What was she thinking?

What was she thinking, walking home alone? What was she thinking, wearing that? What was she thinking, getting that drunk? What was she thinking, getting a taxi by herself? Last month, a woman was brutally attacked while walking home from a house party in the early hours of the morning. The attack happened in the Togher [...]

2019-10-22T09:15:04+00:00 October 22nd, 2019|Categories: Opinion, Print|Tags: , , , , , , , |

Street harassment is a feminist issue 

The stereotypical whistling builder is the standard starting point for any discussion about gender based street harasment, which usually ends in someone telling a feminist to ‘relax, love’. But, campaigners say, street harassment is a real issue with real life consequences for women’s lives. The international campaign group Stop Street Harassment defines gender-based street harassment as [...]

Men are parents too!

We live in an age of unprecedented equality between parents, but, almost three years in, I can confirm that it’s news to many people that men can be parents too. Many of my female friends out-earn their husbands and partners. Sometimes, the early rationale for their career decisions included an expectation that the man would take [...]

2019-05-13T21:12:36+00:00 May 19th, 2019|Categories: Opinion, Personal, Print|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

The best a man can get?

Gillette has been marketed for donkey’s years as ‘the best a man can get’. It’s a pretty simple slogan - our product is better than the others, you should buy it, end of. But the slogan has been repurposed for the post #MeToo era in a way that is causing absolute outrage among a certain cohort [...]

2019-01-17T21:57:31+00:00 January 18th, 2019|Categories: Opinion, Print|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

Boys need help with body image too

I grew up looking at images of ‘heroin chic’ supermodels, for whom nothing tasted better than how thin felt. 1990s beauty standards were defined by Kate Moss’s protruding ribs, while teen girls’ magazines warned of an epidemic of anorexia and bulimia. https://www.flickr.com/photos/9355127@N07/35710732331/in/photostream/ The term body-shaming hadn’t been coined yet, but the rise of magazines outlining [...]

In the prime of life

New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern gave birth yesterday to a beautiful baby girl. Mother, baby, and soon to be stay-at-home Dad are reportedly all doing well. She will take six weeks’ maternity leave, and her husband will take over childcare duties after that. The overwhelming reaction online was ‘Woman gives birth. So what?’. But it’s [...]

Where next for newly energised Mná na hÉireann?

One of the slogans adorning pro-repeal t shirts before the referendum was ‘In Awe of Mná’, and following the astonishing result of Friday’s referendum on the 8th amendment, it’s clear that slogan was prescient. Yes campaigners at the count in Cork city. Photo: Fiona Corcoran We are all in awe of mná. Politicians, particularly, [...]

Storm in a B cup over J Law's dress

It’s been labelled a ‘furore’ but a supposed controversy about Jennifer Lawrence in a skimpy dress on a cold day is the very definition of a storm in a B cup. J Law, who’s got more attitude in her little finger than most Hollywood starlets put together, was snapped at an event promoting her new film [...]

2018-04-04T13:00:22+00:00 April 4th, 2018|Categories: Opinion|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

Wearing a black dress is a symbol of intent. Let's get to work, ladies

We’re used to seeing a sea of black at professional events. Rows of penguins, black suits, white shirts, bowties. That’s what professional life looks like. The Dail looks like that. The House of Commons looks like that. Business conferences look like that. Only the entertainment industry, with its flocks of gorgeously adorned beautiful women tends to [...]

Was it for this?

When Constance Markievicz made history as the first woman in the British Isles to be elected a Member of Parliament, it must have been an epic moment. 100 years ago next year, (some) women across the United Kingdom, then including Ireland, got the vote, and the first to be elected was an Anglo-Irish republican socialist from [...]

2018-12-01T09:52:42+00:00 December 7th, 2017|Categories: Opinion|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , |