The Women's Podcast

For the past couple of weeks, and even months in some cases, canvassers have been working hard on either side of next week's referendum on the Eighth Amendment, going door to door in a bid to persuade the electorate of their side of the argument. We sent our co-producer Jennifer Ryan out with groups on either side to meet some of those people who have been giving up their evenings and weekends to...

As a crisis pregnancy counsellor with One Family, Marguerite McCarthy has seen and heard it all when it comes to women and pregnancy. She speaks to Kathy Sheridan about her concerns that the debate around the referendum on the Eighth Amendment is focusing too much on what we call the 'hard cases' and the voices of those 'ordinary women' who make the decision to end their pregnancies are not being...

“He needed to be heard, after 34 years of silence,” says Irish Times journalist Rosita Boland, of her interview in last Saturday’s paper with Richard McDonnell, the former boyfriend of Ann Lovett. On today’s episode of the Women’s Podcast, Boland talks to Kathy Sheridan about the latest chapter in the story of the young woman who died in 1984 after giving birth at a grotto in Granard, Co Longford....

79-year-old friends, Ann Ingle and Mary Fleming, are on opposite sides when it comes to the referendum on the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, which recognises the equal right to life of the mother and the unborn. Mary tells Kathy Sheridan she will be voting no on May 25th because she feels abortion is killing a baby. Ann, meanwhile, will be voting yes. In a robust conversation, the women, wh...

Earlier this year, Ciairín de Bush was appointed CEO of Women for Election, the not-for-profit, non-partisan organisation helping to get more women into politics. The Kerry woman was previously the director of Start Strong, an advocacy organisation campaigning to improve early childhood care and education policies in Ireland. In this episode, she talks to Kathy Sheridan about her new role, the kin...

Irish actor Amy de Bhrún has been in Vikings, Coronation Street and the most recent Jason Bourne film. Next week she returns to the theatre with a female-led production that she has written herself. ‘I See You’ runs from May 11-26th at Theatre Upstairs in Dublin and it tells the tale of Limerick-born Lady Mary Heath, the first female commercial pilot and all-around trailblazer. Fellow Irish actor...

Well over a year since we were shocked to our cores by Hillary Clinton's defeat in the 2016 US Election, we still can't quite stop talking about it or trying to make sense of it. It may be even harder when you're Jennifer Palmieri, former communications director for Clinton's presidential campaign. Before stepping into that role, Palmieri served as White House Communications Director for U.S. Pres...

Later in this episode, co-producer Jennifer Ryan talks to lifestyle blogger Lily Pebbles about her book about female friendships, The F Word. But first, Women’s Aid warned last week that Ireland’s overstretched legal system and insufficient resources for survivors of domestic abuse, are leaving women at risk of further harm even after they leave an abusive partner. Director of the charity Margaret...

Irish Times journalist Sorcha Pollak is the writer of the weekly New to the Parish series, which focuses on migration and immigrant communities in Ireland. Sorcha’s book based on the series has just been published and to celebrate its release we hosted a special live episode of the podcast at The Dean Hotel in Dublin. Our guests on the night were Sorcha and three women she has interviewed for the...

In today's episode, we go time travelling back to the Ireland of 1983, to the unusually hot summer and autumn of that year, in the run up to the contentious abortion referendum. You will hear letters to the editor of the Irish Times during the campaign, and in its aftermath, from the referendum that resulted in the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mo...

We joined forces with the Dublin Dress for Success campaign to mark the end of another successful fundraising and clothing drive, recording an episode in front of a live audience in the salubrious surroundings of the headquarters of their sponsor Eir in Dublin 8. The conversation focused on women in the workplace and how things like the gender pay gap and returning from maternity leave can be impr...

Little over 34 years ago, a 15-year-old girl died after giving birth at a grotto in the small town of Granard in Co. Longford on a freezing cold, wet day in 1984. That girl, Ann Lovett, would have turned 50 last Friday, April 6th. Irish Times journalist Rosita Boland has written about Ann Lovett in the past. Recently she wrote an in depth article about not only her death, but also her life, and wh...

Repeal the 8th: the anthology, is a collection of stories, essays, poetry and photography around the movement for reproductive rights in Ireland, edited by Irish Times columnist Una Mullally. It features work by journalists Kitty Holland and Nell McCafferty, novelists Lisa McInerney, Anne Enright and Louise O’Neill, as well as a host of others like comedians Tara Flynn and Aisling Bea. On today's...

