Sin Scéal Eile

Stevie is a new Dad and is taking stock on all that means and how his life and perspective has changed. While also taking us on an emotional rollercoaster of a journey with a story about his own Dad. What we leave with is a story of hope…and Star Wars.  Rx Sin Scéal Eile - That's Another Story was hosted and created by Ruth Medjber, with sound by Ronan Lally. The podcast is produced by Dee Re...

I’ve never met a woman like Doris before. She’s full of the chats and leads quite the adventurous life. She whipped around Mondello in a Ferrari in her 80s, and plans to abseil down Ireland’s tallest building to celebrate her 90th. She ran a B&B, a pub and worked as a nurse in England for the longest time (getting up to all sorts of antics).  Her creativity comes through in her glamour, h...

Naomhán is a dapper gent, sporting a brand new hat for this occasion. When I go to meet him down in Sandycove, he’s surrounded by friends of every generation, all having a great aul chat. He comes here every day for a swim. He’s been swimming all of his life, taking after his Mam who also swam every day right up until her 80s.  Naomhán has led a full life, with children and grandchildren, mov...

Daragh was lucky enough to have a relationship with all of his four grandparents growing up and I think that could be the reason why he’s got such a mature head on his shoulders. At just 31, he seems to have life sussed. He’s grounded, rooted and sound.  His poetry and writing is centred around the need for connection, representation and the human experience.  Daragh is also the current...

Conor describes himself as “ordinary and normal”, and he is, and it’s so lovely. He has 3 kids which he dotes on. He has all the usual anxieties that I imagine most parents have. He works hard during the week so that he can provide nice things for his family.  He keeps an allotment down the road which he tends to with his kids, harvesting pumpkins at Halloween and brussel sprouts at Christmas...

Ruth has been through the wars and out the other side. Just over 2 years ago she developed a neurological disorder which left her paralysed. A fatigue and pins and needles feeling that she put down to covid, rapidly turned into her worst nightmare. It took away her ability to walk, to use her arms and feed herself. She was completely reliant on help from her family and friends. She found herself i...

As we approached Imelda’s driveway, we ran into a bit of an issue. There was no way we were getting our very tall campervan under her very gorgeous, but very low hanging trees. I thought it to be a completely fitting entrance to a woodturner's home.  Imelda isn’t just any woodturner, she is the Chair of The Irish Woodturners' Guild (which is the oldest woodturning association in the world). I...

Sinéad didn’t always know what she wanted to do in life. She studied and moved and kept her mind wide open to opportunities. Eventually she found something that really suited her, something her father also used to do. Sinéad is a tour guide with a twist. She brings tourists and locals around to sample the culinary delights of Waterford, and yes, that of course includes the famous blaa! Rx Sin Scéa...

I’m going to preface this by saying I love trains and I love miniature models of anything. Meeting Eugene in his garage was a dream. He has converted the whole space into both a workshop and a miniature version of Waterford train station as it appeared in the 80s.  The whole thing is a wonder to behold. He has handmade so many little models, including the train carriages and engines, the buil...

We hit the road to Kilkenny this week to meet Mick, the mechanic. Out the back of his “home home” is where he works away, he only just started this business in January and the phone hasn’t stopped since. He has an engineering brain and a romantic heart. He tells me that his wife, whom he married just in October gone, persuaded him to come out of his comfort zone and do this project.  He credi...

What’s amazing about Sophia is her honesty but also her incredibly sharp sense of humour. She’s intelligent and strong, you need to be when you’re a female comedian. Together we eat snacks and talk about her upcoming show at the Edinburgh Fringe and setting a great example for her daughter.  Rx Sin Scéal Eile - That's Another Story was hosted and created by Ruth Medjber, with sound by Ronan L...

I stumbled upon a really interesting cafe in the woods a while back and approached the woman behind the wooden till to find out more. When I say stumbled, I really do mean it. You wouldn’t notice it was there, it blends so wonderfully into its environment in the Moore Abbey woods in Monasterevin. Woodstack cafe is the result of an amazing amount of effort by Dee Ryan, her husband Dave and their te...

