Gender Critical in Ireland Part 4

[MaeveofConnaught]

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/craicnet/4777231-gender-critical-in-ireland-part-3?page=40&reply=139277391
Last thread was full so starting a new one.

Where is that quote from? Thanks

Irish Daily Mail: 5.12.25. Page 7:
”No Trans Ban For Irish Girl Guides”
Free to read on Borrow Box.😁

Irish Daily Mail 5.12.2025.

Thanks. A quick looks around the IGG website doesn't show anything

I agree! I never thought I'd feel warm feelings toward the British justice system, but fair play to it, it has looked at several sex/gender cases with objectivity and common sense, and issued rulings which have put 'genderwoo' back where it belongs, at least legally.

The UK Supreme Court decision that 'sex' means 'biological sex' in equality legislation was seismic, but we couldn't even launch such a case here because the word 'sex' has been written out of our equality legislation, so the definition of 'sex' is immaterial😠

The should be a challenge to the GRA, for instance on the basis that 'gender' was never conclusively defined, or that if you change your 'gender' insofar as it is defined, this does nothing to your biological sex, so somebody with a GRC has changed how they present themselves outwardly, but cannot and have not changed sex, and remain for all purposes, including legal, in the sex they were born into.

I feel like following that with DUH!! because it seems so bloody obvious, doesn't it?

But who will take it up? We don't have the numbers like they have over in Terf Island to force the issue to the highest court, and even if we have brave women like Maya Forstater or Rachel Meade or Sandie Peggie who are prepared to stand up and risk all, we don't have the GC legal eagles they have over there, to fight for the Mayas and the Rachels and the Sandies...

The fact that instead of taking the lead from the UK, Irish organisations like the Girl Guides just dig their heels deeper into genderwoo is depressing.

From 2017. IGG also submitted to the Gender Recognition Act Review 2018 with similar policy outline.
IGG guidelines

Yes, I know the IGG policy, I was looking for a reference to this new statement reaffirming their position on the website.

I subscribed to The Countess because I didn't know of any other Irish GC groups online - I'm not on FB etc., and annoyingly a lot of groups [in general, I don't mean only GC ones!] only have a FB presence, but The Countess had a website and sent out emails so..

I recently discovered
Genspect Ireland — Genspect
I'm aware that there was some kind of ideological kerfuffle about an aspect of Genspect's policies or attitudes, but at the I didn't think it was 'fatal' in my opinion, and Genspect Ireland seems to be saying and doing the kind of things that need to be said and done in Ireland.

I see Sara Morrison, of Belfast Film Festival tribunal fame, is now working with Genspect Irl

Genspect is great. I’ve been following Stella O’Malley since she went public and can’t fault her attitude and ethos. Genspect also platforms writers like Paddy O’Gorman, Jill Nesbitt and Catherine Monaghan as well as a host of international interviews in its Gender, A Wider Lens section. Its peer support for distressed parents and trans identifying people is a unique and compassionate space. They also have a schools information pack to combat BeLonG To et al.
Otherwise Jill Nesbitt’s Women’s Space Ireland is dedicated to exposing gender nonsense in our media and public sphere.
Roisin Michaux is good for Europe.
Is there a cohesive group in Ireland with a structured focus on calling out and reinstating the 100% of women’s rights that were eradicated with the introduction of the Gender Recognition Act?
The Countess, as the only option, has been good but sporadic in its output. Maybe its just not strong on PR.
It is my opinion that in a situation like ours where 51% of the population have had their rights removed and replaced by some ideological mind worm, we may need to be less than purist about our bed fellows. After all, by expressing the views that we do here we are already cast as Far Right, Christian Conservative, Fascist, Bigots for whom hate speech laws are required.
Perhaps some wars can only be won by focusing on unity of cause and agreeing to disagree on differences.

Thanks for that, Puckeen - I'm glad to see Woman's Space is using their website more now - there was a time where everything seemed to be happening on FB or maybe Twitter, I can't remember, and I drifted away..

The good thing about a website is that it is open to anybody who is online, and you don't have to sign up to any of those dodgy TechBro platforms to engage with it
So I now have Genspect and Woman's Space to follow, and I feel more connected, thank you!

I'm afraid The Countess has gone so far overboard about immigration that I want nothing further to do with them. I don't see it as a slight difference of emphasis which can be lived with within a broad coalition - I was actually, literally [meaning: literally, physically] shocked when I read that piece in which they announced their 'New Mission'.

WTF was wrong with the old one, which was campaigning for women's rights?

As you say, GC feminists are often accused of being Nazi-adjacent Trumpists, funded by the American Christian Right. Given that many of us come from left-ish backgrounds, and haven't seen a $ of American Christian money, that is laughable, but it is also 'sticky' and damaging.
I think The Countess has just thrown an awful lot of petrol on that particular pyre..

