Una Mullally: Referendum shows us there is no Middle Ireland, just Ireland

[Stuckinthebush]

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/una-mullally-referendum-shows-us-there-is-no-middle-ireland-just-ireland-1.3509905

'The fiction of Ireland as a conservative, dogmatically Catholic country has been shattered’

"The handover period is over. The fiction of Ireland as a conservative, dogmatically Catholic country has been shattered. The past is left back there, and a new legacy is being created. A legacy of compassion, empathy, and maturity - a country taking responsibility for the care and health of women and girls. What happened in the referendum vote was seismic, but more seismic still was the realisation that this vote was reflecting change, not just instigating it. “They listened to us. They actually listened to us,” a young woman said to me, crying, in the RDS on Saturday morning.

[snip]

We were told this was a divisive campaign. It was a unifying campaign. We were told this was a difficult issue for people, yet for many it was straightforward. We were told it was the third rail of Irish politics, so instead, the people led, from the activists and protestors to the canvassers and ordinary women and men who rolled up their sleeves, to the Citizen’s Assembly, to the women who shared their abortion stories. We were told about Middle Ireland. There is no Middle Ireland. Just Ireland. Its islands, villages, cities, towns, coasts, midlands, mountains, estates, flats, and fields. This campaign was intergenerational. Younger activists stood on the shoulders of those gone before them, and brought an energy, fearlessness, creativity and sense of unrelenting determination and optimism that inspired people across the board. The brilliantly eclectic make-up of the campaign brought in doctors, mothers, lawyers, students, trade unionists, the LGBT community, feminists, and everyone in between.

[snip]

Ireland has not just changed its constitution, or its society, it has changed the world with this vote. It has changed the world because in many countries - and American states - women’s reproductive rights are under attack. Ireland has stood up for women on a global stage.
It’s hard to quantify how this feels. But once again, Ireland has shown its true colours. Our strength is not in our sameness, it’s in our diversity. Our strength is not our past, but our future. Our strength is not in individualism, but togetherness. Our strength is not in dogma, but in empathy. To those women who have suffered under the eighth amendment, as a nation, we need to apologise to them. I’m sorry. We’re sorry. We’re better than that. What’s happening now is who we are."

[mopinko]

1. extra proud to be irish today.