‘So proud to reflect on this defining moment' – New star-studded podcast examines marriage equality vote 10 years on
Shane Daniel Byrne is set to celebrate 10 years since Ireland became the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage in a limited documentary podcast series with four episodes.
5
Shane Daniel Byrne is the host of the new podcast series
Credit: supplied by Onic
5
The episodes air weekly from this Thursday, May 22, for the next four weeks
Credit: supplied by Onic
5
The podcast is celebrating the 10-year anniversary of marriage equality
Credit: Alamy
The comedian star is well-known for his podcast Hot Young Guys, co-hosted with Tony Cantwell and Killian Sunderman, which quickly became Ireland's number one comedy podcast in 2024.
Now he is set to host a brand new podcast series that is dedicated to the ten-year anniversary of when Ireland became the first country in the world to legalise
Featuring four powerful episodes, the host will take listeners on an emotional and joyful journey detailing Ireland's historic fight for same-sex marriage and
Produced by Onic, the new series will also include his personal reflections and standup live from his sold-out gig at Vicar Street in
READ MORE ON LGBT
During the podcast, Shane will explore the cultural shifts that eventually made the 2015 referendum possible, where 62 per cent of the Irish electorate voted in favour of supporting same-sex marriage.
Almost 30 special guests and unsung heroes of the Yes Equality referendum campaign will appear on the show, including drag queen
Well-known RTE and entertainment stars such as
Each episode brings together voices from
Most read in Celebrity
On the launch of the new podcast series, Shane said: "Ireland Said Yes is more than just discussing a referendum — it's about celebrating the decades of LGBT activism decades before, alongside the personal stories from people across the country that helped change how Ireland sees itself.
"I'm so proud to reflect on this defining moment and can't wait for people to hear it."
'POWERFUL REMINDER'
Sasha Hamrogue, the Head of Digital at Onic, said: "This wonderful new series from Onic Originals captures the courage, resilience, and love that drove the fight for equality in Ireland.
"It's a powerful reminder of the progress we've made — and the work still to be done."
The comedian star has been teasing fans on
Posting the trailer on Instagram, he said: "IRELAND SAID YES episode 1 drops TOMORROW.
'DIFFERENT PROJECT'
"A very different 'project' for me and I'm really excited of the work we've done trying to tell the bigger picture of how Ireland Said Yes.
"I interviewed a lot of people over the last 6 months and between myself and series producer @p.macg and the team at @onic.live. We have 4 lovely episodes about The Marriage Equality Referendum in 2015."
The four episodes will air every Thursday for the next four weeks, followed by bonus episodes with interview highlights curated by the host.
The first episode is available to stream now on
5
Ireland became the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage
Credit: Alamy
5
Brendan Courtney is one of the many special guests to appear on the new podcast series
Credit: supplied by Onic
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Irish Sun
an hour ago
- The Irish Sun
Sharon Stone, 67, sizzles in daring side-on view 33 years after notorious Basic Instinct film scene
She has shut down rumours that she will be in a reboot of the 1992 erotic thriller LOOKS like film star Sharon Stone is still feeling a draught 33 years after her notorious Basic Instinct film scene. Sharon, 67, sported the daring side-on view while posing for Harper's Bazaar Spain September issue. 3 Sharon Stone sported a daring side-on view while posing for Harper's Bazaar Spain September issue Credit: Eric Michael Roy/HARPER'S BAZAAR ESPANA 3 Sharon strikes another pose 33 years after her notorious Basic Instinct film scene Credit: Eric Michael Roy Advertisement 3 She famously went knickerless as suspected killer Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct Credit: Alamy She recently shut down rumours that she will be in a reboot of the 1992 erotic thriller, in which she famously went knickerless as suspected killer Catherine Tramell. The 2006 sequel, in which she reprised the role, was widely criticised. Sharon said: 'If it goes the way the one that I was in went, I don't know why you'd do it.' Advertisement "I mean, go ahead, but good luck." READ MORE ON SHARON STONE basic icon Sharon Stone, 67, looks stunning as she goes braless in see-through top Last year, Sharon told of her career-long fear of being shot dead by an obsessive fan — which was sparked by a chat with Sylvester Stallone. She said: 'What Sly said to me is that suddenly you are walking down the street, everyone is doing this (reaching into their pocket) and you don't know if they are going for the pen or the gun. 'That's what becomes so unsettling, because everybody is doing that. Advertisement 'But you don't know why. 'You feel constantly in this unsettled place that you always have to figure it out and you have to fix it and be ready. 'You are always trying to figure out what everybody else's intentions are.'
