Letters to the Editor

Feminism is dead. Long live Feminism! Dear Editor, In his TV Comment on the suffragettes, Pat Howley is worried that feminism is dead. The good news is that feminism is far from dead, nor has it gone out of fashion â€â€ the further good news is that we feminists are not â€Å“now happily at home, cooking and mending for their husbands, grateful and contentâ€Â. There are many of us proud to say we are feminists. Yes, there are too many women who say â€Å“Iâ€â„¢m not a feminist but I do believe in â€Â¦Ã¢€Â and then they go on to list all the tenets of feminism.[private] Feminism holds that women are people. In short, that women demand to be treated equally to men in all ways, one example being equal pay for equal work. There are many others. Those objectives are obviously too radical for some women to utter lest they be branded as cranks by the patriarchy and its supporters. Instead of knitting, cooking and bed warming, many of us are out there organising and working behind the scenes. One example is the Irish Feminist Network (IFN) whose mission statement is as follows: â€Å“promoting gender equality in Ireland. We seek to make feminism relevant to a new generation of people, engaging all people in working for changeâ€Â. The IFN vision statement is: â€Å“of an Ireland, and of a world, which prizes gender equality, and which allows women and men to live free from gendered injustices and oppressionâ€Â (see irishfeministnetwork.org). Other work being done by feminists currently is in the area of equality budgeting. This approach to budgeting goes beyond traditional approaches to economic policy-making and planning and systematically analyses the groups in society which suffer most from the annual budget. It is a relatively new initiative in Ireland but other places, e.g. Northern Ireland, have been doing this for years. It is one way of insinuating equality into Irish society. A third initiative is the Countess Markievicz School (founded by Lucy Keaveney, a Dunmore woman) which has just had its third annual conference. The School aims â€Å“to provide a forum for debate, reflection and the development of ideas for the advancement of womenâ€â„¢s equalityâ€Â (see www.countessmarkieviczschool.ie). We have moved beyond burning our corsets and brassieres but be assured Mr Howley, we will only consider ourselves post-feminists in a post-patriarchal society â€â€ when we have true equality in all ways. Long live feminism! Yours, etc. Mary Ryan 2 Haven View Malahide Co Dublin Doctors concerned about suicide termination Dear Editor, There is grave concern among doctors across the specialties about the proposed legislation for termination of pregnancy in the case of threatened suicide on the part of the mother. Many of us have practised, or are now practising, in jurisdictions where such legislation was the first step towards what has become abortion on demand. Attempts to revisit legislation and reduce the number of abortions by restricting the grounds on which termination of pregnancy may be performed, such as gestational age, have been fraught and largely fruitless. Those who think there will be a second chance, whether by so-called sunset clause or otherwise, are naive. We would like to make a clear statement to the members of the Oireachtas that there is no evidence that termination is the treatment for threatened suicide in pregnancy and that if they vote for the proposed legislation, they will be voting for the legalisation of abortion in this country. Those members of the Oireachtas who believe that they are only doing what the Constitution permits since the â€Å“Xâ€Â judgement, should seek to examine the psychiatric evidence heard by the Supreme Court in 1992. They will find none. They might alternatively examine the statements of the psychiatrists called before the Oireachtas Health Committee hearings in 2012, to see what evidence there is that might support the Supreme Court decision. They will find none. We would also remind them that the WHO consistently places Ireland in the top five countries for womenâ€â„¢s safety in pregnancy, out of 171 countries surveyed. This has been the case for the past 25 years and without abortion. We would urge members of the Oireachtas respectfully, but robustly, to vote against the proposed legislation. Yours sincerely, Dr Ann Barry, General Practitioner, Dublin Dr Anne Kennedy, General Practitioner, Mayo Dr Phil Boyle, Fertility Specialist, Galway Dr Seamus Kennedy, General Practitioner, Mayo Dr Anne Ryan, General Practitioner, Kildare Dr Anne-Marie Leech, General Practitioner, Wexford Dr Bridget Oâ€â„¢Brien, General Practitioner, Kerry Dr Cliodhna Donnelly, Palliative Care, Galway Dr Cristina Bordinc, General Practitioner, Wexford Dr Daniel Purcell, General Practitioner, Kildare Dr David Buckley, GP Kerry Prof David Ryan, Maxillo-Facial Surgeon, Dublin Dr Declan Pender, General Practitioner, Cork Dr Deirdre Gleeson, Occupational Health Physician /GP, Kildare Dr Donogh Maguire, A&E Consultant, Dublin Prof Eamonn Oâ€â„¢Dwyer, Obstetrician Gynaecologist, Galway Dr Eileen Reilly, Obstetrician Gynaecologist, Galway Dr Eleanor Corcoran, Psychiatrist, Donegal Dr Eoghan de Faoite, NCHD, Dublin Dr Felim T Donnelly, General Practitioner, Galway Dr George Fuller, General Practitioner, Cork Dr Helen T Oâ€â„¢Brien, General Practitioner, Dublin Dr James Sheehan, Orthopaedic Surgeon, Galway Dr Janina Lyons, General Practitioner, Dublin Dr John C Kehoe, General Practitioner, Kildare Dr John Kehoe SNR, General Practitioner, Kildare Dr John Monaghan, Obstetrician Gynaecologist, Galway Dr Jonathan Jacob, General Practitioner, Carlow Dr Jude McSharry, General Practitioner, Sligo Dr Liam Moore, General Practitioner, Kildare Dr Magdalena Blok, General Practitioner, Cork Dr Maire Mirium Duggan, Obstetrician Gynaecologist, Dublin Dr Maire Nic Ghearailt, General Practitioner, Wicklow Dr Mairead MacConnaill, General Practitioner, Cork and 30 others. Doctors for Life, Ireland[/private]