Today is a BIG day for us. It’s our 500th episode! We love any excuse for a party, as you know, so in lieu of being able to gather the team together for some bubbles we did a very pandemic thing and partied with our listeners over Zoom. Last Thursday evening we held a live episode of the podcast with some very special guests aged 19 to 81, who shared their feelings on ageing and becoming Older & Bolder. They were: Yara Alagha, Rosemary Adaser, Olivia O’Leary, Allie O’Rourke, Jan Brierton, An...
May 13, 2021•46 min
Hollie McNish writes about so much of what it means to be a woman. In her latest book, Slug… and other things I’ve been told to hate, she writes about death and grief, growing up and periods, parenting, her relationship with her body, masturbation and lots more. The book is a mixture of poetry, prose, short stories and essays. It’s not your usual “poetry book” and it’s all the better for it. In this episode, McNish talks to Róisín Ingle about her life and career, women’s bodies, her amazing gran...
May 10, 2021•1 hr 5 min
Have you ever really thought about where your clothes come from? Who makes them and what conditions are they working in? What happens to all the material waste from unwanted garments? These are the thoughts and questions that inspired Dublin fashion designer Laura Egan to launch Studio Minti, a sustainable online fashion hub & preloved clothing store. Leaving behind a career in London, Egan now sells vintage and second-hand clothes, upcycles and alters existing outfits and educates her custo...
May 06, 2021•40 min
In 1982, Gemma Hussey became Ireland’s first female minister for education. She was appointed by Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald after winning a seat for Fine Gael in Wicklow. Her appointment caused a bit of a culture shock among several of her male fellow ministers and for five years she was the only woman in cabinet. A lifetime liberal feminist, Hussey was co-founder of the Women’s Political Association and after she retired from politics in 1989, she wrote a book based on her cabinet diaries, At ...
May 03, 2021•53 min
Lifestyle blogs are ten a penny, but well-informed health blogs are hard to find. Siobhán Freeney’s ‘Being Dense’ is an Irish blog aiming to raise awareness around breast density, a condition that increases the risk of developing cancer, because it can lead to breast cancers being masked on mammograms. On today’s podcast, Freeney talks to Kathy Sheridan about her patient advocacy work, her own experience with breast cancer, and explains why breast density notification must become part of regular...
Apr 29, 2021•50 min
Roisin Kiberd was born in 1989, the same year that Tim Berners-Lee, a British scientist, invented the World Wide Web. In her new book The Disconnect, Kiberd takes a look at life growing up alongside the ever-expanding, ever-evolving Internet. In these interlinked essays, she examines our dependency and obsession with the online world, the ways we are more connected than ever before, and the disconnect this breeds. She asks what we have gained, what we have lost, and what we have willingly given ...
Apr 26, 2021•56 min
Until a few weeks ago, 19-year-old UCC law student Alicia O’Sullivan had never heard of Admireme.vip. The website is an 18+ subscription-only platform, which describes itself as a place to share the “most intimate and secret content”. Alicia only became familiar with it after images purporting to be her appeared on the site. Someone had stolen her identity and set up a fake profile, doctoring pictures from her Instagram and photoshopping her face onto the bodies of nude women. Alicia went to the...
Apr 22, 2021•43 min
Alexandra Heminsley is a best selling author, journalist and broadcaster. Her latest memoir Some Body to Love is an open-hearted exploration into body image, identity and family life. In the book, Heminsley shares her experiences of IVF, pregnancy and sexual assault, all of which have had a profound effect on her own sense of self. She also details the breakdown of her marriage, following her then-husband's transition. In today’s episode, she speaks to Róisín Ingle about her journey to motherhoo...
Apr 19, 2021•1 hr 10 min
If you’ve ever passed the GPO on Dublin’s O’Connell Street on a Friday evening, you’re very likely to have seen the Muslim Sisters of Éire (MSOE) hard at work. The group is a grassroots, non-profit, all-female organisation, established in 2010 to promote integration and social inclusion, and to provide support services to the most vulnerable. Every Friday night at their soup kitchen in Dublin city centre, they serve hot meals to more than 500 people in need. But that’s just one of the many valua...
Apr 15, 2021•42 min
In this book club episode, Róisín, Ann Ingle, Bernice Harrison and Niamh Towey discuss Acts of Desperation, the debut novel from Waterford writer Megan Nolan. The book focuses on a turbulent relationship between the unnamed narrator and the “exceptionally beautiful” Ciaran, a half-Danish poet. Their intense love affair begins at a gallery launch, with our narrator pondering “Is it possible to love someone without knowing them, by sight?”. However, their infatuation spirals quickly downhill and t...
