Irish motorsport legend Rosemary Smith died last week at the age of 86. To pay tribute to the trailblazing rally driver, we want to bring you this interview with Smith from 2018. Following the release of ‘Driven’, her memoir ghostwritten by none other than Ann Ingle, Smith joined Róisín Ingle in studio to discuss her colourful racing career, her love affairs with the likes of Oliver Reed and Adam Faith and how she overcame the odd bump in the road along the way. Rest easy Rosemary. Hosted on Aca...
Dec 14, 2023•45 min
In 2020, author and reality television star Georgia Harrison became a victim of so called ‘revenge porn’ when she was secretly recorded having sex with her ex partner, Stephen Bear and the footage then put online without her consent. The intimate moment between the two was captured on the CCTV system at Bear’s house and despite pleas from Harrison to delete the footage, her ex uploaded it to the internet, for the entire world to see. In March this year, Bear was sentenced to 21 months in prison ...
Dec 07, 2023•58 min
Irish-Nigerian author and broadcaster Emma Dabiri is giving the middle finger to modern beauty standards. Growing up, Dabiri felt pressured to conform to “oppressive” beauty ideals, to shrink herself to fit in and to straighten her afro hair. Now, as she explains in her new essay ‘Disobedient Bodies’, it’s time to rebel against those suffocating beauty constructs. From going makeup free to embracing her natural hair, Dabiri tells Róisín Ingle about the power that comes with reclaiming your unrul...
Nov 30, 2023•40 min
In her new book, An Eye on Ireland, award-winning journalist and Irish Times columnist Justine McCarthy shares new and selected pieces of work from her long-spanning career in journalism. For four decades, McCarthy’s writing has challenged stereotypes, held power to account and helped amplify the voices of women in Ireland. In this wide ranging conversation with Róisín Ingle, McCarthy reflects on her entry into journalism, how the death of her father as a young girl shaped the woman she would be...
Nov 23, 2023•1 hr 16 min
In her new book Eve: How The Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution, author Cat Bohannon explores the history and science behind the development of the female sex. In this episode, Bohannon explains to Róisín Ingle why the frequent omission of female bodies from scientific research inspired her to write the book, the ‘superpowers’ that she says only females are born with and how the advancement of gynaecology and midwifery helped drive civilisation forward. Hosted on Acast. See a...
Nov 16, 2023•1 hr
At just 64-pages long, you could get through So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan in just one sitting. So if you haven’t read it yet, you’ve no excuse. The story follows Cathal, a civil servant working in Dublin, as he clock watches his way through his office job on a sunny Friday afternoon. When the working day is finally over, he makes the journey home, all the while ruminating on the failed relationship between himself and his ex-fiancé Sabine. It’s a miniature tale that packs plenty of punch,...
Nov 13, 2023•36 min
Six years ago, when writer and psychotherapist Lucy Cavendish turned 50 , she began to feel like she didn’t fit in anymore. With her four children reared, Cavendish’s identity as a working mother was gone, leaving her feeling as though she was fading into invisibility; a feeling that some other women in their fifties also experience. After numerous ‘moments’ where she felt a profound ‘loss of self’, she was left wondering, ‘who am I?’ It is this question that the writer tackles in her latest pie...
Nov 09, 2023•44 min
Three years ago, Irish Times contributor Catherine Cleary decided to buy the cheapest land she could find in Ireland, with the dream of planting her own native forest. Following a long search, Cleary and her husband Liam, eventually came across 40 acres of land for sale in Co Roscommon. This year, with the help of family, friends and paid contractors, they planted 24,000 trees over 27 acres and have watched their slice of Irish countryside burst back into life. In this conversation with Róisín I...
Nov 02, 2023•50 min
Romantic love, widely elevated as a subject worth interrogating, tends to get a lot of attention while platonic friendship is woefully neglected in the public discourse. Enter, self-described “friendaholic” Elizabeth Day who is attempting to redress the balance. The author and woman behind the hit How to Fail podcast spoke to Roisin Ingle about why the complex bonds of friendship need more attention and how during the pandemic she was forced to reassess her own friendship circle. Her new book Fr...
Oct 26, 2023•57 min
This week, marked World Menopause Day, a day to raise awareness and break the stigma around perimenopause and menopause. To celebrate this transitional period in life, we’re joined today by Claire Dinsmore, a certified perimenopause coach and fitness fanatic based in San Francisco. In this episode, Dinsmore, who originally comes from Co Down in Northern Ireland, speaks to Róisín Ingle about why perimenopause should be viewed as ‘the power years’ and how she helps women navigate the journey throu...
