The State broke their bodies not their spirit

IF THE women had been men, they might have resembled a gathering of old soldiers, survivors from some forgotten war.

They moved slowly, these women. Some had difficulty walking. Many were of advanced age, but that alone did not account for their restricted movement. Quite obviously, more than a few were in pain. They had lived with that pain since they were young women, when agents of this State mutilated their bodies to control them.

More than 100 of these women gathered in the Lighthouse Cinema, in Dublin’s Smithfield Plaza, last Tuesday morning. The occasion was the launch of a powerful, compelling documentary about their plight, and that of other women who have no voice. Mothers Against The Odds is made by Esperanza productions, which is run by Ronan Tynan and Anne Daly and has a sterling record in making films about the developing world. Except this film is not concerned with a foreign country, but with the different country that is the past. No person at the screening could have known it, but within 24 hours a story would break that demonstrated that the past is not behind us in our treatment of pregnant women.