The Irish are a nation of storytellers. Our stories are embedded in us, and in our landscape. Tales and Trails podcast is a brand new and immersive audio experience that invites you to walk the Irish countryside with the nation’s most interesting people. This time, it’s extreme sports athlete Gavan Hennigan.
On this episode, we walked the Tramline Loop in Howth, County Dublin. (Find the full trail guide here).
Gavan overcame huge personal adversity to live an extraordinary life. He pushes the extremes of the human body and mind, from deep-sea saturation diving to taking on high altitude peaks in the Himalayas.
He talks about his struggles with addiction and coming out as gay:
“I grew up a fairly normal Galway lad. I realised when I was about 14 that I was gay. I wasn’t really able to deal with it. It was the 90s in the west of Ireland, and homosexuality was only legalised in 1993 in Ireland.
“I started drinking and then I got into drugs. I have a very addictive personality,…