Oct 19, 2023•39 min
A graduate of Dublin’s Lir Academy, English actress Agnes O’Casey made her big break in the highly acclaimed BBC series Ridley Road in 2021. Now the rising acting star is playing the lead in her first feature film, Lies We Tell, a psychological thriller set in 1800s Ireland, which hits cinemas this Friday October 13th. In this episode, O’Casey speaks to Róisín Ingle about her excitement ahead of the film’s release, her upcoming projects including the film adaptation of Claire Keegan’s ‘Small Thi...
Oct 12, 2023•43 min
Rough Beast: My Story and the Reality of Sinn Féin is the highly anticipated memoir from former Irish Senator Máiría Cahill. Growing up in west Belfast, steeped in the traditions of Irish republicanism, Cahill seemed destined for a political career within Sinn Féin, but at the age of 16, she was sexually abused by a prominent member of the IRA and life as she knew it changed forever. In this episode, Cahill speaks to Kathy Sheridan about the lasting impact of the abuse, the trauma of the subsequ...
Oct 05, 2023•46 min
Today we’re delighted to be joined by best-selling author and friend of the podcast Marian Keyes, who celebrated her 60th birthday earlier this month. In this conversation with Róisín Ingle, Keyes shares the nuggets of wisdom she has gleaned from her six decades on earth: from learning how to apologise properly, the benefits of making a gratitude list and the joys of staying in your lane and within your comfort zone. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Sep 28, 2023•53 min
In this episode, author, travel writer and wellbeing coach Sinéad Kennedy joins Róisín Ingle to discuss her new book Life is a Cycle. It’s an honest and lighthearted memoir, detailing Kennedy’s commitment to living a life filled with excitement and adventure. From finding her tribe with her local cycling group, to solo holidays in exotic locations, Kennedy reveals the joys of carving her own path, bucking expectations of her gender and taking responsibility for her own happiness. Hosted on Acast...
Sep 21, 2023•42 min
Mary McKenna is the CEO & Founder of Tour America & Cruise Holidays / The Travel Suite, one of Ireland’s most successful travel agencies. Founded in her sitting room almost three decades ago, the company has gone from strength to strength, despite a number of setbacks through the years, including the 9/11 attacks, the recession and most recently, the pandemic. In this wide-ranging interview with Róisín Ingle, McKenna reflects on her career journey, her life outside of business and why, n...
Sep 14, 2023•1 hr 11 min
Following on from the success of her 2020 novel Actress, Anne Enright is back with her latest book The Wren, The Wren. It’s a multi-generational story, exploring family trauma and the love between mother and daughter, told through three members of the same family: Nell, Carmel and Phil. In this episode, Enright speaks to Róisín Ingle about the inspiration behind the story, her foray into poetry and the novel’s omission from this year’s Booker long list. They also reflect on Enright's time as the...
Sep 07, 2023•1 hr 14 min
The Dublin Fringe Festival kicks off next month on Saturday, the 9th of September. Once again, the festival features a stellar line up of women-led productions, ranging from comedy, theatre and performance art. Making their debut at this year’s Fringe, is Philomena P, a new female-led theatre company with their play ‘in heat’. Philomena P is made up of best friends Sadhbh Malin and Sinéad Gallagher who both come from Dublin. The play, written by Malin and produced by Gallagher, tells the story o...
Aug 31, 2023•43 min
This month our booker clubbers have been reading Old Babes in the Wood, a collection of short stories from award-winning author Margaret Atwood. The book explores themes like love and relationships, what it means to be human, the ageing process and dealing with loss. Seven stories within the book follow the lives of married couple Nell and Tig and the moments big and small that encapsulate their life together. Listen in to find out what Bernice Harrison, Niamh Towey, Ann and Róisín Ingle thought...
Aug 27, 2023•26 min
Rosemary Murphy, a dynamic 40-year-old woman from Dolphin’s Barn in Dublin, had two major goals from childhood. The first was to have a large family. The second was to study medicine and become a doctor. As a mother of 12 children, ranging from 20 to 19 months, the first goal has been well and truly achieved. This September, she will start the journey to achieving her second, when she begins a six year medical degree at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). In this conversation with R...
Aug 24, 2023•51 min
Irish author Elaine Feeney is nominated for the 2023 Booker Prize for her novel How to Build a Boat. The writer from Galway is one of four Irish authors and the only Irish woman to make the long list this year. Ahead of the shortlist announcement next month, Feeney joined Róisín Ingle to discuss her nomination, the inspiration behind the book and how a severe illness in 2014 spurred her on to writing fiction. The pair also discuss Feeney’s life growing up in the west of Ireland, falling in love ...