Roisin Ingle is joined by Irish Times journalists Bernice Harrison and Niamh Towey for a meeting of the Women's Podcast book club to discuss Clover Stroud's memoir, The Wild Other. Some may have had to put their posh-ist prejudices to one side and “get over” themselves, but all agreed that Clover Stroud is a beautiful writer with an astonishing story to tell."Clover Stroud grew up in rural Wiltshi...

Irish Times reporter Conor Gallagher speaks to Kathy Sheridan about the Belfast rape trial that he has covered over the past nine weeks, which has dominated headlines for its duration. The trial concluded yesterday when the jury delivered unanimous not guilty verdicts in the cases of each of the four defendants. Also on the podcast, Noeline Blackwell chief executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centr...

One in 10 women have endometriosis, making it one of the most commonly seen gynaecological diseases, yet it is poorly understood and not commonly talked about. Symptoms can begin even before a woman has her first period and they persist throughout their lives - leading to chronic and debilitating pain for some. The Endometriosis Association of Ireland is a voluntary organisation representing the m...

With the referendum looming, the HeadStuff Podcast Network is launching a new series documenting the campaigning around the Eighth Amendment to the constitution of Ireland. The Eighth, hosted by Ciara O’Connor Walsh, gives a 360 degree view of this complex referendum in real time as it unfolds. Episode 1 will land tomorrow (23 March), where Ciara talks openly and frankly with people intending to v...

A few weeks ago, 27-year-old Méabh Ni Choileáin got in touch with us with the story of her autism diagnosis. After more than two decades of feeling like she just didn't fit in, being told three years ago that she was autistic completely changed her life. Growing up, Méabh felt different, but she had no reference point. Women and girls with Autism are invisible, she says. We only have to look at it...

In 1968, the Quebecois playwright Michel Tremblay broke new ground with his play Les Belles-soeurs, putting 15 working-class Montreal women on the stage and having them speak naturally. Now Deirdre Kinahan adapts the play for 1970s Ballymun in a new Abbey production directed by Graham McLaren, The Unmanageable Sisters. We sent our unmanageable sister Róisín Ingle along for the Women's Podcast to f...

If women were more present in debates about economics and policy formulation, would the questions that we ask be different and informed by women's lived experience? As part of the Mountains to Sea book festival’s International Women’s Day event at the LexIcon in Dun Laoghaire, Kathy Sheridan spoke to journalist Dawn Foster, whose book Lean Out counters arguments made by Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg...

To celebrate International Women's Day, we gathered a gang of formidable women making it in male-dominated careers to find out about their 'What's she doing here?' moments. Hosted by The Little Museum of Dublin, it comes ahead of a photographic exhibition of works by Beta Bjagart beginning there March 31st. On today's episode you'll hear from Bjargart, as well as lifeboat navigator Lisa Levins-Bur...

The Beast from the East saw our presenter stranded abroad, while the production team had a glimpse into the lives of those people who "work from home". Determined not to let our listeners down however, Róisín recorded an episode in her bedroom in which she celebrates great female writers ahead of International Women's Day. In this podcast, you'll hear extracts from Olivia O'Leary's Party Animals,...

The youngest-ever U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under President Obama, Samantha Power, who emigrated from Ireland to America at the age of nine, began her career as a foreign affairs journalist. Forbes has called her “a powerful crusader for US foreign policy as well as human rights and democracy,” and she was named one of Foreign Policy’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers.” The Women’s Podcast was...

It's 20 years since Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris on August 31st 1997. In this episode, Róisín Ingle recalls reporting on her death, while Jennifer Ryan speaks to people who knew her personally, and those who felt like they did. Arthur Edwards is The Sun's royal photographer and got to know Diana well throughout the nearly 20 years he spent photographing her. Elizabeth Emanuel...

This week's podcast was recorded in The Irish Times as part of Culture Night in association with the Herstory movement. In what is the first of a series of Herstory Salons, our panel included Irish Times columnist and playwright Hilary Fannin, history lecturer Dr Jennifer Redmond and Professor Linda Doyle of Trinity College Dublin. They discussed the significance of salons for women throughout his...