The Women's Podcast

In today’s episode, we’re bringing you highlights from a conversation with writer and poet Dearbhla Mescal that was recorded live at this year’s Electric Picnic. Mescal joined Róisin Ingle on stage at the Wild Words event to discuss her new book Finding Joy. The book is the result of years spent noticing and celebrating the small things in life and is an uplifting collection of thoughts, poems and...

Author Louise O’Neill was 37-years old, when her five-year relationship came to an end in January 2023. Suddenly, the future she had imagined for herself with marriage, children and a home by the sea in Wicklow, completely disappeared. Feeling heartbroken and lost, O’Neill went on a mission to heal herself and regain some of her shattered confidence. She took almost a year off work and threw herse...

The new adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility opened in Irish cinemas last weekend. The period drama tells the story of two sisters - Elinor and Marianne Dashwood - as they navigate relationships, love and grief following the sudden death of their father. Irish actor Caitríona Balfe plays Mrs Dashwood, the matriarch of the family who must steer her daughters through this turbulent time...

In December 2024, MMA fighter and businessman Conor McGregor was found liable by a civil High Court jury for sexually assaulting Nikita Hand in a Dublin hotel in December 2018. In the years since, Hand has lived through events that changed her life forever. She has endured public scrutiny, courtrooms, headlines and toxic commentary, alongside an outpouring of solidarity and support. Now, with her...

Today we're sharing the opening episode of a three-part series by Róisín Ingle that tells the untold origin story of U2. We hope you enjoy it. The full series can be found on irishtimes.com, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for Drummer Seeks Musicians: The Making of U2. It is 50 years this month since 14-year-old drummer Larry Mullen stuck a note on a school noticeboard looking for f...

This week on The Women’s Podcast, Róisín Ingle meets award-winning rapper, singer, poet and spoken-word artist Denise Chaila. After a meteoric rise that saw her win the Choice Music Prize and become one of the most celebrated voices in Irish music, Denise stepped away from the spotlight for a few years. In this honest and at times profound conversation the singer explains why.   The conv...

Today’s guest is a woman who has managed to combine two worlds that you don’t exactly put together every day: the law and stand-up comedy. Justine Megan is a solicitor, comedian and performer, and she’s bringing her own story to the stage in her Dublin Fringe show, Exhibit A: Imposter. It’s a sharp, funny and very personal look at class, identity, ambition and fitting in. Megan’s journey has taken...

In 2021, comedian Kyla Cobbler performed her first ever stand-up gig at an open mic night in Barcelona. Five years on, the Cork woman has become the second ever Irish comedian to headline Dublin's 3Arena, bringing her show Not My Lemons to the venue in February 2026. Not only has she made a name for herself on the comedy circuit, but Cobbler has also amassed a huge following on Instagram, where he...

Dublin's Fringe Festival is just around the corner and over the next couple of weeks we’ll be highlighting some brilliant shows by women that feature in this year's programme. In today’s episode we’re joined by Fionnuala Gygax and Venetia Bowe from Chaos Factory, a theatre company who are bringing their show Miss You to the festival from the 10th to the 12th September. The show is inspired by the...

'Anywhere but Here' is the new novel from Irish author and former journalist Vicki Notaro. The book follows three friends in their 40s who take a trip to Donegal for some much-needed soul searching. In this episode Notaro tells Róisin Ingle how female friendship and the pressure to live the perfect life, served as the inspiration for the book. In this wide-ranging conversation the pair also talk a...

Later this month, The Women’s Podcast will be recording a live episode at Electric Picnic in Co Laois, with Róisín Ingle in conversation with special guest Dearbhla Mescal. You can catch us in the Mindfield area on Saturday August 29th. Also returning to the festival this year is spoken word poet Anna D, who will be treating festival-goers to her unique blend of poetry and storytelling, knitting t...

ADHD coach Ailín Kennedy was 32 years old when she was diagnosed with the condition. Having struggled for years with her mental health Kennedy went to therapy, attended her GP and was referred to psychiatrists, but ADHD was never mentioned to her as a possibility.   She recently co-wrote the book Have I Got your Attention? with fellow ADHDer Mike McGrath-Bryan. It features testimony from nine...

