Vehicles for Change
How Activists Used Buses, Trains, Mini-Speedboats and Drones for Symbolic Protest
Ireland is in the midst of a revolution within a revolution; pro-choice activists have developed new frontiers by jumper and by drone. The symbolism of theatrical protest and fundamental appeal of iconic logos have captured the hearts and minds of a whole new generation of politically engaged youth, determined to usher in the change that previous generations set the ground work for.
​
Their critics claim that the likes of the Repeal jumper are nothing more than fads that the younger electorate are mindlessly signing up to, yet conservative estimates placed the numbers at the landmark September protest at 20,000. Dublin City became a hive of black-clad activists sporting the very jumper.
​
The debate around the 8th amendment will likely be as vitriolic and divisive as ever come 2018 when a referendum is expected. But in the meantime, ever more inventive ways of delivering the message at the heart of the campaign continue to be publicised. Abortion rights activism has inspired some of the most memorable and striking protest forms Ireland has ever seen.
Introduction
The Power of the Visual:
Barry O' Sullivan
Number of Abortions in the UK per County in 2015
Innovation and Creativity at the Heart of the Irish
Pro-Choice Campaign
​
Transport and technology have proven to be successful platforms of symbolic protest for pro-choice activists in recent years, garnering significant attention both domestic and international.
​
Supporters say that the exhibitionist protests illustrate the constant traveling by women to the UK for reproductive services, but critics decry the acts as mere “publicity stunts” with dangerous consequences.
​
Groups such as Action for Choice and ROSA (Reproductive rights, against Oppression, Sexism and Austerity) risked an October 2014 protest to Belfast by train that had the dangling possibility of a jail sentence waiting at the end of it.
​
Their allies on the other end provided them with the abortion pills that they ordered online through Women On Waves: Mifepristone and Misoprostol.
​
Both drugs are illegal in Ireland North and South, but are listed as essential medicines by the World Health Organisation, who considers them a safe and cheap alternative to an operation.
Disagreement
​
However, even inside of the pro-choice camp the move was controversial, as it coincided with the second anniversary of the death of Indian dentist Savita Halappanavar. Cathy Doherty from the Abortion Rights Campaign said it was more respectful to hold a vigil in her honour.
​
Anti-Austerity Alliance TD Ruth Coppinger, who spearheaded the protest, disagreed: “So what are we going to do, sit around and hold vigils? We also have to protest and demand that this law is changed.”
​
“The (Irish Women’s Liberation Movement) that took the action in 1971, they were going against the tide, they were breaking the law, we’re happy to challenge this unjust law today and to say the hypocrisy has to end. Enough is enough.” She added.
“Whatever the law is, women aren’t going to be held back by it”
- Rita Harrold (ROSA)
Trade Union TV reporting on the Abortion Train.
14 year sentence
​
A conviction for the use of these drugs can see up to 14 years in prison, but that did not stop the activists from taking the pills in front of the media as they arrived back in Dublin.
​
“Whatever the law is, women aren’t going to be held back by it,” said Rita Harrold, a leading member of ROSA. She claims that roughly 1,000 women a year use these pills in Ireland.
​
The inspiration for the Abortion Train came from the 1971 Contraception Train protest by the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement, according to Coppinger.
​
“Most of all the message we want to deliver today is we need to get the medieval eighth amendment out of our constitution now. We need a referendum to repeal the eighth amendment to allow for abortion in this country for women who need it”, she said.
Diagnosis on tour
​
The Abortion Bus went one step further the following October, however, and visited Limerick, Galway, and Cork where local women could come aboard and get a diagnosis from a doctor based in The Netherlands via Skype. The activists then offered the pills as directed.
​
Criticism was rife and counter-demonstrations were extremely hostile. Pro-life activist Dr Ruth Cullen claimed their actions were “incredibly dangerous and irresponsible…one that puts the lives of women at serious risk.”
​
“We took quite a radical action…we were breaking the law. We had about 25 women come on the bus and directly get assistance with accessing abortion pills, despite the fact that the Gardaí were all around us…and anti-abortion campaigners who were shouting at us”, said Harrold.
Drugs by drone
​
In June of 2016, activists took on their most ambitious and technologically modern stunt yet. Abortion pills were delivered by use of a drone and mini-speedboat to Northern Ireland, where a 21-year-old woman had recently been given a suspended sentence for the use of such drugs.
​
Both arrived at Narrow Water Castle near Newry in County Down where activists controversially took the pills in front of PSNI officers and the media.
​
Harrold said that “the drone was a very visual way of showing solidarity with our sisters in the north…but also to open up the debate in the south…to expose the reality that thousands of ordinary Irish women experience crisis pregnancies and need abortion services.”
​Counter protesters took to social media and public venues to denounce the act along with the PSNI for not arresting all involved. They insisted the drugs are not safe and that this set a negative precedent for impressionable young women.
For now at least, boundary dissolving protests continue to go unchallenged, and global eyes continue to observe the latest bold and unique ways Irish activists present their fight.
The drone and mini-speedboat took off from Omeath, Co. Louth, and landed at Narrow Water Castle in County Down.
I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.
"Ireland Hates Women"
Artist Uses Rage as a Weapon in Exhibition on the 8th Amendment
‘Repeal’ jumper-wearing Barbie dolls, glitter coated sculptures of “big, bright, bold and bodacious” vaginas and kitsch postcards of countryside Ireland, "where a woman is a human incubator!"
​
These were just some of the visceral and highly emotive artworks at a National College of Art and Design exhibition on the 8th amendment in early December.
