The Women's Podcast

Following her own brilliant short story collection Multitudes, Lucy Caldwell has guest edited the sixth volume of Faber's long running series of new Irish short stories. This collection is called Being Various and it includes stories by writers living on both sides of the Irish border - Sally Rooney, Jan Carson, Kit de Waal, Lisa McInerney and Kevin Barry to name a few - in a bid to capture the en...

First: A new report has found that thousands of women who are currently "on home duties" represent a major source of untapped potential in terms of addressing skills shortages. The research, carried out by the state's further education and training authority SOLAS, shows that of the 218,000 women between the ages of 20 and 64 who are not currently participating in the workforce, 16,000 could poten...

On today's show, Róisín talks to Bollywood superstar Yami Gautam. The Indian actor’s latest film – the 2019 blockbuster Uri: The Surgical Strike – is currently the highest grossing film in Indian cinema so far this year, but it was the critically acclaimed romantic comedy Vicki Donor that made her a household name in 2012. Yami talks to Róisín about women in her country and the Me Too movement, he...

In the last decade, the Irish author Tana French has become known for her brilliant crime thrillers narrated by various police in Dublin’s fictional Murder Squad, who tended to be outsiders in some way. In her latest book, the Wych Elm, she has done something a little bit different. Regular book clubbers on the Women's Podcast Bernice Harrison, Niamh Towey and Ann Ingle join Róisín to discuss the...

This weekend (3rd-6th of May) the All Woman’s long boat team from St Michael’s rowing club in Dun Laoghaire will be one of two teams from the club competing in the Celtic Challenge race from the coast of Ireland to the coast of Wales. The race is a biennial event covering the 155 kilometre distance from Arklow in Wexford to Aberystwyth in Wales and the St Michael's All Woman’s team will be hoping...

Jan Carson is a writer and community arts officer based in Belfast. Her first novel, Malcolm Orange Disappears, was published in 2014 followed by a short story collection, Children’s Children, in 2016. Her latest novel, The Fire Starters, is a dark, propulsive and original tale of fierce familial love and sacrifice, fizzing with magic and wonder. On today’s show she talks to Róisín about magic rea...

Mary Pat Kelly, named one of the Top 100 Irish Americans, is an author and a documentary filmmaker. She has also worked in TV on the show Good Morning America and once trained as a nun. Born and raised in Chicago, she lives on New York's Upper West Side with her husband the app developer Martin Sheerin, originally from County Tyrone. Mary was in Ireland recently to speak about her latest book – a...

Young And Trans In Rural Ireland is a new resource that has just been launched by Youth Work Ireland to be used by those who work with young people and in schools, in order to make them the best trans allies they can be and to make Ireland more trans-inclusive. Julie James has personal experience of life as a young trans woman in rural Kildare and in this podcast she talks to Róisín about her life...

Award-winning Irish Times reporter Rosita Boland traveled to India recently with her colleague, this paper's photo editor Brenda Fitzsimons, to investigate waste pickers and innovative recycling projects taking place in Bangalore. One part of what they discovered during their time there was the shocking story of a multi-billion euro industry in the city’s slums, where human hair is a valuable comm...

In 2009, at the height of the recession, Geraldine Swarbrigg and her daughter Jane decided to start a new business. Together they brought the cosmetics brand Inglot to Ireland and ten years on - with Jane's brother Peter also part of the family business - the company employs 300 people, is expanding at breakneck speed and has just announced an exciting new partnership with Next in the UK.On today'...

Mairead Buicke reckons she has been lucky in her career as a singer, from stepping in at the last minute for her first every professional performance at the National Concert Hall, to the teachers she has had the privilege of studying under. Ahead of her one-night-only performance in the Puccini Scandal at the NCH on April 24th, she talks to Kathy about her trad music roots, her big break and why i...

On today’s show, Róisín speaks to Éanna Ni Lamhna, renowned environmentalist, broadcaster and author – who many of you will recognise as a long-standing member of the panel of experts on RTÉ’s wildlife programme ‘Mooney goes Wild’. Éanna is the author of several books including: Talking Wild, Wild and Wonderful and Straight Talking Wild – and she was in the middle of promoting National Tree week w...

