The Cursed Murphy Podcast: In-depth encounters with intense people: writers, musicians, artists, athletes, filmmakers, technologists, philosophers and more. Fronted by Cursed Murphy, aka author, spoken word performer, journalist, musician, broadcaster and all round human megaphone Peter Murphy. Recorded by Dan Comerford. Photography: Michael Duggan, Dan Comerford.
Episode 1: Maria Doyle Kennedy
Our guest: singer, songwriter, actress and filmmaker Maria Doyle Kennedy. Maria’s albums include 2001’s Charm, Mutter ( 2007), Sing (2012), and her most recent eponymous release. As well as being a gifted interpreter of other artists’ material and a former member of Hothouse Flowers and The Black Velvet Band, Maria is an acclaimed actress, best known for her roles in Orphan Black, Dexter, Downton Abbey, The Commitments, Queer As Folk, Sing Street, The General, Outlander and many other film and television productions. She has also most recently become a director in her own right, having completed the short films A Different Kind of Day and Colour Code.
This episode was produced with the support of Wexford Arts Department, Wexford County Council and Wexford Public Library, and was recorded in front of a live audience by Dan Comerford.
Episode 2: Annemarie Ní Churreáin
Our guest: Donegal-born poet, writer and educator Annemarie Ní Churreáin. Annemarie’s first book Bloodroot, published by Doire Press in 2017, was shortlisted for the Shine Strong Award for best first collection in Ireland and for the 2018 Julie Suk Award in the US. She’s the recipient of numerous literary fellowships, including a residency at the Jack Kerouac House, Orlando. In 2016 she was the recipient of a Next Generation Artists Award from the Arts Council of Ireland. The following year she was appointed to the Writers In Prisons panel co-funded by the Arts Council and the Department of Justice, Equality and Reform. She is currently Writer in Residence at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.
Of her work, Dr. Sinéad Kennedy of the Department of English in Maynooth has written: “Ní Churreáin bears witness to the lived experiences of women, including those Irish women who for too long have been overlooked and silenced; women like Ann Lovett, Joanne Hayes, and the many nameless, disregarded women who lived lives of imprisonment within Irish Institutions.”
This episode was produced with the support of Wexford Arts Department, Wexford County Council and Wexford Public Library, and was recorded in front of a live audience by Dan Comerford. Pic: Michael Duggan.
Episode 3: Jerry Fish
Jerry Fish has been many things: a stadium rock god, a carnival barker and showman, entrepreneur, label owner and bandleader. He made his mark touring the world and recording three albums with An Emotional Fish, and after years of hard graft, music business machinations and good and bad luck, he formed his own band (and label) the Mudbug Club, releasing two platinum-selling albums, Be Yourself and The Beautiful Untrue, that combined roots music, torch songs, film atmospheres and brassy swagger.
These days the name Jerry Fish is synonymous with festivals, carnival sideshow, circus and theatre. Most recently, Jerry was asked by Tom Gimbel, the late Daniel Johnston’s manager, to put on a show to celebrate ‘Hi, How Are You Day’, inspiring new conversations around mental health issues. The show was also marked by the release of Jerry’s version of Johnston’s masterpiece ‘The Story of An Artist’.
“I grew up in London,” Jerry once said, “but my family, my two great-grandmothers… I looked up the 1911 census, and they were neighbours. I’m from the river. I’d say if you went back far enough I’m just an amoeba that crawled out of the Liffey.”
This episode of Cursed Murphy’s podcast was recorded live by Dan Comerford in front of an invited audience in Wexford Library, and was produced with the support of Wexford Arts Department, Wexford County Council, and Wexford Library.
Pic: Michael Duggan.
Episode 4: Rob Doyle
Rob Doyle is a writer from Dublin. His first novel, Here Are the Young Men, published in 2014 by Bloomsbury and the Lilliput Press, was selected as one of Hot Press magazine’s 20 Greatest Irish novels 1916-2016, and has just been adapted for the screen. His second book, a collection of short stories entitled This Is the Ritual, was published in 2016 to widespread acclaim. Rob is the editor of the anthology The Other Irish Tradition (Dalkey Archive Press), and In This Skull Hotel Where I Never Sleep (Broken Dimanche Press). His new novel Threshold has just been published by Bloomsbury to glowing reviews. The New York Times recently dubbed him a professional “loafer, mope, successful Lothario and pretentious little troll.” Rob teaches on the MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Limerick, and lives the rest of the year in Berlin.
This episode of Cursed Murphy’s podcast was recorded live by Dan Comerford in front of an invited audience in Wexford Library, and was produced with the support of Wexford Arts Department, Wexford County Council, and Wexford Library.
Pic: Michael Duggan.
