Policy Press

Mary O'Hara

Mary O’Hara is an award-winning journalist, author and producer. Her journalism appears in publications including The Guardian and Mosaic Science. She is the author of two books: The Shame Game: Overturning the Toxic Poverty Narrative (2020) & Austerity Bites: A Journey to the Sharp End of Cuts in the UK (2014) and is founder of the multi-platform anti-poverty initiative, Project Twist-It. Mary has directed/produced short films, run a comedy club, been a Fulbright Scholar at UC Berkeley and a producer and consultant on Getting Curious podcast with Jonathan Van Ness. In 2020 she was named Best Foreign Columnist at the Southern California Journalism Awards.
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Austerity Bites 10 Years On

A Journey to the Sharp End of Cuts in the UK

With new commentary, Austerity Bites 10 Years On assesses on the true scale of the damage austerity policies have inflicted on the country’s most vulnerable groups, public institutions and on the wider society, reflecting on where we have been, where we are now and what needs to happen next to undo the damage and avoid the same mistakes again.

Policy Press

The Shame Game

Overturning the Toxic Poverty Narrative

Drawing on a two-year multi-platform initiative, this book by award-winning journalist and author Mary O’Hara, asks how we can overturn the portrayal of poverty once and for all. Crucially, she turns to the real experts to try to find answers – the people who live it.

Policy Press

Austerity Bites

A Journey to the Sharp End of Cuts in the UK

This timely book by award-winning journalist Mary O’Hara chronicles the true impact of austerity on people at the sharp end of the cuts, based on her 12-month journey around the country in 2012 and 2013 and fully updated for the paperback edition

Policy Press