Ireland..you could not make this up

Bernie seems to just get weirder. Can't really see her getting elected in County Leitrim mind you. Ireland is too incestuous and things get nasty when everyone knows each other's politics. Or thinks they do.

Poor ould John Boyne is now a literal nazi and transphobe apparently , just because he apologised to Glinner. I never engage with Bernie and her fangirls and boys. I know I'd probably lose it with them but I just can't deal with that kind of insanity.

Bernie seems to be going full throttle now, against anyone who may have different views to her... (I havent seen the post re the King, nor JKR, but she seems a mixed bag to me. Pro abortion rights on the one hand, anti GC etc on the other.) https://twitter.com/Berlinnaeus/status/1705888421665800330

Thanks miri I agree that unfortunately in Ireland we are too concerned with how we are viewed on the world stage, particularly our politicians. Notice how we fawn embarrassingly over US presidents who have an Irish granny etc.
With all the good will and kudos that came after the same sex and abortion referendums, they don't want to spoil the fun by actually looking at facts rather than good feelings.

I saw that online seminar with the Countess, I agree that Gearóid is a great resource as he previously worked with Irish prisons. Interestinly, in one of those discussions, there was a Canadian campaigner who had been in prison herself and talked about the problems that Self ID caused.
She spoke about how she thought Canada was far too concerned with appearing to be good and cool and w0ke, rather than the grubby reality. It make me think of Ireland.

It's one of the reasons I cringe when I hear it trotted out, how Ireland is a great example of the apparent success of Self Id.
We know that it isn't a success, instead it's a big mess and a liability waiting to happen, there just hasn't been a light shone on the problems yet. Instead they are trying to cover up the issues and hope it goes all goes away.

Did you see this? Sorry to link to my own thread- don’t know if it’s the done thing but Irish schools will no longer have single sex toilets!! Pop over to my thread to discuss further

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4215600-Ireland-will-no-longer-be-providing-single-sex-toilets-in-primary-and-secondary-schools

And to take this further then the period bills should state women and girls.

Letter today is correct that the Interpretation Act means that men is to be read as to include women. And that is why the abortion Act mentions just women but covers trans men as a result of the interpretation Act.

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/women-and-legislation-1.4533274?mode=amp

However the proposed bill for time off for a woman who suffers a miscarriage says that an employee of entitled to paid time off of he or she suffers a miscarriage. Makes a mockery of the use of interpretation Act

data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachtas/bill/2021/38/eng/initiated/b3821s.pdf

If you told the regular Irish people what was going on they'd be appalled, the majority of Irish people are in no way as woke as they want us to be. Just like the Dentons document said this has all succeeded because it has been hidden.

I think also there is the element that the majority of women will never either be in a situation like being in prison or having to do an intimate search on someone. It is working class and poor women who will be forced to actually confront the reality of self ID so middle class people can stick their heads in the sand. There was a really interesting countess interview with a former member of the penal reform trust who said that back in the day they would have fought this but are just completely captured now

It will take a case or a union or something standing up for this before any notice is taken of whats going on. I'm heartened that the IT is actually allowing these letters but in all honestly you have to be paying attention to notice any of this which a lot of people aren't

This is so frustrating, why are politicians and the media so willing to erase us? I'm starting to think we need a new women's party - although we would probably be labelled a terrorist group or something!

My biggest hope is that Irish people tend to monitor what goes on in the UK pretty closely, so maybe people will see the resistance happening over there and question what is going on here.

But it has been so under the radar that it's hard to get people to even acknowledge it. Any time I mention it to someone in real life they haven't a clue, and are appalled.

By the way it goes without saying, please don't pile on the woman in the above linked tweet. Ask questions yes, but pile ons never work and make us look deranged, and are frequently used against us.

Meanwhile a superwoke member of the IHREC Irish Human Rights & Equality Commission calls the women who wrote into the IT transphobes!

twitter.com/drlucymichael/status/1380402092423192576

This is what we are up against. Forget institutional capture, more like complete and utter national capture. IHREC is funded directly by the Oireachtas (House of Parliament) so more of our tax money being spent against us.

Forgot this thread actually started with BL!

