The Deirdre O'Shaughnessy Podcast

Five years on from the dramatic scenes of desperate people clambering onto planes at Kabul Airport, the Taliban are back in power and Afghanistan's women have been silenced.No singing, talking or showing their faces in public. No education, no work, no access to healthcare in most cases.A small number of Afghan women travelled to Ireland in the direct aftermath of the US departure, under a specific refugee scheme opened by the Government.Mahbooba Faiz was a lawyer in Afghanistan. After years of further study, she is now a paralegal with the Cork based law firm RDJ and has written for the Irish Examiner about the importance of DEI schemes in the workplace. She is the founder of the Irish campaign against gender apartheid.She speaks candidly in today's episode about leaving Aghanistan, her campaign against gender apartheid, her time in Ireland and her fears for the women she has left behind.

The case of a 15 year old girl raped by 18 year old Patrick Faulkner at a Limerick birthday party caused outrage last week after defence counsel raised the victim's clothing choices in court.Speaking to the Irish Examiner, representatives from women's rights groups called for guidelines to be introduced in relation to 'victim blaming' in rape and sexual assault case.This is not the first time this issue has arisen. In 2018, protests erupted after a Cork defence barrister held up the complainant's underwear in court. The #thisisnotconsent campaign was reported internationally, but no legal change ensued.Reporter Ann Murphy has been covering the response to this case and she joins Deirdre on today's episode to discuss victim blaming, sexual assault cases, and the various campaigns underway to make the court proceedings less traumatic for victims. Ann has also been writing about the lack of Sexual Assault Treatment Unit in Limerick city – another difficulty facing complainants there.  Young Limerick man who raped teenage girl jailed for seven yearsRape victim's dress was shown during Limerick rape trial in 'blatant form of victim-blaming''It is disgraceful': Showing rape victims' clothes in court 'weaponising against women''Abhorrent and barbaric': Calls for sexual assault treatment unit in Mid-West after rape victim had to travel to Galway  

Nancy and Mark Reilly had a charmed life together. Irish-American retirees based in Kinsale, their 36 year marriage saw them travel the world teaching English refugee children and getting involved in community projects in their adopted home. That idyllic life together came to a sudden, tragic end, when Mark Reilly hanged himself while in isolation at Cork University Hospital on 19 March 2022. He had been brought to Bandon Garda station after a suicide attempt four days prior, in the midst of what Nancy believes was a psychotic episode. He had no history of mental health difficulties before that. Ms Reilly is deeply critical of the systems failures that led to Mark's death, identifying a number of issues including the lack of a consultant psychiatrist on duty during St Patrick's weekend; availability of ligature points in the acute mental health unit; isolation of a patient who was supposed to be on suicide watch. "There were going to be no psychiatrists on duty all weekend because it was St. Patrick's Day. Now, right there that raises a question. You don't wait to have a heart attack. There would be a cardiologist available if you had a heart attack on St. Patrick's Day."Why was there not a psychiatrist on duty?"Nancy's case against CUH and the HSE was settled at the High Court last month, with the clinical director of South Lee Mental Health Service, Dr Thomas Cronin, writing a letter of apology for shortcomings in Mark's care. Wife of man who took his own life in CUH unit calls for change in mental health treatmentPieta.ie The Samaritans  116 123 24 

Cork City Council is responsible for almost 12,000 homes – ranging from state of the art modern builds to the now notorious rat-infested 1960s O'Byrne flats.With a budget of approximately €147m, an average rental payment of E80 per week, and 5,000 people on the social housing waiting list, the City's housing department is led by Assistant Chief Executive Brian Geaney, who acknowledges the challenge.This week the Irish Examiner is publishing an extensive investigation into Cork City Council's housing stock – how many, how much, who lives there, how it's managed - and what the future holds.Reporter Donal O'Keeffe is the guest on today's episode of the podcast.This episode was funded by Coimisiún na Meáin.This podcast was funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.

"They put the pressure on while I was pregnant.""But after, it was like, he'd be better off without you, and he deserves better. He'd end up with some lovely family that could bring him up and look after him and he could become a doctor one day."... I was constantly told that a mother like me, a person like me, shouldn't have a child. Because at the time I would have had Indian ink up my arms and stuff like that."Cindi Bonny was just sixteen but she had already experienced homelessness, drug addiction and an abusive relationship when she first entered Bessborough in 1993, pregnant with her son Kevin.Adamant that she wouldn't give him up for adoption, determined to breastfeed her baby, she was kept from him for six weeks as the pressure mounted to give him up.Eventually she left with Kevin and returned to her abusive boyfriend – only to fall pregnant a second time, returning to Bessborough in 1994.Her second stay was different, but ended in tragedy with the sudden, shocking death of baby Zoei at just two days old.Zoei was the last baby to die under the care of Bessborough. Unlike so many others before her, she has a grave her family can visit.Cindi shared her story in the Irish Examiner earlier this week in an impassioned plea to authorities for a full investigation of burials at Bessborough, and for a memorial there instead of the planned apartments.Cindi is today's guest on The Deirdre O'Shaughnessy Podcast.Read her article here: 'Do not bury our history beneath concrete', mother of last baby to die at Bessborough tells GovernmentThe Deirdre O'Shaughnessy Podcast: Paving over Bessborough's missing babiesThe Deirdre O’Shaughnessy Podcast: Dominic Finn’s story of being adopted from Bessborough 

