Opinion

Radio review: Putting a personal spin on the referendum debate

Irish presenter Leanna Byrne brought together three generations of her family to discuss women’s changing roles in Ireland

Nuala McCann

Nuala McCann

Nuala McCann is an Irish News columnist and writes a weekly radio review.

Bewley's on Grafton Street has been a Dublin institution for almost a century. Picture by Niall Carson/PA
Bewley's on Grafton Street has been a Dublin institution for almost a century
Marketplace Morning Report, BBC World Service
Dead Famous, Radio 4

Irish business journalist and presenter Leanna Byrne found just the spot and just the people to talk to in the run-up to the recent vote on amendments to the constitution.

Confession time... I’m still not that clear what the vote was about exactly, but a little time in the company of Leanna helped. One of the proposed changes included the reference to a woman’s place as a caregiver in the home.

Leanna took a trip back to her native Dublin to report from a busy Bewley’s cafe – the chink of teacups and the soft slather of a knife applying butter to a cherry bun struck a chord.

Leanna Byrne, sitting in a studio with headphones, is a presenter for BBC World Service's Marketplace Morning Report
Leanna Byrne is a presenter for BBC World Service's Marketplace Morning Report

Bewley’s was apt, she said, because it’s where the Irish Women’s Liberation movement held their first meeting.

She gathered three generations of her own family – grandmother Mary Flynn and mother Nuala Byrne – to talk about women’s changing roles in Ireland.

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They talked about the Irish marriage bar – lifted in the late 1970s – and how men complained bitterly about married women daring to return to work and take the jobs of other men.

All that seems a world away from now. Interesting that it is Leanna’s grandmother who feels most strongly about having had to give up her name when she married.

And as Leanna pointed out, the world may have changed but even her generation has not quite got it right.

“It’s like you have to be everything. You have to be top of your career. You also have to have children and you just have to be superwoman essentially.”

My mother – of the generation who had to leave her job when she married – was proud of her daughters and their careers but in no doubt about how tough their lives are.

“How can it be progress if my daughters have to bring home the bacon and cook it too!” she’d say.

This podcast for BBC World Service was a lively and interesting interview that brought a personal dimension to the referendum debate.

How can it be progress if my daughters have to bring home the bacon and cook it too

Van Gogh’s Portrait of the Artist has gone on display at the National Museum Cardiff after being loaned from the Musee D’Orsay in Paris
Vincent van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime (Museum Wales/PA)

Meanwhile, Dead Famous on Radio 4 is a series about artists who never knew that they would one day be famous and their work would fetch millions.

Vincent van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime. Vermeer and Frida Kahlo could never have guessed just how their art would capture the world.

It’s an illuminating journey in the company of presenter Rosie Millard.