Aug 17, 2023•1 hr 2 min
In this episode, we have two experts on hand to share their extensive knowledge of the clitoris, a much ignored and often overlooked part of the female body. Urologist Dr Rachel Rubin and author of ‘Vagina Obscura’ Rachel E Gross join Róisín Ingle to explain history’s complicated understanding of the clitoris, how it’s treated in medical study and why popular culture instead zoned in on the ‘G Spot’ as the holy grail of orgasms. They also discuss the rise in cosmetic procedures like labiaplasty ...
Aug 10, 2023•56 min
American blogger and author Gabrielle Stanley Blair is on a mission to change the conversation around abortion. Rather than centering the debate around women and their bodies, Stanley Blair suggests a crucial refocus: MEN. In her new book ‘Ejaculate Responsibly’, the author argues that men are responsible for 100% of unwanted pregnancies and therefore should be more cautious of where they leave their sperm. In this episode, she talks to Róisín Ingle about the main arguments in her ‘thesis’, the ...
Aug 03, 2023•59 min
Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor died this week at the age of 56. A trailblazer, feminist and advocate for social change, O’Connor will be remembered for her outstanding contribution to music and her courage in speaking out against the status quo. A fond friend of The Women’s Podcast, O’Connor last joined podcast presenter Róisín Ingle for an extended interview in 2021, while promoting her memoir Rememberings. Today, to celebrate her life and her achievements, we bring you that conversation again, r...
Jul 27, 2023•1 hr 47 min
A regular on The Women's Podcast, journalist and author Caitlin Moran was in Dublin recently as part of her latest book tour. As someone who regularly discusses the problems of girls and women in public, Moran has often been confronted with the question: “But what about men?”. Indeed, the statistics on male misery are grim: boys are falling behind in school, are at greater risk of addiction, depression, suicide, and increasingly at risk from online misogynist radicalisation thanks to the likes o...
Jul 20, 2023•55 min
In this episode, writer and journalist Dina Kraft tells the story of Holocaust survivor Hannah Pick-Goslar and her childhood best friend, Anne Frank. Hannah and Anne met in Amsterdam as young girls and spent many happy years playing together, before the ravages of war tore their lives apart. ‘My Friend Anne Frank’ is the memoir by Pick-Goslar, detailing the special bond shared by the pair, their final meeting on opposite sides of a barbed-wire fence in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945 and her o...
Jul 13, 2023•47 min
I Will Be Good is the new memoir from Peig McManus, an unforgettable Dublin character, who grew up in 1940s Ireland, under the shadow of the Second World War. Now in her 80s, Peig reflects on a life lived boldly even in the face of challenges. In this episode, she tells Róisín Ingle about life growing up in the last of Dublin’s tenements, the trauma of becoming an unmarried mother at the age of 21 and how she finally discovered peace and healing through her work as a counsellor (and a late in li...
Jul 06, 2023•50 min
In this episode, book clubbers Niamh Towey, Bernice Harrison, Róisín and Ann Ingle share their summer reading recommendations. Amongst their favourites are The Guest by Emma Cline, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid and The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue. They’ll also be discussing a novel described by one book clubber as “one of the best books I’ve ever read in my life”. Our next pick for the book club will be Margaret Atwood's collection of short stories 'Old Babe...
Jul 02, 2023•45 min
It’s almost twenty years since Cecelia Ahern released her debut book P.S I Love You. Now the author is back with her nineteenth novel, In a Thousand Different Ways. It tells the story of Alice, a highly empathetic person who can see and feel people’s emotions through colours around their bodies. In this conversation with Róisín Ingle, Ahern explains how her own experiences as an empath inspired the story and how she wrote it while navigating the ‘three Ps’: perimenopause (and the brain fog and r...
Jun 29, 2023•48 min
Broadcaster and writer Noelle McCarthy was born and raised in Cork, but now lives in New Zealand with her husband and young daughter Eve. Her new memoir ‘Grand: Becoming my Mother’s Daughter’, examines the tumultuous relationship she had with mother Carol, who struggled with alcoholism throughout her life. The book also tracks McCarthy’s life as a promising young student, who in a bid to escape her troubles at home, made the move from Cork city to New Zealand and established a name for herself i...
Jun 22, 2023•1 hr 11 min
Best-selling author Naoise Dolan is here to talk about her highly-anticipated second novel The Happy Couple. It tells the story of Celine and Luke, their upcoming wedding and the three friends who may draw them apart. In this episode, Dolan speaks to Róisín Ingle about swapping London for Berlin, how she almost took up a career in law and dealing with feelings of self-doubt. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 15, 2023•59 min
