Summary
The stereotypical view of a gamer is a socially-isolated teenager who could be doing something better with their time. Liz Vickers is a 74 year old gamer from Manby, Lincolnshire, and so is her good friend, Bridget Odlin, aged 75, from Louth, Lincolnshire. They’ve been playing together, and separately, for almost more than 20 years. Lotta Haegg, an avid gamer herself, speaks to them.
A new government report in Ireland shows that 6666 women accessed abortions there in 2019. This is the first annual report to be published since medical abortion became legal in Ireland up to twelve weeks of pregnancy. This followed the result of the May 2018 referendum on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution. What do the figures tell us about abortion care in Ireland now? Jenni speaks to Ellen Coyne, a journalist at the Irish Independent newspaper and Dr Trish Horgan, a GP in Cork City and member of START - Southern Taskgroup on Abortion and Reproductive Topics.
The novelist Amanda Craig joins Jenni to discuss her ninth novel - 'The Golden Rule'; inspired by both Patricia Highsmith’s classic, 'Strangers on a Train', and the fairy-tale, 'Beauty and the Beast'.
Leading women in theatre have sent an open letter to Oliver Dowden, the secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport. They are asking the task force, responsible for cultural renewal following the coronavirus pandemic, to develop their plans using a “gender lens” to ensure gender equality is considered and ensured. Maureen Beattie OBE, president of equity and Jennifer Tuckett, director of university women in the arts and literary director of Sphinx Theatre, discuss their concerns that gender inequality will increase in straitened, risk-averse conditions.
Presenter: Jenni Murray Producer: Kirsty Starkey
Interviewed Guest: Ellen Coyne Interviewed Guest: Dr Trish Horgan Interviewed Guest: Liz Vickers Interviewed Guest: Bridget Odlin Reporter: Lotta Haeg Interviewed Guest: Amanda Craig Interviewed Guest: Maureen Beattie Interviewed Guest: Jennifer Tuckett
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts |
| 0:04.6 | Hello, Jenny Murray welcoming you to the Woman's Our Podcast for Wednesday 1 July. Good morning. |
| 0:12.4 | Leading women in the theatre have written to the Secretary of State asking |
| 0:16.4 | that the cultural renewal task force pays attention to gender equality. Why are they worried? |
| 0:23.6 | It won't. A new novel, The Golden Rule by Amanda Craig, two women meet on a train |
| 0:30.2 | and agree to murder each other's husbands. And the third in our series of women and gaming, |
| 0:36.6 | friends in their mid-70s who've been playing for more than 20 years. |
| 0:41.8 | Now it's just over two years since Ireland voted in favour of the legalisation of abortion |
| 0:47.1 | in the referendum on the 8th amendment of the constitution. The law was passed on the 20th of |
| 0:53.2 | December 2018 and in January last year the provision of abortion services began. It's now legal |
| 1:00.5 | to have a medical abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. It's also legally in case the fatal |
| 1:06.6 | fetal abnormality or whether there's a risk to the health or the life of the woman. A government |
| 1:12.6 | report was published yesterday which details the number of terminations which were carried out |
| 1:17.7 | in 2019. The total is 6,666. Well, I'm joined by Dr. Jishaugen, who's a GP and member of Start, |
| 1:28.5 | the Southern Task Group on Abortion and Reproductive Topics and by Ellen Cohen, who's a journalist |
| 1:34.4 | at the Irish Independent. Ellen, there were concerns that legislation would open the flood gates. |
| 1:41.3 | What can be read into this figure of 6,666? Unfortunately, what can be read into the figure |
| 1:48.8 | seems to depend on whether you're coming from a pro-choice or anti-abortion perspective. |
| 1:53.1 | In the referendum in 2018 the government was saying that legalising abortion could help reduce |
| 1:58.2 | crisis pregnancies but those who were anti-abortion were saying that it would increase it. |
| 2:02.8 | We know that there were over 6,000 legal terminations in Ireland in 2019. The only figures that |
| 2:09.1 | we have to compare with that are the number of women who travelled to the UK for a legal termination |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

