Do you have to be dying to be heard in Ireland?

Last Thursday morning, as we shoved empty cereal bowls into dishwashers, packed kids into cars, and trudged head-first into our daily commute, a single voice stopped this nation in its tracks, writes Joyce Feegan.

Unrehearsed, with no agenda and absolutely nothing left to lose, mother-of-five Emma Mhic Mhathúna, aged 37, told us, in no uncertain terms, that she was dying.