I met MJ O’Brien in her home in the middle of Dublin City Centre, her back garden is the canal dock, which makes for a wonderful vista.

She’s funny, charming and flirting with my sound engineer/partner who is recording our podcast today.

MJ leads with “I got into some trouble” with a little smirk on her face, the kind that tells me there was a man involved. She starts telling me about her nursing college in the UK and how it was located near a U.S. Army base. How they would send bus loads of soldiers over for dances. MJ would wait all night for “ladies choice”, describing herself as a bit of a plain Jane who was constantly looked over. It was at one of these dances where she’d meet Al and fall madly in love with him.

“I was 17 and I thought he was the second coming. He was lovely and of course, he was a different shade”.

As I look around MJ’s apartment, the family photos come into focus, and the smiling faces of all different skin tones start to make perfect sense.

MJ has worked hard her whole life, living all across America for the last 43 years, from New Jersey to New Mexico, bringing up her two sons.

She has come back to Ireland to get to know her siblings and friends again, now as an adult. Sitting with me here today she reminisces about the life she’s lead and the choices that she’s made.

It hasn’t been an easy journey, she has faced all kinds of hardships, losses and injustices, but MJ feels it’s important to forgive those who’ve done you wrong or even inadvertently hurt you. However, it’s most important to forgive yourself, something she has only learned to do later in life.

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.

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.

Mai has a really interesting job as a theatre maker and translator, working on incredible productions like Waiting for Godot in Japan, but it’s not this that fascinates me today on our walk.

Mai has a truly gentle and beautifully curious character. She introduces me to the birds in the gardens that she has named. They’re her friends and confidants, visiting almost daily, a ritual that began in the pandemic. Mai moved to Ireland from Japan 6 years ago (after falling in love with an Irish man, a story we’ll probably hear quite a few times in this project).

As we walk around spotting birds, Mai explains to me some of the cultural differences between her home in Japan and how we do things here.

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.

Rebecca is a new Mum to Dara (and a dog Mum to Lola). We meet her in the afternoon in her suburban home and it’s just like every family home with a 1 year old. The floor is covered in toys within 4 seconds of Dara waking from her nap.

Rebecca makes me laugh, she’s witty, warm, and just casually hilarious. She describes motherhood to me with such honesty and humour, not denying how hard it is, but also being able to laugh at all the silliness it brings (I’ll let her tell the snail story).

She seems like a grafter, a hustler of sorts, who has made herself a good career as an actor on TV (you can see her in Fair City) but she trudged her way to this dream career, moonlighting along the way as a barber, a fitness instructor, nail technician, she has tried her hand at it all.

Come back tomorrow for another podcast/story/portrait.

x Ruth

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.

Eric and I did a podcast swap. He invited me onto his hilarious Joe.ie podcast “You Must Be Joking” which I was terrified about (I’m not funny) and in turn, I invited him into this project. I’ve left a certain amount of room in the 365 spaces to include interesting folk I meet along the way.

I’ve known Eric for a good few years but as acquaintances mainly, I don’t think I’ve ever just sat down and chatted to him. Our paths have crossed at festivals where I'd be sent to photograph his comedy shows and he was one of the first to appear in my last big project during Covid, Twilight Together (as he lives within my 2km).

We talk about risk taking, leaving behind cushy jobs with unreal perks, for a life of comedy and all the worry and laughs that brings with it.

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.

It’s a freezing cold January morning when I knock on Gill’s door in South Dublin. I can already see flashes of neon through the front room window and I get an inkling this is going to be an interesting shoot.

Gill wrote to me, asking if I could photograph her for this project “I'm a big smiler so I'd like people to remember me for being happy, rather than for being the girl who died of cancer.”

Gill begins to tell me her story. “I'm just a normal Joe soap, but I suppose I have a fairly unique story in that I have terminal cancer.”

Faced with an uncertain timeline and a new perspective on life, Gill takes support and inspiration from her circle of friends. They rally around her through hospital stays, home visits, summer barbecues and also help Gill achieve some life goals. They whizz around Mondello racecourse on bicycles for 24 hours, abseil down buildings dressed as superheroes and see the sunrise over the Sahara in a hot air balloon.

“I'm very vocal on my socials about sun safety and all that because I was a sun worshipper, that’s why I got melanoma. Normally I'd use my platform for that, but today, what I would say to people is just enjoy life. Enjoy life for yourself, not for others. Do what you want to do. Live in your own little bubble of niceness and happiness.”

Come back tomorrow for another podcast/story/portrait.

x Ruth

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.