In this episode of Irish Stew, recorded at the 2025 Solas Nua Capital Irish Film Festival in Washington DC, cohost Martin Nutty talks with two Irish women who made significant transitions into film from other careers.
Both guests left stable careers, Kathleen Harris from journalism, Denise Deegan from PR and novel writing, to pursue filmmaking, and both talk candidly about the leap involved.
A former Irish Times video journalist, Kathleen discusses her environmental documentary "Birdsong," which won the 2025 CIFF Audience Award for Favorite Irish Feature. "Birdsong" follows ornithologist Seán Ronayne as he attempts to record every bird species in Ireland, traveling to some of the country's most remote locations along the way.
“I'm always looking for stories. I covered a lot of environmental stories for the Irish Times. They were stories that interested me,” she says.
“At the time, we were doing a project, a series of short videos about people with interesting jobs. And Chris thought this sounded interesting. Seán's an ornithologist and a bird surveyor.”
Meanwhile, Denise talks about her award-winning short, "The Innkeeper," a short comedy drama set around a school nativity play, which carries a quiet but powerful message about homelessness in Ireland.
Denise says, “I've had a lot of life changes, and so many of them are all because a friend asked me to do something, and I said yes. So, in this case, a friend asked me to do a Screen Ireland course on film,” she says.
”I’ve always been passionate about film and movies, and it really links me to my parents growing up as well. They'd bring us to the movies with sweets, and it was just, I just love them. And so, I thought, of course I'll go. And I just became obsessed. It was so fascinating.”
A thread running through the conversation is how each approached social issues in their work: Harris structured "Birdsong" to balance wonder with concern about Ireland's biodiversity crisis, while Deegan deliberately withheld "The Innkeeper's" central point until the final moment. Neither wanted to lecture. Both wanted to leave the audience feeling something had shifted.
You can listen to Kathleen Harris and Denise Deegan on the Irish Stew Podcast here:
Later this month, February 26 to March 1, Irish Stew will be the podcast in residence at the 2026 Capital Irish Film Festival in Silver Spring, MD, recording episodes and moderating a post-screening panel discussion on Northern Irish film.
For more information, visit IrishStewPodcast.com. You can listen to "The Irish Stew Podcast" wherever you get your podcasts.
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