Modern Ireland is the “best time and place ever” to be a woman, Ciara Kelly has said.

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Ciara said she is sick and tired of the narrative surrounding International Women’s Day (IWD), insisting that women today have opportunities that those before them “would have only dreamt of”.

The Newstalk presenter said felt “overwhelmed” at the number of negative IWD press releases that came into the station this year.

“I am genuinely tired that all we ever hear about being a woman is really, really negative,” she said.

“I am tired of everything coming at us through the prism of how awful it is to be a woman.

“Because the truth is this – I don’t feel my life is awful.

“I don’t feel I have no opportunities; I don’t feel held back; I am not afraid to go out the door for fear of being attacked.

“I am kind of sick of being described as if I am a victim in some way. I don’t want that for me and I particularly don’t want it for my daughter and other young women because that mindset, I actually believe, is harmful and I believe it holds us back.”

"I am sick of hearing this glass half empty, misery porn about womanhood." Ciara has her say on #InternationalWomensDay, on @NTBreakfast pic.twitter.com/jooIQ7IsVK

— NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) March 8, 2024

"We have come so far"

She said she was not suggesting that everything is perfect – noting that we still have “a way to go” in terms of gender equality.

“There is nothing perfect in the world or in society but when I think of the life lived by my grandmother or my mother, my life is so wholly different and so much better,” she said.

“I have so many opportunities. I have so many things that I can do and that I do do that they would have only dreamt of.

“We have come so far.

“I also do think this – this is probably, by the way, the best time and place ever to have been a woman.

“Ireland is a very equal country; we have good laws to protect us.

“I am not saying it’s perfect but I am saying, Jesus, why does everything come through the prism of the glass being half empty?”

A woman holding a briefing with employees in the boardroom. Image: Aleksandr Davydov / Alamy

Ciara said she is also tired of society constantly talking about women in “reproductive terms”.

“They are either mothers or they are childless or they are post-menopausal or they are pre-menopausal or we talk about fertility,” she said.

“There are more things to us as women than our ovaries and our vaginas and I have to just say that.”

'I don’t feel oppressed'

Ciara said International Women’s Day is an opportunity to “talk about women today who are bloody well brilliant”.

“I want to talk about the brilliant aspects of being a woman,” she said.

“The wonderful friendships we forge, the cool things we do and create with our intellects and our talents.

“The fact that we are taking the world by storm largely - look at the music charts, look at all the things women are doing - and the incredible, often matriarchal, families that we build here in Ireland.

“I would love just one time to hear about those positives and I would love to celebrate being a woman today without hearing about how oppressed we are because you know what, I don’t feel oppressed.

“I can’t think of an instance - and this is true - where I’ve ever been held back in my life personally because I am a woman.

“I have stormed into anywhere I’ve ever wanted to be.

“I just think the glass is also half full. The glass is half full and I am tired of being described only as having a miserable life or to do with my periods.

“I would like to talk about women in a celebratory way today.”

International Women’s Day is a global celebration of social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women and a focal point in the women’s rights movement.