Spoken Stories: Independence

Read by Fiona O'Shaughnessy. 'On Being Sophia' gives voice to Sophia, an actual female android who in 2017 was granted full citizenship by Saudia Arabia. 21 years later, Sophia now addresses the United Nations Education, Cultural and Scientific Organisation in Paris.

Read by Siobhán McSweeney. A young mum and a teacher is living in emergency accommodation in a Dublin hotel. Considering herself a complete failure, things are about to take a turn one when her three-year-old daughter presents her with a seemingly impossible task.

Read by Eileen Walsh. The Silver Coast is a story about what it is people owe each other, and the interplay between the human impulse to escape or transcend the world and give yourself over to it. It is set in the kitchen of Lorna's house between the burial and the meal in the Silver Coast Hotel on the funeral day of a neighbour.

Read by the author. In this Irish language story, its narrator moves back and forth, contemplating life's changes and consequences, what moulds and shapes us, as his mother's mobility and memory are being irrevocably challenged. The broadcast coincides with Seachtain na Gaeilge 2021.

Read by Marty Rea. A story of personal grief and loss, of negotiating different familial views, and the levels of independence offered to those who come to Ireland fleeing from oppression, violence and human injustices, seeking protection.

Read by Stephen Rea. The unforeseen consequences of the hug, never mind the common kiss, having been long outlawed to outwit a contagious deadly virus, requires radical action. A lowly graduate student has come up with what might be its solution.

Read by Ashley Xie. Nan and Akmaral, two young Asian students attend a Dublin language school. In the process of grappling with an assignment from their teacher Aisling, to engage in an authentic conversation with a stranger, their perception of authenticity grows. Broadcast to coincide with the Chinese New Year.

Read by the author. Cut-throat tv talent show UK OK, gets more than it bargained for with E-Zee or Ballyshannon girls, Eimear and Zofia, among its contestants.

Read by Saoirse Ronan. 'Shorn' moves hauntingly between a brutal long ago and a present time of purge the past, while not forgetting it.

Read by the author. From his high-up perch under his Velux window, a pirate radio DJ watches a routine morning grow and the good people of Limerick city getting up and out into another April day.

Read by Caitríona Ni Mhurchú. 'Assignation' opens hopefully on a bright mid-April New York morning in 1938. The quiet intimately devastating telling of the story of Irish emigrant, Marion, signals the life-changing consequences of how we handle what is thrust upon us.

Wildlife is set in Cape Breton, against the backdrop of post-crash Ireland and a family holiday in Canada. Marieva and Finn have each other under the microscope as they and their children spend more than usual time together on a break that may reveal more to them than either of them expect.