The Deirdre O'Shaughnessy Podcast

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

16 year old Grace Lynch was killed by a scrambler bike in January, while out walking near her home in Dublin.Her heartbroken parents Siobhán and Martin immediately embarked on a campaign to ensure nobody would suffer as they had, seeking legal changes to take scrambler bikes and e-scooters out of the hands of children.Their campaign has already forced the introduction of Grace’s Law, banning the use of scramblers on public roads, but a combination of legal loopholes, lack of enforcement and a non-existent tracing system means, they say, there is much more work to do.They’ve received death threats and online abuse as a result of speaking out – with little legal recourse.When they approached social media giant TikTok about abusive AI videos of their deceased daughter, they were asked to provide a death certificate.Today the couple will speak before an Oireachtas Justice committee.Listen to their story on today’s episode of The Deirdre O’Shaughnessy Podcast. Gardaí call for 'dedicated pursuit training' to deal with dangers of e-scooters and scramblers'I felt like I had to protect her': Grace Lynch's mum recalls harrowing moments after her deathGrace Lynch's mother gets death threats for seeking scrambler bike ban on public roads

American mother of one Jamey Carney is the eighth woman to die violently in Ireland this year.Her body was discovered in her Killarney home just one day after that of Adina Constantin in Portlaoise, whose husband has been charged in connection with her death. Gardaí have launched an international manhunt in their investigation into Ms Carney’s killing.Since the murder of Ashling Murphy in 2022 prompted widespread outrage, 40 women have died violently in Ireland.Women’s Aid, the National Women’s Council of Ireland and politicians across the spectrum have highlighted their concern at what Taoiseach Micheál Martin referred to this week as the femicide figures “going in the wrong direction”.Irish Examiner Southern Correspondent Liz Dunphy has been covering this story and joins Deirdre on today’s episode. Killarney murder: Jamey Carney's cousin says 'no indication' she had safety concerns'Societal response' required to fight epidemic of violence against women, says TaoiseachNumber of women violently killed ‘not going in the right direction’, says TaoiseachHusband charged with murder of his wife in Portlaoise

With Bessborough in the news due to controversial building plans, those who survived the notorious institution are telling their stories in unprecedented numbers. Cork County Councillor Dominic Finn is one of three ‘Bessborough babies’ who sits on the local authority – a remarkable statistic, but one that he believes just shows how common adoption was in Ireland in the 1970s.In today’s episode, he tells Deirdre O’Shaughnessy about his happy childhood as one of four adopted children in Cobh, his search for his birth family, and how grateful he feels to have escaped the fate of so many less fortunate Bessborough babies.Read Dominic’s interview with Irish Examiner reporter Sean O’Riordan here: Cork councillor adopted from mother and baby home reunited with birth parents and six siblingsThe Deirdre O'Shaughnessy Podcast: Paving over Bessborough's missing babies

This is series 2 of An Irishwoman’s Diary from The Deirdre O’Shaughnessy Podcast, search in your podcast app for An Irishwoman’s Diary to find the six-episode Series 1.  Bridget Coll’s story reads like fiction — a thriller even — just as the many words used to describe her don’t seem to fit together: nun, lesbian, teacher, militant, law-changer, even “home-wrecker”.This “tiny woman with a fierce heart” from Fanad Co Donegal protested in Chile and made legal history in Canada. But at home in Ireland, her story isn’t so well known.Clodagh Finn: Bridget Coll — nun, lesbian, law-changer, and militant

This is series 2 of An Irishwoman’s Diary from The Deirdre O’Shaughnessy Podcast, search in your podcast app for An Irishwoman’s Diary to find the six-episode Series 1.  A precursor of Cabaret, the show about ‘a bad girl with a heart of gold’, became the go-to show in Dublin for a brief period in the 1950s, against all the prevailing morals of the time.Asked later why it hadn’t been banned, as JP Donleavy’s The Gingerman was, Archbishop John Charles McQuaid pointed out that the character of Sally Bowles wasn’t Irish, and therefore didn’t present a threat to the morality of Irish women.The star of both shows was Genevieve Lyons, an actor, theatre maker and writer who lived a very unconventional life. Her performance as Sally Bowles caused a brief craze for berets in fashion starved Dublin, and she wrote many books – one, about the famine, owed its name to Princess Margaret.In this episode Clodagh Finn recounts the story of a self-described “lunatic traveller” who though often penniless followed her creative dreams.Clodagh Finn: The Irish woman who made ‘Cabaret’ a hit in Ireland long before the Broadway musicalAn Irishwoman's Diary series 1: Meet the Irish women who left their mark on history 

This is series 2 of An Irishwoman’s Diary from The Deirdre O’Shaughnessy Podcast, search in your podcast app for An Irishwoman’s Diary to find the six-episode Series 1.  Once described as “Ireland’s ablest female journalist”, the exploits of war correspondent Gertrude Gaffney have been largely lost to history.Her travels throughout Europe – on the front in the Spanish Civil War, in Gdansk as the Germans approached, and at the Maginot line in 1940 – were chronicled in the Irish Independent.Clodagh Finn shares the story of this incredible journalist whose work brought the sights and sounds of World War Two right onto kitchen tables throughout Ireland.Clodagh Finn: Gertrude Gaffney — intrepid war correspondent and Ireland’s ‘ablest woman journalist’An Irishwoman's Diary series 1: Meet the Irish women who left their mark on history