The Women's Podcast

Last weekend our Book Club gathered for a live show at Kildare Village to discuss the best reading recommendations for summer 2025. Róisín Ingle, Bernice Harrison and Ann Ingle were joined at the event by special guest bestselling author Marian Keyes and a room full of Women’s Podcast listeners. 

There were recommendations to suit every style and every mood, including a gripping crime thriller, a “life-changing” self help b...

The tradition of women taking their husband’s surname stems from a time when marriage effectively erased a woman’s legal identity and she would become her husband’s property. While this is no longer the case and society has thankfully moved on, the practice of women changing their last name upon marriage still persists today. But why?

In a recent feature for The Irish Times, journalist Áine Kenny poses the question: “If changing...

It was a bright afternoon in April 2015 when Mary Ann Kenny, a university lecturer, received a call that changed her life in an instant. Her husband John, with whom she had two young sons, had collapsed while out jogging and died at the age of 60. Struggling to cope with the sudden loss and the loneliness that engulfed her life in the aftermath, Kenny's grief soon turned to depression, which later progressed into psychotic delusion...

What do you really know about the menstrual cycle? Can you tell your follicular from your luteal phase? Can masturbation ease period pains and why do so many women get the dreaded ‘period poo’? To answer all these questions and more we’re joined this week by Dr Hazel Wallace, medical doctor, nutritionist, and author of Not Just A Period, a groundbreaking new book that seeks to understand the entire menstrual cycle, not just the few...

This week, we’re joined by the brilliant Kit de Waal novelist, memoirist, and fierce advocate for working-class voices in literature. In conversation with Roisin Ingle, de Waal discusses her powerful new novel The Best of Everything, set in 1970s and 1980s England, which follows the interwoven lives of a single mother, her son, and their neighbours as they navigate grief, love, and survival.

Best known for her acclaimed deb...

In 2016, Clodagh Hawe and her three sons, Liam (13), Niall (11) and Ryan (6) were murdered in their Co Cavan home, by their husband and father Alan Hawe, who took his own life shortly after. It was and still is Ireland’s largest murder-suicide and the brutal killings sent shockwaves throughout the country. In her book, Deadly Silence, Clodagh’s younger sister Jacqueline Connolly, gives her account of the circumstances leading up to...

Two years ago this month, Tina Turner died at the age of 83 at her home in Switzerland. The global superstar and rock icon had a career spanning more than five decades. Although she retired from performing in her late 60s, one of her final projects was to collaborate on Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, which debuted in London’s West End in 2018. This month the show comes to Dublin’s Bord Gáis Energy Theatre for a two week run and in ...

In March, a group of secondary school students from Co Offaly made history when they became the first ever all-female team to win the VEX IQ All-Ireland Robotics Competition. ‘The Steminists’ will now represent Ireland at the World Championships in Texas this month. The team consists of five students aged between 12 and 14 years old, from the Sacred Heart School in Tullamore. In today’s episode, two team members, Alice Duffy (12) a...

According to the latest European State of the Climate Report, 2024 was the hottest year on record for Europe and the fourth warmest year ever recorded in Ireland. As part of the global fight against climate change, Ireland has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 51% by 2030 — but are we really on track to meet that goal?

In today’s episode, we hear from three climate activists: CEO of the climate change NGO Opportu...

Seven years after Amanda Knox was definitively acquitted of the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, she flew to Italy to meet the man who had led the prosecution’s case against her, Giuliano Mignini. The now 37-year-old mother of two wanted to ask her former prosecutor why he had identified her as the chief suspect, pursued a murder conviction against her, and whether he felt any remorse for putting the wrong person in prison.

In h...

Bookshops and libraries are bursting with books on parenting and what to expect when you’re expecting, but there aren't nearly as many guidebooks out there on how to be a good grandparent. That’s why family psychologist Terri Apter has written her latest book all about the topic. Grandparenting: On Love and Relationships Across Generations offers readers an expert guide on modern grand parenting and how to overcome tricky family dy...

When Adolescense arrived on Netflix last month, it was streamed nearly 25 million times in just four days and sparked a global conversation on the dark side of social media and the lives of teenage boys. But what is it really like to be a teenage boy in 2025? How much attention do they really pay to masculinity influencers? What kind of pressures do they face? And what do they wish adults would understand about them? To discuss all...

On Friday March 28th, the Irish Cancer Society (ICS) will celebrate Daffodil Day. It’s the charity’s biggest fundraising event and aims to raise millions of euros to support cancer patients and progress cancer research. In this episode, Kathy Sheridan is joined by Daffodil Day Ambassador Tara Doonan, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022 at 36 years-old. Tara lives in Cavan but travelled to the Mater Hospital in Dublin for h...

Sarah Corbett Lynch was just eight-years-old when her father Jason was killed at their home in North Carolina by her stepmother Molly Martens and her father Tom Martens in 2015. Over the next decade, the Martens, who claimed self defence, were put on trial for murder, had their convictions quashed and later took a plea bargain for voluntary manslaughter which saw each of them spend less than five years in prison.

For all of that...

In Ireland, more than 5,500 children are currently in foster care. This could be because of illness in the child’s family, the death of a parent, neglect, abuse or violence in the home, or simply because the parent or family is not coping. Whatever the reason, foster carers are there to take care of children who cannot live with their own family, either on a short-term or long-term basis. In today’s episode, we hear from two foster...

To celebrate International Women’s Day, the book club gathered with a handful of podcast listeners for a live event at Kildare Village on Saturday morning. Niamh Towey, Ann Ingle, Bernice Harrison, and Roisin Ingle, explored the books by women that have challenged and changed them and that they think every woman should read.

Book Club Choices: 

Ann Ingle: The Women’s Room by Marilyn French & Anne Tyler novels

Bern...

International Women’s Day is on Saturday the 8th March and there are lots of events happening all around the country to celebrate the occasion. Irish Times features writer Ella Sloane joins Róisín Ingle on the podcast today to tell us about some of them, including a free guided tour exploring how women are represented in a selection of works at the National Gallery and a ​​march against gender violence taking place in Dublin c...

Born and bred in New York, the last place that Rosie Schaap thought she’d end up, was living in a rural village in Northern Ireland, miles away from the bustling city she once called home. But that’s exactly where she’s found herself. Five years ago, the writer and journalist moved from NYC to the tiny town of Glenarm in Co Antrim, in search of a new life. The writer and journalist was grieving the death of her husband and her moth...