Growing up a Jehovah’s Witness in rural Co Tipperary was not your typical Irish childhood.

Weekends spend proselytising, no Christmas or birthdays and very little interaction with the world beyond the community meant Trish Bourke was a very sheltered teenager when she was groomed by an older man.

In her book UnWitnessed, Trish writes movingly about her steps away from the faith that shaped her, the predatory relationship she fell into and a termination she went through as a result, and her eventual discovery of her place in the world.

From being called a murderer by her devout family, and a loving but sexless marriage to teaching computer literacy to Martin Sheen, her story is full of twists, turns and contradictions.

Trish Bourke is today’s guest on The Deirdre O’Shaughnessy Podcast. Her book, UnWitnessed, is published by Menma Books and available at unwitnessed.net.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Management, clinicians and staff at Cork University Hospital are in a mounting disagreement with the HSE and Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill over staff and resources at the South-West region’s biggest hospital.

Trolleys are mounting up at the hospital’s Emergency Department and as the health service faces into the winter season, staff and management fear a tragic incident if resourcing is not urgently addressed.

Last week CUH boss Jennifer Kearney wrote to Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill to say the hospital was unsafe for patients and staff.

“My responsibility as chief executive is not simply to comply with a process," she wrote. "It is to speak clearly when I believe that process is creating a foreseeable risk to patients and staff.

"I would rather raise that concern now, when there is still an opportunity to act, than remain silent and explain afterwards why we did not.”

The Minister hit back in an interview on RTE radio, saying there was “no evidence” the hospital was unsafe - but medical staff at the hospital have since rowed in on the CEO’s side.

So, is the hospital safe or not?

Irish Examiner Health Correspondent Niamh Griffin gets into the detail of the dispute at CUH on today’s episode.

Health minister says no evidence of increased patient safety concerns at CUH

Hiqa seeks clarity over Cork University Hospital safety fears  

CUH boss says hospital 'unsafe' for patients amid shortfall of over 1,000 staff

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jung Chang achieved worldwide acclaim for her autobiographical work Wild Swans, published in 1992.

The book told the story of her grandmother, a warlord’s concubine whose feet were bound, her mother, a Communist Party official who suffered under Mao, and herself, one of the first students permitted to leave China to study in the West in the 1970s.

Since its publication Jung has become a prolific writer and historian of China but her biography of Mao, written with her Irish husband Jon Halliday, put her on the wrong side of the Communist Party’s propaganda.

Her new book, Fly Wild Swans, tells the story of her life since Wild Swans’ publication – particularly her increasingly difficult relationship with the Chinese authorities.

In this interview with Deirdre O’Shaughnessy recorded in front of a live audience at the West Cork Literary Festival, Jung describes how her life changed when the Party became displeased with her; her difficulty in visiting China since the publication of the Mao book; and, for the first time, she discusses the death of her beloved mother, whose life story inspired millions in Wild Swans.

This episode of The Deirdre O’Shaughnessy Podcast was recorded live at the Maritime Hotel Bantry as part of the West Cork Literary Festival 2026. See westcorkmusic.ie.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The world is awash with parenting advice – every newspaper and TV show has a parenting slot, and once the algorithm notices something up with your menstrual cycle you will be bombarded with it, from pregnancy right through to parenting young adults, with strong opinions on attachment styles, feeding advice, gentle parenting and more.

But Irish Examiner columnist Dr Colman Noctor, who is a child and adult psychotherapist and a mental health lecturer, argues in a new series, every child needs to be parented differently – but crucially, this isn’t just up to their own parents.

In his new series he looks at important parts of childhood – school, sports and friendships – through a lens of parenting different children according to their needs. And his recommendations might surprise.

“If your child is thriving and they're popular and they're bright and they're clever, there's an onus of responsibility on them to be nice about that, to be a little bit gracious about it, because you have that power to include,” he says.

He believes that a lot of modern parenting advice is treating challenges as an isolated challenge for one family –when, in fact, community is often what’s missing from modern parenting.

The reliance on AI and online advice, meanwhile, means many parents are missing out on real connection.

“Parenting is a very lonely journey for many people. And if you don't have the village of people saying, you're doing a good job and you're doing great and this is working and all that sort of stuff, you're going to turn to the advice,” he adds.

Supporting children with friendships, promoting inclusion so that parents aren’t fighting problems in isolation, and making sure more capable children include others across school, sports and friendship is key to the advice in his new series.

In this episode Colman and Deirdre discuss the importance of community and connection in parenting, inclusion, and how to be consistent when every child needs you to show up as a different parent.

You can read Colman’s column in ieParenting every Tuesday.

Read Colman’s weekly columns in ieParenting here: Columns - Irish Examiner

The Deirdre O'Shaughnessy Podcast: School holidays and the motherhood penalty

The Deirdre O’Shaughnessy Podcast: The year of care campaign, with Aolish Gormley

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Syed Haque moved to Ireland from Bangladesh in 2003, working in restaurants for many years. The political science graduate is now an Irish citizen and a married father of two, with a good job in a logistics company.

Until July, he had never experienced any racism in Ireland. But all that changed when he was randomly attacked by a teenager while out walking with friends and family in his local park in Carrigaline. A community rally against racism was held in the town last week, prompted by the attack.

On today's episode of the podcast Syed Haque joins Deirdre to discuss life in Ireland, the attack's impact on his family, and the solidarity of their local community in Carrigaline.

Victim of racist attack in Cork ‘grateful’ as locals unite to promote inclusion and solidarity

Carrigaline event to be held in solidarity with victim of racist attack

Winner of 2018 Rose of Tralee would not enter competition now due to level of racist sentiment in society

Record number of hate crimes reported to gardaí in 2025 as incidents rise 15%

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 years

Rape 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  

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 treatment

• Pieta.ie 
• The Samaritans  116 123 24 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"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 Government

The Deirdre O'Shaughnessy Podcast: Paving over Bessborough's missing babies

The Deirdre O’Shaughnessy Podcast: Dominic Finn’s story of being adopted from Bessborough

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.