Sent to the Bold Room

As I walked up Molesworth Street, I could see the placards and averted my eyes crossing Kildare Street. Somebody beeped their horn and the crowd laughed and cheered. They called themselves Pro-Life. The images of babies in the womb were raw and upsetting to someone who has lost a baby through a fatal abnormality. To someone, who is in fact pro-life.

Up Against a Brick Wall

At the committee Hearings into the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill, I sat making notes quietly on my iPad until the stern usher approached and asked me to put it away, I explained it was just a notebook and I had no pen, he went away, checked with his boss, came back with bald usher and said as I’d no pen, I could do it just this once.  Couldn’t help notice Michael Lowry pop in to listen, David Norris sat in front of me and caused a furore over his use of the word ‘buffoonery’. Chairman, Jerry Buttimer took no nonsense, especially putting manners on John Crown when he used the opportunity for stand-up comedy.

On day three I sat alone in the gallery, forgetting to bring paper this time, I started to make notes on the iPad, a baby-faced usher approached from the far side of the room; I explained it wasn't connected to wi-fi, baby-face turned into very cross face. Then a chief usher was called, this sinister looking man sat down beside me and asked how I was. I smiled, 'I'm well thank you’.  I clearly don't get out enough, apparently his question was a polite way of saying ‘stop what you're at immediately or I’ll take it from you’.

One of the sisterhood came over from the press gallery and asked me for coffee and said they’d try and get me in there, seeing as I was a free-lance writer. Great, I thought, at least I'd have some company.  In the canteen, Mary Banotti very kindly told me she heard my radio interview on her way to Galway and had to pull in to the side of the road to listen quietly. That was very touching. So, there I am up in the press gallery, delighted with myself, surrounded by friendly people; journalists who tell me they’ve been tweeting about me. I only wish I’d made news for something more joyful. Next thing, the all-seeing baby-faced usher is on to me like a light, 'you can't come in here without a press pass,' he says. Even the redoubtable Ms Banotti can’t persuade him. And I’m escorted away.

‘Can I just get a press pass?’ I ask, reasonably.

We bump into one of the Indo’s leading journo’s and he asks her to deal with it. She takes me under her wing. I explain my interest in the hearings, ‘will you do a piece for us?’ her eyes twinkle.  She passes her phone to me outside in the sunshine and I talk to her editor, ‘I’ll have something this evening’, I promise, anything to get back to the fun side of the House.

Now that I know where the canteen is I make my way unescorted, there are no prices on anything, I don't know a single person but they all look familiar, someone asks who I am, 'I heard you were here,' she said, and introduces me to her colleague, they invite me to their table, we go to pay, the food is weighed! I ask do we get a calorie count on the receipt, that is not, apparently, funny. I sit with Senator Ivana Bacik, Kathleen Lynch, Cork TD and Ciara Conway, Waterford TD. It feels truly surreal to speak openly about something that has for so long been so private.

Turns out a press pass is just going to take too long, so I return to the gallery looking at the back of Frank Callanan’s head, along with that of Judge Catherine McGuinness, Dr Maria Cahill, a woman who is far too young to have such extreme right wing views and a doctor with the most alarming duct tape eyebrows (I see them on the monitor).

There are some legal students sitting near me, smart suits, shabby shoes and little notebooks. Stern usher tells them to put away their phones.  Of course, we are only using our phones for tweeting, like John Crown, who tweets all day during the Hearings.

I surreptitiously tweet that my iPad is banned. Bald usher is down on me now like a ton of bricks.

Indo Journo, Lise Hand, pops in with some news. She says I can watch the remainder of the Hearings in the Press Room and write my piece. I follow her down labyrinthine corridors to Fionnan Sheahan's office and I'm given a desk, I face the wall.

I am in the Bold Room.