An exhausted daughter sits down with her philandering father for their traditional pre-Christmas dinner. Will they survive the evening without tearing each other apart? Or will a Christmas miracle help them overcome their differences? You can hear me read the story on the Christmas Special episode of the podcast.
It’s the 2025 Christmas special! Dara presents his new seasonal story, hot off the press! In ‘Early Service’, an exhausted daughter sits down with her philandering father for their annual Christmas night out. Can they survive their oppositional tendencies? Will something magical help them transcend their differences? Why does the holiday mean such different things to each of them?
The 2025 Christmas Special! – Episode 234 Read More »
In this episode it is Dara’s great pleasure to sit down and have a long overdue chat with his great friend and former college buddy, Aengus Devine. Aengus is a gifted musician, singer and songwriter, and has sustained a long career as a professional musician. At the end of their long and winding conversation, Aengus plays his lovely new Christmas single ‘God Save Christmas’.
In this episode, Dara is wondering if the spirit of the season is upon you, or if you’re still waiting for that festive feeling to announce itself. The price of beef isn’t helping much. Nor is the price of Christmas trees, for that matter! And why does his daughter have so much to do?
Mari Lwyd, a Sugar Mouse, and a Rake of Christmas Poems! – Episode 232 Read More »
In this episode, Dara has thoughts on December coming round so quickly and the accompanying temptation to collapse in a heap. Does the festive season differ in any significant way from the rest of the year? Christmas really did used to be something special and genuinely indulgent – but does that still land when the rest of the year seems to involve frequent indulgence too?
In this episode, Dara considers the power of defying expectations. Partly prompted by a conversation with his dementia-affected father, his thoughts are also informed by a New York psychologist who worked with first responders to World Trade Center attacks. Role-reversal can be both destabilising and disarming, but it rarely goes unnoticed, and it often provokes both consternation and resentment.
Flipping the Script and Messing with Expectations – Episode 230 Read More »
In this episode, Dara confesses to having had a very teary twenty-four hours. But what could have caused him to weep like a baby?
Hand Me a Tissue, Somebody Just Scored a Goal! – Episode 229 Read More »
After watching Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, Dara finds himself wondering about the director’s world view, and specifically his perspective on beautiful, sincere women and their superficially unattractive love interests. The Mexican director has an established sympathy with those considered ugly and monstrous by society – could a Freudian reading be applicable?
Can Women Love Monsters? Guillermo del Toro says ‘YES’! – Episode 228 Read More »
A week under the weather had Dara running for the comfort of old Hollywood classics. In this episode, he reports his findings.
Influenced by the spooky season, he reached for a couple of Hitchcock staples of the older variety – 1940’s Rebecca and 1941’s Suspicion. Two very different but no less complicated love stories, one featuring espionage and seduction, the other – gulp! – murder!
You Silly Girl! Gender Roles from 1940s Hollywood – Episode 227 Read More »
In this episode Dara argues that at a certain moment in autumn, the whole season starts to feel like a Sunday night, and not in a good way! The shortening days, the lengthening nights, it all combines to create a sense of nature closing in to usher us into a dark resting place. And isn’t that what Mondays can feel like?
It’s Autumn – Get Your A** in a Cave! – Episode 226 Read More »
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