Elaine Kelly and Martina Purdy at the helm of the podcast Martina Purdy and Elaine Kelly turn from walking to talking with their new podcast, writes Jason Osborne
While interest in St Patrick has never died out on this island, it’s certainly enjoying something of a rebirth under the guidance of Martina Purdy and Elaine Kelly. First with their ‘Saint Patrick’s Way’ pilgrimages, now with their brand new Saint Patrick Podcast, and working in conjunction with the great saint, they aim to “re-evangelise” these shores through honest, heart-to-heart conversations.
The podcast was developed as part of the effort to celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Saint Patrick Centre in Downpatrick, with episodes going to air twice a month until next St Patrick’s Day.
“When Martina and Tim Campbell [Director of the St Patrick Centre]came up with the idea of it, I was thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, what am I getting myself into?’ Martina is a consummate media professional, you know her CV, it speaks for itself. My life before entering the sisters was more, kind of, a private thing. I was a barrister. Yes, I knew a lot of people but I never worked in the media really,” Elaine Kelly says, explaining her initial reticence about the podcast format.
“But I have to say, it’s been a gift because I find we get an opportunity to speak to people in these amazing times. Our perspective is, if you understand, it’s a little bit different, we’re not after any agenda. Personally, for me and the same goes for Martina, we want to talk to people to see their perspective on various things – how are they?”
Formula
According to Elaine, the formula for the podcast is one of genuine discussion. “There are no ‘incendiary device’ questions,” she says, insisting that it’s all about “getting to the heart of the person”.
And interesting hearts they’re seeking to reach too, their podcast’s line-up already boasting TV presenter Eamonn Holmes, former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and veteran journalist Mary Kenny. Both Elaine and Martina express delight at the opportunity to get talking about oft-undiscussed things with their guests, such as “Patrick, spirituality, the meaning of life without scaring people, about faith without frightening them,” in Martina’s words.
“My boss at the centre said, ‘Get Eamonn Holmes,’ and I said, ‘Look, we have no audience, and he has millions, so how am I supposed to get him?’ So I didn’t have the nerve,” Martina explains.
“But then one night, I saw that Eamonn on Twitter said that he just wanted to talk rubbish with new people, so I messaged him and said, ‘If you’re serious about that, you can come and talk rubbish with Elaine and I. So, he said yes right away and that was great.”
Stories
Martina laughs as she recalls one of the stories Eamonn recounted on the podcast, which saw him late for school because his bus had been hijacked. Upon arriving at St Malachy’s in Belfast, he was given detention because there were “no excuses” for being late to school.
“Eamonn was very funny,” she says, “we really enjoyed him. He’s a gentleman”.
“We were amazed at how much time he gave us. He was just happy to talk about his life, connection to Belfast, his connection to his faith, his connection to Patrick, the schools and stuff,” Elaine says.
Both Martina and Elaine say they’d like to have more women on the podcast, with The Irish Catholic’s own Mary Kenny impressing them both with her depth and breadth of knowledge on a variety of topics, including one close to their hearts: pilgrimage.
“Mary Kenny was brilliant because she had written an article for the Indo which was put into the Belfast Telegraph, and she had a great perspective, very well researched on pilgrimages. She went on to tell us how in Ireland as a whole, it’s pilgrimage territory. Very much so,” Elaine says.
Martina echoes this, saying “Well with her I just think she’s so interesting, because she was kicked out of convent school at 16 and she led the contraceptive train in the 70s, but she’s kind of come full circle and become, you know, she says she goes to Mass, she’s obviously a committed Catholic, but she’s so interesting because she’s been on this amazing journey but she can’t shake off her Catholic upbringing and she doesn’t want to.
“She’s so refreshing because she can say what she likes pretty much – she’s got a lot of street cred. She cuts through a lot of nonsense. So, we did enjoy talking to her, though we had a few technical problems with her with lawnmowers and things,” she laughs.
Dream
Both Martina and Elaine share the “dream” of securing Patti Scialfa, Bruce Springsteen’s wife, for the podcast at some point, Elaine explaining that Patti’s mother was born in Belfast, providing a point of local interest for the podcast.
The reaction to the podcast has been pleasing to them both so far, with people lauding the interviews on social media, but their main hope is that the conversations lead people into deeper examination of their own lives – much as the present pandemic and restrictions are doing.
“Since lockdown, pandemic, people are more kind of introspective – what is my life about? What am I doing? The things that used to feed people are all of a sudden shut down and you were kind of on your own turf,” Elaine says.
Relating all things back to St Patrick, Martina explains that the Irish patron is very relevant to people’s current situations, and hence they try to keep the focus on him and bring him into the conversation.
“We’re trying to get him back to being the Christian hero that he is. The one thing about Patrick that a lot of people don’t realise is that he saw his father’s servants murdered before him. You know, when he was kidnapped, it wasn’t a bloodless thing. Patrick was so forgiving despite the trauma. And also we saw, with Covid and lockdown, Patrick found God in the isolation and the quiet of the countryside,” Martina says.
“To be honest, I really wasn’t aware how interested people were or weren’t about the podcast, but we just put them out there. I certainly find, I mean, having at first been like, ‘Martina, I hope this works. I hope people enjoy this’. Having initially had that reservation – I’ve really enjoyed them and we’re getting some amazing people. But we’re interested in everybody,” Elaine says.
With St Patrick’s help and through genuine conversations, the hope is that everybody will soon be interested in them, too.