The Thistle & Shamrock is a weekly American syndicated radio program, named after the national emblems of Scotland and Ireland, specializing in Celtic music.

At the time it went on the air in 1981, WFAE was licensed to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC) and Ritchie was working as a volunteer, having returned there after spending a semester in 1980 there as a teaching assistant.

[1][5] Although WFAE is no longer licensed to UNCC and has switched to a mostly news-talk format, the Charlotte station continued to carry Thistle as one of its few music programs for several years.

On September 30, 2024, Ritchie will discontinue the weekly series to devote time to other projects; she has not ruled out continuing to produce special programs after that.

In 2006, Ritchie launched Thistlepod, a free podcast from NPR featuring new-releases from Celtic roots.