Becky’s 16-hour journey to get home to vote
A WEXFORD woman, who lives in Portland, Oregon, completed a 16-hour journey last week to get home in time to vote in Friday’s referendum on repealing the Eighth Amendment.
Becky Jenkins (26) has lived and worked in Oregon for the past three years, having studied a Masters in Animal Law there prior to making the big move. She now works in a law school in Portland.
She said that while she debated in her head about coming home for the vote, eventually the choice was easy enough.
‘When it was I had a few holidays left to take and I was debating whether to come home or not. I asked my boss and she told me to go home and be part of history. I think living in the USA during the last Presidential election made me realise how important every vote is.’
Becky flew from Portland to Washington DC and then hopped on a plane to Dublin. In total, her journey took about 16 hours.
Having studied Law in Trinity College, Becky had learned about the history of abortion law in Ireland and said she had been very interested in the issue since then.
She studied human rights in Trinity as well as in the USA.
Becky said much had been said about the Home To Vote movement and the numbers who made the journey, remarking that some of her own friends in Wexford had thanked her for doing so: ‘I felt it was easier for me. I just had to come home for a week but so many people were out canvassing for months before it. They’re the people we should be thanking.’