This episode was originally published in February 2026. In today’s episode, we’re covering a topic that isn’t often spoken about, but is estimated to affect around one in four families: family estrangement. It’s a subject that writer and Irish Times contributor Laura Kennedy wrote about recently in her Substack, detailing the complicated grief she experienced following the death of her father late...

Joanne McNally on midlife, monogamy and making history at the 3Arena This episode was originally published in March 2026.  In today’s episode, Róisín Ingle is joined by the brilliant Joanne McNally. The comedian and podcaster dropped by the studio to talk about her newly announced date at Dublin’s 3Arena and how she’s made history as the first ever Irish comedian to headline two shows at the...

Throughout the 20th century in Ireland, thousands of women and girls were sent to work in Magdalene Laundries all across the country. By 1951, for every 100,000 women in Ireland, 70 were locked away in a laundry, spending their days “scrubbing and praying in an attempt to salvage their souls”. In her new book, The Fallen, academic and writer Louise Brangan uses archive material and survivor testim...

Back in March, The Women’s Podcast book club read Heart the Lover by American author Lily King. The story which tells of a complicated love triangle between college students Jordan, Yash and Sam, was adored by each of our bookclubbers - something regular listeners of the book club will know, doesn’t happen very often. So when we got the opportunity to have King on the podcast, we jumped at the cha...

Fine Gael MEP Maria Walsh always wanted to become a mother and spent years hoping she’d meet the right person to start a family with. By 2024 however, Walsh was done waiting and she decided to embark upon solo parenthood, as a single, gay woman. In early 2025, she began her fertility journey and finally became pregnant through IVF earlier this year. Today, Walsh is 24 weeks pregnant and happier th...

In this episode, psychologist & bestselling author Katriona O’Sullivan joins Kathy Sheridan to discuss her new memoir Hungry: A Biography of My Body. The book follows on from her award-winning debut Poor, this time focusing on her complex and fraught relationship with body image, food and self-worth. In this wide-ranging conversation, O’Sullivan speaks about the societal pressures facing women...

Earlier this month, author Claire Keegan joined The Women’s Podcast bookclub for a live event at Chapters Bookstore in Dublin to discuss her favourite summer reading recommendations. In today’s bonus episode, we’re bringing you the live Q&A from the event with Keegan, where she answers questions on her writing process, film adaptations and her book being featured on the Leaving Cert syllabus....

In today’s episode, best-selling author Maggie O’Farrell joins Róisín Ingle to discuss her new book Land. Set in the 1800s - in the aftermath of the Irish famine - the novel tells the story of a father and his reluctant son, who are tasked with mapping out the island of Ireland for the great Ordnance Survey project. It’s a deeply affecting story about family bonds, set against a backdrop of povert...

Last week the Women’s Podcast book club gathered for a live event in Chapters Bookstore in Dublin to discuss what books they’ll be packing with them on their summer holidays. Celebrated author Claire Keegan was the special guest who joined book clubbers Róisín Ingle, Bernice Harrison, Ann Ingle and Niamh Towey for the event, alongside an audience of podcast listeners. Keegan spoke about the novel...

Summer is finally upon us and that means festival season is officially here. In today’s episode, we meet a pair of women behind two of Ireland’s most exciting festivals, Beyond the Pale and Kaleidoscope. Jenny Jennings and Fiona McGinn join Roisin Ingle to discuss the challenges facing the festival industry, what it takes to create such large-scale events and which acts are not to be missed in the...

Academic, activist and friend of the show Ailbhe Smyth is turning 80 this Friday 29th May. To mark the occasion and to celebrate all her achievements, we invited Smyth back on the Women’s Podcast to share her life lessons on reaching this momentous milestone. The almost octogenarian reflects on her early childhood growing up in south Dublin, her struggles with anorexia as a young woman and the lif...

Almost three years on from their final Aisling book, writers and besties Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen are back with a brand new novel, Our Deadly Summer. It’s a heartfelt and hilarious tale about friendship, young women and bad men. In today’s episode, the pair tell Róisín Ingle about the J1 spent in Long Island which inspired the story and why despite pursuing solo projects after the Aisling se...

In today’s episode, Róisín Ingle is joined by award-winning Northern Irish writer Jan Carson, who has just released her ninth book, Few and Far Between. Set on a fictional archipelago in Lough Neagh, the novel blends history, realism and the surreal, drawing on themes of community, belonging and generational trauma. In this conversation, Carson explains how a historic plan to drain Lough Neagh and...