Last month, we wrapped up Culture Crush 2025, a one-day event that explored the power, complexity, and beauty of both our individual and our collective voices. With an exceptional line-up of speakers, performers, and panellists, the day was an honest and open exploration of what it means to find your voice, amplify it, and use it responsibly in our creative industries.
This year’s theme, Voice, provided a resonant framework for discussions ranging from the vulnerability of finding creative inspiration to the ethics of representation in media. Each session, performance, and talk offered a unique perspective on voice as both a literal and metaphorical force in the creative world.
Here’s a detailed look back at this unforgettable event:
A Warm Welcome and Setting the Tone
Our day began with the wonderful Sharon Mannion returning as MC, joined by Gareth Lee from CCIS for the welcome. Sharon’s humour and warmth immediately set an inclusive and uplifting tone. Acting as our guide throughout the day, she seamlessly wove connections between sessions, bringing levity at just the right moments while honouring the depth of the conversations taking place.
The setting itself was the Whyte Recital Hall at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. This beautifully crafted horseshoe-shaped venue created an intimate acoustic environment that seemed purpose-built for a day exploring voice. The 300-seat hall brought performers and audience into close connection, making every word and note feel more immediate and personal.
An Ethereal Opening: Iarla Ó Lionáird
The event opened with a performance from Iarla Ó Lionáird, the renowned sean-nós singer whose voice has graced everything from traditional Irish music to film soundtracks. His opening performance was haunting and meditative, immediately establishing the day’s contemplative atmosphere. Through traditional song, Iarla demonstrated how voice can carry history, emotion, and cultural identity across generations – a fitting opening statement for the day ahead.
Panel: Finding Your Voice
The first panel, moderated by sustainability journalist Jo Linehan, brought together Eva Birthistle (actor/writer/director), Hugh Travers (screenwriter and playwright), Iarla Ó Lionáird (returning from his performance), and Peter McGann (writer, actor, director and comedian) for a reflection on inspiration, aspiration, and the work it takes to ignite the creative spark.
Key insights included:
Eva Birthistle emphasised the importance of respect and trust with collaborators, mentioning Claire McCaughley of Treasure Films, producer on Kathleen Is Here. She shared how she accidentally came to write about life after foster care, starting the screenplay 10 years ago while working on Swansong directed by Douglas Ray, who encouraged her to write a page a day during their 20-day shoot.
Peter McGann, fresh from winning the Sony Pictures Television Award at Rome’s MIA Market with THE ROARING BANSHEE, highlighted the importance of collaboration, calling his collaborator John Morton a ‘mentor’. He also discussed overcoming his initial prejudice toward short format, finding success once he recognised online content as its own genre supporting storytelling and character development.
Iarla Ó Lionáird spoke about music as an emotional need rather than information, describing his creative voice as something that comes through him rather than from him. He lamented that artists no longer have anyone investing in their thinking time, with people expecting art on demand rather than supporting artists’ development process.
Hugh Travers, who has written in the voice of historical figures like Patrick Pearse and Michael Collins, and even Gerry Ryan for the award-winning play Lambo, noted that traces of the writer inevitably appear no matter how much research you do. He emphasised that showing up daily to write makes you a writer – good days and bad days alike.
The panel underscored that “finding your voice” is an ongoing practice requiring courage, persistence, and supportive community.
Break and Networking
Supported by Minding Creative Minds and Safe to Create, the morning break provided attendees the chance to connect, decompress, and reflect on the opening sessions. The sponsors’ presence served as a quiet reminder of the support systems available to creative professionals navigating the challenges discussed on stage.
Panel: Breaking Through The Noise
The second panel, moderated by Irish Times journalist Róisín Ingle, tackled the challenge of how diverse voices rise, resonate, and reshape who gets heard and why it matters. Panellists included Nell Roddy (co-founder of Break Out Pictures), Sinéad Gleeson (writer), and Emer O’Neill (speaker, educator, and author).
This was perhaps the most urgent conversation of the day, addressing questions of representation, access, and power in the creative industries. Nell Roddy spoke about how important accessibility is in the film industry, from subtitled screenings to open captioned screenings for audiences who are deaf/hard of hearing. Sinéad Gleeson brought her perspective as someone who broke into the world of male dominated freelance music journalism. Emer O’Neill spoke about her challenges as a writer and as a black woman in the creative industry.
The panel concluded that breaking through the noise requires both individual courage and systemic change – we need to amplify underrepresented voices while also examining and dismantling the structures that create the “noise” in the first place.
Performance: Lorna Ross
Lorna Ross delivered an incredible thought piece called “Cautionary Tales for 2026” which challenged attendees to reconsider our relationship with rapid technological change. She explored how innovation often outpaces our ability to understand its consequences, arguing that while technology shapes our environment, culture shapes our behaviour. The presentation emphasised that after three generations of “living in the future,” we risk losing human agency to systems that prioritise speed over thoughtfulness.
Key Message: We need to reclaim agency over technology rather than letting it dictate our future, focusing on human needs and sustainable progress over the rapid “move fast and break things” mentality towards innovation. The best investment in the future is investing in the life that will inhabit it.
Performance: Discovery Gospel Choir
The Discovery Gospel Choir brought explosive, joyful energy to the afternoon, their powerful harmonies filling every corner of the Whyte Recital Hall. Gospel music, built on collective voice and communal expression, was a reminder that voice is not always about the individual – sometimes the most powerful voices are the ones we create together.
Panel: The Pursuit of Imperfection
Moderated by broadcaster and journalist Aoife Barry, this panel featured Mark Mullery (CTO of Cartoon Saloon), Mark Little (journalist and tech entrepreneur), Abeba Birhane (cognitive scientist), and Carole Cadwalladr (Pulitzer Prize-nominated investigative journalist).
This session explored a critical question for our moment: should we be pursuing perfection or imperfection in our creative work, and what impact is technological progress (particularly AI) having on our culture, both negative and positive?
The conversation was rich with nuance, and celebrated a very open-spirited discussion on the relationship (or lack thereof) between AI and Creativity.
Panel: Our Own Human Voice
The final panel of the day, again moderated by Aoife Barry, featured David Keenan (songwriter/musician/composer), Carole Cadwalladr (Pulitzer Prize-nominated investigative journalist), Trevor Dietz (manager at Fontaines D.C.), and Sharon Mannion stepping down from MC duties to participate as a panellist.
This session was a reflection on the importance of our human voice, how it shapes our identity, how it connects us, how it is influenced by other voices, and the fundamental question: who owns our own human voices?
Performance: David Keenan
David Keenan closed the event with a solo performance that was both intimate and powerful. His distinctive voice was a perfect ending to a day exploring voice in all its dimensions.
Final Thoughts
Culture Crush 2025 was a profound exploration of voice as both tool and identity. It reminded us that voice is not simply sound or speech but it is power, presence, and personhood. Whether through panels examining how voices are amplified or silenced, performances demonstrating voice’s emotional range, or networking conversations where we literally raise our voices in connection, the day was a celebration of what makes us human in an increasingly technological world.
The theme felt particularly urgent in this moment of AI-generated content and ongoing struggles for representation. By creating space for honest conversation about these challenges alongside celebrations of voice in its many forms, Culture Crush 2025 continued its vital work of connecting Ireland’s creative communities.
We’re already looking ahead to what next year might bring. Until then, let’s continue to use our voices…. authentically, responsibly, and in solidarity with others working to be heard.