Kicking the Bucket

I was involved in this radio documentary aired on RTE in November 2016. Produced by Katie Verling with Sarah Blake and Ronan Kelly. The documentary about Death, Illness and Dying was funded by Milford Care Centre’s Compassionate Community Project. https://www.milfordcarecentre.ie/

The documentary was a Gold Radio Winner (Community Service category) @ 2017 New York International Radio Festival

https://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/awards

Kicking the Bucket also looked at the lighter side of illness, death, dying and grief.  In early 2016, a series of workshops took place in Limerick where participants decided to face death full-on and make something of it, including myself!

We each had our own experience of serious loss in our lives, some were ill or had been recently seriously ill – but, we were all curious.

We discussed ‘good’ funerals and ‘bad’ funerals,  euphemisms for death (“brown bread”, “six foot under”, “gone tits up!”)  

The project was created and delivered by Sinead Dineen and Katie Verling

Sinéad was an artist whose work expressed her experience of living with ovarian cancer. Sadly, as I write this Sinead is no longer with us, she died in October 2019, her legacy continues and will never be forgotten. Katie has worked in the arts for most of her life until a diagnosis of leukaemia and long-term health issues had in her words “put a stop to my gallop”. 

I bumped into Katie at the Limerick Milk Market when she asked me to join the group, she said “you just have to be comfortable talking about Death, Illness and Dying and we’d love to have you in the group”.  I said Okay.  Katie had omitted to tell me that day that the work I and my fellow ‘bucket kickers’ would be creating through the four-month creative process would be culminating in a public exhibition of our work in May 2016!

In the end, it was a truly amazing experience, my husband and I contributed in a very personal way.  It was sad and funny, uplifting and authentic.  On top of all that, as a bonus, we met the most wonderful people.  True friendships evolved through the process of bonding in this deep and authentic process.  I will blog more on this at a later date.

Kicking the Bucket is a humorous, yet serious documentary with moments of searing honesty and lots of life- affirming laughter. 

Additional Recordings: Patrick Lynch, Damian Coughlan and Brian Doyle. The Art Exhibition in Limerick was supported by Christ Church United Methodist and Presbyterian, who provided the venue and RTE One.(click on this text to hear the award winning documentary)