Craig Rich Explains How A Celtic Festival Took Root In Holland Michigan - Festival Preview

From Hurling Glory To Festival Season And Living Genealogy

Ireland can feel like two countries at once: ancient stones and living language on one hand, global entertainment and modern music on the other. We follow that tension through a single weekly broadcast and pull out a clear pattern: Ireland isn’t stuck in the past or rushing to erase it. It’s choosing, again and again, what gets protected and what gets amplified. We start with the GAA, where hurling and Gaelic football remain amateur in pay but elite in scale, pride, and pressure. Limerick’s title win at Croke Park sets the stage, then we sit with the generational longing behind Mayo’s decades-long wait for another championship. That county-first loyalty isn’t just fandom. It’s family, parish, and place, and it shapes how people show up for each other. Then we zoom out to cultural heritage and modern media. The Office of Public Works draws a hard line by rejecting reality TV filming at archaeologically sensitive sites in County Meath, while Irish language culture gets treated as serious art through renewed attention on writer Alan Titley. At the same time, Ireland happily exports modern stories like RTÉ’s Kin, proving it’s not anti-modern, it just wants the terms to be its own. From there, the summer calendar explodes: Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann coming to Belfast, new label In This Records betting on physical media, Kneecap bringing Irish-language hip-hop into community fundraising, and Luke Combs packing Slane Castle. We also acknowledge the heartbreak of losing Cork DJ Mark “Beansy” O’Brien, a reminder that tight scenes share both joy and grief. We close with Tracing Forward, a genealogy tool focused on finding living relatives, and a question about what part of your own history is waiting to be remixed. Subscribe, share this with a friend who loves culture and music, and leave a review with your answer. Your source for Irish music and culture news! Tune in for the latest in Irish and Celtic music, festivals, and heritage. Listen 24/7 at MyIrishRadio.com [https://www.myirishradio.com/] — and host your own show! Email myirishradio@gmail.com From trad to rock — Ireland’s soundtrack lives here. Listen worldwide at MyIrishRadio.com [https://www.myirishradio.com/] Script compiled and read with voices from NotebookLM [https://notebooklm.google.com/]

Ojizo Brings Japanese Celtic Fire

A band from Tokyo falling hard for Irish traditional music sounds unlikely until you hear how it happened. I’m joined by Kozo of Ojizo, a Japanese Celtic music trio bringing flute-forward tunes, accordion drive, and string rhythm to the United States, with a stop on August 11 at the Ancient Order of Hibernians Hall in Redford, Michigan. We talk about what makes small rooms special, where the audience is close enough to feel every lift in a reel and every turn in a melody.  Kozo walks me through his musical origin story, from school-band trumpet to discovering the Irish sound through Dervish, and why the flute became the instrument that truly fit. We dig into the surprising connections between Irish music and American roots styles like bluegrass and country, then zoom out to the bigger picture: the Irish music scene in Japan and how it has grown over the last two decades through students, community organizing, and people simply getting hooked on tunes and dance music.  We also get into the practical details listeners actually want: what Ojizo’s lineup looks like, how many times they’ve toured the States, and how their setlist can change depending on the room and the crowd. Kozo shares what’s coming with their next album release, how they’re bringing CDs on tour, and where to follow the band online at orjizo.org. And yes, he even plays a tune on flute during the conversation, giving you a real taste of the sound before you see them live.  If you love Irish flute, Celtic sessions, global folk traditions, and discovering new touring bands before everyone else, hit play, then subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show. Your source for Irish music and culture news! Tune in for the latest in Irish and Celtic music, festivals, and heritage. Listen 24/7 at MyIrishRadio.com [https://www.myirishradio.com/] — and host your own show! Email myirishradio@gmail.com From trad to rock — Ireland’s soundtrack lives here. Listen worldwide at MyIrishRadio.com [https://www.myirishradio.com/] Script compiled and read with voices from NotebookLM [https://notebooklm.google.com/]

