Responses to SC ruling from Irish politicians

[Mermoose]

Tell me if this thread already exists but I thought it would be good to have one of responses from Irish politicians to the UK Supreme Court judgement. Maybe to make it easier for people to skim through, we can put politicians' responses in bold together with their party, so they stand out from discussion.

SF - David Cullinane first approved, then apologised for approving.

SF - Chief Whip Pádraig Mac Lochlainn told Greg Hughes he approves; thinks we need to have the conversation here and women's rights need to be protected. Said a woman is an adult human female.

FF - Sen Niall Blaney told Greg Hughes he approves, a woman is a female person, need to have the conversation here.

SocDems - Jennifer Whitmore on Twitter disapproves, no conflict between women's and trans rights

FF - Equality Minister Norma Foley, seems to disapprove, says the law is different here and unlikely to change.

FF - TD Willie O'Dea approves

Lab - TD Marie Sherlock disapproves

https://archive.is/dzizS

On Twitter,

SocDems - Cllr Elisa O'Donovan disapproves. O'Donovan said she had never had to fear a trans woman. O'Donovan is aware of Barbie Kardashian as the prison is in her constituency, and apparently opposed reporting on the fact that BK has threatened a female prisoner with rape and murder.

We are so far behind the UK i dont see things changing here ever - or for a very long time.

I think politicians here see criticising trans rights as equivalent to criticising gay rights and dont think more deeply - or else they are too fearful of the backlash from trans NGOs.

Very useful, thank you Mermoose.

And I agree with SuperSleepyBaby that we have a long way to go to turn the trans supertanker around here in Ireland - equality legislation was changed [retrospectively - HTF did they manage to do that legally??] so the word 'sex' was replaced by 'gender', the protected characteristic of sex was done away with completely, so all rights based on biological sex disappeared.
No single sex exceptions possible. TWAW enshrined in law.

I suspect there are large numbers of politicians, and a big majority of the population, who disagree with all that.

Although the UK SC has nothing directly to do with us, I think the clarity and decisiveness of the ruling is useful and positive.

If there was a challenge in the Irish courts against the removal of the word 'sex' from equality legislation, the opinion of the UK SC, that
'interpreting sex as "certificated" rather than "biological" would "cut across the definitions of man and "woman and thus the protected characteristic of sex in an incoherent way'
Supreme Court backs 'biological' definition of woman

would be very useful in arguing that if an equality law is made at a time when 'sex' was understood by everybody to be 'male' or 'female', changing the key word to mean something else results in 'incoherence'.

The 'legal fiction' that a man can be a woman has been rejected by the UK SC, and I think it may help us get rid of it here too.

Article in the Irish Independent by Eilis O'Hanlon

https://m.independent.ie/opinion/comment/eilis-ohanlon-radio-silence-from-national-broadcaster-and-politicians-in-the-wake-of-uk-trans-ruling-speaks-volumes/a1887055987.html

Sorry I dont know how to post an archive link

SocDem - Gary Gannon - disapproves.

On his Substack: open.substack.com/pub/garygannontd/p/they-taught-us-to-fear-the-witches

Thank you for this thread, only just spotted it. Useful information.

It’s quite depressing how far behind we are in even having this conversation.

Our media generally won’t touch this issue with a bargepole, I think they fear that common sense is some infectious disease… or that it might actually highlight the reality of what our laws state, which I would say the vast majority of the voting population aren’t aware of.

As someone else said on another thread about this - we’re a deeply conformist country that likes to tell ourselves we’re a bunch of radicals.

Oh my god, this is such bile… and this bit:

Celebrating what?
Nobody was protected. Nothing was improved.

Spoken like a true misogynistic male. What was protected was women’s spaces you dickhead!

He really has it in for JKR, it reads like an angry school essay.

Can’t believe this guy got elected - and he’s only 2 years younger than me, 38. So he’s not some snot nosed teenager, although he sounds like one…

HornyHornersPinkyWinky Gannon's Substack epitomises the situation here. It's quite eerily reminiscent of a Catholic priest disgusted at a woman trying to talk about the need for abortion access. He not only thinks the ruling is cruel, he says we should not be able to talk about the issue here.

Cross-posted. Yes it is enraging.

I like to think we've swapped one Patriarchy for another. I lived in Ireland when the changeover happened but I live in the UK now.

I've now discovered that the section I work in my organisation for is full on TWAW - it's like working for a cult. I actually like my job but the working conditions awful now.

Ind - Sen Michael McDowell - approves

https://archive.is/jDb8r

Article is a bit of a jumble I think, but at least defends women's rights.

Surely the smart politicians will have got the message from the failed Referendum to erase Mother from the Constitution?