The Women's Podcast

In today’s episode Roisin Ingle meets Galway based Erin Darcy the author of a new book called In Her Shoes which tells the stories of women left behind by the Eighth Amendment. In early 2018 Darcy created an online art project, In Her Shoes Women of the 8th to safely and anonymously share private stories of the real and devastating impact of the 8th amendment. In the five months leading up the referendum on abortion, the project had a simple request for undecided voters: put yourself in her shoes. Within weeks there were hundreds of stories pouring in and what began as a solo act of grassroots activism unleashed a national conversation on human rights that would help change Ireland forever. She spoke about coming to Ireland as a teenager from America after falling in love with an Irish man she met on an online message board. In a wide ranging interview, we hear about her activism, her art and about the power of storytelling. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For years now, campaigners and activists have been calling on the government to prevent records compiled by the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes from being sealed for 30 years. Proposed legislation related to the commission’s records, the Records Bill, was brought forward by Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman and the debate continues this week in Dail. Organisations such as the Clann Project, Justice for Magdalenes and the Adoption Rights Alliance are all against the records being sealed. They say it will result in people being unable to access information “disappeared" relatives or babies "buried in unmarked graves." In today's episode we asked human rights lawyer Maeve O’Rourke to talk to us about the issues and about her long battle together with with the Clann Project to ensure that women survivors of human rights abuses in Ireland get access to their personal information. Also with us was Mary Harney, a woman now in her seventies who was born in Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork. Mary told us her life story and explained the devastating repercussions of being denied access to information about her identity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The 15th of October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. Each year, to mark the day, a global wave of light is created through the lighting of candles by parents who have lost a baby through miscarriage, stillbirth or in infancy. It is estimated that one in four pregnancies ends this way and yet there is still a silence and taboo that surrounds the subject. In this episode, Irish Times parenting columnist and author Jen Hogan speaks to Róisín Ingle about her personal experience of miscarriage and the devastation of each loss. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You’ve probably heard of the 400 Welcomes campaign, an all-female campaign group, made up of doctors, teachers, writers, community and social care workers and musicians . One of the women behind the campaign is Caoimhe Butterly, a human rights campaigner who has been fighting for justice all over the world for most of her adult life. Originally from Dublin, she was inspired by her parents to look outside her own comfortable circumstances and fight for the most vulnerable. Following a recent fire in Moria refugee camp in Lesvos, Greece, over 13,000 people now face the bleakest conditions which are getting worse by the day. Those in the new camp face inadequate access to food, water and weather-proofed shelters. #400Welcomes is calling on the Irish government to bring 400 people from Lesvos to Ireland with relocation outside of the system of Direct Provision. The Government originally said they would only take in four unaccompanied minors, now it says they will take fifty men, women and children. We spoke to Butterly about her interesting family background, her motivation, her hopes for the campaign and the ways her fight for justice has changed since she became a mother. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1984, Majella Moynihan was a fresh faced young garda recruit when she gave birth to a baby boy. Charged with breaching An Garda Siochana disciplinary rules - for having premarital sex with another guard and for becoming pregnant and having a child while unmarried - she was pressured to give up her baby for adoption or face dismissal. It forced her into a decision that would have devastating impacts on her life. Moynihan left the Guards in 1998 and in 2019, following an RTE documentary on her case, she received an apology from the Garda Commissioner and Minister for Justice for the ordeal she endured as a young garda. She spoke to Roisin Ingle about her memoir A Guarded Life and the reality of a police culture steeped in misogyny and prejudice. Majella Moynihan is a hero, whose courage and resilience led to her speaking out against an institution that traumatised and bullied her for years, for the "crime" of being a pregnant, unmarried woman in Ireland.Also, a reminder that tickets are still available for our Big Night In Season 2. Our next guest is Glamour editor-in-chief Samantha Barry. Tickets available on irishtimes.com/big-night-in Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Who knows when we'll get to lose ourselves in the darkness of a cinema again? But when we do all of us at The Women's Podcast are urging you to go and see a wonderful Irish film called Herself which tells the story of a brutalised single mother Sandra and her dream to build her own house where she and her two small daughters can be safe. The story of the film was written by Dubliner Clare Dunne who also stars, and was inspired by a real-life friend of Clare's who was forced to declare herself homeless and live in a hotel in order to get on the housing list. It tells the story of how women in this situation. women fleeing terrifying home situations of domestic abuse, are treated by society and the legal system. But at the heart, it's a hopeful, uplifting film directed by Phyllida Lloyd (Mamma Mia!) about how one woman took matters into her own hands despite all the obstacles. Already critically acclaimed, Herself - a co-prodcution between Sharon Horgan's company Merman and Element Pictures - is moving, funny and at times painful to watch. Clare Dunne joined us on the episode to talk about a movie that was a real labour of love.Also, a reminder that tickets are still available for our Big Night In Season 2. Tickets available on irishtimes.com/big-night-in Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The most fabulous and famous family dynasty in Britain and Ireland during the 1920s were the grand-daughters of the first Lord Iveagh also known as the Glorious Guinness Girls. The glamour, the drama and the secrets are explored in fiction by writer Emily Hourican who spoke to Kathy Sheridan about her new novel The Glorious Guinness Girls. Hourican talks about the inspiration for the book, her geographically diverse childhood and her cancer diagnosis five years ago. Also, a reminder that tickets are still available for our Big Night In Season 2 which kicks off on Saturday October 3rd with Senator Eileen Flynn. Tickets available on irishtimes.com/big-night-in Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the podcast today we have skin expert Jennifer Rock who aswell as talking about her new book The Skin Nerd Philosophy, deals with all your pandemic skin problems and delves into looking after this most important organ every day of the year. We are also very excited to bring you details of season 2 of our Big Night In. From this Saturday October 3rd we'll be back on zoom to bring you conversations with talented inspiring women such as Senator Eileen Flynn, Caitlin Moran and Claire Byrne. For more details go to https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/irish-times-big-night-in-online-interviews-with-r%C3%B3is%C3%ADn-ingle-restart-this-saturday-1.4366413 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last April, which seems a hundred years ago now, we spoke to Dr Catherine Motherway, consultant anaesthetist at University Hospital Limerick and former President of the Intensive Care Society of Ireland. In this episode, Roisin Ingle catches up with her to find out Dr Motherway's views on Level 3, life on the frontline, societal compliance with covid restrictions and her hopes and fears as we face into a winter of living with the virus. As a new report from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation shows women's voices being "drowned out" globally in terms of coronavirus reporting. The Women's Podcast will continue to amplify the voices of women on all aspects of this crisis. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cork author Louise O'Neill joined Roisin Ingle on the podcast to talk about her latest novel After The Silence. The book marks a departure for O'Neill in that it's a thriller but what hasn't changed is the uncompromising, gently probing voice of the writer of novels such as Asking For It which on publication became a national talking point. In After The Silence, set on a small Island off the coast of Cork, she explores themes such as emotional abuse and the kind of notoriety that follows a small community devastated by a traumatic event - in this case the unexplained murder of a beautiful young Islander. O'Neill talks about writing, about life in Lockdown and about the new and very different experience of writing a thriller. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.