Nature writer and essayist Kerri ní Dochartaigh was born in Derry, Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles. The daughter of a Catholic mother and Protestant father, her childhood was one of trauma and violence. Struggling to identify with either side, her family were forced out of two homes and were also victim to a frightening petrol bomb attack. In her first book, Thin Places, ní Dochartaigh lays bare the ways in which these events affected her life. Weaving between two contrasting genres, nature writing and memoir, the book is an emotional history of the Troubles and an exploration into the comforting and healing power of the natural world. In today’s episode, the writer speaks to Róisín Ingle about the meaning of Thin Places and the idea that certain locations can make us feel closer to the other world. They also discuss her experiences growing up in the North, some serendipitous moments along the way and the meandering search for a sense of belonging.

The Women's Podcast

Ep 474 Thin Places: Kerri ní Dochartaigh

Thousands of Poles have taken to the streets again in recent weeks, in protest against the introduction of new legislation effectively banning abortion. It follows last October’s constitutional court ruling that outlawed abortions in the case of foetal abnormalities. According to the ruling, which cannot be appealed, the only remaining circumstances for a Polish woman to end a pregnancy legally in her home country are in cases of rape, incest or health risk. On today's podcast Róisín speaks to three women about the situation in Poland: Julia Marciniak, Hospitality and Tourism coordinator for Unite the Union and Polish pro choice activist, Iwonna Kowalska, a Warsaw-based member of the Polish Grannies protest group, and Alibhe Smyth, a longtime LQBTQ+ and abortion rights campaigner here in Ireland. https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/europe-and-central-asia/poland/

Ep 473 Poland's abortion crisis

Dr Jessica Taylor is a UK-based psychologist, sexual violence survivor and author of the best-selling book Why Women Are Blamed For Everything. She is also a senior lecturer in forensic and criminal psychology and the Director of Victim Focus - an organisation that addresses victim blaming practices in social care, policing, mental health and support services. On today’s podcast she talks to Róisín about a new, world-first training and research programme she has developed in partnership with Rape Crisis Network Ireland. The programme is in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the proliferation of online counselling services. Its aim is to ensure that remote trauma counselling for victims of sexual violence is carried out correctly, that it is standardised and that it is really working for the victims. Jessica also talks to Róisín about her own life story, overcoming shocking rape and physical abuse as a teenager, returning to education and training to be a psychologist, going on to become one of the UK’s most vocal advocates for survivors of sexual violence.

Ep 472 “Women and girls are never to blame” - Dr Jessica Taylor

Bad Bridget is a five-part podcast series which tells the unheard stories of Irish girls and women who emigrated to North America in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The series is a culmination of over five years worth of research by historians Elaine Farrell of Queen’s University Belfast and Leanne McCormick of Ulster University. Each episode delves into the lives of these women who travelled across the Atlantic and didn’t quite find the American dream. The extensive research into police, court and prison records uncovers the types of criminal activity in which Irish women were involved, including drunkenness, sex work and murder. In the 1860s, Irish women alone made up 86% of the female prison population in New York, while a 19th-century survey of 1,238 foreign-born sex workers found that 706 were Irish, just over half. In today’s episode, Farrell and McCormick speak to Róisín Ingle about the Irish women that history chose to forget.

Ep 471 Bad Bridget

What’s your lockdown style? Are you still getting fully dressed, washing your hair and putting makeup on? After 12 months at home, for many of us, leggings have become part of our daily uniform while our jeans are gathering dust. A year into this new comfy way of life, we ask the question, what have we become? To discuss this, Roisin is joined on today’s show by beauty columnist Laura Kennedy, comedian and co-founder of the MOB comedy theatre and school, Erin McGathy, and Jen Hogan, parenting columnist, author and mother of seven. Also in this episode, Roisin recites an excellent poem by a woman called Jan Brierton, which truly captures the spirit of Lockdown 3.

Ep 470 Lockdown Style: what have we become?

In our latest podcast we hear about the Gender Disparity Report on Irish radio, compiled by the Why Not Her? collective. It outlines a continuing gender disparity among the 20 most-played songs by Irish artists on Irish stations between June 24th and December 24th, 2020. On today’s podcast, Roisin Ingle speaks to activist and Why Not Her? founder Linda Coogan-Byrne about the report’s findings, where improvements have been made and what she believes needs to be done to achieve greater gender and racial diversity on Irish Radio. The hugely successful singer-songwriter RuthAnne also gives her reaction to the report and describes her own experience as an artist trying to break through what she describes as the “lad sound” on Irish Radio. Later in the show, we speak to Marin Alsop, a groundbreaking orchestra conductor considered to be one of the best in the world. Marin was recently a guest tutor on the National Concert Hall's award-winning Female Conductor Programme. Our co-producer Jennifer Ryan caught up with her afterwards.

