Last Thursday, The Irish Times Women’s Podcast hosted an evening of storytelling to mark International Women’s Day.
Guests including Independent Senator Lynn Ruane, transgender woman and activist Aoife Martin, journalist Brianna Parkins and activist Ailbhe Smyth were invited to share their stories of overcoming a challenge in their lives as part of the "Choose to Challenge" theme of this year's event.
“I’ve built a career talking about my challenges,” quipped Senator Ruane when she was called upon to share her story about feeling out of her depth with academic assignments when she began addiction studies.
She described how she used her creativity to overcome that difficulty and filmed interviews about drugs with her friends who had addictions to make a video project to submit in place of a final essay.
“Sometimes the challenges we face give us new skills,” she said.
Trans woman Aoife Martin spoke movingly about how, despite having loved swimming in the sea as a child, she abandoned it when she began to grapple with gender dysphoria and body dysmorphia.
She told the Women’s Podcast that on New Year’s Day 2019 she made a resolution that she would no longer deny herself that simple pleasure and described the experience of her first time back in salt water again.
“I float there, head back, looking up at the blue sky, watching the odd seagull pass overhead. It’s magical. And for a time I forget all about this troublesome body that I occupy.”
Whenever I think I can't stand it anymore, I think of that young woman and I put one foot in front of the other until the sun comes up again
Academic and activist Ailbhe Smyth told the audience about overcoming the severe depression and anorexia she endured as a young woman in the early 1970s, wanting to “disappear” herself, rather than be the woman she was expected to be.
Maintaining her mental health is still a work in progress, she said, but that experience is something she continues to find strength in today.
“Now, whenever I get a bit of a dip and think I can’t stand it anymore, I think of that young woman and I take heart and I put one foot in front of the other until the sun comes up again.”
Looking back at my mum I know true bravery is not picking a job that you love, it's having to turn up to a job that you were too smart for so your daughter had a choice not to
Journalist and former Rose of Tralee contestant Brianna Parkins told a funny and moving story about how the sacrifices her single mother made working low-paid jobs meant that she would become the first woman in her family to choose her own career path.
“Looking back at my own mum I know that true bravery is not picking a job that you love or getting on a list of influential women. It’s having to turn up to a job that you were too smart for for 30 years, so that your daughter had a choice not to.”
You can hear those tales of overcoming in the latest episode of The Irish Times Women's Podcast.
