TCDSU is currently running a series of repeal training workshops. The sessions are targeted towards students who are already campaigning for the repeal of the eighth amendment and hopes to make sure all those advocating are as well-informed as they can be.
Áine Palmer, TCDSU Gender Equality Officer, is running the workshops with the help of various facilitators. Preparation began around last summer when in May, Palmer completed a full-day facilitation training session with the Abortion Rights Campaign. The workshops were piloted last term, she told The University Times, to see “what works best so that we can then put them out fully into the weekly email, have them open and advertise them completely”.
With the run-up to a possible referendum getting closer each day, Palmer explains that she’s been preparing these training workshops quietly, “tipping away at it for the last three months especially”. Before Christmas, around 20 people were trained and for these workshops there are 10 facilitators running three different sets of workshops, so “it’s spread out a bit better and it’s more of a team venture”.
These workshops are ultimately advertised towards pro-choice students who are already active in the Repeal campaign. Palmer explains that it’s important to start off with these students, but “it’s not about preaching to the choir and it never should be. The idea is that we’re bringing people along with us”. As a result, the workshops function as “pro-choice spaces”, creating an environment in which respect and confidentiality are key.
Within the workshops, many of the activities encourage participants to reflect on their own preconceived ideas of repeal and abortion, whether it’s deciding out of a list of people who deserves an abortion or the type of person the eighth amendment affects. As expected, the discussion is an integral part of each session, with participants mapping out a timeline of the history of abortion in Ireland, for example.
While everyone is obviously welcome to attend the sessions, they mightn’t be the best fit for someone who is on the fence and hoping to learn more about the issue. “Maybe if you want to know more about the issue but you kind of might have a lot of doubts and you really don’t know which way you’re going to vote, there are other events that might be better”, Palmer says, adding that discussing it with someone who has completed these workshops might also be a helpful way of learning more.
Palmer notes the importance of awareness and conversation in this campaign, comparing it to that of the marriage equality referendum, where “having chats with your family and friends” will be integral and encouraging a vote based on that. “This is going to be very much a discussion based campaign”, she says, adding that these workshops are continuing what the Abortion Rights Campaign are doing already and using that as a model. It’s fairly clear that a lot of students in university are passionate about learning and these sessions are based very much on that: students wanting to learn more about a cause they are invested in. “It’s very important for people to be well-informed and know what they’re fighting for”, Palmer maintains.
As May gets closer, Palmer hopes to roll out these kinds of workshops to students who aren’t necessarily involved in campaigning, as “it’ll be more of an imperative the closer it gets to the referendum”. After reading week TCDSU will be holding another round of workshops and also hope to pair people off for campaigning and to connect them with their regional group.
This campaign is going to be a learning process for everyone and it’s important to have the more difficult discussions about such a divisive topic. These workshops, and those that are planned for the future, aim to equip students with the information and the confidence to have these tough conversations and know what they’re really talking about.
