The Women's Podcast

What does narcissism in mothers look like? According to psychotherapists Helen Villiers and Katie McKenna, the narcissistic mother can be “extremely critical, condescending, oppressive and very judgmental”, with devastating impacts for the entire family. They can also use covert or insidious tactics: taking on a victim role or using guilt tripping or stonewalling to get their w

In this episode, Róisín Ingle talks to debut author Rebecca Ivory about her new collection of short stories Free Therapy. The book takes its name from the second story in the collection, but the theme of therapy is there throughout; Ivory’s own therapist even gets a mention in the acknowledgements. The collection takes us into the lives of people who “keep making the same mis

Simone Gannon is a content creator, digital marketing expert and the new beauty writer at the Irish Times. Since the beginning of the new year, she’s been entertaining us with her weekly beauty column, where she experiments with the latest trends, imparts her wisdom on all things skincare and makeup and shares her favourite beauty buys. In this episode, Gannon speaks to Róisín

March is Endometriosis Awareness Month, so in this episode, we want to highlight the experience of two women living with the condition. Dearbhail Ormond is an entrepreneur and mother of one, with stage four endometriosis, who waited a staggering 18 years to get a diagnosis after seeing more than 20 doctors. Ormond tells Aideen Finnegan about her struggle to find answers to her pain

It’s World Poetry Day today, so what better way to celebrate it than with one of our favourite poets and friend of the show, Jan Brierton. In this episode, Brierton, a self-described ‘accidental’ poet, joins Róisín Ingle to talk about her new book, Everybody Is A Poem. It’s s beautiful collection covering themes of love, loss, menopause, midlife, the mental load, self-acc

Tilly Cripwell, a 22 year-old musician, who regularly performs beside the Molly Malone statue in Dublin, is on a mission to stop people from inappropriately touching the sculpture’s breasts. In this episode, Cripwell tells Róisín Ingle how she’s launched the ‘Leave Molly mAlone’ campaign with the aim of stopping this “misogynistic” tradition and to protest against the

This International Women’s Day, we are turning our attention to the plight of Palestinian women and children. So far, more than 30,000 people have been killed in the ongoing conflict in Gaza, the majority of which have been women and children. The UN and Human Rights Watch have called it a “war on women”, with an average of 63 women killed every single day, mostly in their ow

On International Women’s Day this year, March 8th, the Irish public will be asked to vote in two upcoming referendums. The first referendum concerns the definition of family as outlined in the Irish Constitution and proposes expanding the definition to recognise durable relationships. The second referendum proposes the removal of the reference to women’s duties in the home, ins

In this episode, Kathy Sheridan is joined by British author and journalist Sarah Gristwood, who has just released her new book, Secret Voices: A Year of Women’s Diaries. It’s a captivating collection of diary entries from women, looking back over four centuries, to discover how their experience of everyday life has changed down the years and also how it hasn’t. It includes en

Being a perfectionist may sound like a good thing, but don’t let the name fool you. A perfectionist’s life is far from perfect. If you are one, or you know one well, you’ll likely know of the debilitating effects that can come with a perfectionist’s constant quest for excellence. So why does it manifest and who is more likely to struggle with it? To explore this world of im