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, [...]
What's a red line issue to you? For me, in this election, it was the 8th Amendment. I didn't give a preference to candidates who didn't support repeal. For others before the last election, I imagine marriage equality was one. If the 8th Amendment is repealed, I expect it to remain a red line issue for me. [...]
The #marriageequality count at Cork City Hall, 2015. Speculation on an election date has been rife, with yesterday's Red C Sunday Business Post prompting some commentators to suggest it would be held before Christmas in order for Government parties to capitalise on the increase in their support. Galway journalist Enda Cunningham tweeted last week [...]
Rosie-the-Riveter (Photo credit: SBT4NOW) This week, Fianna Fáil launched a plan to get more women involved in the party. Senator Averil Power, one of the party’s two female Oireachtas members, launched the plan with party leader Micheál Martin and Niamh Gallagher of Women for Election, a non-partisan training body that is focussed on improving [...]
Leo Varadkar TD at a Fine Gael press conference during the 2011 General Election Campaign. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) A straw poll of friends and colleagues a recently revealed that many of the women I know are the primary – or the only – breadwinners in their families. The recession has caused a huge amount [...]
The latest economic monitor report produced by Cork City Council tells us that unemployment in Metropolitan Cork increased by just 1.2 per cent between the end of 2009 and the end of 2010. There was a boost of 3.7 per cent between quarter three 2010 and quarter four (probably largely due to seasonal employment). [...]
Two weeks ago today, I attended an event at the Imperial Hotel organised by the 50:50 Group, which wants to see an improvement in Ireland’s rate of female representation. On Sunday I watched the count at Cork City Hall as Deirdre Clune lost her seat in Cork South Central, bringing the representation there [...]
Back to life, back to reality. Back to the here and now, yeah. Wise words from 1980s soul singers En Vogue, who played the Cork Opera House last October to a crowd of nostalgic, almost middle-aged fans. And particularly applicable to what will happen after tomorrow’s day of reckoning. Since the election was called, [...]
With only 6 women out of 67 candidates running throughout Cork, the odds are certainly not stacking up at 50-50. As Áine Kerr wrote in yesterday’s Irish Times, Mná na hÉireann are losing ground. But that’s all set to change, if a new group set up in Cork before Christmas has its way. The [...]
On my way to UCC yesterday to meet Alastair Campbell I had a most interesting chat with the taxi driver who brought me. I was expecting serious political discussion and judgement of the political parties’ electoral prospects at the event, but not before it. But like many of the voters I met on the [...]