Apr 12, 2021•38 min
In today’s episode we are delving deep into the ‘manosphere’ with English feminist writer and founder of the Everyday Sexism Project Laura Bates. The ‘manosphere’ relates to a collection of websites, blogs and online forums promoting masculinity, hostility towards women and strong opposition to feminism. In her ground-breaking new book, Men Who Hate Women, Bates goes undercover to expose these vast misogynist networks and communities, from incels to pick up artists to men’s rights activists. She...
Apr 08, 2021•1 hr 1 min
Sue Rainsford handed in the final manuscript of her novel Redder Days on the 14th of March 2020, the same day that Irish schools and colleges closed their doors due to Covid-19. It was remarkable timing, given the (now all too familiar) pandemic theme running through her book. Set in a world wracked by climate change, Redder Days tells the story of a survivalist cult who seek to escape a mysterious contagion only known as ‘red’. In today’s episode, the author speaks to Róisín Ingle about this ac...
Apr 05, 2021•42 min
Have you ever felt like your brain is fuzzy, that you just can't seem to focus on the task in hand, or you have trouble finding the right word in a sentence? If the answer is yes, then you may be one of the many people - and most often it is women - who has experienced brain fog. In her new book, Beating Brain Fog: Your 30-day Plan to Think Faster, Sharper, Better, neuroscientist and health psychologist, Dr Sabina Brennan, throws light on the experience, which is not a condition in itself, but r...
Apr 01, 2021•40 min
This Wednesday March 31st marks International Transgender Day of Visibility. It's an annual event celebrating transgender and non-binary people which also aims to raise awareness of discrimination of this community worldwide.. In today’s episode, Róisín Ingle is joined by two trans women Allie O'Rourke and Becky Cheatle, winners of the Virgin Media Discovers Short Film Competition and a prize of 30,000 euro towards producing their short film 'Punch Line’. Both are stand up comedians and worked a...
Mar 29, 2021•44 min
The UK government has intervened to compel the introduction of full abortion services in Northern Ireland due to a lack of progress on the issue by politicians there. Almost a year after abortion was officially decriminalised in Northern Ireland, women there are still being forced to travel to Britain for terminations. Cara Sanquest is an Irish woman living in London who set up the London Irish Abortion Rights Campaign and is now Campaigns and Research Manager for the MP Stella Creasy. She worke...
Mar 25, 2021•43 min
Melissa Rice is what you might describe as an unexpected addict. Growing up in a happy family in Kirkby, on the outskirts of Liverpool, Rice excelled in school and later qualified as a primary school teacher. Discovering alcohol in her early teens, she used it as a form of escapism, a route to confidence and sociability. But by the time she had reached her early twenties, her relationship with alcohol began to unravel every aspect of her life, including her teaching career, her friendships and h...
Mar 22, 2021•1 hr 5 min
The murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard in London prompted thousands of women to share stories about fearing for their personal safety and the modifications they make to their behaviour in order to feel safe. That collective trauma has spilled out on social media and elsewhere all over the world. On Tuesday, a socially distanced peaceful 'Reclaim the Streets' protest organised by ROSA was held in Dublin. Others are planned for Cork, Limerick and Galway today. In the latest issue of The Irish Tim...
Mar 18, 2021•56 min
Acts of Desperation is the darkly funny debut novel from Waterford writer Megan Nolan. Set in Dublin, it tells the story of an intense love affair between the narrator and her boyfriend Ciaran, a half-Danish poet. Their dysfunctional relationship plays out over the pages and lends itself to the question: why do women stay with toxic men? Nolan began writing the book while in Athens in 2016 and completed it three years later. In today’s episode, she speaks to Roisin Ingle about her bookish childh...
Mar 15, 2021•33 min
The disappearance of Sarah Everard in London and the subsequent discovery of a body in woodland by police searching for her, has got many of us talking about the everyday fear that women experience when it comes to being alone in public. Ms Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive, went missing after leaving a friend’s house in Clapham, south London, at about 9pm on March 3rd. The Met Police announced on Wednesday that a diplomatic protection officer held in relation to her disappearance had b...
Mar 11, 2021•1 hr 19 min
Last Thursday, the Irish Times Women’s Podcast hosted an evening of storytelling to mark International Women’s Day. Guests on the night were invited to share their stories of overcoming a challenge, in front of our virtual audience on Zoom and Facebook. In today’s episode, you’ll hear a selection of highlights from the event, including a brilliant story of using creativity to work around academic challenges from senator Lynn Ruane and a moving tale about reclaiming the joy of sea swimming from t...
