Sunday 27 May 2018

Will we be soon envying Socially Progressive Ireland?


After a period of rather depressing World politics in which progressive forces have been seen to be in retreat, yesterdays result from Ireland is a bit of fresh air.

 Indeed  the social change in Ireland since 1983 when the 8the amendment  Gave constitutional recognition to the equal right to life of the unborn to entrench the statutory prohibition of abortion by 66.9% to 33.1% to repeal by 66.4% to 33.6% is staggering


The 2015  which saw a similar landslide in favour of same sex sex marriages pointed to this change .

As a fan of the Saw Doctors  it came as no surorise that the e REPEAL project release music video for Saw Doctors Everyday ahead of referendum
The emotional track was written in 1995 about the Irish women who travel overseas each day in order to access abortions and the proper medical care.



Listen to it and hope that it no longer  happens


On the repeal of the 8th

  • Among party voters 74.9% of Fine Gael supporters backed yes; 74.5% of Sinn Féin; 80.3% of Labour; 88.9% of Green; and 82.1% of Solidarity-People Before Profit voted yes.
  • However, 50.3% of Fianna Fáil supporters backed a no vote and 49.7% said yes, while Renua supporters surveyed all rejected any suggestion of changing the eighth amendment.
  •  
    Those of us viewing politics outside the republic  have often been bemused by the dominance of two conservative parties in Fine Gael and  Fianna Fail  the latter 20 the 2011 election  for the the first time since the September 1927 election that it was not the largest party in the chamber.
     
     It is  the more socially conservative  Fianna Fáil that  is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe[25] and of Liberal International whereas  Fine Gael is a member  of  European People's Party and a member of the Centrist Democrat International.
     
    Maybe it is time to stop defining  Irish politics via Pro and Anti treaty parties  of the 1920's and 30's.

    But if Ireland is changing to a more Liberal society  post Brexit UK (outside Scotland) seems to be heading thhe other away.

    it is not impossible for Jacob Rees Mogg who would like to take us back to the sort of Catholic Conservativism that Ireland has thrown off to become Prime Minister.

    Who knows that in a short time those of us who regard ourselves as  Socially Progressive will we be soon envying Ireland?

    Indeed will we see a UK version of the Saw Doctors Everyday only about women making the sad journey the other way.

    2 comments:

    Gwyn Isaac said...

    As the Northern Ireland Assembly is suspended now is the time for the Westminster Government to implement the same change in Northern Ireland....

    Anonymous said...

    I'm glad someone else has noticed, compare current Irish politics to Welsh politics and your quip about welsh women travelling for abortions to Ireland isn't that much of a stretch of the imagination.

    Can we honestly say if the Repeal referendum had taken place in the current divided, toxic, reactionary Wales of 2018 that it would have had the resounding yes vote we saw in Ireland last week?