More than a year after RTÉ Cork employees were promised new, state-of the-art studios and offices, co-location talks with Cork City Council have broken down. A planned move to the Counting House complex now seems unlikely, given the recent announcement that the complex will be home to the new City Library.  The RTÉ Cork building at Fr Mathew Street is home to the RTÉ Today Show, the John Creedon show and a host of other household names from the State broadcaster but the building is in need of major refurbishment. Director General Kevin Bakhurst promised in 2025 that a new premises would be found by 2027. Reporter Donal O’Keeffe is covering this story in today’s Irish Examiner – on today’s podcast he outlines all the options for RTÉ Cork and explains how staff at the beleaguered broadcaster are feeling.   RTÉ Cork staff fearful for future after talks on new studio break down 'Unfair gloss': RTÉ's Bakhurst grilled over reclassification of Derek Mooney and pay implications Gareth O'Callaghan: Is it finally time for an honest debate about selling RTÉ? Obituary: Former RTÉ director general Joe Barry changed the face of Irish broadcasting Suspected burglar arrested in RTÉ Cork studios 

What goes on in family courts is a mystery to most people – except those who are part of the proceedings.The in-camera rule means there is very limited reporting of family law cases, with nobody ever identified.But a new campaign argues that this rule can protect abusers – while the courts are being weaponised by the same abusive spouses that victims are trying to escape from.Lisa Ann Wilkinson is a barrister specialising in family law, a board member of survivors' group SiSi and one of the women behind the Right to Transparency campaign.She has represented women who were imprisoned for refusing to allow their abusive ex-partners access to their children."I probably know about five or six women who were imprisoned when their children were resisting access with somebody who had either safety orders against them, breaches of safety orders, or convictions for domestic violence. They are still forced on access," she said."I know one mother whose ex is in prison for assault and coercive control and [she] still has to bring the children in to visit them. And that woman can't talk about it, you know, they can't speak to it," she said."And I now know of six or seven 18 plus year olds who were subject to these types of access orders who are now incredibly damaged... some of them are profoundly damaged by being forced into contact and the state's going to have a huge, huge problem on its hand with these now aged-out adults actually expressing the fact that the court process of forced access has caused them damage."Lisa-Ann Wilkinson is the guest on today's episode of The Deirdre O'Shaughnessy Podcast. Campaigners seeking in-camera rule changes to attend Leinster House meetingReform urged as family law system 'failing very people it is meant to protect'

The exploitation of vulnerable women for sex in exchange for housing was first highlighted by reporter Ann Murphy in 2020.Young migrant workers with limited English and no network and Ukrainians fleeing the war were among those Ann spoke to in her reporting who had fallen victim. She identified cases all over Ireland, including towns like Newcastlewest, Dungarvan and Kinsale.After a major Irish Examiner investigation in 2021 in which Ann confronted landlords - including one married couple seeking to fill a "granny flat" with a woman who would sleep with the husband in return for accommodation, the issue reached the Dáil floor and civil society organisations began to conduct their own research.It turned out that the increasingly widespread practice was not illegal, with those women who braved the Gardai being told it was a civil matter, while both the Department of Justice and Housing told Ann it was a matter for Gardaí.Now, with a new law introduced to tackle this form of exploitation, Ann talks to Deirdre about the investigations, the campaign for legal change – and whether she thinks women will be protected under the new law.Ann's journalism on this subject won the award for 'Campaigning Journalism' at the Newsbrands Ireland Awards 2026.Listen to the original podcast here: Sex for rent: The 'dangerous h…–The Deirdre O'Shaughnessy Podcast – Apple PodcastsRead our coverage here: Call for campaign to inform people most at risk of sex-for-rent offersSex-for-rent laws won't help women who are already stuck

Heatwaves have always happened, but in the context of our changing climate and an El Nino year, how do we cope, and what do we need to do?Meteorologist and author Joanna Donnelly  is the guest on today's podcast, explaining the terms we use around unseasonal weather and what El Nino means for our weather.Heatwave could cost taxpayers millions more as melting roads force changes to resurfacingHeatwaves are exposing Ireland's weakest linksEurope's record-breaking heatwave cost more than 10,000 lives in June