Women Today, a precursor of
Liveline, broke many taboos and she broached many hidden topics such as female sexuality. She said in an interview: “It sounds almost medieval now, but if you did anything on reproduction or marriage that wasn’t exactly in tune with the Roman Catholic Church’s line, you’d get slaughtered. You couldn’t mention the word ‘orgasm’.”
In 1980, she won the Prix Italia for a documentary on abortion. She interviewed a woman who was to have an abortion in England, travelled with her and gave an account of her experience. Later in her career, her long interviews regularly set the national agenda, such as in 2001 when junior minister Joe Jacob claimed Ireland could deal with a nuclear disaster by distributing iodine tablets. The more Marian probed, the less assured the politician sounded.