Aimée Johnston has swapped Ireland for the white sands and sunshine of the Maldives, after beating thousands of applicants to become the Barefoot Bookseller. The 'Best Job in the World' is in the luxury eco resort of Soneva Fushi in the exotic Indian Ocean destination and was advertised online last year by hotel library curator company Ultimate Library. Aimée has been shoeless on the island for a...

Máirín de Búrca has been a tireless social justice activist for women's rights, housing, prisoner rights, anti-apartheid, and many other issues throughout her life. She has, at times, been a committed member of Sinn Féin and, as a founder of the Women’s Liberation Movement, played a key role in that organisation's infamous Contraceptive Train. Máirín was also a prime mover in a legal case which se...

The gap between what it's really like to be a woman and what people expect women to be is the primary cause of burnout. Why? Because we exhaust ourselves trying to close the space. On today's show we speak to identical twin sisters Emily and Amelia Nagoski, authors of a groundbreaking new book about women and stress. It is called Burnout: The Secret to Solving the Stress Cycle and it is a science-...

On today's show Kathy meets Maria Ní Fhlartharta and Róisín Ní Hacéid – two disabled women under the age of 30 and members of Disabled Women Ireland. The organisation was founded in May 2018, partly out of a frustration with the voices of disabled people not being heard in the debate around the referendum to repeal the 8th amendment. Maria and Róisín tell Kathy what Disable Women Ireland are about...

On today’s show Kathy talks to theatre legends Ger Ryan and Marie Mullen about their play at the Gate Theatre, The Children, directed by Oonagh Murphy. Written by Lucy Kirkwood and also starring Seán McGinley, the play is about three retired nuclear scientists staying at a crumbling cottage by the sea, as the world grapples with the aftermath of a catastrophe at a nuclear power station. Marie and...

On today’s show Róisín meets one of fashion’s original supermodels Yasmin Le Bon to talk about beauty icons, menopause, ageing and her 30+ year marriage to Duran Duran star Simon Le Bon. In a frank and funny interview, Yasmin speaks about the difficulties of parenting, hot flushes and why #MeToo wasn’t an issue for her and her fellow 90s ‘supers’ including Kate Moss. Plus: Kathy and Róisín talk ab...

On International Women's Day, we joined the 15th annual #IWD Accenture Ireland breakfast at the Convention Centre in Dublin. In front of a crowd of 1,700 (gulp!) in the main auditorium, Kathy hosted a panel on technology, Changing the Game in Tomorrow’s World, examining the future for inclusion and equality, and how the technologies we live and work with can set us up for success in tomorrow’s wor...

Lynn Enright is on a mission to empower women with vital knowledge about their own bodies. Chances are, if you've got one, you've been incorrectly referring to your vulva as a vagina for most of your life. In her book, Vagina: A re-education, Lynn provides girls and women with information they need about their own bodies - about the vagina, the hymen, the clitoris, the orgasm; about conditions lik...

Liza Pulman of the satirical songwriters Fascinating Aida talks to Kathy in advance of her concert Liza Pulman Sings Streisand in the National Concert Hall on the 20th of April. She speaks about her long career in music and about being caught on the London Underground Train which was bombed on the 7th of July 2005. (Her mobile phone footage of the experience was broadcast on television news statio...

In 2014 Maria Walsh became the first openly gay woman to win the Rose of Tralee. That was one year before Ireland voted for same-sex marriage and since then the Mayo woman has remained in the spotlight with a broadcasting career and commitment to mental health advocacy. Now the 31 year old is standing as a Fine Gael candidate in the upcoming European elections. She talks to Women’s Podcast host Ka...

Journalist and author Anna Carey talks to Kathy about the joy of needlework and explains why she felt a greater sense of achievement when she finished sewing a 1920s-style dressing gown than when she finished writing most of her six novels. They talk about the emotional benefits of making things by hand, the historical lack of recognition of needlework as an art form, its place in the history of f...

New domestic violence measures announced last year came into force at the start of 2019 under the Domestic Violence Act 2018, with the aim of improving the protections available to victims of domestic violence under both civil and criminal law. How is this different to the previous legislation? And, are the resources in place sufficient enough to police the new laws? Kathy talks to Gillian Dennehy...

Róisín talks to theatre maker Louise White about her show, This is the Funeral of Your Life – a production she made in response to the death of her father five years ago and an attempt to cope with her grief. She says it’s not morose, it’s about talking about death in a healthy way. Louise is performing the show as part of a fundraising exercise for a new musical she is working on called Poor Litt...