The 15th of October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. Each year, to mark the day, a global wave of light is created through the lighting of candles by parents who have lost a baby through miscarriage, stillbirth or in infancy. It is estimated that one in four pregnancies ends this way and yet there is still a silence and taboo that surrounds the subject. In this episode, Irish Times parenting columnist and author Jen Hogan speaks to Róisín Ingle about her personal experience of misca...
Oct 15, 2020•31 min
You’ve probably heard of the 400 Welcomes campaign, an all-female campaign group, made up of doctors, teachers, writers, community and social care workers and musicians . One of the women behind the campaign is Caoimhe Butterly, a human rights campaigner who has been fighting for justice all over the world for most of her adult life. Originally from Dublin, she was inspired by her parents to look outside her own comfortable circumstances and fight for the most vulnerable. Following a recent fire...
Oct 12, 2020•47 min
In 1984, Majella Moynihan was a fresh faced young garda recruit when she gave birth to a baby boy. Charged with breaching An Garda Siochana disciplinary rules - for having premarital sex with another guard and for becoming pregnant and having a child while unmarried - she was pressured to give up her baby for adoption or face dismissal. It forced her into a decision that would have devastating impacts on her life. Moynihan left the Guards in 1998 and in 2019, following an RTE documentary on her ...
Oct 08, 2020•59 min
Who knows when we'll get to lose ourselves in the darkness of a cinema again? But when we do all of us at The Women's Podcast are urging you to go and see a wonderful Irish film called Herself which tells the story of a brutalised single mother Sandra and her dream to build her own house where she and her two small daughters can be safe. The story of the film was written by Dubliner Clare Dunne who also stars, and was inspired by a real-life friend of Clare's who was forced to declare herself ho...
Oct 05, 2020•54 min
The most fabulous and famous family dynasty in Britain and Ireland during the 1920s were the grand-daughters of the first Lord Iveagh also known as the Glorious Guinness Girls. The glamour, the drama and the secrets are explored in fiction by writer Emily Hourican who spoke to Kathy Sheridan about her new novel The Glorious Guinness Girls. Hourican talks about the inspiration for the book, her geographically diverse childhood and her cancer diagnosis five years ago. Also, a reminder that tickets...
Oct 01, 2020•56 min
On the podcast today we have skin expert Jennifer Rock who aswell as talking about her new book The Skin Nerd Philosophy, deals with all your pandemic skin problems and delves into looking after this most important organ every day of the year. We are also very excited to bring you details of season 2 of our Big Night In. From this Saturday October 3rd we'll be back on zoom to bring you conversations with talented inspiring women such as Senator Eileen Flynn, Caitlin Moran and Claire Byrne. For m...
Sep 28, 2020•53 min
Last April, which seems a hundred years ago now, we spoke to Dr Catherine Motherway, consultant anaesthetist at University Hospital Limerick and former President of the Intensive Care Society of Ireland. In this episode, Roisin Ingle catches up with her to find out Dr Motherway's views on Level 3, life on the frontline, societal compliance with covid restrictions and her hopes and fears as we face into a winter of living with the virus. As a new report from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ...
Sep 24, 2020•37 min
Cork author Louise O'Neill joined Roisin Ingle on the podcast to talk about her latest novel After The Silence. The book marks a departure for O'Neill in that it's a thriller but what hasn't changed is the uncompromising, gently probing voice of the writer of novels such as Asking For It which on publication became a national talking point. In After The Silence, set on a small Island off the coast of Cork, she explores themes such as emotional abuse and the kind of notoriety that follows a small...
Sep 21, 2020•43 min
There is a lot of confusion and covid-weariness swirling around at the moment so we thought we'd bring you an episode that will divert, intrigue and definitely distract you. Jenny Keane is an holistic sex expert and yoga teacher who runs hugely popular online workshops teaching people to explore their sexuality and enhance sexual pleasure. Her path to an empowering form of sex education began when she was experiencing health issues around her periods but from there she expanding her knowledge an...
Sep 17, 2020•47 min
There are hundreds of books out at the moment so it's difficult as an author these days, when people are reading more than ever, to stand out from the crowd. One writer who has managed to do that with her terrifying novel The Nothing Man is Catherine Ryan Howard, the Cork woman who has won a devoted army of fans with her always original and often disturbing books. This latest one is a riveting read and Catherine talked to Roisin Ingle about her unusual journey into writing: she once worked as a ...