Really great to see the letters continue to pour in. Bernie permits herself a little more snark on Twitter than in the IT:

twitter.com/Berlinnaeus/status/1380437402355924995?s=19

But the funny thing is how no-one has written in to spell out in clear terms who initiated the policy and who it is supposed to benefit. How can this be a mystery if it is being applied systematically to numerous bills currently going through? Why won't whoever is in favour of it stand up and be counted?

The second letter (from Bernie) is probably where a lot of well meaning people are coming from. Though her somewhat condescending tone of the letter does tend to imply that GC women are being a little hysterical
The third letter (from Helen) answers it.

The letters continue
www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/what-s-wrong-with-the-word-woman-1.4532301

I wonder if Ivana came back as a TD would she be more fearless on issues?

What a gift he is!

Ivana had no fear of taking on the controversial back in the day. I'd have hoped for better of her.

Great letters though (with one notable exception).

[quote miri1985]That letter to the editor about the word woman has lead to a full page of responses (7 agreeing with the previous letter and certain people shocked that they had to learn about it from a letter and 1 "cis-gender man" who thinks that women aren't being nice about their erasure and are "advantaged" and "privileged" ).

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/what-s-wrong-with-the-word-woman-1.4531247[/quote]
miri I logged in here this morning to comment on that. Interesting.
Especially the woman who says they have contacted TDs & Senators ....

" Something else is happening which is quite sinister. The euphemisms have moved from the word “period” to the word “woman”. The word “woman” does not appear once in either of the Bills. It is replaced by “anyone”, “everyone” and “people”. None of the female Fianna Fáil or Labour Senators contacted seem to know why or where the word went, although it must have been deliberately excluded. Labour’s Ivana Bacik had no difficulty referring to women and girls in 2019 when she raised the issue of period poverty in the Seanad as she used both throughout her speech. When contacted, neither she nor any of her female Seanad colleagues answered my question – why are you deliberately excluding the word “woman”? " .

Awful. Have a read of this 3 parter from Graham Lineham on the strategy of stealth advised by Dentons law firm. grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/the-dentons-document

grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/the-dentons-document-78d

grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/the-dentons-document-part-3

That letter to the editor about the word woman has lead to a full page of responses (7 agreeing with the previous letter and certain people shocked that they had to learn about it from a letter and 1 "cis-gender man" who thinks that women aren't being nice about their erasure and are "advantaged" and "privileged" ).

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/what-s-wrong-with-the-word-woman-1.4531247

I'm gritting my teeth in fury reading that.
How bloody dare they?
It's beyond frustrating... and all done on the sneaky, softly softly. Which implies that the legislators and those promoting the change know that it wont go over well with the wider population.

Letter to the editor yesterday
www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/what-s-wrong-with-the-word-woman-1.4529334

"Sir, – The words “woman” and “mother” are being erased from our legislation by our legislators and State agencies without women, who are the stakeholders affected, being asked to consent to such erasure.

Last year the HSE removed the word “woman” from cervical check material and website and replaced it with the phrase “people with a cervix”. Many women were outraged and said so. After a few months, the HSE said that it had listened to “extensive stakeholder feedback” and the phrase “people with a cervix” was changed to incorporate “women and people with a cervix” wherever it appears in its literature.

Last month, at the lightning pace of shorter than two weeks, the Family Leave and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill was initiated and passed through both the Seanad and the Dáil. The Bill removes the word “mother” from seven existing Acts. The proposed Organisation of Working Time (Reproductive Health Related Leave) Bill 2021 Bill to allow for paid time off for women and mothers, if they have had a miscarriage or need to undergo IVF, doesn’t mention women or mothers once. In addition, both private member Bills to provide free period products before the Seanad don’t mention women or girls once – just “person” or “persons” in the case of the Labour-sponsored Bill and “those” and “everyone” in the Fianna Fáil Bill.

It is an outrageous insult to women to remove our name from legislation intended to benefit those of our sex. It would be foolhardy for politicians to think that Irish women and mothers will remain silent on this. – Is mise, CLODAGH MORAN, "

Then today (unconnected I assume) an opinion column about the lack of public toilets for women www.irishtimes.com/opinion/kathy-sheridan-public-toilets-are-key-to-dignity-health-and-wellbeing-1.4530299