The Women's Podcast

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 w...

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 t...

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 episo...

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 withi...

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,...

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 intervie...

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 an...

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 Gallaghe...

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 l...

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...

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 writ...

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 Spo...

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 th...

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...

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,...

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 f...

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...

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 li...

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 th...

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 he...

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 a...

The countdown is on for next month’s FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia. In this episode, Vera Pauw, manager of the Irish women’s national football team, talks to Róisín Ingle about the mood in camp, her hopes for her players and the evolution of the women’s sport over the last five decades. She opens up about her experiences of being raped and sexually abused by prominent Dutch officials and abo...

In May 2019, the Irish government declared a climate and biodiversity emergency. To guide us through everything we need to know about biodiversity loss and the impact it has on the natural environment, we’re joined by activist, educator and former Rose of Tralee Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin, who recently chaired the Citizens Assembly on the subject. From hedgerows to bogs and from forests to lakes Ni...

In this episode, Dr Katriona O’Sullivan talks about her powerful, inspiring and affecting memoir Poor. O’Sullivan grew up in England with Irish parents, both heroin addicts, in a home environment riven with dysfunction, abuse and poverty. She became pregnant at 15, experienced homelessness and substance abuse as a young mother before moving to Dublin at the age of 20. Now an award-winning lecturer...

In this episode, we revisit a conversation we had last year with Bonnie Garmus, author of the best selling book Lessons in Chemistry. The novel follows the life of Elizabeth Zott, a chemist in 1960s America, who leaves her career in science to present a TV cooking show. Garmus talks to Róisín Ingle about her long road to writing success, the excitement of her book becoming an instant bestseller an...