Sep 14, 2020•53 min
When we've asked you what subjects you'd like us to discuss on the podcast, menopause is often mentioned. One listener who got in touch was Helen Kirwan who talks to Roisin Ingle on the latest episode. Helen is going through peri-menopause and has found some of the symptoms stressful and difficult. She talks honestly about coping at this seismic time in a woman's life, while we get some expert advice and important information from menopause expert Caoimhe Hartley who says there should be no stig...
Sep 10, 2020•1 hr 14 min
Our last Book Club took place months ago, early in Lockdown, so we are delighted that in this show Ann Ingle, Bernice Harrison and Niamh Towey are back to discuss our latest read. The book under discussion is Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld, a political fantasy that imagines what life would have been like for Hillary Clinton had she turned down Bill Clinton's proposal of marriage. So it's a what if novel that imagines the life and times of Hill without Bill. Sittenfeld, the author of sharp, compassi...
Sep 07, 2020•42 min
Female genital mutilation is a practice that, according to the World Health Organisation, has affected 200 million women and girls alive today. Today’s guest, author and anti-FGM campaigner Nimko Ali is on a mission to end this worldwide by 2030. In her new book, What We’re Told Not to Talk About (But We’re Going to Anyway): Women’s Voices from East London to Ethiopia, Ali shares her own personal story of FGM and the stories of many other women which are often left unheard. It is a series of int...
Sep 03, 2020•39 min
It’s been a long time coming, but this week the kids are finally going back to school. For many, it will be a welcome return to normality and routine, but it may bring about some challenges too. In this episode, Róisín Ingle speaks to Irish Times parenting columnist and mother of seven Jen Hogan, who is juggling four different start times and coming to terms with a whole new set of rules and regulations for her children. Psychologist Malie Coyne also joins Ingle to discuss her new book, Love In,...
Aug 31, 2020•55 min
Cancer is life changing in many ways, but our guest this week found that her devastating diagnosis in 2017 set her off on a new career path. Georgie Crawford, mother of one, lives with her husband Jamie in Dublin and is the host of the hugely successful The Good Glow podcast. She started the podcast as she struggled to come to terms with her cancer diagnosis and treatment and found that talking to others about their life changing stories helped her to deal with what was a very difficult time in ...
Aug 27, 2020•41 min
After six months of a global pandemic we needed some good news so this episode features Mimi Wilcox, a young filmmaker from Chicago who after a whirlwind weekend romance in her home town with an Irish man decided to visit him in Ireland for five days. The only problem was, Leo Varadkar announced Lockdown the day she arrived. Air travel was cancelled and Mimi was stuck in Ireland with David Michael McKernan, a man she barely knew. What happened next? We find out in the film they made together abo...
Aug 20, 2020•30 min
The Artist’s Way was first published in 1991 by screenwriter and teacher Julia Cameron. A classic guide to creativity, the book has sold over five million copies and has recently been redesigned and relaunched for a new generation. Hailed by celebrities such as Alicia Keys, Russell Brand and Reece Witherspoon, it’s key ideas include Morning Pages, a daily ritual designed to declutter the mind, and the Artist’s Date, a commitment to set aside time each week to nurture your creative soul. Even if ...
Aug 13, 2020•42 min
By age sixty-four, Jenni Murray's weight had become a disability. The broadcaster and author avoided the scales, wore a uniform of baggy black clothes and refused to make connections between her weight and health issues. A successful author and the host of BBC Woman’s Hour, Murray appeared to have it all, but in private she lived with a growing fear that she wouldn’t even make it to seventy. In this episode, she speaks to Kathy Sheridan about the life changing surgery which helped her lose eight...
Aug 06, 2020•51 min
The last Big Night In of our first season took place on Zoom last Saturday night with author, literary historian and playwright Emma Donoghue. The Room-author joined us from her home in Ontario, Canada where she lives with her partner and two teenage children. Donoghue has just released The Pull of the Stars, a novel set 100 years ago in Dublin during The Great Flu. The pandemic setting was a complete coincidence she told Roisin Ingle, explaining that the book had been written and submitted befo...
Jul 30, 2020•58 min
Yoga has had an excellent pandemic. There's been a boom in online classes and even President Michael D Higgins was still getting his downward dog on in the Áras during Lockdown. So it's the perfect time for a free online yoga festival and in this episode we talk to Cathy Pearson, the woman behind the Celtic Woodland Yoga Festival, a three day gathering for people who love yoga or who are just yoga curious. Pearson spoke to Roisin Ingle about the festival, about how she went from a job in the fil...
