Irish Independent Letters Page

Leo is honestly just a dishonest self-serving person. If and when Leo thinks he will be best served throwing the T under a bus, he'll be doing that so fast and hard and claiming he was always doing it.

But yeah, the Repeal campaign leaders are largely some of the worst TRAs. I remember training for canvassing and part of the training centring transmen. I hadn't quite peaked at the time but it was definitely one of the things that got me there. i didn't understand why it pissed me off so much. But it did. I also discovered recently that there was a huge amount of infighting within that leadership. I don't want to name names, but the woman who was responsible for the "In Her Shoes" part of the campaign, is hated and reviled by a lot of the other 'leaders' as she firmly insisted that In Her Shoes centre women and girls and not muddy the waters by talking about 'people' who needed abortions. Only a few months ago, they went after her again because she liked a facebook post by Milli Hill and it all came out about how they had actively fought with her all the way through the campaign. (Knowing some of those women quite well, I think more than anything they were viciously jealous of her amazingly effective campaigning as I doubt anything made undecideds vote yes than the stories she brought to the public.)

How very dáre you ! Actually I was at the market day in Bantry a couple of weeks ago. It was like a Druid Ard Fheis had double booked with a Village Idiot Convention. And scarcely a Cork accent to be heard.

Have a look and see what you think - relevant thread has Glinner’s name in the title

Is it worth signing up, would you say?

Their abuse and misuse of fadas is a crime in itself.

Such patronising bollix. My parents were Irish Republicans in the 50s campaign. Grandad was in the War of Independence. It's a bit late to be moaning about the British Empire now isn't it ?

Soon be the Twalfth of July. Great chance for Lillith and the rest of the Teni ppl to protest against Imperialists in Belfast. Black Pampers versus the Lodge. It could be a regular event. Camp as Christmas 🎄 ☺.

Yes I noticed that, quite a few of the TENI dudes are American, possible with Irish ancestors or something - which is why I generally eyeroll when I hear that we are the ones funded by the US religious right, or that we shouldn't follow our Imperial overlords in 'T.erfIsland'.

Re. the Irish mum’s site- It’s mixed. Fairly strong contingent of GC posters that mostly post on 2 threads.

Munster Blackwater. Yes , what with all these Yanks and that Aussie nut in Donegal , I'm in danger of becoming a xenophobe! The more so as they insist on draping themselves in the green flag. No self awareness re cultural appropriation. Actually I don't get too precious about that stuff usually. But it is amusing - all the Gaeilge Dona and comic book attempts at Paganism. Likewise I haven't read the Sindo since we used to get it free at work. Next the Irish Times will have a Road to Damascus moment?

the shinners will wait to see which way the wind is blowing before MaryLou drones in her comment.

SF will take an opposing view to the unionists especially where they think it makes them look liberal

@PleasantBirthday
Frank Cluskey of the Labour Party swam against the tide during the 1970s and insisted that single mothers needed monetary support to raise their child rather than forcing her into either poverty or giving the child up for adoption. He understood how Irish society discriminated against women. I would love to ask Ivanna Bacik, current custodian of the Labour party's heritage, how she can stand by and watch women have the right to refer to ourselves as women erased from legislation. I dont expect anything better from FF, the shinners will wait to see which way the wind is blowing before MaryLou drones in her comment. I had hopes for FG but they too seem only to happy to throw women under the bus as long as Ireland can be held up as a shining example of liberal thought.

The pressure on the media has to be kept up, it's all gone silent again I notice, which isn't good. Everyone is being good again.

I can't vote for Aontu. I can't. I only have one point of agreement with them and we're coming at it from completely different directions.

Will I enjoy telling SF, FF, FG, Lab, Greens, SD where to go? Yeah, I think so. Maybe not the SF woman - she's quite scary and very prominent nationally with all this stuff. I probably just won't answer the door...

😂I think it's perfect.

You are right about the election, as much as I would love this to be dealt with right now, we are going to have to be patient and build momentum.

