03. Light

In this week’s episode of Keywords, Zoe Comyns is guided by the word ‘Light’.
Beginning in her garden with the night sky filled with stars - including the constellation Corona Borealis.
Margaret Dennehy’s poem ‘Three Little Words’ is a reflection on the language used around and the social impact of the Novel Coronavirus Pandemic Margaret is a retired teacher from Co.Waterford.
In his piece for Keywords called ‘C’, Colm O’Shea thinks about how the speed of light can separate two people on their walk.
Colm’s short fiction has been published widely. He has won many awards including The 2019 Aleph Writing Prize. He lives in Dublin.
Writer Manika Bébhinn Ramsay lives in Brazil and she recorded in the forest by her home. She compares the light in Brazil and the light of Ireland and how the gentle lights of home seem so far away now.
The artist Martin Creed won the Turner Prize in 2001 with his work Lights Going On and Off. A room was filled with lights going on and off in 5 second intervals. His was a controversial win and he explains that it was inspired by the childish prank of flicking the light switch outside a bathroom door.
Dónal Ryan is the author of numerous novels and collections of stories and has won many awards including The Guardian First Book Award in 2013. In his short story written for Keywords, a proud father keeps a row of lights in his house for his three children. When the middle one begins to play up he realizes that he needs to connect with his middle son, Joshua.
Tom Roseingrave’s ‘Cow’ is, he says, an audio experiment to investigate what happens in the darkness, and whether the voice remains the same when the lights returns.
Tom is a radio producer, writer and performer.
We return to the stars with filmmaker and sound designer Tadhg O’Sullivan. He reflects on the giant red star called Betelguese, and the ship named after it. Tadhg brings us to Whiddy Island in Bantry Bay and the site of a terrible maritime disaster where 50 people died in an explosion in 1979.
Keywords is presented and produced by Zoë Comyns and is a New Normal Culture production for RTÉ Radio 1 Extra.
Assistant Producer: Regan Hutchins
The series is funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland Sound and Vision 3 Scheme and by RTÉ