Jul 27, 2020•30 min
In this episode Roisin Ingle talks to Susannah Dickey, the author of a stunning debut novel Tennis Lessons which is set in Northern Ireland and follows a young woman as she struggles to find her place in the world. Dickey is an award-winning poet from Derry but her new novel shows her gift for the longer novel form. She has written a fantastic book containing rich dialogue and a gritty, authentic coming of age story. We follow the unnamed protagonist from the age of 3 right up to her late twenti...
Jul 23, 2020•50 min
On today's episode, we are talking about life, death and grief in the time of Covid-19. This is a fraught issue, not just for those who've lost loved ones to the virus but for those with friends or relations that died during this very strange time of socially distanced funerals where numbers are severely limited. Roisin Ingle spoke to Orla Keegan at The Irish Hospice Foundation’s Bereavement Support Line which launched on the 9th June to provide a confidential space for people to speak about the...
Jul 20, 2020•32 min
In this episode, Roisin Ingle talked to Green Party Councillor Hazel Chu who has just been elected Lord Mayor of Dublin, only the 9th woman in the city's history to take on the role. On a Zoom call from her new home the Mansion House in Dawson Street, Chu told Ingle why being the first person of colour in the role is important and reflects the rich diversity of the city. She spoke about her experience of racism, why she wants her daughter Alex to grow up being proud of her Chinese heritage and t...
Jul 16, 2020•37 min
For many women the Spring and Summer of 2020 will always be the time when their much anticipated weddings were prevented from happening because of the pandemic. While not exactly life or death, there’s no getting away from the fact that the cancellation of these special and meticulously planned days were a cause of disappointment for everyone involved. In this episode, two almost-brides author Laura de Barra and Women’s Podcast co-producer Suzanne Brennan talk about how they feel about their wed...
Jul 13, 2020•29 min
On today’s episode, Róisín Ingle speaks to American crime writer Karin Slaughter from her home in Atlanta, Georgia. Slaughter has just released her 20th novel, The Silent Wife, which follows the investigation into a brutal attack on a young woman. In this conversation, the author paints a picture of lockdown life with her two and a half cats and takes a look at the US response to coronavirus. They also talk about Karin’s stand-alone book Pieces of Her which is being adapted for Netflix and why c...
Jul 09, 2020•40 min
Activist, writer, addiction specialist and senator Lynn Ruane was the brilliant guest for our seventh Big Night In hosted by Róisín Ingle. An audience of over 150 joined us on Zoom to watch this force of nature speak about some of the lighter moments from inside the Seanad, her learnings from lockdown and why The Real Housewives of New York has become her new obsession. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 06, 2020•53 min
No pandemic is gender-neutral and neither is Covid-19, which is negatively affecting the lives of women and girls. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is the Executive Director of UN Women and she spoke to Roisin Ingle from lockdown in South Africa about the three areas where women and girls are particularly at risk in the current crisis: Domestic violence, frontline work - the majority of workers are women - and financially. Previously, Mlambo-Ngcuka served as Deputy President of South Africa, the first wom...
Jul 02, 2020•33 min
During the pandemic, there has been increased pressure placed on one parent families, from shopping struggles and homeschooling demands to dealing with feelings of loneliness and isolation. In today’s episode, we hear from Clare O’Leary, a single parent living in Wexford with her 5 year old son Peter. Clare has just completed the first year of a psychology degree at Waterford IT and spoke to Róisin Ingle about lone parenting and studying while in lockdown. We also hear from Niamh Wynne, from One...
Jun 29, 2020•32 min
Where are you going on your holliers? That's the question we are asking on this episode with travel writer Joan Scales who has been uncovering deals up and down the country from castles to hotels, from campsites to cottages. Whether you are the adventurous type or fancy a bit of luxury, there is an Irish holiday for you so we wanted to help you with all the options that are available. In pandemic times. supporting our homegrown tourism industry and the 250,000 jobs reliant on that industry feels...
Jun 25, 2020•25 min
Born in Ireland, to Breton parents, Olwen Fouéré is a writer, producer and theatre maker. A reviewer once said of her that if she sat on a stage doing nothing it would still be completely compelling. Fouéré makes theatre that people find disturbing or unsettling and much of her extensive body of work is provocative, the kind of art that stays with you or even might change you a bit. Since the 1970s she has been working solidly in film and theatre. Her film work includes This Must Be The Place wi...
Jun 22, 2020•1 hr
