Action packed day - 12 Nov 2015

 Arrived into work to the big surprise of lovely cupcakes!  Thank you to Jennie!  *waves to Jennie if she's reading this blog*

 

 During my lunch break I headed across to the Abbey Theatre where I had read there was an event happening.

Waking the Feminists is a response by Women in the Arts to the Abbey Theatre's launch of their program for 1916 (Waking the Nation) which contained just one play by a woman and all the rest by men. 

 

I arrived and all the tickets were gone.  I got on to the cancellation list (no 92) but I missed out on a cancellation as well (they had 49 of those tickets).  What I did get was a ticket to go upstairs to the bar and listen to the sound being streamed in from the auditorium.  This was actually probably best for me as I did have to go back to work while the event was still on.

 

 

The words were so powerful that it did not matter we could not see the speakers.  Personal stories about what women had encountered and how they were not going to take it anymore.  "The time is now" said Deborah Crotty.

 

I went back to work invigorated.

 

 

After work I scurried up O'Connell Street to an event in the Pillar Room in the Rotunda Hospital.  It was the launch of the book of  "Ireland says yes: The inside story of how the vote for Marriage Equality was won"

I had intended wearing my Yes Equality badge but forgot it that morning so a sticker that I had in my drawer in work had to do.  And I had myself a nice glass of wine :-)

 

Panti Bliss was mc. You might remember my blog post about going canvassing and meeting Rory O'Neill?

 

The authors of the book Grainne Healy, Brian Sheehan, Noel Whelan.

 

Ursula Halligan who spoke movingly about the personal prison she was trapped in and she felt safe enough to come out to herself and Ireland because of what everyone did as part of  the Yes Equality campaign.  It's sad to think that it took until now at the age of 54 for her to confront this suppressed truth about herself but it is also a happy thing - as she said in her speech she could have ended up taking it to the grave.

Panti Bliss said that as a result of Ursula giving her interview with the Irish Times during the campaign "we all fell in love with Ursula".  She then commented that this was integral to the vote because "it's very hard to vote against someone you love". 

 

The evening brought all that great feeling back to me of the day of May 22 2015 and also made me feel proud of playing my small part in changing history.  One of the speakers said they asked a canvasser why they came out and they said because they didn't want it lost over just one vote.  And that was it for Enid and I, we felt that if there was something (small) we could do we should do it, because if (God forbid!!!!) we lost we would be able to say we tried, and that we could not have done more i.e. if we hadn't had gone out and then had lost we always would have felt there was something we should have done.

 

From there I bussed it (the 38 to the Navan Road and then changed to a 39a) and met Enid for a coffee in the towncentre. 

 

Phew what a day!

Same Sex Marriage in Ireland (or marriage as it will be called from now on!)

One week ago today it was confirmed that the people of Ireland had voted to bring in Same Sex Marriage.

It was an incredibly proud moment for our little Ireland and one week later I still have this incredible inner smile and feeling of pride.

Happy Equality!

Marriage Referendum

On Friday 22nd of May Ireland is holding two votes. 

One of them is to decide if we want to change the age you can become President of Ireland from 35 to 21, and the other which (obviously) is getting much more attention is whether to extend marriage to Same Sex couples.

I really feel passionate about the marriage referendum, I feel it is simply about equality, and not discriminating against any group of people.  At the end of the day it's about inclusion - if people are so into marriage that they want to be part of the institution why wouldn't we want to include them.

The debate however has got very very intense over the last few weeks.  We have a number of very vocal groups around Ireland who don't want to share marriage.  They say that gay people have Civil Partnership so they should be happy with that and not want marriage - because marriage is just for a man and a woman.  They also have been muddying the waters bringing up the topic of adoption and surrogacy which (a) have nothing to do with this referendum and (b) we are being informed by Child Protection organisations like ISPCC and Barnardos, and by Geoffrey Shannon who is an expert on adoption in Ireland that same sex marriage will not change the current process.

So based on all that was going on and being said in the media, while Enid and I were talking the good talk on Twitter and Facebook, we figured it was time to get out on the ground and take part in the canvassing. (Fair play Enid for suggesting it!)

We went out last Thursday for the first time ever and it was great.  We were both matched up with someone who had done it before and off we set.  It was great hearing from people who were definite Yes's, we politely thanked and walked away from any No's, and we talked to people who were undecided about what their concerns or questions were.  I'd hope we've influenced some positively.

It was great meeting and chatting with all the other canvassers.  Everyone was incredibly nice and POSITIVE which is lovely in this day and age.

This is the group Enid and I went out with on our first day.  There's Enid on the left end of the flag.  The canvass had finished in my estate so I just went straight home :-) but missed the photo :-(

On Monday I went out on my own as Enid was working late.  There I am to the right of the flag in a red coat.

I couldn't believe my luck but it turned out that Rory O'Neill aka Panti Bliss was allocated to our group/area's canvass.  He has been sent all over Dublin to a different area each night.  Poor Enid was going mad that she missed him.

And finally we went out yesterday evening.  We had nearly 80 people out canvassing!!!  We split into three groups and the above was the group we were in.  It was really great to finish on such a high with so many people out on the canvass.  The organisers Roderic O'Gorman and TJ Clare should be very proud of themselves, they did a great job with the organising  of the routes and the marshalling and directing.

Oh and most importantly it looks like 69/70% Yes in Dublin West of those who answered their door and spoke with us.

If you are reading this before you vote please get out and vote Yes.  Without revealing too much personal information one of the people I was speaking with on one of the nights is a gay person with children.  Their children see the awful No posters every day ("children deserve a mother and father" etc etc) it affects the children and makes them worry.  Now if that isn't an argument for voting Yes I don't know what is.