June 03, 2015

1916 feminist rhetoric versus 2016 reality

Andy Pollak wrote:
"In the South it’s even worse, with only 16% of the Dail’s members being women... This puts Ireland 88th in the world, behind such paragons of democracy and women’s equality as Burkina Faso, Gabon, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates (the US is barely any better at 16.8%). Ireland comes 25th out of 28 EU parliaments. And that woefully low figure – 16% – has never been exceeded in the 96 year history of Dail Eireann, which must have Countess Markievicz, the first woman elected to both the House of Commons and the Dail in 1918, turning in her grave."
Lucinda Creighton wrote in June 2015:
"Whatever side of the argument one is on, all objective observers have to be concerned that in the year 2015 female parliamentarians are still routinely sneered and sniggered at by the old boys club in Leinster House."
Ronan McGreevy said:
"Before considering how the men of 1916 would interpret the Proclamation, it is instructive to remember how they did interpret the Proclamation. (And they were mostly men who ruled Ireland after independence). 
When the 50th anniversary of the Rising came along in 1966, Easter Rising veterans, William T Cosgrave, Éamon de Valera and Seán Lemass had ruled the State for all but three years of its existence. For better or worse, the State was the one imagined by those who fought in the Easter Rising."
Read about Cumann na mBan and Ulster Unionist Women here.

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