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Vanishing Ireland

18 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 11 ratings

Turtle Bunbury discusses life and its learnings with Ireland's elders. These are voices of courage, kindness and humour that will resound for future generations. The Vanishing Ireland project was co-founded by Turtle and photographer James Fennell in 2001.

Visit https://turtlebunbury.com for more.

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Episodes

Season 1 Finale

October 01, 2021 20:00 - 19 minutes - 27.3 MB

Vanishing Ireland co-founder Turtle Bunbury looks back on how a dream to travel around Ireland on a tractor developed into a best-selling book series, a social media platform for the Irish Diaspora and, thanks to SuperValu, a podcast series bringing the voices of the old world into the 21st century.   Music by Liam Mulvaney

Michael Johnson

September 24, 2021 14:00 - 29 minutes - 42.5 MB

An unexpected flood, cattle going into a bank and the indispensable Tailor’s Goose are among the recollections of the charming, pipe-smoking 75 year old Michael Johnson, a fifth generation tailor based in Tullow, County Carlow. Season One of the Vanishing Ireland Podcast concludes as Michael recounts some of the remarkable scenes he has witnessed from his window seat in the tailor’s shop, as well and the contentment of working alongside his son.   Music by Liam Mulvaney

Freda Jones

September 17, 2021 14:00 - 14 minutes - 20.4 MB

"Journeying to her West Cork school on the back of her father’s milk cart is among the earliest memories of 91-year-old Freda Jones, a much admired organist living near Baltinglass, County Wicklow. She recalls her childhood days alongside the Schull to Skibbereen railway line before she left for boarding school at the Collegiate School, Celbridge. She also tells how she was obliged to give up her teaching career in Baltinglass, County Wicklow, following her marriage in 1957."

Freda Jones

September 17, 2021 14:00 - 14 minutes - 20.4 MB

"Journeying to her West Cork school on the back of her father’s milk cart is among the earliest memories of 91-year-old Freda Jones, a much admired organist living near Baltinglass, County Wicklow. She recalls her childhood days alongside the Schull to Skibbereen railway line before she left for boarding school at the Collegiate School, Celbridge. She also tells how she was obliged to give up her teaching career in Baltinglass, County Wicklow, following her marriage in 1957."

Con ‘Durrihy’ O’Sullivan

September 10, 2021 17:30 - 24 minutes - 34.6 MB

Con ‘Durrihy’ O’Sullivan, who was a teacher in Castletownbere for over four decades, applies his superb 80-year-old memory to recalling the geography, the poetry, and the banter of the Beara peninsula, as well as dancing at the Silver Slipper and how he had to change trains 12 times to get from Kenmare to his school in County Laois.

Helen Fegan-Joyce

September 03, 2021 14:09 - 35 minutes - 82.8 MB

From her family’s ancestral sword-making business in Sligo to her own experiences of the damp and hunger of wartime Dublin, 94-year-old Helen Fegan-Joyce recalls the past with exceptional eloquence. As well as stories of her missionary aunt (who tracked down the Bounty crew’s descendants on the Pitcairn Islands) and her nationalist uncle Bertie (a close friend of Arthur Griffiths), she recounts the excitement of buying her first pair of shoes, swimming off Rosses Point and salmon fishing in ...

Oliver Reed

August 27, 2021 14:00 - 24 minutes - 57.5 MB

Priests on horseback, women in snugs and serving as a waiter to the King of Siam in Switzerland are some of the recollections of this week’s Vanishing Ireland podcast interviewee Oliver Reed. Born in Athlone, County Westmeath, the 81-year-old recounts his school days and his work as a waiter, bank porter, farmer and more.   Music by Liam Mulvaney

Oliver Reid

August 27, 2021 14:00 - 24 minutes - 57.5 MB

Priests on horseback, women in snugs and serving as a waiter to the King of Siam in Switzerland are some of the recollections of this week’s Vanishing Ireland podcast interviewee Oliver Reed. Born in Athlone, County Westmeath, the 81-year-old recounts his school days and his work as a waiter, bank porter, farmer and more.   Music by Liam Mulvaney

Philip Lecane

August 20, 2021 14:00 - 32 minutes - 45.7 MB

In the latest episode, 97-year old Philip Lecane, of Cork City, says he stopped the ageing clock when he was 21. He is certainly one of the most energetic, inquisitive and youthful nonagenarians on the planet. He talks of how his forebears arrived in Cork from Jersey and took command of the city's fire brigade. He ran the family’s newsagent’s shop, established in a time when newspapers were the only real source of public news. With an impeccable memory for detail, Philip recalls how the forw...

