Debate Deadline before Dail Rises

Slick and Colourful

I could win a pub trivia quiz on Oireachtas members by now, especially the courageous rural representatives.

Enda and Michéal were sparring over the #anglotapes and blaming each other like the cost centres do when the TV doesn’t work because they’ve unplugged scarts, hdmls/whatever cables for playstation or xBox. There’s no den now with gentlemen lodgers in residence. I had quite a rant when I found a blank screen and couldn’t catch up with Vincent Browne and his hissy fits.

I arrived at Dail Question Time yesterday morning, invited by the Termination for Medical Reasons (TFMR) group. John Halligan, Waterford TD was requesting the Taoiseach to add an amendment to the Bill to include Fatal Foetal Abnormality.

The chamber hushed as he spoke. It’s a subject on which the members daren’t scream or throw abuse at each other. Deputy Halligan indicated the group of women in the gallery, as a latecomer I was seated amongst a group of strangers. He spoke of the crisis of conscience some members were having on the Bill and reiterated that 1,500 women endure the traumatic news that their baby won’t live, each year in Ireland. 80% of those women travel abroad rather than prolong the agony. They too have a crisis of conscience. Every day four devastated couples receive this terrible news.

He spoke of one woman who could not attend, her story was so traumatic I would not repeat it here.

I was very, very disappointed with the Taoiseach’s response. His tone had all the gravitas of someone who gave a damn, but it was nothing but clotted cream going sour. He spoke of a woman he knew who chose to carry the baby with fatal foetal abnormality to term, to hold it as it died, and the comfort that it gave her. She is lucky she had the choice to do that. Why didn’t he care enough to talk to a woman who had to make the other choice? And listen. If I hear the word compassion again from a naysayer… *breathe* 

Hmmm. Excuse the twitter creep into these latter posts, it’s a cross pollination, please bear with me, while I adjust from the 140 character space into the rambling blog arena.

Afterwards, at a press conference chaired by Richard Boyd Barrett over in Buswells, the speakers included Sarah and James from TFMR who have both experienced separate traumatic experiences, including having the ashes of their babies couriered home to them in an envelope *deep breathe*.

I noticed Fiach Mac Conghail sitting at the front and wondered what the director of the Abbey Theatre was doing there. When he spoke, I realised, of course he is a senator and, significantly, the Taoiseach’s nominee. He said he was there to bear witness and decried the ‘debasement of women’ through the present legislation.

Joe Higgins pointed out that the Ceann Chomhairle cannot block the proposal of an amendment at debate stage, so it will be raised.

Senator Averil Power quoted my case, D v Ireland 2006, and on the basis of the State’s defence, she anticipated the legislation will go to the Supreme Court.

Roisin Shortall was at pains to tell me that what the Attorney General says, goes. I thought it was just the pope who was infallible. I know that every point can be argued several ways, which is what happened in D v Ireland and Miss D v HSE argued by the same barrister, Gerard Hogan, now a judge.

I asked John Halligan what was the realistic chance of getting the amendment added, at least he and his cross party colleagues were unanimous in stating that they would not stop until it was legislated for.

Outside in the sunshine, I noticed some pretty young girls and a young man holding placards outside the Dáil, nothing strange about that these days. Except it is usually the aged and disenfranchised who do their best to seek attention on that stretch of footpath. They were tall, healthy, slim women with touches of natural make-up; two wore a striking Chanel rouge lipstick. A woman with her back turned was walking up and down the line as if she was a choir mistress, getting them to repeat their lines.

I thought, ‘this is the time to talk, to ask some questions,’ I crossed the road and approached the young woman with the placard ‘Doesn’t Save Lives’ on it and tried to ask her what it meant, as we know a woman died because she was denied a termination last October in Galway. I was whisked away by the choir mistress, ‘I’ll talk to you,’ she urged.

‘But I want to ask that girl what she thinks’, I protested.

There was absolutely no way I could be allowed talk to the fembots holding the actual placards. I use that term because they were being treated like that by their leader. I had a reasonable conversation with her until she said ‘research shows women who terminate in the case of FFA suffer more trauma’ in calm tones I responded,

(1)  There is no research in Ireland on that subject.

(2)  The trauma is because they are told to leave the hospital and the country

(3)  You don’t need the rest repeated.

This woman was well trained in obfuscation, interruption and deployment of questions; I’m not convinced the women holding the placards could speak English.

At the funeral this morning of a very special old lady who died suddenly on Sunday, I was taken aback to hear the priest preach on the same subject from the altar, seeking guidance for the legislators on this Bill. This was the final farewell opportunity of her family and friends, a time to contemplate her life and show respect, but the *church* saw fit to use the opportunity for a campaign manifesto.

R.I.P.