Mar 08, 2021•57 min
China is facing mounting global criticism over its treatment of the mostly Muslim Uighur population in the north-western region of Xinjiang. Rights groups say China has detained more than a million Uighurs over the past few years in what the state says are "re-education camps". However there is evidence that Uighurs in these camps are being used as forced labour, that families are being separated and that women are being subjected to human rights violations including rape, forced marriage, tortu...
Mar 04, 2021•49 min
Trish Kearney was one of the six Irish swimmers who charged former swim coach George Gibney with sexual abuse offences in 1992. Known in her younger days as Patricia McCahill, the Olympic hopeful was abused by Gibney from the age of thirteen. The abuse lasted over seven years. The case against Gibney was subsequently dropped following an appeal, but his crimes were later outed by journalist Johnny Watterson in a piece for the Sunday Tribune. Now nearly thirty years on, he remains a free man, who...
Mar 01, 2021•1 hr 9 min
Luvvie Ajayi Jones wants you to be a fear-fighting troublemaker. We're all afraid of something: of hearing the word 'no', of being different, of being 'too much', or not enough. In her new book, The Fear-Fighter Manual, the award-winning author, podcaster and TED talker, shows us how to embrace fear and get past it to live our best lives. In today's podcast Luvvie talks to Róisín about why we should all strive to be professional troublemakers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more info...
Feb 25, 2021•52 min
Have you ever wondered why you remember some things and not others? Or why, even though you might share an experience with someone, their memory of it differs to yours? Psychiatrist Veronica O'Keane has spent 38 years working in neuroscience and psychiatry with patients whose ability to make sense of the world is impaired. In her book, The Rag and Bone Shop: How We Make Memories and Memories Make Us, she draws on that experience to explain why the way we memorise some things and forget others, i...
Feb 22, 2021•42 min
In the last twelve months, almost half of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 have witnessed or experienced racism. This shocking statistic is part of new research by The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, who have recently launched their All Against Racism campaign. Featuring interviews with eleven people from different ethnic backgrounds, the campaign aims to explore racism in Ireland and challenge the individual and societal attitudes that allow it to continue. In today’s epis...
Feb 18, 2021•31 min
In Ireland 40% of people don’t live in a couple. When you look at those in the 16-29 age bracket, that skyrockets to 71%. After almost a year of lockdowns, give or take the odd month when restrictions were relaxed, the rules introduced to fight the spread of coronavirus have meant that sex between single people, or established couples who don’t cohabit, has in effect been illegal, against regulations, or only allowed outdoors. So, is it possible to date in a pandemic? How difficult is it to live...
Feb 15, 2021•43 min
Nature writer and essayist Kerri ní Dochartaigh was born in Derry, Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles. The daughter of a Catholic mother and Protestant father, her childhood was one of trauma and violence. Struggling to identify with either side, her family were forced out of two homes and were also victim to a frightening petrol bomb attack. In her first book, Thin Places, ní Dochartaigh lays bare the ways in which these events affected her life. Weaving between two contrasting genr...
Feb 11, 2021•47 min
Thousands of Poles have taken to the streets again in recent weeks, in protest against the introduction of new legislation effectively banning abortion. It follows last October’s constitutional court ruling that outlawed abortions in the case of foetal abnormalities. According to the ruling, which cannot be appealed, the only remaining circumstances for a Polish woman to end a pregnancy legally in her home country are in cases of rape, incest or health risk.On today's podcast Róisín speaks to th...
Feb 08, 2021•39 min
Dr Jessica Taylor is a UK-based psychologist, sexual violence survivor and author of the best-selling book Why Women Are Blamed For Everything. She is also a senior lecturer in forensic and criminal psychology and the Director of Victim Focus - an organisation that addresses victim blaming practices in social care, policing, mental health and support services. On today’s podcast she talks to Róisín about a new, world-first training and research programme she has developed in partnership with Rap...
Feb 04, 2021•56 min
Bad Bridget is a five-part podcast series which tells the unheard stories of Irish girls and women who emigrated to North America in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The series is a culmination of over five years worth of research by historians Elaine Farrell of Queen’s University Belfast and Leanne McCormick of Ulster University. Each episode delves into the lives of these women who travelled across the Atlantic and didn’t quite find the American dream. The extensive research into police, cou...
Feb 01, 2021•49 min