Miriam Moore

August 13, 2021 14:00 - 35 minutes - 33.3 MB

Bareback riding into the Irish Sea, tasting ice cream for the family dairy and watching cattle being driven through the streets of Dublin are among the golden memories of this weeks interview with Miriam Moore of County Monaghan. As well as her childhood in north Dublin during the 1940s and 1950s, Miriam recounts her experience of working as a nurse in the days when hospital wards were ruled by no-nonsense Matrons.   Music by Liam Mulvaney

Jack Roche

August 06, 2021 14:00 - 18 minutes - 18.4 MB

This week’s interview features 77 year old Jack Roche, who spent his working career as greengrocer in Dublin’s Liberties on the city’s southside. He recalls the lively days of buying fruit and veg at auction and transporting it back to Meath Street by horse and cart, an age when cabbage was the top-seller and pineapples the stuff of dreams, and when the older generations’ toothpaste of choice was a cocktail of soot and salt.   Music by Liam Mulvaney

Dessie Hynes

July 30, 2021 14:00 - 25 minutes - 23.5 MB

This week, Turtle speaks with 92 year old Dessie Hynes, an independent spirit if there was one. Dessie has enjoyed a fabulous career as an entrepreneur and famously owned O’Donoghues pub in Dublin city during the 1970’s and 80’s. As a boy, Dessie knew people who were alive during the Great Hunger - Turtle speaks to Dessie about his childhood, his remarkable career and whether Guinness soaked prunes are really something to be encouraged   Music by Liam Mulvaney

George Knight

July 23, 2021 14:00 - 41 minutes - 39.4 MB

This week’s interview features 76-year-old George Knight about growing up in Clones, County Monaghan, during its last days as a railway boomtown, and how, as a land-locked teenager, he ran off to sea and found himself sailing across the Atlantic, through the Great Lakes of North America and onwards to places like Panama, Casablanca, Beirut and China during the Cultural Revolution.       Music by Liam Mulvaney

Betty Ashe

July 16, 2021 14:00 - 23 minutes - 23.9 MB

This week, Turtle speaks with Betty Ashe, an icon of the Dublin Docklands who has spent the past 80 years watching the world around her evolve from the hardship of the Georgian 'Strumpet City' tenements to the global technological hub of the present day. She brings her exceptional energy to the podcast with her memories of 1960s London, the legacy of Padraig Pearse and her vision for the future.   Music By Liam Mulvaney

Eddie Lenihan

July 09, 2021 14:00 - 30 minutes - 29.5 MB

This week’s interview features 71 year-old folklorist, Eddie Lenihan, who as a young man journeyed around his homeland listening to the voices and tales of men and women, some of whom were born back in the 19thCentury.     Music by Liam Mulvaney

Rosemary Smith

July 02, 2021 14:00 - 49 minutes - 45.5 MB

This week’s interview features 84-year-old sporting legend Rosemary Smith of Sandyford, Co. Dublin, the most successful female racing car driver in Irish history. Rosemary talks about her motoring triumphs and tribulations, from mastering the pot-hole plenty highways of 1950s Ireland to her dramatic adventures from Afghanistan to Monte Carlo.     Music by Liam Mulvaney

Myles Clarke

June 25, 2021 14:00 - 24 minutes - 27.9 MB

On this week’s interview, 84-year-old mountain farmer Myles Clarke of Valleymount, County Wicklow, reflects on a time when the Tilley lamp and Horse Power were the essential items of any farm, and how the parish priest saved his life when he was a baby.     Music by Liam Mulvaney

Mary Stack

June 14, 2021 22:28 - 30 minutes - 35 MB

In this episode, Turtle speaks to 88 year old Mary Stack from Listowel, County Kerry, about living next door to John B. Keane, growing up in Dublin during the Second World War and how a man on a bicycle captured her heart over 70 years ago.      Music by Liam Mulvaney