with Stephen Meyler

#RepealThe8th

#LondonPride

NATIONAL SHAME IS PERSONAL

There’s nothing like an unfair law imposing itself on the life of someone you know to bring home how amazingly cruel a constitution based on republican ideals can be. It’s easy as a man to make up your mind about the 8th Amendment – whatever you think, it’s not ever going to be you in the horrible, incredible situation of the State demanding you remain pregnant against your will, even if the outcome is not going to be a living child.

This is what the Eighth Amendment has done to an acquaintance. She was happy with the news that her second child was on the way, until nature intervened and the doctor told her the foetus had a genetic abnormality that meant it would stop developing at some point in the pregnancy and she would miscarry. They couldn’t tell her when this would be, however, and the risk – to her physical and mental health – would grow the further along the pregnancy went.

A termination, which could have been drug-induced at this early stage, was the best medical treatment the hospital might have offered, but because the foetus had a detectable heartbeat, the Eighth Amendment insisted the doctors do nothing. The duty, if not the urge, of these medical professionals to care for their patient now took a blackly comic turn. She was advised, offthe record, that if the foetal heartbeat stopped for some reason, then they could give her the abortifacient drugs. Were they suggesting the age-old ‘techniques’ of drinking gin or getting punched in the stomach? As it turned out, the foetal heartbeat stopped naturally, and the doctors were then permitted to intervene. However, because the non-viable pregnancy was now weeks older, this would be a surgical intervention instead of taking some pills.

That an Irish citizen can be forced into such a situation by the Constitution that is supposed to define and protect her ‘inalienable’ rights is pretty sickening, isn’t it? How have we got here? This document was created in the 1930s by devout Catholics in a theocratic state posing as a constitutional republic. Since the era of de Valera et al, however, 35 amendments have tried to make this anachronistic legal entity fit for purpose as the Republic of Ireland grew into itself.

It’s tempting to view these amendments as steps on the road to a fairer society. In no particular order, we’ve had the removal of a special regard for religion (Catholicism), a ban on capital punishment, the legalisation of divorce, protection of children’s rights, the Maastricht, Nice and Lisbon treaties, even a ban on State attempts to stop women from travelling abroad to get an abortion. Then of course, there was 2015’s creation of marriage equality. Some of these changes passed more easily than others: removing the wording about the special position of religion (Catholicism) was approved by more than 80 percent of voters, but marriage equality was passed by a much slimmer majority (we’re looking at you, Roscommon).

Many of these amendments have improved the lives of Irish people enormously, but while The Eighth exists, a horribly invasive and cruel inequality remains.

It’s easy as a man to make up your mind about the 8th Amendment – it’s not ever going to be you in the horrible situation of the State demanding you remain pregnant against your will.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, UK!

This year’s Pride in London had all the usual controversies: it’s gone too corporate, the real meaning of protest is dead, it’s ignoring a new sexual health crisis, etc. And then there’s that silly hashtag handle they were plastering all over the place, #loveislove – ya think?!

Anyway, not much difference to any other recent Pride, as acceptance, tolerance and even celebration spread, there’s a certain luxury in the tension of defining what being gay, in the political sense, means any more. Has to be better than a kick in the head, though! Or brutal systematic suppression for that matter.

The big difference this year is that it’s 50 years since the Brits removed the Victorian-era laws against sodomy in private between consenting adults. Since then, lest we forget in the new media era of Brexit intolerance, the UK has become one of the planet’s most gay-friendly places. It was (and hopefully will still be) a refuge for gays fearing for their lives or just dreaming of personal freedom.

For decades, that refuge was particularly important for Irish gays – who knows how many thousands of people took the boat or a Ryanair flight to a new life, away from suffocation, alienation and violence? Ireland exported its failure to deal then and with abortion, we’re still exporting a failure to deal. Isn’t it about time we stopped depending on our English cousins in this way?