The Limerick Lady 62: Ailbhe Smyth: Voting Yes and Yes on the 8th of March
Release Date: 02/15/2024
2 minute thought on 10th Anniversary of Marriage Equality
The Limerick Lady Podcast
On the 22nd of May 2015, Ireland became the first country in the world to legalise Marriage Equality by popular vote. That is exactly ten years ago today, at the time of recording of this short note by Ann, one half of The Limerick Lady. Ann briefly reflects on how conversations and openness were what won the campaign. Let's be sure to keep talking and listening. Ann will be performing her show, The Morning After The Life Before (@morningafterlb on Insta), in Dance Limerick on Saturday the 24th of May at 8pm.
info_outline
The Limerick Lady 74: Róisín Ní Ghallóglaigh, Consent and Coercion in Irish Traditional Song
The Limerick Lady Podcast
Welcome to the April edition of the Limerick Lady Podcast. Alternate title: "What gets me goin' about Bóinn". We were joined this month by the brilliant Róisín Ní Ghallóglaigh who recently gave a seminar on the sexist themes within lots of traditional Irish songs that for a long time we've all just kind of... Overlooked, or not known about. Róisín Ní Ghallóglaigh is an accomplished solo performer, guitarist and composer. She is currently a member of Irish-Estonian trio, Iiri-Eesti Lauluvagi, featuring Anne-Mai Valk and Hanna-Reet Ruul. In 2020, she released her album Red is the...
info_outline
The Limerick Lady 73: Sharon Slater, historian, "in the end everybody dies"
The Limerick Lady Podcast
We're back! Did you miss us? Did you even notice we were gone for a month? Did you spot our new glasses? Our haircuts? Honestly, sometimes feels like you're just not paying attention... Anyway, WE'RE BACK with a March edition of the Limerick Lady Podcast. We're joined by sarcastic and all-knowing (almost) oracle Sharon Slater, to talk about Limerick's link to Saint Patrick (if that even IS his name) (It's not). Sharon Slater is an award-winning historian and author whose focus is on the history of Limerick. She has appeared on RTE, TG4, and PBS promoting Limerick's past. Her...
info_outline
The Limerick Lady 72: Eve Stafford "Art Is A Business, Business Is An Art"
The Limerick Lady Podcast
For our first episode of 2025, we're joined by pun-lover, recovering graphic designer, style icon and professional soprano Eve Stafford: the brand new president of the Limerick branch of Network Ireland, and possibly the first artist to be president of the branch! Network Ireland is a non-profit, voluntary organisation, with over 1,000 members and seventeen very dynamic branches. Established in 1983, this is a progressive, dynamic organisation supporting the professional and personal development of women. Eve is a professional singer and classical crossover soprano from Limerick. She's...
info_outline
The Limerick Lady 71: Our Ho-Ho-Hopes for a Better 2025
The Limerick Lady Podcast
Ann and Emma reflect on the year gone by and hopes for a better 2025. In this "angry corner" we have a little cathartic rant about the state of Ireland's housing crisis, the lack of supports in Limerick for victims of sexual assault, the horror of what's happening in Afghanistan, and the appalling lack of non-skinny-jeans for baby girls... And lots more besides. This podcast is a look at the ideological and practical feminist issues of 2024, and what we hope we won't have to keep talking about next year. The Limerick Lady is a grassroots movement based in Limerick, Ireland, with a...
info_outline
The Limerick Lady 70: Opera Workshop and Limerick's "Banned" Author
The Limerick Lady Podcast
What happens when your books, for all the right reasons, are banned? Well sometimes the controversy just drives demand; unfortunately it also often means the author's name is all-but-lost to the mists of time, and relegated to the back of the collective mind. Such was the case for Limerick's own Kate O'Brien whose 50th anniversary we mark in 2024. O'Brien had two books "Mary Lavelle" and "Land of Spices" banned in Ireland, and she herself was banned from Spain, for expressing some very progressive ideas around politics, women's liberation, and sexual identity. On this month's episode we...
