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PODCAST

The Sperrins Podcast

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Welcome to the Save Our Sperrins Podcast, where we explore the beauty, significance, and urgent challenges facing the Sperrin Mountains in Northern Ireland . This podcast dives into the heart of the campaign to protect this stunning landscape from the threat of gold mining, offering insights, stories, and expert perspectives on why the Sperrins matter—not just to Ireland, but to the world. Join us as we navigate the critical public inquiry process, unpack the environmental, cultural, and social

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All Episodes

16:06

At the Turning of the Year: A 2025 Round-Up

The Sperrins Podcast ·

2025/12/31

End of Year Round-Up: 2025 | Save Our SperrinsIn this special end-of-year episode, Save Our Sperrins looks back over a pivotal year in the campaign to protect the Sperrin Mountains from gold mining. From the suspension of the Public Inquiry in January, through moments of international solidarity, creative resistance and legal challenge, to the relinquishing of mineral prospecting licences in October, this episode traces the key events of 2025 month by month. We also reflect on the launch of the

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42:52

#No.29 Extractivism, Emissions and the Reality Behind...

The Sperrins Podcast ·

2025/12/27

In this episode of the Save Our Sperrins Podcast, I’m joined again by writer and activist Lynda Sullivan, fresh from COP30 in Brazil.Lynda spent just one day inside the official Blue Zone, focusing instead on the People’s Summit and the global gatherings organised by Yes to Life, No to Mining, alongside thematic forums examining the mining and extractive economy. She reflects on the stark contrast between these spaces — one dominated by lobbying and polished messaging, the other grounded in lived

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72:37

#No.28 One Landscape, One Fight: Cross-Border...

The Sperrins Podcast ·

2025/12/20

In this episode, we sit down with two men who helped shape one of the most remarkable grassroots movements on the island of Ireland: the cross-border resistance to fracking along the Leitrim–Fermanagh border.Back in 2012, when few understood the scale of the threat, farmers, families and community organisers began to join the dots between their wells, their rivers, their land and the industrial plans unfolding around them. Eddie Mitchell and Michael Gallagher were among those who stepped forward

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54:39

#No.27 Raised by the Hills – A Conversation with...

The Sperrins Podcast ·

2025/12/13

This week’s podcast features Kelan Grant, a successful professional mountain biker — and a childhood friend of my own children, with family ties that stretch back over forty-five years.Kelan has been on bikes almost since he could walk. He grew up in Knockmoyle, at the edge of the Sperrins, and now lives and races professionally out of Morzine in the French Alps. I’ve watched his phenomenal progress over the years, from those first tentative wobbles to the accomplished rider he is today. He has

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65:17

#No.26 Business, Human Rights and the Battle for...

The Sperrins Podcast ·

2025/12/07

Chris O’Connell, TrócaireIn this episode of Protecting the Sperrins – Voices from the Frontline, Marella Fyffe speaks with Chris O’Connell, Senior Policy Advisor at Trócaire, about the growing global movement for a UN Treaty on Business and Human Rights. From decades of work across the Global South, Chris brings a deep understanding of how deregulation benefits corporate power, how trade agreements can quietly undermine democracy and the environment, and why binding rules for business are urgently

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63:55

#No.25 How Small Food Producers Strengthen a Rural...

The Sperrins Podcast ·

2025/11/29

In this week’s episode, I sit down with Julie from Dart Mountain Cheese, an artisan cheesemaking company rooted deep in the foothills of the Sperrins. What begins as a story about cheese quickly becomes something much bigger: a conversation about place, sustainability, and how to build a meaningful livelihood in a rural landscape often written off as economically limited.Julie shares how Dart Mountain Cheese began, why the Sperrins were the only place that felt right, and how clean air, clean

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9:27

#No.24 UK Critical Minerals Strategy 2035: What It...

The Sperrins Podcast ·

2025/11/23

In this bonus episode, I dig into the UK’s newly published Critical Minerals Strategy 2035 — a document dressed up as environmental responsibility, yet rooted in the same extractive logic that has driven ecological breakdown for decades. Behind its polished language lies a blueprint for expanded mining, weakened planning protections and a deeper entanglement between government, finance and the arms industry. Communities are reduced to footnotes; ecosystems are treated as expendable; and the climate

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81:17

#No.23 Dr Steven H. Emerman – The Science of Failure:...

The Sperrins Podcast ·

2025/11/22

In this episode, Marella speaks with Dr Steven H. Emerman, hydrologist, geophysicist, and one of the world’s leading independent experts on mine tailings storage facilities.Dr Emerman brings decades of research and international experience to a conversation that cuts through technical jargon and gets to the heart of what’s at stake in the Dalradian Gold planning application for the Sperrins. He explains that the standard industry position is that all tailings dams will eventually fail and that

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51:02

#No.22 Mining the Truth: A Conversation with Lynda...

The Sperrins Podcast ·

2025/11/15

Lynda Sullivan has spent years working with communities affected by mining, from the Andes to the Sperrins. She speaks about how Ireland became a “green sacrifice zone”, the myth of mining as a climate solution, and what happens when governments trade nature for profit. Her work with CAIM and the Yes to Life, No to Mining network connects local struggles into a wider movement for protection and change.📣 Share, review, and help amplify our story #dontmineus #SaveOurSperrins

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57:11

#No.21 Butterlope Farm – A Different Kind of Progress

The Sperrins Podcast ·

2025/11/08

In this episode, we visit Butterlope Farm near Plumbridge, in the heart of the Sperrin Mountains, where Annie and Vincent Mullan have built a life rooted in care — for land, people, and community.Annie, with her background in environmental education, and Vincent, a lifelong farmer, have created a social farm that shows how upland farming can be both sustainable and deeply human. Their approach offers a living contrast to the industrialisation creeping across the Sperrins — mining, wind farms, and

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43:48

#No.20 From the Sperrins to COP 30: Dr Lorna Gold on...