At least it is being talked about in the media, and bringing the issue onto more people's radar. And now we have groups like The Countess to try and coordinate some sort of information campaign leading up to the election. The only annoying thing is there aren't really any great alternatives to actually vote for.

Also, patience is not my strong point!

I'm not a member, but it does seem to be working this morning - hopefully just a blip.
Can I ask what the general consensus it on the site?

The big target, I suppose, will have to be the next election. At the moment, I can only spoil my vote. I'm thinking of writing something like WOMEN ARE REAL, YOU DICKS.

I have some time to refine it.

Genesis1v27
The Irish Examiner's political correspondent reports some of Micheal Martin's recent comments here: Ireland doesn’t need or want toxic culture war ‘debate’ on trans people. There is no hope of this Taoiseach opening his eyes on this.

God that's infuriating - I'm so sick of men telling us to shut up about this - basically 'calm down, nothing to see here, move along folks' - how patronising.

Also he's claiming that the Gender recognition bill was fully transparent when it was introduced - that's untrue.
It was debated, and what was recommended was the medical model. Which was then abandoned in favour of Self ID at the last minute - literally a few weeks before the legislation passed.

Anyone noticed that the Hey Mammy website is down?
I very strongly suspect an attack by TRAs because we were daring to the openly discuss the problems of Self ID etc. in Ireland.

Gript had a good piece last week on the establishment NGOs operating in Ireland, being paid by us to lobby our "public servants" on behalf of their interests: The Countess fights the Inquisition.

The Irish Examiner's political correspondent reports some of Micheal Martin's recent comments here: Ireland doesn’t need or want toxic culture war ‘debate’ on trans people. There is no hope of this Taoiseach opening his eyes on this.

Just place marking for the fantastic responses upthread.
I rarely read the Sindo, but would have happily paid for it last Sunday if I had known in time.

@Mandodari "Cheered me up after what's her names puff piece supporting the they just want to pee crowd in the Irish Times last week. "... I totally agree.
@Abhannmor (Shannonsider?) your comment about the NGOs is bang on- and so many of them seem to have a random American thrown in there, usually on the board or some such...

But, it's the GC crowd who are importing imperialist notions?

Those letters are the best thing I have read for months. So good to hear so many different angles but my favourite was the one that compared it from personal to ideological doctrine under communism. We are all diverse but some are more diverse that others.

Absolutely. And they're chock full of grifters, like so many of our out of control NGO sector. People of scant talent or education who would struggle to hold down a job in a rural post office heading up organisations with massive budgets.They're the new clergy, rattling the collection plate.

Very well said ! Ireland is chock a block with these opaque NGOs. An alphabet soup of well funded , basically deadwood , groups that only boys and girls ' in the swing' know how to navigate. They should all be swept away. @Mandodari is spot on too. All any woke chancer on the make has to do is position themselves in opposition to the Church.

We are pathetically anxious about being seen as the liberal poster child of Europe. Except for boring stuff like housing the homeless...

@FireFlyBoogaloo
The problem.is they are so desperate to put space between catholic Ireland and liberal Ireland they would support anything that they think differentiates them from the thinking of old. So willing to replace one group of women hating men in dresses with another.

We are going to need a whole new swathe of women's groups in Ireland when all this shakes out.

The ones that are currently going full bore along the "anyone who says they're a woman gets to strip in front of teenage girls" path will need to be set on fire and burned to ash.

What they have done in Ireland, where women have had to fight harder and longer for their rights than pretty much any other developed nation thanks to the church, is utterly despicable. Most of these women, particularly those in senior positions, were born when the laundries were still open and a woman had no right to divorce her abusive husband, for God's sakes.

It should never, ever be forgotten, and can never, ever be forgiven.

It's worth reading them on linehan's blog linked above. They are all typed out & easy to read! Absolutely oved this snippet:

"The attempt to collapse a wide range of concerns and problems into “questioning trans people’s right to exist” is transparent by daylight. The cat is out of the bag. You can call it a bad, transphobic cat, you can intimate that Putin would love a cat like that but rational people will start to wonder what’s your problem with cats.

Geraldine Halpin, Dublin 7"