I met Niamh in her home on the banks of the canal. It's secluded, remote, peaceful. Her Mum answers the door and welcomes us into the kitchen, country style (through the back door). The house smells divine thanks to the plant-based cookies Niamh has been baking so considerately.

Niamh is back living in her parents home, like so many other 29 year olds. She’s done quite a bit of travelling, during which she met her husband, who also lives with them.

Niamh would prefer to live in Dublin city, in the thick of it all. Where she can easily access public transport and have everything at her fingertips. However, if you think about how hard the housing crisis is for people right now, it’s even worse for disabled people.

Niamh has a condition called Friedreich's ataxia. It’s quite rare, with only about 200 people in Ireland with it (including Niamh’s younger brother). It’s a neurodegenerative disorder that causes progressive damage to the nervous system, including impaired coordination, muscle weakness, speech problems, and heart issues.

Niamh is an accomplished journalist. It’s a career she knew she wanted from a young age, she set her sights on it and worked incredibly hard and went on to write for the Guardian and Al Jazeera. She takes pride in giving disabled people a voice in the media.

Sadly, Niamh knows that she has a battle ahead of her. In 2023, the USA approved the first ever treatment for Niamh’s condition. It’s a treatment that could stop the progression of her disorder and give her a better quality of life for longer. However, the Irish government has decided not to fund the treatment.

As Niamh’s condition worsens, she knows her speech will be affected soon, as will her ability to write. We’ve been chatting for about 30 minutes at her kitchen table and already I can sense it’s tiring her. It seems wholly cruel and unfair, that the people who we should be protecting and caring for most in society, are those who will be expected to lobby and campaign for the medical treatment that would improve their lives so much.

Come back tomorrow for another podcast/story/portrait. We’re interviewing and photographing people from all over Ireland, collecting their stories and sharing them daily. You can be a part of it too, just follow @ruthlessimagery online for more details.

x R

Sin Scéal Eile - That's Another Story was hosted and created by Ruth Medjber, with sound by Ronan Lally. The podcast is produced by Dee Reddy at Poddle Audio with original music by Elaine Mai.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The sun was splitting the rocks down in Vico Baths when we met screenwriter and director, Nessa. She picked the location and I’m so glad she did. I’m not used to being this far south of the Liffey, I don’t know the area and I was a little bit nervous that she’d chosen somewhere so open to the elements to chat on a January day.

I feel like I was meant to meet this kindred soul and we were blessed with sunny skies to prove it. She’s a woman in the arts, fighting for her vision to be recognised. She’s a mother, a wife and a friend who misses her friends. It transpires that Nessa and I both emigrated to London around the same time, she however stuck it out for 18 years longer than I did, building both her career and her family.

We sit on the sunny rocks, listening to the waves, taking stock of our lives as Irish women and wondering what’s coming next over the horizon.

Sin Scéal Eile - That's Another Story was hosted and created by Ruth Medjber, with sound by Ronan Lally. The podcast is produced by Dee Reddy at Poddle Audio with original music by Elaine Mai.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As we edge our way into this year and I hear stories from many different people across all demographics, there’s one topic that comes up time and time again, the housing crisis. So many people are living in fear. They fear that their landlord will decide to sell up, or that their rent will increase beyond their means. They fear that they won’t be able to find any suitable accommodation and that they’ll have to impose on friends, sleep on couches or move back in with parents.

For Michelle, her fear became a reality. She tells me her story of finding herself in emergency accommodation, with her children in tow and at the mercy of the state. Her story ends on a positive note after many months of tenacious searching and relentless positive thinking.

As we sit and chat in her lovely, cosy apartment, Michelle’s story has a happy ending but I can’t not think of the thousands more people struggling with homelessness.

Come back tomorrow for another podcast/story/portrait.

x R

Sin Scéal Eile - That's Another Story was hosted and created by Ruth Medjber, with sound by Ronan Lally. The podcast is produced by Dee Reddy at Poddle Audio with original music by Elaine Mai.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.