About
Fender Jackon
Fender Jackson is a musician, composer, and cultural practitioner whose work centres on listening, conversation, and cultural memory. He is the host of The Ireland Podcast, a long-form interview series exploring life on the island of Ireland through careful, unhurried conversation.
His work across music, writing, and facilitation shares a common concern: how people understand themselves and one another over time, particularly in places shaped by history, conflict, and change.
Sperrin Mountains
Background &
Early Influences
Fender was born in Ulster and grew up in a rural area of the Sperrin Mountains. That landscape, and the community around it, shaped his early sense of place, language, and belonging.
He is the grand-nephew of Rev. Patrick J. Heron, whose work forms part of the Heron Papers, an important archival collection documenting Irish language and folklore from the Draperstown/Ballinascreen area. The collection includes material preserving some of the last recorded instances of spoken Irish as a first language in the six counties, bringing questions of language, memory, and cultural inheritance close to home from an early age.
Belfast
Life During Wartime
During the early 1990s, Fender spent formative years living and working in Belfast. This period deepened his understanding of identity, difference, and the value of dialogue in a post-conflict society.
Music remained central. Alongside performing, he volunteered in a local prison, using music as a means of connection rather than performance - reinforcing the role of creativity as a way of meeting people where they are.
Yorkshire > London
Arts > Editorial > Knowledge Management
After studying Theatre (Design and Technology) in Leeds, Fender moved to London. He funded his studies working as a stilt walker - a practical expression of creativity that continues to inform his approach.
He later worked as a freelance writer for the BBC, before moving into senior editorial and knowledge roles, including work with PwC.
These experiences brought discipline, editorial rigour, and a respect for complexity to his work.
China
Performing Arts Teacher
Fender spent eight years living in China as a musician and performing arts teacher, where he wrote, designed, and directed large-scale productions involving hundreds of performers.
Living far from the island sharpened his relationship with home. He regularly listened to radio from Ireland while walking the streets of his adopted city, staying connected to events and conversations so exchanges with family remained grounded and informed. These habits of listening - across distance, culture, language, and experience - later became foundational to The Ireland Podcast.
Galway
The Third Piece Of The Puzzle
Now based in Galway, having returned after many years living abroad, Fender records most of the podcast from the west of the island. Living at a distance during the Covid years sharpened his sense of home and clarified what mattered in the work he wanted to do.
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Being based in Galway also offers a different vantage point. Having grown up in the North, living in the west has provided a fuller sense of the island as a shared, lived place - shaped by different histories, rhythms, and perspectives. After years away, this has involved both recognition and learning: coming to understand the island again through everyday life and conversation.
From here, Fender approaches each interview without political or religious alignment. The podcast does not seek to persuade, promote, or resolve. Instead, it offers space for people to speak in their own words and on their own terms.
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Returning to Ireland and settling in Galway feels like the third piece of the puzzle.
World
Celebrate The Island
Fender views The Ireland Podcast as a small, practical contribution to peace in a post-conflict world. He does not see peace as something delivered fully formed or guaranteed by agreements alone, but as something built slowly through attention, responsibility, and the willingness to listen.
In that sense, conversation itself becomes a form of work - not a solution, but a contribution. The podcast is offered in the belief that understanding is cumulative, and that it is incumbent on individuals, in whatever ways are available to them, to do their part.
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You can find Fender Jackson on:
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