The Hard Shoulder

Author Sinead Moriarty joins Ciara Doherty to place her favourite book on The Hard Shoulder Bookshelf!

Fine Gael Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe has stepped away from his role in Government to take up a position at the World Bank.To chat about the significance of this decision, Ciara Doherty is joined by Fine Gael Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeil, as well as Newstalk’s Political Correspondent, Seán Defoe.

As pressure mounts in the US for the release of the Epstein files, there are many wondering what exactly these files are, and information they contain.To discuss this, Ciara Doherty is joined by the Lawyer who represented victims of Jeffrey Epstein, Yasmine Meyer.

It’s that time of year again where dictionaries begin naming their words of the year. Cambridge Dictionary has gone with ‘parasocial’ while Collins has chosen ‘vibe coding’. With previous words of the year including ‘brat’ in 2024 and even ‘austerity’ in 2015.How well do these words capture the years they’re chosen, and why are we so obsessed with the words of the year?Joining Ciara Doherty to discuss is Journalist and host of the ‘No Encore’ music podcast, Dave Hanratty.

Temperatures will dip close to zero for the remainder of the week; however, the wind chill factor could make it feel more like minus 10! So, how can you keep your house warm and your bills down this winter?Joining Ciara Doherty to discuss is Caitriona Redmond, Consumer Columnist with The Irish Examiner.

Huntington's disease is a progressive brain disorder that affects people emotionally, mentally, and physically. Sufferers usually show symptoms in their thirties and forties. Unfortunately, there is currently no known cure for the condition.  Joining Ciara to reflect on the impact the disease can have and how to manage it was Dr. Niall Pender, Professor of Psychology at the RSCI, along with Fiona, who lost her husband to Huntington's disease.  

All day today, the nation has been looking back on Ireland’s win against Hungary yesterday, but now we’re going to look ahead as to what could be awaiting us in the World Cup playoffs, and what our chances will be? To chat, Ciara was joined by joined by former Irish international, Ray Houghton, who was at the game on commentary duty yesterday. And Mick McCarthy from Off the Ball

This week on our kids Clinic Ciara was joined by Iseult White, Psychotherapist and author to discuss How to support your kids through major life changes - divorce, house and school moves.    

A new law setting a 6km/h speed limit for cyclists, skaters, scooter and e-scooter riders on pavements in Slovakia has received parliamentary approval.  The new measure aimed at improving safety means pavement users who exceed the limit could be fined up to 100 euros.Just how problematic are cyclists who cycle on pavements? Should we do the same?  Joining Ciara to discuss this is Columnist with the Irish Independent and daily cyclist, Liam Collins.

Now, despite all of us learning to sneeze and cough into our elbow during the pandemic, new research has emerged with different advice. A study from the University of Utah has shown that coughing into your shirt or jumper actually prevents more germ molecules from escaping.Joining Ciara to  discuss the findings is Brendan O’Shea, a GP, Adjunct Assistant professor of Public Health and Primary Care at Trinity College, and Medical Director of KDOC – the out-of-hours emergency care service.