Part of Jan Brierton's Wild Words does Teenage Kicks. Dublin poet and performer Jan Brierton — whose collections What Day Is It? and Everybody Is a Poem both hit the Irish book charts in the same week — opens her Manifesto weekend alongside writer and broadcaster Maia Dunphy. Dunphy spent over a decade writing and producing behind the camera before stepping in front of it, has made twelve documentaries for RTÉ, presented three seasons of What Planet Are You On?, and ghostwrote the Mr Tayto autobiography that famously kept Bertie Ahern off the Christmas number one. Expect poems, stories and a nod to the music, telly and misadventures that shaped them.

Two generations of Irish activism in one hour. Anna Cosgrave is a facilitator, researcher and campaigner who founded the REPEAL project and played a prominent role in the abortion referendum; she has worked across climate action and social entrepreneurship, sits on the West Cork Islands' Ocean and Environment advisory panel, and trained as a death doula. She is joined by Ailbhe Smyth — feminist, academic and LGBTIQ+ activist, central to both the Marriage Equality and abortion referendums, founding member of Le Chéile: Diversity Not Division and patron of Women's Collective Ireland. A conversation about what changes a country, and what it costs. Part of Jan Brierton's Wild Words.

Fashion under the microscope: body image, the male gaze, waste, sustainability and fair trade. Caryn Franklin MBE, former fashion editor of i-D and BBC's Clothes Show presenter through the eighties and nineties, has spent a career challenging unachievable beauty ideals — co-founding All Walks Beyond the Catwalk and writing SKEWED: Decoding Media Bias. She's joined by broadcaster and designer Brendan Courtney, whose documentaries on housing, ageism and healthcare have driven real policy reform and earned him a ministerial appointment to the Department of Health's Executive Advisory Board. Part of Jan Brierton's Wild Words.

The man who gave Oasis their television debut, in conversation. Born in Old Trafford to Dublin parents, Terry Christian became the youngest-ever winner of a Sony Radio Award and the first broadcaster to win two — giving The Stone Roses their first regular radio play and championing The Charlatans, M People and White Town, before fronting Channel 4's era-defining late-night show The Word. He's joined by Muireann O'Connell, the Limerick native and Ireland AM host whose wit and candour have won her a huge online following, and who describes herself as a 'failed radio and podcast presenter' who has managed to hold onto a job in TV. Part of Jan Brierton's Wild Words.

Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen met studying media at Ballyfermot College. Their careers pulled them in different directions until 2016, when they reunited to co-write Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling — an instant Irish Times bestseller. Four more Aisling books followed, three of them An Post Irish Book Award winners, and their sixth novel Our Deadly Summer landed in May. They join Jan Brierton's Wild Words to talk friendship: the writing kind, the lasting kind, and how you keep one going through decades and six books. They are, they report, still friends too.

To be announced

The iconic voice of the Happy Mondays. Rowetta rose to fame as the powerhouse vocalist who helped define the sound of Manchester's rave and indie scene, her soulful, gritty vocals the backbone of Step On, Kinky Afro and some of the most memorable tracks of the nineties. Beyond the Mondays she has built a thriving solo career, collaborating with artists, producers and DJs worldwide, and her voice moves easily across genres. She joins Manifesto for an hour on Madchester, survival and a life in music. Part of Jan Brierton's Wild Words does Teenage Kicks.

Having retired as a member of An Garda Síochána, reared her three children and experienced cancer, Dearbhla Mescal is now finding the time to follow her own dreams and enjoy her second act of life. Finding Joy is her first book. She joins Róisín Ingle — columnist, features writer, author of Pieces of Me and Public Displays of Emotion, and producer and co-presenter of the award-winning Irish Times Women's Podcast — for a live conversation that the Irish Times will record for the podcast. Part of Jan Brierton's Wild Words.

Katriona O'Sullivan is a professor of psychology, bestselling author of Poor and Hungry and one of Ireland's leading voices on inequality, education and social justice — she has spoken at the UN, Westminster and the European Parliament, blending research, lived experience and humour to challenge how we think about class, trauma and belonging. She's joined by Tanya Sweeney, who began writing for her local West Dublin paper at eleven and has spent twenty years as a columnist across the Irish Times, STELLAR, Irish Tatler and the Irish Independent; her debut novel Esther Is Now Following You was published in January. Part of Jan Brierton's Wild Words.

Two Dubliners who sailed for Gaza. Liam Cunningham, born in Dublin's north inner city, has an international acting career spanning nearly thirty years — an IFTA winner for Steve McQueen's Hunger, Davos Seaworth in Game of Thrones, and more recently 3 Body Problem — and has been active in pro-Palestinian solidarity campaigns for over four decades. He's joined by Mikey Cullen, award-winning Dublin poet, teacher, actor and filmmaker, whose poetry film The Heart in the Black won Best Irish Poetry Short at the Bloomsday Film Festival 2026, and who was a participant on the 2026 flotilla to Gaza. A conversation about witness, solidarity and what art can do.

It has been over two centuries since readers first swooned over Jane Austen's most enduring romantic heroes, namely Darcy, Wentworth, Knightley and Colonel Brandon. Love interests came in two types: the dashing and the deserving. Ross Kelly chats with novelists Charleen Hurtubise, Louise Nealon, Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin and Clíodhna O'Sullivan, examining how Austen's ideals stack up against a cast of contemporary romantic interests across genres and orientations.

One of Ireland's most distinctive comic minds and burgeoning artists steps into Manifesto for a conversation like no other. Dylan Moran — comedian, artist, novelist, and a lifelong chronicler of ordinary despair rendered gorgeous — talks life, art, ageing and the absurd with the same restless intelligence that's made him one of the great tragicomic voices of his generation.

Anna Carey — novelist and unrepentant romantic behind Our Song and Love Scene — defends the happy ending against a culture obsessed with misery lit. Deirdre O'Kane, comedian, actress and professional skeptic, is here to poke holes in the theory and possibly her own love life. Expect warmth, wit, and a spirited row about whether we all just want the kiss at the end.

Patrick Freyne spent most of his twenties trying to be a rock star before turning to the much more stable and secure world of journalism. He has had short stories and essays published in The Dublin Review, Harper's, the FT Magazine, Banshee and Winter Papers, and is a features writer at the Irish Times. His book of essays, OK, Let's Do Your Stupid Idea, was published by Penguin Sandycove in 2020 — nominated for an Irish Book Award, longlisted for the Rathbones Prize and shortlisted for the Dalkey Emerging Writer Award. His debut novel, Experts in a Dying Field, was published by Penguin Sandycove in June.

America turns 250 this year — and acts every inch the late teenager: brilliant, volatile, and unsure what it's becoming. All the while, in the cross-hairs of a culture war, the Arts appear under siege. But who is up for the fight? Liam Lynch, a cultural nomad native to Ireland, began his 33-year journey into human experiences by creating music festivals, concert tours and integrated entertainment content. He's spent a career between two worlds, and from that mid-Atlantic vantage he watches American pop culture mine, repackage and sell back the heritage it once funded for free. Part fireside, part provocation, this is a conversation about the great cultural heist of our age — and why the art-makers might be the only ones who can change the ending.

Dawn O'Porter opens the fridge door on a life built from meals — the ones that comforted her after loss, the ones that fuelled ambition, and the odd bag of Wotsits eaten for dinner along the way. Fresh from her memoir Hungry Eyes, she talks food, grief and appetite with Sinéad Gleeson, one of Ireland's sharpest interviewers, in a conversation that's equal parts hunger, heart and honesty.