The female students in Carlow were shamed and shackled by their burgeoning womanhood

While Scotland was telling women that they are top of the agenda, here it was a different story

Be a good girl. Be quiet, be nice, be respectful, don’t talk too loud, don’t say too much. Don’t show off, don’t flirt. Don’t look at that man that way. Don’t fight for your place at the table - it’s unladylike.

Earlier this week, it was reported that girls from sixth year down to first-year at Presentation College, Carlow were told that they shouldn’t wear tight clothing.

At around the same time, news broke that Scotland would be the first country in the world to supply period products free of charge. The Sanitary Products [Free Provision] (Scotland) Bill means that schools, colleges and universities will have a statutory duty to provide free tampons and sanitary towels in their bathroom facilities.

We see you, the Scottish Government are saying. We don’t want you to worry about a thing that makes you what you are. We want to support your womanhood. Stand up. Be counted. Take your place, we’ve made one for you.
These two events will ricochet. They will be conversation starters and argument makers and will lead to comment and condemnation.

And it is exhausting.

We are tired of fighting for our little girls to be able to grow up in an Ireland where they will be celebrated. We are tired of wearing clothes that make us appear more business-like at work and of dampening our personalities in meetings because we are not sure if it will be received the ‘wrong’ way.

Be the mother. Be the wife. Be the success story. Be the one they look up to. Be everything. And be nothing. Fight, but don’t fight, because you shouldn’t have to.

What do we say to these girls, these almost-women? What do we say to our daughters who may feel they have been told to hide themselves in Ireland of 2020?

Do we tell them to fight? Do we want them to fight? Because we know what it’s like, and we know the damage it can wreak.

We have seen the casualties of these kinds of wars – ask anyone who campaigned during Repeal, still needing time to tend to their wounds after the horrors that they endured.

And of course, we have to urge them to rise up, because there has to be a better way. We have to promise them that this is one bad apple in a harvest of beauties. It is our job to give them hope.

In Scotland, Labour's Monica Lennon showed that despite a global pandemic, the rights of women and girls are at the top of the political agenda. Yesterday, in Scotland, Monica Lennon gave women and young girls hope.

This article was amended to reflect comments made by Presentation College principal Ray Murray which have been covered in a separate article.

**Coverage of this story by the Carlow-based Nationalist newspaper was subject to a decision by the Press Ombudsman on June 21, 2021, which can be read in full here.**