In 2018, Holly Cairns was 28 years old and had voted once in her life. In the five years since, she's been elected to Cork County Council, then to Dáil Eireann and in the last twelve months has become leader of the Social Democrats. 
Earlier this year, having previously been vocal about the targeted, sexualised abuse she and other female TDs are regularly subjected to, Holly spoke for the first time about that abuse - normally faceless and online - escalating into a real-world situation where a man began showing up at her home in West Cork. 
She speaks to Richie from her family farm about how that experience changed the way she lives day to day, why she decided that talking about abuse to journalists anonymously stopped making sense, and the dilemma she faces as the leader of a political party about when to be open and when to keep quiet. 
Episode is brought to you by NOW and is a Second Captains production.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode With Richie Sadlier: Holly Cairns TD

Richie Sadlier has followed an unconventional career path. He spent his early life as a professional footballer, and is now a psychotherapist and author. Like its presenter, Episode approaches people and subjects in a way that upends expectation.
Having initially struggled to adapt after his football career ended prematurely, Richie started down the path of psychotherapy and today works as a therapist specialising in issues such as relationships, adolescent development and sexuality.
In this podcast, he speaks to major guests about significant episodes in their lives that they’ve found intense, emotional or life-changing.
Welcome to Episode with Richie Sadlier.
A Second Captains Production. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Health & Fitness

As we may have mentioned once or twice on social media this week, joining Richie on today's show is a very old friend and an up and coming League of Ireland manager by the name of Damien Duff. 
Speaking the morning after Shelbourne's 0-2 win over Shamrock Rovers in Tallaght, Damien explains how he had to change his approach to the job after the anger that fueled him began to impact his personal life, how it still takes up most of his waking hours, and why he's not looking beyond management in the League of Ireland. 
He also tells Richie why he thinks John O'Shea should step away from the interim Ireland job and what an embarrassment the FAI's approach to recruiting a new manager has been.
Episode is a Second Captains production.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode With Richie Sadlier: Damien Duff

A message for listeners: today's show includes discussions of themes that some people may find distressing from the outset and throughout, including sexual violence, sexual abuse and the sex trade. 
When Mia Döring was sixteen years old, she was raped, a hugely traumatic experience she couldn't speak about for two years until her mental health reached a crisis point. 
In the aftermath of that assault, a man in his thirties began to groom and sexually abuse Mia. Her abuser would pay her each time he saw her, making the situation even more psychologically complex for an already vulnerable, traumatised teenage girl. 
By her own description, Mia began to equate the money with her own self-worth, and the idea of her value as a human being tied to these payments led her to enter the sex trade as a college student. 
Now a psychotherapist specialising in sexual trauma, she speaks to Richie about making the decision to talk publicly about her experiences, how the people running the industry in Ireland and the punters propping it up tried to intimidate her as she campaigned for the purchase of sex to be made illegal, and the road to recovering from trauma. 
Episode is a Second Captains production. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode With Richie Sadlier: Mia Döring

Nine months ago, Pat Sheedy walked out of prison after spending more than two and a half years locked up for trying to fund his decades-long gambling addiction through various scams. 
After winning his first bet as a teenager, he quickly fell into a cycle of working, borrowing and stealing to make sure he could place his next bet. Long periods of abstinence - at one point he went 12 years without gambling - followed, but it wasn't until finally being given a custodial sentence in 2020 that he began to really reflect on the damage he was doing to other people. 
Pat speaks to Richie just a few hundred metres down the road from where he placed his first bet in Limerick city today and explains why prison was the best thing that ever happened to him, describes the life of a compulsive gambler and how he's tried to make amends with the victims of his scams since being released last August. 
Episode is a Second Captains podcast.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode With Richie Sadlier: Pat Sheedy

This week on Episode we're taking a mid-series break but fear not, Richie and Killian will be back on the road next week when we'll be bringing you another brilliant conversation. 
Until then, a massive thank you for all the support for the show so far this series!
Episode is a Second Captains production. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode With Richie Sadlier: A Mid-Series Break

This week Richie and Killian travelled to Phibsboro to meet James Kavanagh at the home he's just about to leave after eight years for a new life in the countryside.  
Richie and James look back at James' teenage years, the earliest of which he spent locked up alone in his bedroom, his sanctuary from the homophobic bullying that dominated his time at school. He speaks about the reality of having no friends whatsoever until he was sixteen, darting from class to class to avoid other students and how he managed to start afresh and leave those days behind him. 
After the chat, Killian describes an experience both he and James have had in common with last week's guest, Donie O'Sullivan: recurring panic attacks and trying to manage them before they derail your day-to-day life. 
Episode is a Second Captains production. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode With Richie Sadlier: Holly Cairns TD

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