FREE THOUGHT FM was an artwork by Garrett Phelan that took place at The Douglas Hyde and online from March to May 2019. The project focused on class, inequality and access to third level education. It consisted of a 30-day live FM radio broadcast across the city of Dublin, and online with contributions through conversations with students, artists, academics, community groups, activists and many others spoke with Phelan and additional hosts.

These live conversations formed the core of FREE THOUGHT FM, and their vibrancy and concerns were amplified through different media: an installation of Phelan’s drawings in vinyl and paint across the walls of the gallery, which remained open to visitors beyond the conclusion of the live radio broadcast; a youth-focused marketing campaign to build awareness of diverse routes to education and the support systems available, on billboards across the city and online through social media; a booklet with further details on routes and supports for education distributed online as a PDF, and in print at the gallery and to schools in Dublin; a series of talks in schools with artists, sports people and politicians, speaking about their own experiences of education; and finally, this book distributed for free in hard copy and in digital version here.

Rather than mapping the project, the book THERE ARE BETTER WAYS. EDUCATION, CLASS AND FREE THOUGHT FM invites key FREE THOUGHT FM guests, including geographer Gerry Kearns, Kathleen Lynch, Liam Wegimont, architectural historian Ellen Rowley, art historian Rachel O’Dwyer and artist Sarah Pierce to expand upon the issues that most concern them: how class and education has shaped, and continues to limit, exclude and prohibit, young people and adults’ fulfilment and futures.

FREE THOUGHT FM began with a question and amassed many answers. A key question that remains is how to change a system so embedded within society that it operates in the realm of ‘the social’ – taken for granted and obscured through its pervasiveness. There is work to be done and we are all the agents of that change. There are always better ways.

Garrett Phelan’s distinctive practice manifests through ambitious projects including independent FM radio broadcasts, sculptural installations, drawing installations, photography, animations, zines and text ephemera. In recent years he has completed a series of large-scale ambitious projects that respond to specific issues within our society. In 2016 he created HEED FM, a 28-day anonymous broadcast sound portrait of 18–25 year olds from all backgrounds living in Dublin, a generation whose opinions and beliefs are rarely heard in the public realm. The archive for HEED FM can be found on Bandcamp. More recently, he has realised THE HIDE PROJECT, commissioned by Fingal County Council as a permanent functional public art work that is continually shaped by its role as a shared space for reflection and creative actions. Information on this can be found here.

Kathleen Lynch is Professor Emerita of Equality Studies at University College Dublin (UCD), and a Professor in the School of Education. Her teaching and research are guided by the belief that the purpose of scholarship and research is not just to understand the world but to change it for the good of all humanity. She has worked over many years to promote equality and social justice through education, research and activism. She was appointed as a Commissioner of the Irish Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2020. Kathleen played a leading role in establishing the UCD Equality Studies Centre and the UCD School of Social Justice. She has published extensively on equality and education issues throughout her life, and more recently on issues of affective equality, care and social justice. Her recent co-authored books include; New Managerialism in Education: Commercialisation, Carelessness and Gender (2012, 2015) and Affective Equality: Love, Care and Injustice (2009). Her forthcoming book Care and Capitalism will be published by Polity Press, Cambridge in March 2022.