It was Johno’s daughter who nominated him to be in this project. She describes her dad with great affection and admires his passion for life.  Johno is many things, he owns the Laois Angling Club, he’s an avid hunter and farmer (though he says his 200 sheep is nothing to the thousands he used to keep when the industry was in a better place). Faced with the decline in farming, Johno and his wi...

Kasandra wants to remind us just how common bowel cancer is, but also how disruptive to your life it can be. Guided by a gut instinct, she knew the doctor was going to give her that particular diagnosis. It’s been her gut that has guided her throughout her entire life.  She’s in the middle of an amazing career as an archivist (dream job!) and was head of the Irish Film Archive in Temple Bar u...

When Debbie answers the door of her studio she’s flustered, wearing a paint encrusted apron and brandishing a painting tool around. She says “I just need to finish one more bit” and scurries back upstairs to layer on more paint. Debbie is a very successful and well established painter. We could talk about anything, but what she wants to chat most about is her Mother, Ruby. It’s Ruby’s tools and pa...

Suad is a dote. She’s welcoming, warm and so so friendly. She’s originally from Syria but has been living in Ireland for many years, and if you’ve read her multi-award winning book “I Don't Want To Talk About Home” you’ll know her life story.  You’ll know the arduous path she took to leave Syria, and if you follow her online, you’ll know the joy she felt when she could finally return home too...

Naomi had a high-powered career in finance at a young age. She felt it was destined for her, since it was the path that most educated Indian people took. She worked across the globe, from London to Hong Kong, but the lifestyle wasn’t to last. She burnt out in a big way but took the opportunity to completely reset her career.  She now practices, studies and lives by Ayurveda, a 5000 year old I...

This project is amazing for lots of reasons, my favourite being human connection. We’re all hearing little snapshots of other people’s lives and it brings us all closer. I love nothing more when people reach out to me, asking if I can put them in touch with a podcast guest after being moved by their story.  Imagine my delight when a name I hadn’t heard in 25 years popped up in my inbox. Colum...

Some people are just sound. Happy, buzzy, salt of the earth, good people. Like Nuala.  She grew up in the caves, literally. Her parents opened the famous show caves 50 years ago to draw tourists to the area when she was just a small girl. Nuala’s parents, their business partners and local residents all formed a community group and together made a plan to bring life back to the Burren and make...

Rowan is brave, resilient and strong. Even though he says he felt much stronger when he was 8 years old. When he was 8 he was sexually abused by three teachers. The abuse continued until he was 11. “The days that I used to get abused in the morning, first thing, they were the best because it was done for the day. So I think back to how strong that little guy was.” It’s difficult for me to even typ...

Aindrias sits in the back of a pub with us in Ennistymon, drinking herbal tea and holding court. He seems to be the most famous man in Clare today with all types of people come up to him for chats. Some went to school with his Dad, others spoke fluently with him in French and Spanish. I asked where he learned so many languages, but I should know better than to expect a straight answer and he retur...

Sitting with a glass of wine in Fiona’s home feels very natural. We sink into a deep and meaningful conversation almost immediately. Fiona is warm, open but also assertive and has strong opinions which she delivers with the most beautiful vocabulary (she is a writer afterall). We talk about what’s common to both of us, atheism and our decision to remain childfree. Rx Sin Scéal Eile - That's Anothe...

I’d like to think that Theresa and I would have been good friends back in the day. By all accounts she seems to have led a very free and independent life, not something a lot of women born in the 40s can say. From working the door at the Television Club (or 4 Ps as it was known back then), having The Who around for tea and cake and eventually marrying a football star.  Rx Sin Scéal Eile - Tha...

PJ is an open book. He’s honest, direct, and provides counselling sessions in ALDI apparently. He’s a father to 2 year old twins, motorbike obsessed and his face is the back of a bus. He came up the ranks in the media world after leaving school at 16. After years of dealing with stage fright and anxiety while doing stand up comedy, he’s now found his dream job of making people laugh first thing in...

Genetics were not on Sarah’s side growing up. By the age of 13, her Mother had gotten a breast cancer diagnosis, one that was known to be hereditary. Sarah had an agonising 5 years to wait before she’d know that she carried the same genes.  Sarah had to battle with surgeons to convince them to give her a double mastectomy and reconstruction, but she was always adamant it was the right choice...