Can A White Jersey Break A 75 Year Curse

Ireland is still an old song, but the beat underneath it is changing fast. We start with a vivid image of a heavy antique grandfather clock that looks untouched on the outside, yet runs on a completely rewired system inside and use it to make sense of modern Irish music and culture as tradition collides with technology, psychology, and global taste. From the All-Ireland Finals at Croke Park, we unpack how history shows up on the field as real pressure. We talk Kerry, Mayo, and the pull of a 75-year story that can live in a county’s bones, plus why a seemingly small detail like Mayo’s white alternate jersey can act as anchoring that reduces cognitive load under stress. We also reflect on legacy passing forward, including the significance of a major retirement that closes a chapter in Dublin football. Then the conversation turns to the urgent future of songwriting and copyright as The Script raises alarms about AI music scraping and what it means when human work is converted into training data. We balance that digital threat with the very physical, very alive music scene, including Slane Castle embracing new audiences and a surge of creative energy across festivals and releases. Finally, we dig into Trad Tech Fusion, where bodhrán, uilleann pipes, myth, hip-hop, and electronic production prove tradition can be a living language, not a locked display and we ask the chilling question: if a machine learns the soul of a nation, who owns the digital ghost? If you care about Irish culture, traditional Irish music, modern Irish artists, ethical AI, and how communities stay themselves while the world speeds up, hit play, subscribe, and share this with a friend, then leave us a review and tell us: where should the line be drawn between inspiration and extraction? Your source for Irish music and culture news! Tune in for the latest in Irish and Celtic music, festivals, and heritage. Listen 24/7 at MyIrishRadio.com [https://www.myirishradio.com/] — and host your own show! Email myirishradio@gmail.com From trad to rock — Ireland’s soundtrack lives here. Listen worldwide at MyIrishRadio.com [https://www.myirishradio.com/] Script compiled and read with voices from NotebookLM [https://notebooklm.google.com/]

Ireland Exports Identity Through Music Film And Sport

Ireland doesn’t ship its greatest export in steel containers, it sends it out as music you can feel, stories you can repeat, and rivalries you can’t fake. We take a fast, focused snapshot of Irish culture for July 6 to 12, 2026 and pull the threads together into one big picture: a country building cultural infrastructure at scale while still protecting the small rooms where talent is made. We talk live music venues like an urban plan for art, from the announcement of a new 20,000-capacity arena in Dublin’s docklands to the intimate stages that keep the local scene alive. Then we zoom into the flood of festival updates and new Irish music releases and ask the uncomfortable question: is this festival saturation, or a sign that Irish audiences now demand hyper-specialized, carefully curated experiences that range from indie rock anthems to cutting-edge electronic shows in spaces designed for classical sound? Next comes the sharp edge of cultural diplomacy. We dig into government arts funding, Culture 2026, and what it means when the state backs touring, film, and Irish language theatre. Where’s the line between necessary support and polished PR? And what happens when the most powerful cultural force is the one nobody can script: the GAA, with amateur county loyalty and the kind of late-game drama that no screenwriter could improve. If you care about Irish music, Irish culture, and how Irish identity is evolving right now, hit play, then subscribe, share the show, and leave a review so more listeners can find it. What part of modern Ireland most challenges your old mental picture? Your source for Irish music and culture news! Tune in for the latest in Irish and Celtic music, festivals, and heritage. Listen 24/7 at MyIrishRadio.com [https://www.myirishradio.com/] — and host your own show! Email myirishradio@gmail.com From trad to rock — Ireland’s soundtrack lives here. Listen worldwide at MyIrishRadio.com [https://www.myirishradio.com/] Script compiled and read with voices from NotebookLM [https://notebooklm.google.com/]

How Ireland Turns Gigs Into European Influence

Diplomacy usually looks like polished tables and scripted handshakes, but Ireland is making a different bet: that the real negotiations start long before the boardroom, in clubs, playlists, festivals, and the infrastructure that keeps live music running. We follow the thread from Dublin’s Trinity College Summer Series and arena-scale concerts to muddy fields in Stradbally, then ask what it all adds up to when the stakes get bigger than entertainment. We break down the modern Irish music “pipeline” in plain terms, from curated discovery and streaming velocity to real-world bookings that move artists from 500-capacity rooms to major stages. Along the way, we talk about why genre diversity matters, and why the coexistence of mainstream headliners and politically charged punk is not a quirky detail, it’s the kind of cultural biodiversity that makes a scene durable, credible, and worth exporting. Then we tackle the hot-button question: does a proposed 20,000-seat indoor arena in Dublin’s Docklands threaten to flatten the grassroots, or can it actually strengthen the whole ecosystem through jobs, trained crews, and city upgrades like late-night transport and clearer noise policy? From there, the conversation pivots into cultural diplomacy and soft power, including Culture 2026, Ireland’s multi-million euro cultural push linked to its EU Council presidency, with targeted events in places like Belgium, partnerships with Germany, and showcases reaching as far as Hungary. If you care about Irish music, Irish culture, live events in Dublin, festival strategy, or how soft power really works inside the European Union, this one connects the dots without the fluff. Subscribe, share this with a friend who loves live music, and leave a review with your take: does big infrastructure help the underbrush, or block the sun? Your source for Irish music and culture news! Tune in for the latest in Irish and Celtic music, festivals, and heritage. Listen 24/7 at MyIrishRadio.com [https://www.myirishradio.com/] — and host your own show! Email myirishradio@gmail.com From trad to rock — Ireland’s soundtrack lives here. Listen worldwide at MyIrishRadio.com [https://www.myirishradio.com/] Script compiled and read with voices from NotebookLM [https://notebooklm.google.com/]