Ep 469 The shocking gender disparity on Irish radio / Conductor Marin Alsop

Five Minute Therapy is the first book by Dublin-based psychotherapist Sarah Crosby. Packed full of practical exercises and powerful insights, it provides readers with the tools to reflect on their life experiences and explore who they are and who they might like to be. Think of it as your own pocket therapist. In today’s episode, Crosby speaks to Róisín Ingle about her journey from archaeology to psychotherapy, her early struggles with an eating disorder and how the Instagram page @theMindGeek set the wheels in motion for the book. From boundary setting, the joys of self discovery and how to be a good friend to others, Sarah shares some excellent tips on how to mind your mental health during another tough lockdown. Also, a reminder that Winter Nights is kicking off on Monday 25th January. It’s a five-day online festival of conversation, culture and ideas. Amongst the events, Roisin Ingle will be joined by Holocaust survivor Edith Eger as they explore ways to change the thoughts and behaviours that can keep us prisoners of our past. More information and tickets can be found here: https://www.irishtimes.com/winter-nights

Ep 468 Five Minute Therapy - Sarah Crosby

This Friday, Trinity College Dublin professor Jane Ohlmeyer will deliver the Ford Lectures at the University of Oxford in England. Just ten women have delivered the prestigious lectures since they were founded in 1896 and prof Ohlmeyer will be the first woman from a university in Ireland to be invited to do so. Born in what was then Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) to a Northern Irish mother and a South African father, Ohlmeyer grew up in Belfast at the height of the Troubles. On today's podcast she talks to Kathy Sheridan about the last impact witnessing that violence has had on her. She also speaks in detail about her career, her fascination with the British Empire and Ireland's place in it, the experience of being a woman bashing on the glass ceiling in higher education and how she is feeling about the Ford Lectures. Rumour has it prof Ohlmeyer will be in the running for the soon-to-be vacant provost job at TCD. But as she explains in this podcast, she can't really go into that at the moment. Watch this space.... If you'd like to see prof Ohlmeyer deliver The Ford Lectures, they begin on Friday 22 January at 5pm online. Tune in by following the link on the Oxford website - https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/james-ford-lectures-british-history

Ep 467 Professor Jane Ohlmeyer

Raw, tired, angry and emotional. That’s how our guests on today’s podcast feel. It’s as they attempt to digest the government-commissioned report from the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes released this week. It found a shocking number of deaths and widespread abuses at religious institutions for unmarried mothers and their children in this country. Set up in 2015 following revelations about the deaths and burials of hundreds of children in Tuam, Co Galway, the commission was charged with examining what happened to vulnerable women and children in mother and baby homes in the State during the period from 1922 up to 1998. It found that 9,000 children - most of them babies - died in these institutions during that time. On Wednesday, Taoiseach Mícheál Martin apologised to survivors on behalf of the State saying, "we embraced a perverse religious morality and control, judgementalism and moral certainty, but shunned our daughters." To talk about the report, Kathy Sheridan is joined today by Rosemary Adaser, survivor of the industrial school and mother and baby home system, Noelle Brown who was adopted from Bessborough mother and baby home as an infant, and legal academic Mairead Enright, who has written extensively on law and feminism, reproductive justice and historical injustice.

Ep 466 The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes

Author and podcaster Caroline Foran took the world by storm in 2016 with the release of her best selling self-help book, Owning It: Your Bullsh*t-Free Guide to Living with Anxiety. Now, she’s back with her third book Naked: Ten Truths to Change Your Life, which challenges readers to explore, embrace and expose their vulnerability. From realising that you’ll never really have it all figured out to accepting that someone else’s success doesn’t take from yours, the truths featured in this practical guide will help produce positive change in your life. In today’s episode, Foran sits down with Róisín Ingle to discuss the power of your own vulnerability, how to deal with imposter syndrome and what life is like as a new mother in the middle of a pandemic.

Ep 465 Ten Truths to Change Your Life with Caroline Foran

In our first book club of 2021, Róisín, Ann Ingle, Bernice Harrison and Niamh Towey discuss Untamed, a memoir by American author Glennon Doyle. This is Doyle’s third memoir, which follows on from her two previous best sellers, Love Warrior and Carry On, Warrior. Untamed is the story of how Doyle left her troublesome marriage, fell head over heels in love with soccer star Abby Wambach, found her inner voice and eventually learned how to stop pleasing and start living. The book has garnered many famous fans all over the world, with the singer Adele announcing to her 39 million Instagram followers that “this book will shake your brain and make your soul scream. I am so ready for myself after reading this!” So, is this the perfect ‘New Year, New You’ guide to motivate you through January? Let’s see what our book clubbers have to say.