The Sperrins Podcast ·

2025/11/01

In this episode, Marella speaks with Dr Lorna Gold, Executive Director of the Laudato Si’ Movement — a global network inspired by Pope Francis’s call to care for our common home. From her long experience in climate justice and faith-based environmental work, Lorna brings insight into how moral and spiritual leadership can shape our collective response to the ecological crisis.As she prepares to travel to COP 30 in Brazil in November 2025 , Lorna reflects on the tensions between the drive for

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53:01

# No 19. Sacred Sperrins Living Land :A Conversation...

The Sperrins Podcast ·

2025/10/25

In this episode, I speak with Kerry McCrory, who lives in Coneyglen in the heart of the Sperrins. Through her holistic practice, Kerry helps people reconnect with balance, colour, and the deeper rhythms of nature — but over the years, her care for human well-being has become inseparable from her care for the land itself - through her opposition to the gold mine to challenging the spread of industrial wind farms.Kerry speaks movingly about the sacred relationship between people and place.This

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76:30

#No.18 Frontlines of Justice:James Orr on Power,...

The Sperrins Podcast ·

2025/10/18

In this conversation, James Orr — Director of Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland — joins us to reflect on decades of environmental work, solidarity, and vision for change.From his long-standing support for the Save Our Sperrins campaign to his calls for an independent environmental agency and a just settlement for Lough Neagh, James brings a rare combination of grounded experience and deep ecological thinking. We talk about what it means to move beyond extractivism, how communities can stand

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52:26

#No.17Divided by Gold, Rooted in Place: Emma Conway...

The Sperrins Podcast ·

2025/10/11

In this conversation, Marella speaks with Emma Conway, founder of Sperrin Soul Forest School — a mother, educator, and member of an extended local family whose differing views on the goldmine mirror the wider divisions playing out across this rural communityWhile parts of Emma’s family have engaged with Dalradian, others, including Emma herself, have spoken out against the mine. It’s a story that runs deep — of love and loyalty, of belonging and belief — and of what it means to keep connection

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58:25

#No.16 Hope is a Luxury, Resistance is...

The Sperrins Podcast ·

2025/10/04

What happens when the drive for endless growth leaves nothing but waste behind? Gerry McGovern, author of the After the Goldrush podcast , joins me to explore how mining — and the mindset that fuels it — mirrors the same destructive patterns we see in the digital world.Our conversation looks at what it means for communities like ours in the Sperrins to stand against extraction, and how waste is never an accident but the direct outcome of a system built on taking without giving back. Gerry’s clarity

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52:11

#No. 14 Sinéad Ní Mhearnóg : Language, Community and...

The Sperrins Podcast ·

2025/09/27

In this episode I speak with Sinéad Ní Mhearnóg Uí Ghéibheannaigh, a young mother, poet, and advocate for the Irish language from ConyGlen near Greencastle. Sinéad works with Glór na nGael, supporting communities to keep the language alive, and has long been a passionate voice in the Save Our Sperrins campaign.We talk about her roots in the Sperrins, the role of language in shaping identity, and how culture and community sustain resilience. Sinéad reflects on her poetry, her hopes for her children,

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37:04

#No.13 Law, Land, and Justice: Dr Amy Strecker on the...

The Sperrins Podcast ·

2025/09/20

In this episode, I speak with Dr Amy Strecker, Associate Professor at the Sutherland School of Law in UCD and one of the volunteer expert witnesses supporting the Public Inquiry into goldmining in the Sperrins.Amy brings her expertise in land law, justice, and cultural landscapes, helping us understand how law can both protect and endanger communities and the places they call home. She speaks about the Sperrins in the wider European and global frame, the clash between cultural heritage and

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5:50

#No.15 Council Stands with the People, Not Dalradian

The Sperrins Podcast ·

2025/09/18

This update brings you inside the Council chamber as Fermanagh and Omagh District Council refused Dalradian’s latest attempts to delay site restoration until 2025. From explosive claims that their works are “miniscule” to councillors openly admitting unfamiliarity with the site, it was a meeting that laid bare the contradictions and the politics around mining in the Sperrins. Tune in to hear what happened, why it matters, and what comes next. 📣 Share, review, and help amplify our story #dontmineus

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43:05

#No.12 Dancing with the Earth: Mary McGuiggan on...

The Sperrins Podcast ·

2025/09/13

In this episode, I sit down with Mary McGuiggan — A Derry woman, retired primary school teacher, renowned Irish dancer and dance teacher, activist, mother, grandmother, and Gaelic speaker are just some of her many talents .Mary has been at the heart of building the Rights of Nature campaign in Northern Ireland and is one of the founders of The Gathering, which brings activists together from across Ireland to share struggles, strengthen connections, and support one another. We talk about what

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83:37

#No.11 Hard-Earned Wisdom from Navan: A Conversation...

The Sperrins Podcast ·

2025/09/06

What is it really like to live beside a mine? In this episode of the Save Our Sperrins Podcast – Voices from the Frontline, we hear from sisters Nuala and Mairéad Heaney of Navan, County Meath. Their family home sits in the shadow of the Randalstown tailings dam — a toxic reservoir that has grown stage by stage since the late 1970s. For communities across Ireland facing the threat of new prospecting licences and goldmining projects, their story is both warning and wisdom. Nuala, once secretary of

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