Artistic heights
​
Dearbhla Ní Fhaoilleacháin Ryan organised 'The Rope Around All Our Necks’ in the belief that art is a superior medium of expression and argument in the often grim and unnerving topic of abortion rights.
​
“If this could get just one person to think critically about what the 8th amendment does, I’d be okay with that”, she said.
​
The Power of the Visual
​
Ní Fhaoilleacháin Ryan explained that the power of striking visuals has a much more profound effect on the human mind than words.
“Humans are highly visual and art has proved to be a good way to spread ideas in the past, for better or for worse in some cases”, she said.
​
No activism has ever been short of pocket for some sort of visual representation and examples are countless throughout history.
But in this particular issue, one can find that the most striking arguments on either side of the divide are the extremely evocative images that supporters regularly carry into battle on
O' Connell Street.
​
Contributing artist Deirdre Rawle on the role of artists in activism: “Graphic designers are completely crucial to the fight in any protest because without a visual, no message can reach the audience as well as it should.”
Ní Fhaoilleacháin Ryan: “I want to make people as uncomfortable as I am as a queer woman in Ireland.”
Rage and Fear
​
Ní Fhaoilleacháin Ryan says that rage and fear are the driving emotions behind her work and that the government and judicial system have categorically failed the women of Ireland.
​
She says that the ignorance and self-righteousness of people who have no familiarity or understanding of what it means to be gay, trans or a woman is what motivates her to produce such brash forms of expression.
​
“I want to throw their ignorance right back at them…I don’t think people are always this callous, it’s just that they’ve never had to think about it. It’s out of their comfortable little lives.”
​
“Our country is still patting itself on the back over the marriage referendum, but we’re letting our women die.” She added.
Selection of the artworks on display at 'The Rope Around All Our Necks'.
The Trials and Tribulations of ROSA
​
A Witch Themed Alternative to the Citizen's Assembly
“No, no, not deserving! Off you go now!”
A face etched with pantomine pomposity duly places a witch's hat over the woman’s head and sends her on her way to the holy duties of motherhood. Back under the rug and back into the kitchen.
​
The mock trio of Enda Kenny, Seán Brady and a high court judge are knocking out rulings in minutes rather than months here, and Henry Street shoppers look on bemused, confused and amused.
​
All the poorest, most vulnerable, isolated and abused pregnant women are represented in spirit by these accused witches. They plead their cases for reproductive rights, but on deaf ears they do fall indeed.
“I suppose you want to tax my eggs too, Enda?” shouts one woman behind me.
High Court Judge on the inspiration behind the Witches' Assembly.
Death of the Republic
​
The Citizen’s Assembly might be making headlines with its launch today, but this alternative is clocking up signatures and curious ganders.
​
Brady whispers in the ear of the judge as another windbag moans to them about single mothers and austerity. The devil on the left shoulder is only too keen to remind him of that infamous little scribble in the constitution.
​
“Enemies of the state, enemies of the church be damned! You shall respect the glorious institution of marriage, young lady!” boldly declares the judge.
​
Paper cut-out Enda nods in agreement. Not a cent left in the state coffers for ghastly parasites like this getting in the way of the "best little country in the world".
Mockery or microphone
​
“Women are judged on a daily basis in Ireland and we’re here to show the farcical cultural and legislative condemnation we face”, said Rita Harold.
​
Cheers and whistles rain down as the coven of witches bow to their admirers. Pensioners cheerfully inquiring about abortion with witch-themed teenagers is surely a sign of the times.
​
This theatrical middle finger to Enda’s stalling tactics proves that mockery is mightier than the megaphone, it seems.
Debating the fate of the faithless on Henry Street.
The condemned.
Sartorial Symbolism or Gimmicky Political Fashion?
The Jumpers, Tweets and Murals as the Public Face of Abortion Rights
The Repeal Jumper has surely taken its place as the defining image of the pro-choice campaign.
Nearly 6 months after its release under the artistic direction of one Anna Cosgrave, any stroll through Dublin City Centre is guaranteed to be dotted with people boldly declaring where their allegiances lie.
Therein lies the centre of Repeal's appeal: forcing conversation and debate onto the table and publicising an historically stigmatised and silenced issue.
There is something almost intimidating about the gravity of the statement. A complex, multi-faceted issue is distilled into an unrelenting, uncompromising black and white punch that demands attention, immediate treatment, and recognition of an uncomfortable and disturbing topic.
The first day they went on sale saw Temple Bar merchants Indigo & Cloth raking in 10,000 euro, and every new batch that comes in continues to sell out rapidly.
"I wanted a unified, simple message that really called for change."
- Anna Cosgrave speaking to the College View
"They don't know that person but they know that person is okay with their decision and is supportive of them"
- DCU student on the power of the jumper's message.
Based on a poem by Irish writer Sarah Maria Griffin, this video now has over 128,000 views on YouTube
Walls on Web
Street artist Maser struck up a characteristic rebellious chord with his jaunty, colourful endeavour into mural painting last July.
Naturally, a bold move without planning from the powers that be in Dublin City Council wins over more than a few hearts, and the removal by the council was arguably more significant than the artwork itself.
Out came the hashtags, the mouthy Facebook posts and tweets, and 200 letters of support to the Project Arts Centre, where the mural was located.
Shutting up the artists and quite literally painting over a call for reproductive rights became a metaphor for the State's treatment of anyone with a uterus.
#itstimetorepeal
In both August and November, women
live-tweeted their journeys to the UK to procure abortions, and they were tailed by a substantial online following of celebrities, major newspapers like the Guardian and pro-choice activists.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties on the replacement of the mural in August: “States have an obligation to respect, protect and fulfill the right to freedom of artistic expression and creativity.”
