Across Divides

Across Divides

Across Divides explores the key issues impacting communities on the island of Ireland, focusing on cooperation, connection, and mutual understanding. Season 2 takes a deep dive into the Shifting Tides Project, connecting coastal communities and marine environments on the twin shores of Carlingford Lough, working across the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Over six brand new episodes, we discuss global challenges facing our seas, from climate change and pollution, to overfishing and habitat loss; we also reflect on how scientists, artists, and communities are making sense of local issues and finding creative ways to respond, including citizen science, storytelling, music making, and nature restoration. Producer and Host: Alexander McMaster Sound Editor: Luke Lacey Project Director: Suzie Cahn Season One was a series of conversations and creative reflections about civil society and community work: their contribution to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland’s shared challenges and current and future collaboration on solutions.

Episodes

S2 Ep1: Shorelines

March 26, 2025 • 25 mins
The undersea world often remains out of sight. In this episode, our guests take us from the forests of County Down to the rocky shores and hidden depths of Carlingford Lough. Together, we explore how we can make the natural world more visible through creative and scientific approaches, activism and art. 

There’s a lot to be learned from a walk on the beach, where creatures washed up on the sand provide insight on what...
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S2 Ep2: Crossing the Lough

March 26, 2025 • 26 mins
At the narrows between Omeath and Warrenpoint, ferry boats once carried folks across Carlingford Lough. In wartime, the passengers might have carried a piece of butter or bag of sugar up their sleeve. Stories such as these inspired a community-engaged art project using driftwood and bits and pieces found on the beach around the lough. 

All sorts of stories wash up on the shores of the Irish Sea; some are just a bit of...
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S2 Ep3: Soundwaves

March 26, 2025 • 26 mins
In this episode, we sit down with composer and sound artist Karen Power to discuss her project: Hidden Life in Carlingford Lough (2024), a composed soundscape containing only sounds that were recorded on and underneath the Lough. The work seeks to amplify the sounds coming from the lough’s amazingly diverse life, which Karen hears on a par to musical conversations. It seeks to create space for locals and others to listen and p...
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S2 Ep4: Diving Deep

March 26, 2025 • 29 mins
There are strange and otherworldly creatures at the bottom of the sea. In this episode we meet some of the intrepid divers exploring the depths of Carlingford Lough, hearing about both the wonders and horrors of what they have seen there. It turns out there is an abundance of life, from crabs and anemones to dolphins and seals, but also worrying issues that need to be tackled, including pollution, biodiversity loss, and warmin...
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S2 Ep5: Living on the Lough

March 26, 2025 • 24 mins
Balancing ocean conservation with sustainable livelihoods can be challenging. Healthy seas depend on meshworks of habitat. This episode looks at seagrass meadows and their part in maintaining ecological diversity and mitigating the effects of climate change. Seagrasses and oysters don’t often elicit the same intensity of interest as coral reefs; to most, they seem, by comparison, less vibrant, less full of colour and obvious l...
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S2 Ep6: Save Our Seas

March 26, 2025 • 26 mins
The shores of our island are thriving with life, from seagrass meadows and kelp forests to rock pools and salt marshes. In the face of global challenges for our oceans, how can a balance be found between conservation strategies and community needs in highly dynamic marine environments? In this episode we discuss some of the issues facing our coastal areas with experts in the field of marine conservation. Supporting the recover...
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S2: Season 2 Trailer: The Shifting Tides Project

March 13, 2025 • 1 min
In the new season of the Across Divides podcast, we take a deep dive into the Shifting Tides Project, which brings together coastal communities from the twin shores of Carlingford Lough, working across the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Over six brand new episodes, we discuss global challenges facing our seas, from climate change and pollution, to overfishing and habitat loss; we also re...
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S1 Ep12: Women in the COVID Recovery

May 30, 2022 • 54 mins
In times of crisis, women have often carried significant burdens that are not well recognised. In this episode, we look at the role of women in community and peacebuilding, and the development of policy guided by lived experience. We discuss systemic, historical and intersectional discrimination against women. Lived experiences of women during the pandemic were researched as part of the feminist recovery plan which proposes ne...
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S1 Ep11: Global Perspectives

May 30, 2022 • 49 mins
In this discussion of social justice and collaboration, we will look at ways in which global citizenship can help address all-island challenges. In particular, we examine development education, now more commonly known as global citizenship education, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The discussion also looks at ways that an individual’s learning journey can be transformed into wider societal change. 

