The Women's Podcast

"HEROIN is the story you were never told about the republic that never happened, of the person you never saw, of what we built and then demolished. It’s the big one, the bad one, the one you never thought you’d try."Grace Dyas is back with her THEATREclub campaigning show HEROIN, updated to reflect the current state of Ireland's drug problem, with additional writing by Rachael Keogh. They talk to Róisín about the campaign and why nothing short of radical shift in how we view drugs and drug users is needed.Produced by Róisín Ingle and Jennifer Ryan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On today's show, Róisín hears about Anna Parnell, pioneering Irish feminist, founder of the Ladies Land League and younger sister of Irish Nationalist Charles Stewart Parnell. Anna has long since been written out of Irish history, but Lucy Keaveney has been working hard to reverse that. She talks to Róisín about Anna and about her commemoration at Ilfracombe in England this weekend. Lucy is joined by journalist Martina Devlin who has written about Anna in her new book Truth and Dare, a collection of short stories about some of Ireland's trailblazing women.Later in the show, historian professor Christine Kinealy speaks about the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who toured Ireland in 1845, and the women who helped him while he was here.Also today: Hannah Gadsby at the Emmy's and Christine Blasey Ford.Produced by Róisín Ingle and Jennifer Ryan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On today's show, Róisín Ingle talks to Alice Malseed and Sarah Gordon about their hilarious Fringe Festival production, BILLY, which takes a disbelieving look at the reassuring rituals of our pastel-coloured, neatly organised, turbo capitalism-fuelled world. Later, Bernice Harrison talks to actor and playwright Gina Moxley about her latest work, The Patient Gloria, which has been called “a timely meditation on female desire in a new political context where misogyny is the winning ticket” and is inspired by the 1965 films, Three Approaches To Psychotherapy, also known as The Gloria Films. Plus: We discuss the Scally report on the Cervical Check scandal & Serena William's nightmare at the US Open Final last weekend.Produced by Róisín Ingle and Jennifer Ryan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The world’s first gathering of women’s parliamentary groups is being held in Dublin Castle as part of its commemoration of a centenary of female suffrage in Ireland. The two-day conference is being arranged by the Oireachtas women’s caucus, which was founded in Leinster House last year. We talk to Catherine Martin, Chair of Oireachtas Women's Parliamentary Caucus and Fiona O’Louglin FF TD about what will be discussed at this historic meeting of female leaders.Produced by Róisín Ingle and Jennifer Ryan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Belfast woman Suzanne Connolly was 11 when her adoptive father John Rossi began sexually abusing her. He did so almost daily until she was 14 when after disclosing the abuse to a school friend she was taken out of her home and placed into care. Despite telling the police about the abuse and Rossi admitting his crimes in the 1980s, it took 34 years for the case to be heard. This week John Rossi was convicted of five years in prison but is likely to serve only half of that. Connolly waived her anonymity exclusively to the Irish Times in order to name her abuser and to express her belief that the judicial system is “rigged against children and enables paedophiles in their crimes”. She tells Roisin Ingle why she is hoping she can play a part in changing the system so that more predators are brought to justice and children in vulnerable situations are protected. Also on this week’s episode, we hear from the makers of Kiss Kiss, Slap Slap, a play about rape culture in Dublin Fringe Festival.Music: I Knew A Guy, by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Creative Commons Attribution: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The German Ambassador to Ireland, Deike Potzel, has been touring the country since her appointment last November in a bid to learn about Ireland from the Irish. Her Excellency has worked in the diplomatic corps since the late 1990s, with postings in Singapore and Tehran in the past. On today's podcast Ambassador Potzel speaks to Kathy Sheridan about growing up in East Berlin before the wall came down in 1989 and about how life for women in the east was very different to the west when that happened. They also speak about the recent referendum on the 8th amendment and Germany’s abortion laws, before delving into Brexit, the rise of the far right, immigration and Germany’s role in Ireland’s austerity after the collapse of the banking system… just a few light topics of a Thursday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pope Francis touches down on Irish soil this Saturday morning 25th August, for the second papal visit in Ireland's history. For many Catholics this is an occasion to be celebrated, but for countless other people the arrival of the pope stirs up feelings of anger at the legacy of the relationship between church and state in Ireland. Maeve O'Rourke is a senior research and policy officer at the ICCL and has worked tirelessly on behalf of the Magdalene women on a voluntary basis. Conall Ó Fátharta is a journalist with the Irish Examiner and has written extensively about mother and baby homes, forced adoptions and the Magdalene women for that paper. In today's episode they speak to Kathy Sheridan about the ongoing problems with how Ireland is addressing its legacy of church-related abuse.Also on the podcast, Emer McLysaght, co-author of Oh My God What a Complete Aisling and it's soon-to-be-published follow-up, The Importance of Being Aisling, reads a letter to the pope from the much-loved character she created with Sarah Breen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Irish Times journalist Rachel Flaherty did what many people are understandably wary of doing, she opened up about her unhealthy relationship with food and her challenge to become fitter and healthier. In an article in the Irish Times, she explains why she made the decision to do something about it when at five stone overweight, she found herself struggling to climb the stairs. She speaks to Róisín Ingle about making that decision, what she has done since then and deciding to write about it. Later in the podcast you'll hear from The Smashing Times Theatre company about their excellent Women in an Equal Europe project, with Nigerian-Born Broadcast Journalist, Motivational Speaker and writer, Vanessa Ogida, and Mary Moynihan of Smashing Times. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In case you missed, it the Irish women’s hockey team made history last week, becoming the first Irish team ever to reach a world cup final. They lost to a formidable Dutch side in that match, but they were already winners by then, having entered the competition as underdogs and never expecting to get so far. In this episode Kathy Sheridan speaks to two of those amazing women, forward Anna O’Flanagan and midfielder Chloe Watkins. They tell about the tournament, what their achievement means to them, but even more importantly, what needs to happen now to keep that momentum going. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week’s episode, Roisin Ingle talks to Portlaoise novelist Helen Cullen who is causing a stir with her debut novel The Lost Letters of William Woolf. Cullen explains how she went from working in RTE to writing her first novel which to her delight was snapped up by Penguin. The book is being described as Up-Lit, short for ‘uplifting literature’ and an antidote to the doom laden global political climate. Also in this episode, Jennifer Ryan visits a new exhibition in Dublin Castle celebrating the legacy of legendary textile artist Lucienne Day who was a one-woman pioneer of contemporary art in the 1950s and 1960s in Britain. This week the Women’s Podcast would also like to send our best wishes to the Irish Women’s Hockey team who are up against India tonight hoping to secure a place in the World Hockey semi-final. COYGIG!Music: I Knew A Guy, by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Creative Commons Attribution: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.