The ClearOut

In this episode, Dara shares his response to the compelling drama series 'Adolescence' that recently launched on Netflix. Covering the harrowing events around a 13-year-old schoolboy murdering a fema…

In this episode, Dara is recalling an early cinema experience that only succeeded at the second attempt - but it was ET, so it was totally worth the wait. At that time, all his objects of desire were…

In this episode, Dara is trying to get his head around the obnoxious appearance of Conor McGregor at the White House over St. Patrick's Weekend. Trump's presidency seems to function as a magnet for a…

In this episode, Dara is reckoning with great creative men, two real and one fictional. The world has recently lost the bodily forms of Irish poet Pat Ingoldsby and Hollywood actor Gene Hackman, but …

In this episode, Dara is looking at the value of letting others know what's important to you. How else are the people in your life meant to know what you care about? He argues that this can not only …

In this broadly care-centred episode, Dara moves from inside to out. He wonders about the sense some people have of the world owing you something and decides a more worthwhile and potentially fruitfu…

In this episode, Dara is totting up the wins in his life. There aren't many, considering his age, but maybe more than enough. A cat on a wet shack roof is not one of them. Nor is revisiting 'Bridget …

In this episode, Dara reflects on abandoning his recording session last week and admits to a loss of faith in the podcast. He reminds himself of a couple of the motivations behind starting the show 4…

In this episode, once he has sorted one Deirdre from another, Dara is reflecting on the idea of privilege after attending the Holocaust Memorial Day event recently held in Dublin. He reckons it has s…

In this episode, Dara has an in-depth conversation with Eilish Fisher, the author of the brilliant 'Fia and the Last Snow Deer', a novel for older children. Written in blank verse, Fisher says it's t…

In this episode, Dara recounts a series of unexpected events, incidents and coincidences that all occurred in a relatively compressed period of time. Something was obviously in the ether.

Amongst othe…

In this episode, Dara is reflecting on the year that was and acknowledging the tendency many have to do New Year's accounting. For him it is not only the start of a new year, but also his birthday - …

To kick off the new year, Dara starts with a 'listy' episode, recalling his top 10 movies of 2024. He follows this with a list of his top old or previously seen movies, including 1954's Rear Window a…

It's the 2024 Christmas Special!

Pulling it out of the bag at the eleventh hour, Dara presents a very short, but somehow shaggy interview with his daughter Maeve, who gives a shout-out to Harry Style…

In this episode, Dara is speaking from a position of powerlessness thanks to the after-effects of Storm Darragh, which ripped through many parts of Ireland last week with an unforgiving ferocity.

Dara…

In this episode, Dara is warming up for the festive season by acknowledging how stress-inducing it can all get and how it really isn't for everybody. In his own household a new permutation is longed …

In this episode, Dara looks at the idea of psychological defeat and the metaphorical hills we are determined to die on. Fundamentally an issue of faith in one's own psyche and worldview, what happens…

In this episode, Dara is spurred to reflect on Francis Ford Coppola's latest film, 'Megalopolis'. In the great master's wild and not-so-wonderful saga, one brilliant man carries the burden of saving …

In this episode, Dara shares final thoughts on the US presidential election and speculates that the Democrats still haven't shaken the patronising habit of belittling those who disagree with them. He…

In this episode, Dara reacts to the re-election of Donald Trump to the US presidency. Did the Democrats and Kamala Harris once again fail to take seriously Trump and the Republican voter base? Whatev…