to ask if there's anyone else here who 'travelled' from Ireland?

[Twirlywoowoo]

I know there must be other Irish women on here and I often wonder...I did in 1999, and I've only ever told two people. My best friend (luckily still my closest friend) and my husband. I didn't even tell the guy I was going out with because we split up just before I found out. He wasn't a good guy anyhow. I was 19. But I often think back to that time - it feels like it was a different life. My friend's cousin had had one so she sent on the details and I went on an Aer Lingus flight that I booked on the phone. I hadn't a clue about the internet - I think it was just in its early days. My mam thought I was going down the country for a few days for a course. The whole thing was weird, kind of surreal. I came home and life went back to normal. But I never felt the same again, and I think a lot of that was because I couldn't talk about it. My friend was very kind but she wouldn't have done it herself so we stopped talking about it after a while.
Anyway, just keep thinking about it now it's in the news at home now - I'm not living in Ireland anymore, moved to the UK a few years back. When you talk about the subject here people are shocked it's illegal to travel etc.

Does anyone know if there's a website or charity where you can offer to support the women who travel; offer transport or lodgings and the like?

Women on web and the Abortion Support Network would be two I've heard of.

I give to a charity that supports irish women who've had abortions in the uk. I was moved hearing about that, that a uk charity is helping irish women in the uk. Thank god for the uk. Ill look at my credit statement online to see what they're called exactly

Abortion support network yes that's the one

I posted the link to ASN on Tues but it seems to have been overlooked. Thanks for also mentioning them. They do amazing work and i’m proud to support them.

And please, if you need ‘to travel’ please, please contact them if you need advice or financial support. They will help.

And if you can donate to ASN please, please do. Every penny, cent, pound or euro can make a difference.

I travelled - by boat then a train to London. Then back on the train straight after to the boat. No sleep so stressed out. I will never regret it. It was and still is the right decision. The travelling especially afterwards was very tough.

My dear Aunt traveled to the UK in the 1950s to have a baby because she was unmarried. He was adopted and she never got over it. She married the father and had 4 more children with him but could never admit to being "sent away". She became an alcoholic and my cousins now realise that much of what troubled her and the strange things she used to say were all to do with "giving away" the first baby she had with her husband. My cousins only found out about their brother a couple of years ago and tried to track him down, although they assumed he had stayed in the UK. Turned out, he had lived in Dublin most of his life near to all of them. They've become real family now but what a waste

It’s a bonkers hypothesis, but I wonder how the vote would go if only women of childbearing age were allowed to vote?

I really hope there’s a change come May.

Looking for the end of the tread to add a post about ASN

only to discover that others have got there first. Can't do any harm to add it again. I first rad about it here on MN. Its a cause I feel strongly about.

My family are from NI, but have never lived there. I'm it religious, but feel that had they stayed, I could easily have needed that help. Its a privilege to support them.

[waves to @TempusFugitive , who seems to be on all the threads today 😀

My ex keeps posting prologue stuff, it’s driving me mad. I can’t believe the Catholic Church argued for a babies right to life at the same time as putting babies and mothers in laundries to be abused.

Did anyone see ‘My baby- who decides’ this week? A family with a baby in intensive care said if they had known how bad his problems would of been they would of had a termination. I wish these pro life people had watched. The parents weren’t saying that as they wanted the perfect baby but out of pure love for their baby who suffered so much before passing away.

About 10 years ago my ex was at a catholic event and was shown a video of an abortion- apparently to abort a baby a long stick with salt is used to burn the baby to death and the video showed the baby trying to get away from the stick. I asked him if it bothered him that he had been lied to rather than presented with the facts (let’s face it the facts aren’t pretty).

Also can’t believe the posters and story being spread of an ex abortion nurse working in the nhs who shared the horrors of what he saw turned out to of not worked a day in his life in the medical field and is instead an ex gun man robber!

Ive never has an abortion but that’s as I’ve never found myself vulnerable and pregnant. It’s so easy for people like my ex to sit back and judge, he said something about he still liked me as I’m pro life but would never have an abortion myself. Very true i could never imagine having one but how many people who do, think they will in advance? Makes me so mad!

Sorry the quote did from my ex was that I’m pro choice

1992; not me but at the clinic where I was having my own termination.

I was 17 and she was a sophisticated mid 20s lady. I was aware abortion was illegal in Ireland and women travelled but astounded when she told me that she could get arrested when returning to Ireland.
We were there overnight rather than day patients. Bless that lovely lady and all others

@Davros A similar situation in my extended family, although the Mum didn’t turn to alcohol she was often withdrawn and was probably depressed when I think back. The news that she had adopted her first child came as a huge shock to all the family who then had to get their head around it all. The adopted child was very bitter that the birth Mum went on to have more children with the same father and this just added to her feelings of guilt. The family tried their best to welcome the adopted sibling and form a relationship but the anger and bitterness she felt towards them all made it impossible. The whole thing is an awful tale of sadness.

In this instance the Mum suffered the trauma of giving up her child, her other children suffered growing up with a depressed Mum, then dealing with the news of having a sibling they never knew about, then dealing with the anger this person feels towards them and seeing their Mum deal with the guilt, the adopted child is deeply suffering still as an adult. The impact of all this is far reaching and has implications for the wider family.