Irish Examiner
4 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
'More people win the lottery than achieve what's happened to us' — Kingfishr, the student band selling out the 3Arena
When laid out on the page, the lyrics of Kingfishr have the look and feel of mid-century Irish poetry — subdued, conversational, and peppered with an energy that borders on despondency. However, when paired with the still, heavy baritone of lead singer Eddie Keogh, and the striking musicality of bass player Eoghan 'McGoo' McGrath, and banjo player Eoin 'Fitz' Fitzgibbon, the alchemy changes to reveal a stirring, emotional urgency, one not dissimilar to hope. When Kingfishr play, they emote something that is both entirely unaffected and yet drenched with feeling. Like the writing of the band's stylistic forebears — The Dubliners, The Cranberries, The Frames — the music of Kingfishr is imbued with a yearning for a long-vanished, almost parochial way of life: one centred around the beauty, peace and danger of youth, and the long, hazy days of wondering where life will take you next. Next month, Fitzgibbon (27), McGrath (26) and Keogh (27) will release their debut album, Halcyon, along with a smattering of tour dates across Europe and the US, many of which are already sold out. As we sit in Dublin's The Gibson Hotel, and look across to the 3Arena, they can't quite believe that this venue is one of them. 'Ticket sales sometimes feel not real, social media isn't real, but walking into that space, knowing you're going to sell it out for two nights… That is real,' Keogh says. 'And crazy,' Fitzgibbon laughs. 'It never gets normal, and to be honest, I don't think I want it to,' McGrath smiles. The trio met in the early twenty-twenties — some say 2021, others 2022 — while studying Hardware Engineering at the University of Limerick. Between long days in student accommodation during the hangover of the pandemic, they punctuated college work with PlayStation and songwriting, picking up where Keogh's teenage hobby left off. Fitzgibbon, an East Cork hurler with thick eyebrows and a bashful smile, soon joined him in creating music, only to remember a classmate with a penchant for strings. 'McGoo comes from a musical dynasty,' Keogh says. 'There's a room dedicated to silverware in their house. But yeah, we asked him to get involved to see what a banjo would sound like with what we'd written — and it all kind of started from there.' Kingfishr, named for the birds who reside near the river behind Keogh's house, began playing at house parties to hone their craft and spread their name. It was a natural extension of their previous lives, picking up guitars at sessions and singing until daylight broke. The first 50 gigs, mainly pubs around Limerick, were 'rubbish,' but they persisted. As friends began to request their music at parties over celebrated covers, the three men began to consider the will-they-won't-they pull of the music industry. (Their track Shot In The Dark tracks this leap of faith from a much steadier path to a much more creative one.) That they've managed to break through the noise amidst an island of songwriters is not lost on them. 'I just knew that if we didn't do this now, we never would,' Keogh says, catching my eyes. 'I wanted to be able to go to bed every night and know that we'd tried. And like… More people win the lottery than achieve what's happened to us. This doesn't just happen.' Kingfishr: 'I wanted to be able to go to bed every night and know that we'd tried. And like… More people win the lottery than achieve what's happened to us. This doesn't just happen.' Indeed, since their debut on the Irish music scene less than three years ago, Kingfishr have racked up more than 70 million streams, sold 50,000+ tickets, played support slots for the likes of Dermot Kennedy and Bruce Springsteen, and are key players in the Irish revival alongside acts like The Mary Wallopers, Amble, KNEECAP, and John Francis Flynn. According to Cork and Limerick locals, their impromptu gigs have amassed what publicans have come to label as 'Beatlemania'. In person, the band's members are boyish, smiling and unassuming. They regularly discuss how it's not in their nature to be self-promoting, something that brushes against the norms of today's music industry, and prefer to discuss the likes of nicknames ('McGoo' was deemed so by McGrath's physics teacher, and somehow persisted), advertisement soundtracks (the 2005 Sony Bravia TV one with José Gonzales' Heartbeats, Hyundai's 2018 one with James Vincent McMorrow's cover of Higher Love) and perfect movies (' Shrek 2 is a rare example of a sequel better than the original'). They do align on one serious topic, though: spirituality. 'I spent an awful lot of my teens feeling that there was no point to anything, that we were just bones and flesh, and you could just drink yourself off a cliff,' Keogh says. 'But I've had a couple of experiences now where I start to consider that there's something out there worth believing in. And I think that's partially what a lot of music is about.' 