Ep 464 The Book Club: Untamed - Glennon Doyle

If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that the future is never certain. But with a number of vaccines against Covid-19 on the way, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Last year we learned how to live in a pandemic, somehow managing to keep the show on the road in ways we never thought were possible before. We learned that, for many of us, working from home is possible. We found ways to keep in touch with friends and family, even though we couldn’t physically be with them. We got used to wearing masks and keeping our distance. How much of this will we have to carry through this year? What does our ‘new normal’ look like in 2021? What can we look forward to? To discuss this, and more, Kathy Sheridan is joined once again by Irish Times journalists Jennifer O’Connell and Kitty Holland, and performance artist, poet and writer, Felicia Olusanya, to look ahead to what’s in store this year.

Ep 463 Things can only get better in 2021, right?

At the start of 2020, as we began a new decade, we were caught up with news stories about the Australian bushfires, the seemingly never-ending Brexit talks, a then-looming Irish general election, and students from 72 schools around the country began opening time capsules sealed in 1996 containing their hopes and dreams for 2020. How many of them could have guessed what lay ahead? Bubbling away in the background, further down the news agenda here, the World Health Organisation was dealing with the emergence of a ‘novel coronavirus’ in Wuhan, China, a disease that would dramatically change our lives. Covid-19 is the prism through which 2020 will forever be viewed and while it has swept across the world devastating communities, killing millions and bringing the world’s economies to their knees, life has somehow carried on. In today’s podcast Kathy Sheridan is joined by Irish Times journalists Jennifer O’Connell and Kitty Holland, and performance artist, poet and writer, Felicia Olusanya to take a look back at the year gone by. Stay tuned to the end for a performance by Felicia of her beautiful pandemic poem, Still.

Ep 462 Panel Review: Looking back at 2020

The time has finally come to say goodbye to 2020. But before we bid adieu to the longest year on record, we want to take you on a journey back through the last twelve months of The Women’s Podcast. The year 2020 will not just be remembered for the pandemic, it will also be remembered for the global Black Lives Matter movement, the historic US election result and the scandal around the sealing of the Irish Mother and Baby Home records. Róisín Ingle brings you a selection of these highlights including a conversation with Sinead O’Connor who spoke to us from her cabin in the garden, a touching interview with Dr Catherine Motherway, Intensive Care Consultant at University Hospital Limerick and a snippet from our lockdown inspired series, The Big Night In with playwright and actor Olwen Fouéré. And of course, amongst all of that, there’s not one, but two highlights from our Summer episodes on Normal People. Here’s a link to each episode mentioned in today’s podcast: Ep 387 Sinead O’Connor https://soundcloud.com/irishtimes-women/ep-386-sinead-oconnor-rosemary-smith Ep 392 Catherine Motherway https://soundcloud.com/irishtimes-women/ep-392-frontline-women-domestic-abuse-pandemic Ep 392 Domestic Abuse Pandemic https://soundcloud.com/irishtimes-women/ep-392-frontline-women-domestic-abuse-pandemic Ep 395 Mary Lou McDonald https://soundcloud.com/irishtimes-women/ep-395-mary-lou-mcdonald Ep 397 Normal People https://soundcloud.com/irishtimes-women/ep-397-normal-people Ep 405 Normal People’s Ita O’Brien https://soundcloud.com/irishtimes-women/ep-405-normal-peoples-ita-obrien-on-how-to-make-great-tv-sex Ep 406 How to be anti- racist (Black Lives Matter) https://soundcloud.com/irishtimes-women/ep-406-black-lives-matter-racism-in-ireland-and-beyond Ep 411 Big Night In - Olwen Fouéré https://soundcloud.com/irishtimes-women/ep-411-big-night-in-with-olwen-fouere Ep 423 Fat Cow, Fat Chance - Jenni Murray https://soundcloud.com/irishtimes-women/ep-423-fat-cow-fat-chance Ep 441 Sealing the Records https://soundcloud.com/irishtimes-women/ep-441-releasing-the-records-maeve-orourke-mary-harney Ep 446 US Election 2020 https://soundcloud.com/irishtimes-women/ep-446-us-election-2020-is-it-really-time-to-celebrate

Ep 461 Best of 2020

In this special festive episode, we’re bringing you a story written by Maeve Binchy, first published in The Irish Times on Saturday, December 29th, 1984. Read by Róisín Ingle, the story captures the beautiful ordinariness of everyday life, the fuss and excitement of the holidays and the place of a woman at the head of her family. With true emotional tugs and important lessons to be learned, we hope this story offers you some solace this pandemic Christmas eve. So sit back, relax, wrap some presents or venture out for a walk, whatever you do, enjoy Season of Fuss by the brilliant Maeve Binchy. Merry Christmas.

hubhopper

The Women's Podcast

hubhopper