A SPECIAL summer open door event showcasing the works and talents of three West Cork artists will take place at The Yellow Door in Baltimore village from July 27th to the end of August.

Sherkin Island based painter Majella O’Neill Collins, and artists Paula Marten and Aisling Roche have teamed up for a unique showcase, offering art enthusiasts a special opportunity to experience the creativity and passion of their work with scheduled and unscheduled talks throughout the summer.

The three women joined Star digital manager Dylan Mangan for a conversation about their art, where they find inspiration, teaching and the unique draw West Cork has for artists.

Listen below, or search 'Southern Star In The News' wherever you get your podcasts.

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FRANCIS Humphrys has been involved with the West Cork Music Chamber Festival for 29 years since it’s first edition in 1996. He is now festival director and West Cork Music chief executive.

This year’s festival kicks off on Friday, June 28th and runs for 10 days. While the buildup to opening night is always hectic, this year is more so than usual with so many musicians set to fly into Ireland, and the Aer Lingus pilots’ strike threatening to damage months of careful planning.

You can read more about the strike and the festival in this week’s Southern Star, but for now Star deputy editor Martin Claffey caught up with Humphrys ahead of the opening to chat about the festival, the strike, how the festival organisers need to be able to pivot at a moment’s notice and even Taylor Swift.

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ON this week's podcast, Southern Star editor Siobhán Cronin is joined by journalist & author Kathy Donaghy to talk about depression, miscarriage and how swimming has helped heal her.

Donaghy's book, Finding My Wild: How a Move to the Edge Brought Me Home, tells her story of moving home from Dublin to the Inishowen peninsula with her young family.

It is ode to the extraordinary healing powers of immersing yourself in the natural world, especially the sea, and she joins the podcast to talk about why she made the move.

This is the second episode in our latest series focusing on sea swimming. Listen back to the first episode with total immersion swim coach Melissa Duncan here.

Swimming became a lifeline for many during the pandemic, and so many have kept it going, which has left Ireland with a really strong and wonderful community.

Over the next few months, we will feature interviews with prominent figures in the swimming scene, from both West Cork and beyond.

This episode was produced and presented by Siobhán Cronin, with editing by Dylan Mangan.

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Listen to our previous episodes by clicking here.

For stories like this and more, pick up a copy of this week's Southern Star or subscribe online via www.southernstar.ie/epaper.

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ON this week's podcast, Southern Star editor Siobhán Cronin speaks to Melissa Duncan – a 'total immersion' expert and fellow sea swimming fanatic – about a shared love of the sea, building her own swimming pool, and some well-known West Cork names she has coached along the way.

Swimming became a lifeline for many during the pandemic, and so many have kept it going, which has left Ireland with a really strong and wonderful community.

Over the next few months, we will feature interviews with prominent figures in the swimming scene, from both West Cork and beyond.

Total immersion is a technique that involves running through swim strokes in a similar fashion to yoga, with the aim being to move through the water more efficiently. Melissa Duncan has been one of the biggest proponents of the technique in Ireland and joins the podcast to chat about the benefits of adapting to it.

Duncan runs The Swim Studio – Ireland's first total immersion swim coaching studio to be located in Ireland.

Follow along with Siobhán's latest blog post, where she writes about getting ready for those organised summer swims, by clicking here.

This episode was produced and presented by Siobhán Cronin, with editing by Dylan Mangan.

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Thanks for listening to The Southern Star's In The News Podcast. Please be sure to like, share and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

Listen to our previous episodes by clicking here.

For more on this story pick up a copy of this week's Southern Star or subscribe online via www.southernstar.ie/epaper.

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WEST Cork's film industry is on the rise.

On the latest episode of The Southern Star's In The News podcast, Dylan Mangan focuses on how the film industry is developing in West Cork

The region has some of the best locations in the country and more and more production companies are deciding to shoot their next projects here.

We hear from Star reporter Kieran O'Mahony, who has been reporting on the film scene for the newspaper, along with two of West Cork Film Studio's directors, Édaín O'Donnell and Steve Park. We also chat to producer Gráinne Dwyer, who has been shooting a short film on the Beara peninsula in recent weeks.

Produced and presented by Dylan Mangan.

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Listen to the previous episode: Does West Cork's fishing industry have a future?

Thanks for listening to The Southern Star's In The News Podcast. Please be sure to like, share and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

For more on this story pick up a copy of this week's Southern Star or subscribe online via www.southernstar.ie/epaper.

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FOR A country with 29% of EU fishing waters, Ireland still doesn't have a viable fishing industry.

EU membership, Brexit, and now the decommissioning scheme have all taken their toll, and the demise of the industry has been likened to death by a thousand cuts.

With the deadline for the Government's decommissioning scheme looming ever-closer, Southern Star reporter Jackie Keogh travelled to Castletownbere, where an estimated fifteen boats are due to be decommissioned, to find out if West Cork's fishing industry has a future.

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IT has been a difficult few years for the hospitality industry, first with Covid-19 shutting restaurants and bars down for months, followed by some astronomical energy bills which have seen numerous closures across West Cork and beyond.

The news of the closure of Pilgrim's in Rosscarbery and Cru Wine Bar & Bistro in Kinsale was met with shock, and on the latest edition of the In The News Podcast we chat to Michelin star chef Ahmet Dede about how he has managed during this difficult period and about the restaurant industry as a whole.

We also hear from Star reporter Kieran O'Mahony, who joins us to talk about the trend of recent closures and how some establishments are coming up with novel ways to improve business.

Presented by Dylan Mangan with reporting by Kieran O'Mahony.

Listen to our previous episode: The Holocaust deniers on our doorstep.

Thanks for listening to The Southern Star's In The News Podcast. Please be sure to like, share and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

For more on this story pick up a copy of this week's Southern Star or subscribe online via www.southernstar.ie/epaper.

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IN RECENT weeks we have seen some anti-aslyum seeker protests take place across the country, with far-right groups and beliefs seeming to take a more mainstream place in Irish culture in recent times.

On today’s podcast we’ll focus on how some beliefs associated with far-right thinking may be closer to home in West Cork than you would imagine, and have been for some time now.

The Southern Star's editor, Siobhán Cronin, joins us to speak about her visit to Auschwitz and a recent court case involving a human rights activist and the SSPX Resistance - a fringe religious group which broke away from mainstream Catholicism over its belief that the modern Church has become too liberal.

Thanks for watching and listening to The Southern Star's In The News podcast. Please be sure to like, share and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Catch up with our previous episode, focusing on the rise and decline of fishing on Cape Clear, here.

This podcast was produced and presented by Dylan Mangan and Siobhán Cronin.

For more on this story pick up a copy of this week's Southern Star or subscribe online via www.southernstar.ie/epaper.

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