info_outline
Special Announcement: No Episode This Month October 2024
The Limerick Lady Podcast
Rest in peace Annette Hannon and condolences to the Blakes and the Hannons
info_outline
The Limerick Lady 69: Sex-Positivity and Entrepreneurship with Shawna Scott, Sex Siopa
The Limerick Lady Podcast
Come one, come all! This month we celebrate 69 episodes of the Limerick Lady with a chat about sex, sex myths, the sex toy industry and lots more with Seattle-born, Galway-based Shawna Scott the founder and owner of "Sex Siopa". Shawna talks to us about seeing a gap and choosing to fill it, about the holes in medical professionals' knowledge around sexual health and pleasure, and about how she opened up for business during the pandemic. We will not be apologising for euphemistic language, no we will not. Shawna Scott is the owner and founder of the multi-award winning SexSiopa.ie...
info_outline
The Limerick Lady 68: Playwright & Actor Georgina Miller On The Highs And Lows of Aerial Theatre
The Limerick Lady Podcast
Limerick's Georgina Miller Georgina is an actress, writer and voice-over artist. She's also a graduate of the full-time actor training course at the Gaiety School of Acting. Georgina won the award for Best Actress from the Guinness ISDA Festival for her performance in "At the Black Pig’s Dyke" (MIDAS). In this month's episode she talks to us about her debut play, a hybrid aerial show called "Freefalling". Freefalling is an autobiographic play about a backpacking trip in her 30s during which she developed the incredibly rare Guillain-Barre syndrome which left her paralysed, alone and...
info_outline
The Limerick Lady 67: Niamh Dunne On Songwriting, Vulnerability and Celebrating Traveler Heritage
The Limerick Lady Podcast
In July we're joined by Niamh Dunne to chat about the highs and lows of a career in music, the value of vulnerability in art, and her latest project which involved traveling the length of the country with two pipers, her dad Mickey Dunne and Paddy Keenan of the Bothy Band, exploring and celebrating Traveler heritage through their documentary project The Long Grazing Acre. Niamh is an accomplished fiddle player and singer. ‘Tides’, her first album of self-penned songs was released in 2022 to widespread critical acclaim. She is a member of the group, Beoga whose album ‘How to Tune a...
info_outlineOn 8 March 2024, Irish citizens will be asked to vote in two referendums to change our Constitution. The first Referendum concerns the concept of Family in the Constitution. The second Referendum proposes to delete an existing part of the Constitution and insert new text providing recognition for care provided by family members to each other.
You have two separate votes on whether you wish to make the proposed changes to the current text of Article 41 of the Constitution.
Ailbhe Smyth, an activist in women's rights and the rights of LGBTQIA+ people, is actively campaigning for a yes vote on both amendments, and we chat with her about why that is.
She was the founding head of Women’s Studies at UCD (University College Dublin) where she began lecturing at the age of 21. She has been campaigning on feminist, LGBTQI+ and socialist issues for decades. She played a key role in the victorious Marriage Equality referendum in 2015. A pro-choice activist since the late 1970s, Ailbhe co-founded the Coalition to Repeal the 8th Amendment and went on to become Co-Director of the Together for Yes 2015 referendum campaign which won the right to abortion for women in Ireland in 2018.
A Dublin resident, Ailbhe is currently Chair of Women’s Aid Ireland, and Honorary Patron of the Women’s Collective Ireland (previously National Collective of Community-based Women’s Network). She is a founder member of Climate Justice Coalition, and also of Le Chéile: Diversity not Division which campaigns against the growth of far right extremism.
In 2019, Ailbhe was listed as one of Time Magazine’s ‘Most Influential People’. She was conferred with an honorary Doctorate of Laws by NUIG in 2021, and was conferred with the Freedom of the City of Dublin.
Follow Ailbhe Smyth on Twitter at AilbheS
Follow Ann Blake on Twitter at annblake78, on Instagram at annblakeplay and check out her band The Brad Pitt Light Orchestra on twitter at BPLO.
Find Emma Langford on Twitter at ELangfordMusic – on Instagram at EmmaLangfordMusic - and at her website www.emmalangfordmusic.com
Find the Limerick Lady podcast wherever you get your podcasts, and follow for new episodes on the third Thursday every month.
The Limerick Lady Podcast is supported by the Limerick Post Newspaper, and sponsored by Ormston House Follow Ormston House at www.ormstonhouse.com
Support the Limerick Post at www.limerickpost.ie
This podcast usually goes out on the 3rd Thursday each month - the 'Thirdsday', if you will.
Follow The Limerick Lady on Facebook at TheLimerickLady, on Twitter at LkLadyHQ and on Instagram at thelimericklady
Tweet about us using #LKLadyPod so we can see what you have to say!
Intro music: Demon Darling by Emma Langford
Outro music: Closed Book by Emma Langford