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Wishing Well: Cormac Lucey on Accountability, Ageing and the Price of Drift
Cormac Lucey is an economist, lecturer, and commentator whose career has taken him from financial management in Germany to the front lines of Ireland’s policy debate. He is known for his unflinching analysis of economic systems, his independent thought, and a conviction that many of Ireland’s challenges stem from weak decision-making rather than bad luck. Listen to the radio show here (Jan 20) “I am interested in how power operates: who makes decisions, how they are made, and whether they are accountable,” he said. “In Ireland, too often, we have a system where responsibility is diffused. The outcomes are poor, but nobody is clearly to blame.” Lucey has taught finance, written columns on economics and public affairs, and contributed widely to the national conversation. His concern, he explained, is that the public sphere is narrowing and that debate has become constrained by ideology. “There is an unreflective soft-left bias in much of Irish life,” he said. “It is well-intentioned, but it is also uncritical. It replaces one kind of inequality with another and often avoids asking difficult questions about merit or performance.” He is equally forthright about the European Union. “I admire the European project,” he said, “but it has […]
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Housing, Grief and Practical Solutions: Sinéad Kearns on What the Property Market Really Looks Like
Sinéad Kearns, co-owner of Herman White Properties, meets the housing crisis at the point where people have to make decisions. For many, property is not about timing. It is about the moment life forces a move, after a bereavement, a separation, a growing family, or when a house no longer fits the person living in it. Listen too the radio show here (Jan19) Her route into real estate was direct. “I basically fell into the business. I was unemployed, looking for work, and I ended up coming into admin in an auctioneers in Rathnew, so I started off on reception there,” she said. “I got interested because it was around the same time that I was buying my own home. I could see it from both sides.” That first role became a career. “Over time, they approached me about becoming a qualified agent, and they helped me get onto a course. From then on, I’ve been qualified,” she said. “I’ve worked with Herman White since 2009.” Kearns is careful to explain how regulated the industry now is, because she believes the public often underestimates the oversight. “The PSRA is our licensing body,” she said. “To be able to be a […]
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Making a Difference – Yvonne Reddin: Starting Again
Yvonne Reddin began 2026 in public, with a private truth that struck a nerve. The journalist, travel writer and founder of Storylane PR was a guest on Dublin City FM’s Making a Difference in early January, speaking about an article she had written on dating in her fifties and the response it provoked. Listen to the radio show on here (Jan 12) The piece, titled All I want for Christmas is a snog, was deliberately light in tone. Reddin described it as “tongue in cheek”, but she was clear about the intention behind it. Many women, she said, are restarting their lives in midlife and are not necessarily seeking a relationship, but they do miss the small kindnesses of companionship. “I do miss that side, just the simple little things, even a kiss of the cheek,” she said. “It’s been so long since I had anything like that, and I just kind of feel the kids are growing up now, and maybe it’s time that I shake it up a little bit.” Reddin is raising three children, including twins who are 12, and an eldest son who is 23. Over two decades of single parenting, she said, confidence can take […]
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Making a Difference: Ross Scanlon – A performing career built to last
Ross Scanlon is a tenor soloist and vocal specialist who has built a working life across performance, teaching and coaching. His route into music was formal and practical. He trained at the then DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama in Rathmines, now TU Dublin, before moving to London for postgraduate study at the Royal Academy of Music. “I did my master’s degree in the Royal Academy of Music,” he said, “and then I was very lucky to get a scholarship to study in their Opera Studio there for another two years.” Listen to the radio show here (Jan 5) What was meant to be a short move became a long one. “I ended up doing just under 10 years in London in total,” Scanlon said. He freelanced throughout, working across Ireland and the UK, and credits Opera Collective Ireland with providing an early platform when he returned. Listen to the show here (January 5) Freelance work, he noted, comes in waves. “You can kind of be flavour of the month for a bit,” he said. “I could be busy for six months solidly, and then there could be a massive gap in the calendar.” He described the particular lull that […]
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The Wishing Well: Shane Byrne – Put on This Earth to Play Rugby
For Shane Byrne, rugby and music have always run in parallel. “Music was a constant for me. It was always part of my life,” he recalls, reminiscing about the era of tapes and Discman. His taste, he laughs, is “pretty eclectic,” swinging from heavy metal and rock to Michael Jackson and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, with thousands of tracks on his phone. “I’ve probably got 10,000 songs on my phone. It’s a mishmash. It goes from classical to Michael Jackson to heavy metal.” Listen to the radio show here (December 30th) Music wasn’t just a backdrop for Shane; it was central to his daily life. At school, he learned drums, though he admits, “I’ve made a fool of myself often” when asked to play later in life. “I sang as a tenor,” he adds. “I was in the choir the whole way up through primary school, and then the whole way from start to finish in Blackrock College.” Rugby didn’t come early. When he arrived at Blackrock, rugby was the sport, but he “hadn’t played rugby at all” and was, in his words, “really bad at it.” However, there was one attribute he brought with him: speed. “I had done a […]
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