Twenty years ago, Sport Ireland launched its Women in Sport programme with a bold aim: to give women equal opportunities on the pitch. Two decades later, participation is up, sponsorships are stronger, and elite events are drawing record crowds. But stubborn challenges remain — from teenage dropout rates to a shortage of facilities and patchy media coverage.
In this episode of Sports Matters, Ian Kehoe sits down with two women at the forefront of change: Niamh Tallon, founder and CEO of Her Sport, and Emer O’Sullivan, corporate affairs director at Lidl Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Tallon talks about why she launched Her Sport and the mission that drives it: “Our vision is equal opportunity in sport, regardless of gender… Wwe have to be honest with ourselves when we look at the landscape and realise that the opportunity for girls and women is not the same.”
O’Sullivan explains Lidl’s long-running sponsorship of ladies' Gaelic football, from the controversial “Lady Ball” launch to grassroots investment in jerseys and equipment: “We want to do good, we want to be purpose-driven… but equally there are commercial reasons too. It has to work both ways.”
They discuss the barriers that still hold girls and women back — from lack of toilets at pitches to entrenched club cultures — and the power of visibility to change the game. “If girls have a positive experience, they have the facilities… They’ll tend to stay in sport,” O’Sullivan says.
Sports Matters is sponsored by the law firm Whitney Moore.
In 2016, Tom O’Brien was caught in the crossfire when Apollo House, a building he was receiver over, was occupied by activists protesting homelessness. Six years on, he reflects upon that period and talks about the latest journey in his career: managing partner of Mazars. In this podcast with Ian Kehoe, O’Brien also talks about the future of the accountancy industry, the economic outlook for Ireland, and the sectors most at risk of failure.
Following the explosion of sanctimony after the brawl at Croke Park, Paul Flynn and Fintan Drury discuss how the GAA's own approach has contributed to the problems and why the player at the centre of the affair has been forgotten.
Sean Keyes talks to Dan McCrum about his book Money Men, which tells the story of the €24 billion fraudulent German payments company Wirecard – and also of the investigative journalism that uncovered it.
When US multinationals began to expand into Ireland, they were years ahead of local practices in terms of looking after employee wellbeing, says Stephen Costello. He saw the opportunity to launch the workplace mental health start-up Spectrum Life – and tells its story to Devin Sean Martin.
On Wednesday night, Emmanuel Macron addressed the French people following the disappointing results in last week’s national elections. He spoke about the deep divisions in the country and how he hoped to heal them.
As president, Macron is now in unprecedented territory. What does that mean for France and what does it mean for Europe? In this podcast Thomas Hubert, senior correspondent with The Currency, and Fergal Lenehan, an Irish academic based in Germany, discuss France, Germany and Ukraine's EU candidacy. Thomas reflects also on how Macron may have to reinvent himself after the election.
In every country, there's a bargain between workers, capital, and the state. The bargain protects the interests of ordinary people by giving them security and a reasonable standard of living in their working lives, and in retirement. Ireland's bargain, according to Stephen Kinsella, is based on the broad ownership of land. But now, for most young people, ownership of land is out of reach. That's bad in the here and now - and even worse for the future. In this podcast, the economist talks about his recent four-part series on Ireland’s generation gap and explains how many millennials will be left without assets on which to rely in retirement.
Matthew Continetti has written a history of American conservatism, a study of the age old tension between populism and the elites that have, long before Trump, dominated the story of the American right. His book – The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism deals with this history at a time when it seems as if one side has triumphed. “Right now,” Continetti says, “I think the Republican Party has consolidated around a populist tradition, exemplified by President Trump and his Make America Great Again movement.” In this podcast he talks to Dion Fanning about his book.
An inspiring careers day at school steered Belfast woman Aislinn McBride towards software engineering when she was 16. She now has 15 years’ experience under her belt at Kainos, a Northern Ireland-headquartered technology business expanding across 22 countries. One of her key challenges as chief technology officer is to replicate this lightbulb moment among potential candidates to broaden the group’s recruitment reach, she tells Thomas Hubert.
Fintan Drury founded a sports agency more than thirty years ago. In that time, he has advised the European Tour and worked on bringing the Ryder Cup to Ireland in 2006. In this podcast, Fintan talks to Dion Fanning about the LIV Tour and what he would say to a player if he was advising them when the Saudi-backed competition came offering money. He also talks about the ethics of sport in a complicated world and why this may be one instance where the choices should have been clearcut.
Sonia Neary co-founded Wellola with the aim of providing tools for patients to be monitored and cared for at home, rather than in hospitals. The company is now working with the NHS, HSE and VHI and forecasting revenues of €25m within five years. In this podcast, Neary talks to Rosanna Cooney about the future of healthcare in Europe, where trained professionals and healthcare settings are a finite resource under increasingly immense pressure.
