THOUSANDS SAY #METOO
Protesters take to streets to call for a change in the handling of rape cases
THOUSANDS of protesters took to the streets of cities north and south of the border yesterday amid continuing public anger at the verdict of the Belfast rugby rape trial.
In Dublin protesters marched behind a banner that read, ‘Stand with survivors’ and ‘#MeToo’ from the Central Bank building on Dame Street, finishing up at the steps of the Department of Justice on St Stephen’s Green.
The protesters were demanding changes to how rape cases are handled by the criminal justice system.
Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger and Noeline Blackwell from the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre addressed the crowd.
Ms Blackwell told the crowd: ‘We need to keep up the recognition of the harm that is done by all forms of sexual violence by the fact that victims exist. They are survivors, but are not the better of it.’
‘We know that in this country we haven’t bothered to collect good information on the prevalence of sexual violence for the last 16 years,’ she said.
The protest movement emerged in the hours after a jury of eight men and three women found Ireland rugby players Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding not guilty of raping a woman at a house party in Belfast in June 2016; Blane McIlroy was found not guilty of exposure and Rory Harrison was cleared of perverting the course of justice.
Protesters carried posters saying ‘Sue me Paddy’, echoing a hashtag that evoloved on social media following Mr Jackson’s move to sue Labour Party senator Aodhán Ó Riordáin over a tweet. Others carried signs referencing WhatsApp messages produced as evidence during the trial. The WhatsApp messages featured group members boasting about their own sexual exploits in crude terms. In Belfast, the scene of the trial, a smaller demonstration took place. Protests also took place in Cork and Galway.
Meanwhile almost 50,000 people have signed an online petition on Change.org calling on the Irish Rugby Football Union to ‘conduct a review of Jackson and Olding’s behaviour’.
Immediately after the trial verdict, both the IRFU and Ulster Rugby stated that both players remained suspended, pending the findings of a review committee.
‘They are survivors, but are not the better for it’