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S1 Ep10: The Digital Divide

May 23, 2022 • 45 mins
Digital poverty exists in both rural and urban communities across the island, reducing access to jobs, education and social interaction. This episode looks at developing skills and access to the digital world across generations in both social and economic contexts. We look at the supports needed for the scaling up of current efforts and opportunities to address fragmentation through all-island collaborations. 

...
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S1 Ep9: Rural Connections

May 23, 2022 • 47 mins
Rural communities can be vibrant places but also face challenges of connectivity, access to services and resources, and higher incidence of domestic violence and out-migration to name a few. This episode looks at overcoming some of the barriers faced by rural communities across the island, and includes a discussion on the new common charter for cooperation within and between these islands, North, South and East and West. 
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S1 Ep7: Decarbonising the Island

May 16, 2022 • 58 mins
The need for action on climate change is urgent, and risks leaving communities behind. This episode deals with a fair and equitable transition to carbon neutrality that empowers people across the island to have a meaningful say and accrue local development benefits. We discuss principles of deliberative democracy and community wealth building as tools for a just transition, and addressing complex problems through simple soluti...
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S1 Ep8: Communities Taking Climate Action

May 16, 2022 • 58 mins
Adapting to and mitigating the effects of the climate crisis carries a need for rapid change that has the potential to disrupt livelihoods. How can communities be engaged in a fair and equitable manner while our society transitions to a post-carbon future? 

In this episode we look at the just transition as an opportunity rather than a burden, overcoming land use conflicts, and integrating eco-literacy in our education...
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S1 Ep6: Access to Nature

May 9, 2022 • 54 mins
This episode deals with examples of grassroots and networked responses to crises of biodiversity and food production across the island. We look at democratising knowledge through citizen science, educating and empowering communities, and recognising the value of traditional knowledge. 

Guests

Karin Dubsky is the Coordinator of Coastwatch, an educational and environmental network of...
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S1 Ep5: Biodiversity Crisis

May 9, 2022 • 55 mins
It is widely agreed that the nature of the biodiversity crisis necessitates an all-island response. In this episode, we look at the ways that communities can be enabled to tackle this crisis through collaborative approaches. 

We explore the intersection of ecology with archaeology, heritage, and sense of place, and the value of knowledge gathering and sharing.  As we move through shifting normals, with each new genera...
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S1 Ep1: Arts, Language, and Culture

May 3, 2022 • 56 mins
The first episode in this series looks at the role of the arts, language and culture as a vibrant part of civil society. We discuss their role in addressing the legacy of conflict and contemporary challenges across the island. Our guests talk about the arts as a platform for storytelling and critical thinking, and a catalyst for change in wider society. 

Guests

Paula McFettridge is...
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S1 Ep4: Mental Health

May 3, 2022 • 57 mins
The mental health crisis has been highlighted by the pandemic but it has many root causes that pre-date Covid-19. The Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998, but the legacy of the troubles is still felt in the mental health epidemic across the island. In this episode, we pick apart the shared cognitive load of transgenerational trauma and the critical distinction between mental health and mental illness. We look at the need ...
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S1 Ep2: Social Enterprise

May 3, 2022 • 61 mins
In this episode we explore the meaning of social enterprise as a business for social good. We look at community ownership, the involvement of young people, and the role of social enterprise in developing an all-island economy. Knowledge sharing between organisations and jurisdictions is key in building the potential of social enterprise, with learning taking place between Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and further ...
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S1 Ep3: Marginalised Groups Supported Through Social Enterprise

May 3, 2022 • 54 mins
The social economy can act as a bridge across barriers for people at  distance from the labour market. In this episode, we look at the need for social enterprises to be embedded in communities providing local employment whilst delivering financial profit. Social enterprises are increasingly recognised as creating such opportunities by themselves and in collaboration with the wider world of business, especially as they look tow...
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Trailer: Across Divides

April 13, 2022 • 38 secs
A series of conversations and creative reflections about civil society and community work: their contribution to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland’s shared challenges and current and future collaboration on solutions. 

Contributors on the podcast bridge many divides. Guests throughout the series are drawn from those active or supporting the community and voluntary sector as they explore their i...
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