Oireachtas Retort has been digging in wikileaks and takes a look at the McGee case as seen from the US Embassy in 1973. Most people are familar with the tale of the condom train or how the Virgin Megastore started selling rubber johnnies on behalf of the Irish Family Planning Association in 1990. But what about the young woman who bravely stood up and went about kicking stultified social policing … Read More
#rabbleRaker: Women Have A Way Of Shutting It Down
Peter McGuire in yesterday’s Irish Times reports that secondary school students are being taught lies by teachers and anti-choice groups Family & Life (friends of Reform Alliance) and Life Pregnancy Care. The Irish Times interviewed 14 students, one of whom is quoted: Sarah says the class was also told that, in some countries, abortions are conducted right up to term, and that as the baby crowns they “crack its skull”. … Read More
Charity Regulator Spells Trouble For Pro-Life & Reform Alliance
Jim Daly TD accuses Pro-Life charity associated with Reform Alliance of targeting elderly & vulnerable for donations Speaking under Dáil privilege, Jim Daly TD adds to concerns over the Central Remedial Clinic and Rehab scandal with reference to Family & Life, the estranged Irish branch of Human Life International founded by Peter Scully of Youth Defence . The registered charity which refuses to co-operate with SIPO (Standards in Public Office) … Read More
Is It Just A Game In Our Mind, My Iona?
Watch yer heads lest ye get it swiped off your shoulders with a legal threat. With all the solicitors letters flying around, we mustn’t forget that Canadian researchers had to write to the constitutional convention about the not-at-all homophobic Iona Institute ‘misconstruing’ their work on parenting. You can read more via Eile.ie Thanks to @Oireachtas_RX
The X-Files
Caroline McCamley is a women’s rights activist who served as chairperson of the Dublin Well Woman Centre and the National Women’s Council of Ireland. She talks to Rónán Burtenshaw about her involvement in the abortion campaigns of the 80’s & 90’s. What was your first exposure to the politics of abortion in Ireland? I was a feminist in the early ‘80s but the ‘choice’ issue didn’t really come up for … Read More
Repeal the Eighth
It’s been a year since crowds held images of Savita Halappanavar outside Leinster House. Oireachtas Retort wonders if we are starting to leave ‘vanity Ireland’ behind? On the 18th February 1992 An Taoiseach Albert Reynolds stood in Dáil Éireann to outline details on Ireland’s injunction of a fourteen year old girl. He was followed by a brief statement from each opposition leader. As the Chair called time two deputies … Read More
Anti-choice behind Fr Iggy’s downfall
Fresh from monumental defeat our old friends turn their attention to dissident clergy. Why lick wounds when the dwindling Irish anti-choice can eat itself? Oireachtas Retort investigates. The spectre of Vatican espionage was a persistent bogeyman in the fledgling Irish state. While events like the 1932 Eucharistic Congress and wider state policy did much to cement Roman hegemony, the eyes and ears of il Papa remained necessary in urban legend … Read More
How the Ohio abortion restrictions affects vaginas
Cleveland rocks? More like Cleveland sucks. Comedian Mike Polk parodies the GOP’s recent budgetary attack on abortion rights. What’s the background to all this? There’s a quick breakdown of recent changes over at this reproductive health blog. With some of the stuff you hear put on the table with this debate, videos like this strike too close to reality. Let’s hope Lucinda and crew aren’t inspired by it.
LIVE: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013
The Dáil will return to discuss Report and Final Stages It was originally scheduled to conclude at 9pm but after objections to a guillotine session, it will be allowed to go past midnight before voting. Lucinda Creighton (FG), Peter Mathews (FG) and a few nobodies are thought to be amongst the 6 FG reps considering voting with their ‘conscience’ against the wishes of their constituents and the whip. Also in … Read More
While you were chanting. A strange arrest on O’Connell St.
The young man whose arrest featured in a video we were sent on Saturday, which went somewhat viral, has published his account of the events. We have had lots of requests for updates on this story. Here we post his report and a link to the full text: At around 2:45 PM, on Saturday the 6th of July, I was standing on O’Connell Street at the counter demo to Youth … Read More