Senator rejects claim her Vote No posters are ‘misinformation’
INDEPENDENT senator Sharon Keogan has defended her ‘vote No’ referendum posters, after being accused of ‘blatant misinformation’.
Ms Keogan’s posters read: ‘Don’t force mothers out to work. Vote No’ and ‘Don’t cancel women. Vote No’.
Another reads: ‘Don’t cancel women. Vote No.’
Mary McAuliffe, historian, lecturer, and director of gender studies at UCD, responded on social media: ‘Seen in Temple Bar today – that a sitting member of the Seanad could put out posters containing such blatant misinformation is jaw dropping! The Election Commission really needs to look into this.’
Regarding the claim that mothers would be ‘cancelled’ if the Constitution were changed by the referendum on Friday, Ms McAuliffe said: ‘Another one – for a legislator Senator Keogan has no idea what the Constitution contains or means! If [Article] 41.2 is deleted will women all suddenly become invisible?’
Senator Keoghan responded: ‘I would stand over everything that has been written on the posters. Everything is factual and it is true. And sometimes the ‘Yes’ side don’t want to read what is true. Sometimes the truth hurts.’
Ms Keogan, the first female Independent councillor elected to the Seanad, also published a post yesterday, saying: ‘The silent majority is awakening... Mother’s Day Sunday. Don’t vote her out on Friday. #VoteNoNo.’ She has opened a GoFundMe page, in which she has raised €22,600 of her €40,000 total to oppose the Government parties, Sinn Féin, Labour, Social Democrats and PBP, and to support the Vote No campaign. The Senator said the money would cover 5,000 posters, 100 packs of cable ties and a full-page advert in a Sunday paper.
Explaining why she supported the No campaign, she said a change was ‘completely unnecessary’. ‘The Government can already put in place any supports they want for single-parent families, for cohabitants or for parties to other relationships if they have the political will... It’s just empty symbolism.’
She said the proposed changes could have serious knock-on effects on family law, pension law, succession law, taxation law and immigration law.