Over 250 students gathered in Front Square this evening to call for a repeal of the eighth amendment, for what could be the final time.
With a referendum on the eighth amendment planned for May and abortion rights now a mainstream issue, students’ unions and their members took the chance to re-emphasise their calls for abortion law reform.
For years, students have been at the centre of calls for a repeal of the eighth amendment and for reform of Ireland’s restrictive abortion law. Over the last few years, thousands of students have taken up the rallying cry of repeal – their target of scorn being a government they accused of inertia on the issue.
Now, after a citizens’ assembly, an Oireachtas committee and reams of column inches, Ireland is only months away from a referendum.
Today, the government agreed to table legislation that will trigger a referendum, weeks after Taoiseach Leo Varadkar took to Twitter to offer his support for a repeal of the eighth amendment.
In Front Square today, numbers were smaller than previous marches. However, ardent activists, carrying banners and placards, rushed out Front Gate to join the rally at the Garden of Remembrance.
Speaking today, the Union of Students Vice-President for Equality and Citizenship, Síona Cahill, said: “We’re here today looking for the same rights again: basic humanity, basic healthcare, basic respect. Our emphasis today is not on difference but is about our common struggle and common humanity. It’s hard to comprehend for any of us here that it was only 100 years ago that some of us got to vote, that we were trusted with our own decision making.”
“We will not stop until we have changed Ireland and changed it utterly”, she said.
In the speeches today, speakers seemed keenly aware of today’s significance, pointing to the century since Irish women got the vote and the need for progress. However, the repeal referendum loomed large over every speech, with speakers pitch today as the final march in a decades-long battle for abortion rights.
Noeleen Hartigan, a former UCDSU sabbatical officer, told students that “your generation are the sprinters at the end of the relay race. Take the baton cross the line for us”.
Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) Education Officer Alice MacPherson told the crowd: “It is my hope that 2018 will also be a year for more historic change at the ballot box. Today we come together to say we will not be divided.”
Alannah Murray, who founded People with Disabilities for Repeal, said: “Every woman deserves reproductive rights. This isn’t 1918, it’s 2018 and we’re no further on. But it ends here.”
There was a sense of anger today, and impatience, as students got ready to march for what might be the final time.
Students lined up for photos in Front Square with the suitcases that have come to represent the women forced to travel to the UK for abortions.
Met with cheers, LGBT activist and poet Matt Kennedy asked the crowd: “Would you bury me twice? Would you force me to be pregnant?”
In an email statement to The University Times, TCDSU Education Officer Alice MacPherson said: “I’m marching today because I believe women and girls should be seen and heard. It is important to lift our voices about the fight for bodily autonomy, the centenary of women’s suffrage and celebrate International Women’s Day. Today is especially important for female students in Trinity.”
“The last month has been a stark reminder of how far we have to go on the issue of gender equality in TCDSU and our College community”, she said.
In an email statement to The University Times, the USI Vice-President for the Dublin Region, Aisling Cusack, said: “It is time we stop forcing those pregnant to travel, it’s time we stop treating people like criminals and threatening those who obtain an abortion illegally in Ireland with 14 years in prison, and it is time we start respecting our women and pregnant people in this country and allow them to make their own decisions about their bodies, their lives and their health.”
A year ago today, 3,000 students blocked off O’Connell St for hours as part of Strike 4 Repeal, which was one of the most successful demonstrations in recent years in the name of repeal. On that day, Trinity students blanketed statues on campus in black and dominated Dublin’s streets.
University College Dublin Students’ Union (UCDSU) entered Front Square to cheers from students. While not members of USI, the union has often been relied upon to join for national demonstrations and protests. Only late last year, the union found itself receiving international attention for its impeachment referendum against pro-life president Katie Ascough.
Speaking to The University Times, UCDSU President Barry Murphy said they’d brought 40-50 people from UCD. The union is “here to show a strong presence that UCDSU is pro-choice for this referendum in May”, he said.
Kathleen McNamee, Ciaran Molloy, Jack Synnott, Aoife Kearins and Liam Leahy also contributed reporting to this piece.