I hope The Countess drop Constance Gore-Booth as their icon - after all, she only became a Countess by marrying an unvetted non-national male of military age who may have lied about being a Count!

I didn’t realise thay about the Countess and their new direction - I’ve donated to them for a few years, as you said there were so few Irish based organisations even talking about these issues at the time.

My problem is their website is a bit crap, and when I previously tried to suspend my dination before it wouldn’t let me, so I reduced the amount instead.

Now I’m thinking of stopping it completely. Has anybody else cancelled this through their website?

I might have to email them about it, as I don’t necessarily want to be funding other causes through them.

'I'm not looking up someone's skirt': Pharmacists reject deciding who's eligible for free HRT

'Trans people argue that they can experience the same menopausal symptoms if they stop taking HRT as their hormone levels will decrease substantially.
They also say that as they have prescriptions for the same medicines as on the prescribed list, they should be entitled to access free HRT under the scheme.'

I'm feeling too weary of all this genderwoo to comment on this. Except to say that a trans IDing man never had those hormones in the first place, so he does not need hormone replacement treatment.

Is there anything, anything at all, where they will not elbow their way in, cause mayhem, and disadvantage women?

@MarieDeGournay when i heard that HRT was to be free foe women, the ild fahioned outdated kind i did wonder if it was to normalise cross sex hormones to men in frocks

Happy Nollaig na mBan to all!

Let's make 2026 the Year of Fact over fiction, the year we start getting our stuff back - our words, our spaces, our identities, our rights.

I'm going to use every chance I get this year to say that
Woman is a biological fact not a legal fiction.

The GRA has to go or be amended ? I'm speaking to a TD soon , on a more mundane issue , wonder if I should drop this into the conversation.

As in ' no votes in Ballycamogie for mixed sex toilets'

I don't think they will understand what you mean by mixed sex. They will assume that you are referring to actual mixed sex facilities, not mixed sex by stealth.

I tend to say I don't want anyone with a penis, regardless of how they identify, using female facilities. That also draws attention to the fact that most transwomen are fully intact males.

Yes, Happy Nollaig na mBán everyone!

I see Mary Lou has been telling us all to 'cop on' to ourselves over the very small matter of trans identifying men using spaces and services that are supposed to be only for women

At least it has got more people discussing the obvious conflict of interest given her support of her trans identifying brother. Both her and Mary Butler have clear conflicts of interest in this area and should not be allowed exert any influence.

Brenda Power. Annoyed with Mary Lou in the Daily Mail today

!

This is a link to a better quality image of the
article:

https://ugc-assets.mumsnet.com/images/202601/1wg4gzLwWkZAhM1KIOBgFFMkCYYBqaIm1EnFryns.jpeg

I think that article is great, spells a lot of the issue out nicely.

Mary-Lou really does love scolding the electorate for failing to live up to her standards. She’s got serious notions about herself, that one 🙄

Like a lot of our politicians, she seems to believe she’s the ultimate moral arbiter of the correct way to be Irish and that the plebs are always doing it wrong.

That article spells it out loud and clear in language that everyone can get, not just those of us in the know.

Over on the Feminism Sex and Gender Discussions board [still referred to sometimes as FWR because it used to be Feminism Women's Rights] there's a video of a group of young women challenging two men dressed as women in a women's toilet.
Men in women's bathroom at Not All Gays awards | Mumsnet

Two points: 'Not All Gays' is a LGB✂T group, so were the TiMs in the women's toilet on purpose?
Secondly, one of the TiMs says "You're lucky I don't show you I'm a man" as he leaves!

Those brave women could do that because the UK Supreme Court has ruled that the Equality Act means biological sex when it refers to women and men, so biological males [except accompanied little boys too young to go into the men's on their own] are not allowed to use the women's toilets.

Here in Ireland, the two men in questions could just shrug and say they were women, legally, so f* off, we'll use the women's toilet because we can.

I have a feeling that there are many legal minds in Ireland who think that the Gender Recognition Act is a very weak piece of legislation - for one thing, it never coherently defines 'gender' and just keeps referring back to 'gender identity' in a circular way.

I think the legislation accepts that gender and biological sex are two different things, and the GRA/GRC are only concerned with gender.

But if gender is just the outward expression of how people feel, and is not the same thing as biological sex, why does the law have to get involved at all?

Why have an Act, a law, a certificate, when people may already
“Dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. Live your best life in peace and security. " as JK Rowling famously said.

Why take it an irrational step further and say that the people who are dressing however they please etc etc have also legally changed sex?

It doesn't make sense, and I'm sure there are fine legal minds who could make mincemeat of the GRA in the High Court. If only...😟

I liked 'fully intact males fighting tooth and garishly-varnished nail' to get into women's spaces. Nice turn of phrase😄