About The Podcast
The Ireland Podcast is an independent long-form interview series, produced by SALTHILL Media and dedicated to recording life on the island of Ireland through thoughtful conversation.
Through conversations with artists, musicians, writers, athletes, broadcasters, historians, and many others, it creates an ongoing record of lives, memories, experiences, and ideas.
The Purpose Of The Podcast
The Ireland Podcast was created as a space to slow things down. At a time when discussion is often compressed into headlines and short clips, these conversations take time, allowing context, memory, and experience to emerge naturally. The focus is not on argument or advocacy, but on understanding.
Each episode usually centres on a single guest. They may be an artist, musician, writer, athlete, broadcaster, historian, or cultural figure - someone whose work or perspective offers insight into life on the island of Ireland, in all its complexity, past and present. The conversations are guided by curiosity rather than agenda, and are intended as a welcoming space for multiple voices and experiences.
Recording The Island
The guiding idea behind the podcast is simple: to create an ongoing record of life on the island of Ireland through conversation.
By listening carefully to individual stories, experiences, and perspectives, the podcast documents the people who give the island its character and complexity. Taken together, these conversations form a growing record of voices, memories, and lived experience.
Ireland is approached here as a shared, lived place - complex, layered, and evolving. The aim is not to define it, but to pay attention to it.
No Agenda
No Alignment
The Ireland Podcast has no political or religious agenda. As an editorially independent podcast, it does not seek to promote a position, persuade an audience, or argue a case.
Instead, it exists as a space for listening.
On an island where the legacy of conflict remains part of lived experience, conversation itself has value. The podcast recognises the role that respectful dialogue, storytelling, and careful questioning can play in fostering empathy and understanding.
Listening does not mean uncritical agreement. Questions are asked with attention and in context, allowing difference, reflection, and complexity to emerge without making confrontation the purpose of the conversation.
The Conversations
Episodes are unhurried and exploratory in tone. Guests are encouraged to reflect, revisit ideas, and speak at length. There is room for nuance, uncertainty, and disagreement, approached with curiosity rather than assertion.
Rather than fitting people into fixed narratives, the aim is to document voices as they are - shaped by background, experience, memory, and change. Over time, these conversations form an informal record of people and perspectives from across the island and beyond, without prescribing what the listener should conclude.
Who Is It For?
The Ireland Podcast is for listeners who value depth, context, and careful conversation. It’s for people in Ireland, for those living abroad or part of the diaspora, and for anyone interested in Ireland beyond surface narratives.
It’s also for listeners who value listening over argument, and for those in other post-conflict societies who recognise the importance of memory, dialogue, and lived experience.
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You don’t need specialist knowledge to listen, only a willingness to spend time with ideas and with other people’s experiences.
A Note On Scope
The Ireland Podcast does not claim to be a definitive account of Ireland, nor does it attempt to represent the island in its entirety. It reflects a series of individual conversations, shaped by the perspectives of its guests and the curiosity of the person asking the questions.
The host is not a spokesperson for Ireland, and the podcast does not speak on behalf of any community, tradition, or viewpoint. In that sense, it might more accurately be described as 'AN IRELAND Podcast - one of many possible ways of listening to, and thinking about, the island'.
The intention is not to define Ireland, but to pay attention to it - one conversation at a time.
The Host
The Ireland Podcast is hosted by Fender Jackson, a musician, composer, and interviewer whose work centres on listening, conversation, and cultural memory.
Born in Ulster and now based in Galway, Fender has a background in music, writing, and long-form cultural work. These experiences inform the unhurried, exploratory approach taken to each conversation.
You can read more about Fender’s work and background here.