'I certainly believe in something,' Fitzgibbon shares. 'I grew up in a religious family,' McGrath says. 'And I can't help but feel today that something's lost. You can explain away an awful lot, and we are engineers, so we know that more than most, but sometimes…' Keogh interjects. 'There's a bit of magic in the air. And maybe you can explain that away as just like molecules and DNA. But I think if people were really honest with themselves… they would say that it's something we know very little about.' Certainly, Kingfishr have given young people something to believe in. As peers of theirs continue to emigrate, their music brings those who have left home in a way few anticipated. There's perhaps their most famous track, Killeagh, an ode to Fitzgibbon's hurling team, penned before an East County Final. ('They'd go raring and tearing and fighting for love / For the land they call Killeagh and the Lord up above'). Written in just 15 minutes, the now four-times Platinum single speaks to everything the band is about: storytelling, community and an appreciation for home. 'We have this crowd of 8-year-olds who stand behind the goals whenever we play in Killeagh now,' Fitzgibbon smiles. 'And now they scream the song whenever we score. I think it makes them proud of their place, and that's everything, because we want to give people an Ireland to be proud of.' In the end, the music of Kingfishr continues to soar because they tend to shine a light on a need few of us can put a name on. They, too, speak to a myriad; each listen allows one to find something slightly different from the time before. In that way, Fitzgibbon, McGrath and Keogh have become, unbeknownst to themselves, north stars for a generation, one that may have felt that Ireland wasn't for them, through no fault of their own. Indeed, one central theme permeates through the band's debut album: that we all live in the shadow of one another, and we must listen to find our way out. 'Certainly, the reason I fell in love with music is from, like, house parties, running after girls you hadn't a hope with, and then some song comes on and everyone goes bananas,' Keogh says. 'And you're just like, will things ever be this good again? If we can give that to someone, and they can come away from a night listening to our music with a core memory, that to me is everything.' 'I want us to take America,' Keogh says, finally, as we discuss the band's big dreams. 'I've never said that aloud before, and I'm aware it might sound stupid. But we've finished a tour there, with another coming up now. So we might have the chance to sink our claws in, and God, we're going to try.' * Kingfishr's debut album Halcyon will be released on August 22, 2025 * Tickets for their tour are available on
Extra.ie
4 hours ago
- Extra.ie
Investigation launched as hopeful Electric Picnic attendees scammed
A Garda investigation has been launched following several reports of a number of people being scammed into purchasing non-existent tickets to sold-out Electric Picnic. The culmination of the summer festival calendar takes place next weekend at Stradbally, Co Laois with headliners including Chappell Roan, Hozier and Fatboy Slim all due to perform. With tickets to the major Irish festival like gold dust, it's the perfect time for scam artists and fraudsters to prey on unsuspecting music fans. A Garda investigation has been launched following several reports of a number of people being scammed into purchasing non-existent tickets to sold-out Electric Picnic. Pic: The Irish Mirror reports that a well-known beauty pageant participant is at the helm of the investigation, with victims coming forward on video-sharing site TikTok sharing their horror stories. It is understood the woman, aged in her 20s, has paid back some of the monies to date, with the publication adding that she has been 'fully cooperative' with investigating Gardaí. The Laois woman appears to have deleted all traces of her social media as victims continue to come forward via TikTok. Kneecap are amongst the star-studded line-up. Pic: Sony Pictures/Everett/REX/Shutterstock The Irish Independent reports that the woman is 'expected to be arrested in the coming weeks.' A statement from An Garda Síochána issued via Instagram on Wednesday afternoon urged festival fans to 'exert a great degree of caution' when trying to purchase tickets for sold-out events such as EP. They said: 'We are currently investigating alleged incidents of online fraud (alleged resale of event tickets) that are believed to have occurred in recent weeks. 'If you may have been a victim of online fraud, please report it to us at your local Garda Station in person or by phone, or alternatively call the Freephone Garda Confidential Line: 1800 666 111. 'It is very important that you exert a great degree of caution if attempting to purchase tickets for a sold-out event through any third-party known or otherwise. 'Do not trust that the tickets you believe you are purchasing are real. 'It is likely that they will not materialise and in fact, do not exist. 'Please do not send money through any app in advance.'
