In Her Shoes: How a Facebook page became the voice of the Repeal The Eighth movement

How a Facebook page became the voice of the Repeal The Eighth movement. Ciara McDonnell meets the woman behind In Her Shoes

Erin Darcy. Picture Julia Monard

In 2018, a deeply emotional campaign was ripping through the country, taking on the Constitution of Ireland by repealing the Eighth Amendment. There are countless people – men and women – who contributed to Repeal, but few who touched the hearts of women quite like Erin Darcy. Back in 2018, the Mum-of-three felt set apart from the huge movement she was watching unfold before her eyes.

As a native Oklahoman, Erin did not have a vote to cast in the referendum, but she knew that she had to contribute to the cause in some way. “I have two daughters and have been pregnant four times in Ireland,” she tells me over the phone, while wrangling Ophelia, her four-year-old. “I would have assumed that I would always have access to the kind of healthcare that I needed when I needed it. I was pregnant and due at the same time as Savita Halappanavar, and her death made me realise that this was not the case.” 

In early 2018, Erin started a Facebook page. In Her Shoes offered a safe and anonymous space for women to share their stories of abortion, of travel and of secrecy. In the five months approaching the referendum, the page asked its audience to do one thing: walk in the shoes of the women who were telling their story. By the time the referendum took place, In Her Shoes was followed by over 100,000 people, and was reaching over four million people a week.

The idea for the page was borne out of a need to talk. “Talking is my process,” she explains. “Talking about these things - talking about grief and taboo subjects - makes me feel good. A lot of women feel like they suddenly are given permission to talk about it when they hear a story that resonates with them.” Having shared her stories of birth trauma and miscarriage with friends, opening the chasm of that we ‘should not talk about’, Erin started to realise that women all around her were travelling for abortions.

 “Finding out that there were women all around me - in mothering groups that I was a part of - that were having to travel in order to get an abortion was a catalyst for me,” she says. “Women who were having abortions for different reasons - all of us are mothers - and whether it was a pregnancy they didn’t want to keep, or if it was a pregnancy they wished they could keep but for medical reasons couldn't, I wanted to help them.” 

As an artist, Erin wanted to effect change in people’s emotional response to the topic of abortion. “The concept came about from the phrase 'walk a mile in someone's shoes',” she explains. “I am very touched by these intimate objects of ours that we use every day. A pair of shoes that have just been sitting there, that tells so much about a person. You already have an idea of who that person is and who is wearing those shoes and what their life is like. My aim was for people to pause and reflect and realise that these women are actually people.” 

In Her Shoes: Women Of The Eighth collected, illustrated and introduced by Erin Darcy and published by New Island.

The response to In Her Shoes was immediate. Overnight, stories flooded in a broken dam of women’s untold experiences. Each one was responded to individually, and given care and respect, by Erin Darcy. “I would try to meet them where they were at, so if they were in need of some counselling or if they sounded like they were in a bad situation or if they were grieving, then I was talking to them about that too. I wanted them to be met. 

It was a huge honour for them to tell me their story and I wanted them to know who I was, just as I was getting to see who they were.” Erin has compiled and illustrated a collection of the stories that were shared in a book called In Her Shoes:Women Of The Eighth, published by New Island. It’s a powerful time capsule that honours the women who travelled for reproductive rights, and an important read, though not an easy one.

The story In Her Shoes does not highlight though, is the one that so many activists who helped to bring about Repeal experienced: burnout. Erin flatlined after the referendum. Her mother had died before she started the Facebook page, and rather than deep-dive into grief, she took her road most travelled. “I was numb to what was happening. 

Trying to put my grief aside and focus on something as big and as important as that was what pushed me forward,” she says. “I didn't have to think about how difficult it was to be alive without my Mum when people were sharing these experiences with me. It was difficult. I found it hard to turn off; it was so loud all around us during that time.” 

 Erin suffered a mental health breakdown following the referendum, and while she is well today, she still carries the aftershocks of the campaign trail. “I'm just a Mom here in my house and I never knew what I was getting into - none of us did.” 

Erin Darcy is not ‘just a Mom’. She is a trailblazer, a changemaker, a firecracker, a true creative and a very important part of the new tapestry that is being woven in Ireland for the women of future generations.