This is Ramble, a podcast where Joe McGucken immerses himself in the crazy world of each guest, capturing on-location interviews with people from the fringes of society, people from weird subcultures, hobbyists, sports people, celebrities and anyone in between. Joe is only interested in hearing a good story. The problem is, Joe is highly unqualified. With zero journalistic credentials and a naive optimism, Joe is perpetually out of his depth. But there’s a charm to it all. Driven by a genuine, relentless curiosity, he fumbles his way through these raw encounters and reflects on the madness back in the studio, relying entirely on his own pure inquisitive, nature and the extreme patience of his guests.
You've heard the Robbie William’s song “Angels” at a wedding, a funeral, or at 2am in a pub. But have you heard of the Irish-man who wrote it with Robbie Williams?
His name is Ray Heffernan. In 1996, after a night on the town in Dublin, Ray bumped into Robbie Williams in The Globe pub. Robbie went back to Ray's mam's house in Glasnevin and stayed for ten days. In that time they wrote Angels there, recorded a demo in Temple Bar and became friends. Then Robbie went back to London, and when Ray followed, Robbie ghosted him.
Ray signed away the song for seven and a half grand before it went on to become one of the biggest songs in the world.
Thirty years later, a new European law could reopen the deal. Ray went to London to file against Robbie Williams, with a team of solicitors at his side and, for reasons we still can't fully explain, Joe waiting outside.
So while Ray's case was being filed upstairs, Joe stood on a London footpath, waiting to find out whether Ray is a man who was done dirty or a man who can't let go. Explicit.
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8 Oct 2026
Ramble to Lisdoonvarna: Love Sold Separately
A group of Americans have signed up for a package holiday to find love in Lisdoonvarna.
Flights, a seven-course dinner and a minivan are all included. Love is not guaranteed, but it is very much implied, and the package costs over three thousand dollars per person. The group have never met each other. They arrive with hope in their hearts and a very low bar.
They are following Mary Timby, an American who came to the Lisdoonvarna matchmaking festival on a whim last year, fell for a local and went viral. This year she’s organized a trip for this group of Americans to hopefully follow in her footsteps.
Every September around 80,000 singles descend on this Clare town of about 1,000 people, and the group is hoping lightning will strike twice. Of course, Joe tags along to watch.
Like a safari in the Savannah, Joe observes as the Americans go hunting for love. Instead they’re faced with “handsy farmers” and over-eager young men sweating it out on the Matchmaker pub dancefloor. It comes as no surprise to Joe but, it wasn’t the PS I Love You experience they might have been expecting.
By the final morning they are heading home with great memories but no matches, and Joe is left wondering: Is love something that you can sell?
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2 Oct 2026
Ramble with Ireland’s Newest Citizens
5,600 people packed into the Convention Centre in Dublin recently to officially declare their
fidelity to the Irish nation, a massive bureaucratic event that highlights the evolving identity of
the island.
Joe decided to wander into the ceremony to figure out exactly what these new citizens were
signing up for, only to promptly plunge himself into a mild existential crisis about his own
national identity.
From interviewing a newly minted Brazilian-Irish woman and a Sri Lankan man who has
seemingly adopted a Wexford accent, to stumbling through a satirical, fake citizenship
ceremony at the National Gallery orchestrated by the artist Asbestos, Joe earnestly attempts
to pin down a neat dictionary definition of Irishness.
Naturally, our intrepid host discovers that trying to categorize a culture defined by both a
complex history and a complete refusal to take anything too seriously is a near-impossible
task.
After a slightly desperate phone call to his poet friend Emmet O’Brien in search of
philosophical clarity, Joe ultimately realizes that defining a nation is a messy
business, and perhaps a sociological exercise just a bit above his pay grade. Explicit.
See omnystudio.com/listener (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
4 ratings
Spotify
4.9 / 5
177 ratings
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