish Author
Other Services

Photography Services
Wedding films
Social
Contact us
Address

Wexford

Ireland

 

© All rights reserved