Readers' Blog: History will judge us for result of the referendum
Long gone are the days, when the rule of the Catholic Church could dictate to the women of Ireland what they could do with their own bodies. Long gone are the days, where a man should decide on what a woman should do with her own body. Long gone are the days where the institutions of government could decide how much autonomy the young women of Ireland should possess. Long gone, the days of inequality, gender bias and women having to scream at picket lines to have their voices heard.
Yet, here we are.
I recently researched a project on the history of contraception in Ireland. I found it almost comical as I watched videos from the 1980s. In these documentaries, condoms were smuggled across the Northern Ireland border. As I watched, and read a litany of sources coming from some of the highest figures in the Catholic Church, talking about how immoral contraception is: “How God should decide, just as he decided to create the Earth?” We all know how that one ended, oh yes, with a big bang.
Yet, here we are.
Then again, I also had spent much time researching the gay marriage referendum looking at the rights of homosexuals in this country. Homosexuality was officially decriminalised in Ireland in 1993. By 2015, we had led the world forward in a huge movement that liberalised members of the LGBT community. Ironically, historically most minorities advance their rights at a similar pace. Look at America in the 1960s, racial movements very much coincided with movements towards the advancement of women’s rights. Although can you term women as a minority group?
Yet, here we are.
Sometime later, I spoke at length with my grandmother about growing up in families of 10 in Ireland. The poverty, the squalor of it all, was utterly horrifying. How could a woman have choices? How could you feed your children, let alone educate them? How could you have any sort of autonomy or independence? No matter how many ways, I ask her these questions, it’s always the same response. “You just got on with it, we didn’t have a choice.”
Yet, here we are.
We are here, screaming! Once again, we are screaming, at the institutions of power in this country. A lot of the debate from the no campaign seems to focus on the convenience of abortion and how a whole host of “stupid teenagers” and “career-orientated cold-hearted bitches” will abuse it. This is a level of ignorance, about the advancement of our society that scarcely warrants a response. It’s misogynistic in its nature and sadly, I have heard these comments made by more women than men. I have spent years teaching teenagers that are far from stupid and working alongside career-orientated women that are so warm and loving that they go above and beyond the call of duty.
Yet, here we are.
As women reach their late twenties they become more concerned with their fertility, than fearing an inconvenient conception. These fears are only further exasperated by the recent scandals surrounding the CervicalCheck. Just like our past, we continue to export our problems. Now even our smear tests can’t be handled in our own country. I am frightened. I am concerned, about my level of choice and independence in asserting how my medical treatment takes place in this country. I have had friends experience a miscarriage in this country. Their treatment purely in the medical sense horrifies me, almost, beyond words.That’s before I even begin to process the emotional pain of the nightmares they have lived through. Listening, and reading about how our medical system has failed the women of Ireland deeply frightens me. We have advanced medically beyond recognition.
Yet, here we are.
The violent tactics of the no campaign which force us to look at pictures of babies inside the womb littering the streets, particularly of our capital, are horrifying.
These propaganda posters belong in the 1960s. Imagine if the yes campaign were to employ these archaic tactics. What would it look like if we had pictures of women bleeding out?
Or being told their baby would not survive outside the womb? Or being told they are infertile due to ineffective medical care?
How would it look if we had pictures of Savita Halappanavar? Her medical mismanagement of a miscarriage in our country cost this woman her life. These graphic images would surely cause a moment for reflection about exactly where we are, and where — more importantly — we want to go next.
I know one thing for sure. History will judge us for this moment for the rest of time.
Thomastown
Co Kilkenny
