Rally calls for progress on equality issues
CALLS for the Government to accelerate progress on women’s issues in Ireland were heard at a rally in Dublin yesterday.
Hundreds of people attended the No Woman Left Behind demonstration at Leinster House.
The rally was organised by the National Women’s Council of Ireland ahead of International Women’s Day on Tuesday.
Around 20 speakers from political and activist backgrounds addressed the women, men and children who had gathered, with childcare, violence against women and abortion rights high on the agenda.
Challenges faced by one-parent families and Traveller, migrant, trans and disabled women were also highlighted. The rally started with a minute of silence in solidarity with Ukraine. The lead-up to the event sparked controversy after it emerged Government ministers were not included in the list of political speakers invited to speak.
Organisers defended the move, arguing it gave the Coalition the opportunity to listen to the messages being delivered.
Addressing the crowd, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald demanded the right to ‘decent work, to fair play, to equal pay’.
She warned: ‘The political system can choose to listen or not, they may choose to look the other way but be very clear sisters – the old Ireland is gone and change is coming.’
The Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall and Labour leadership frontrunner Ivana Bacik were also among the speakers.
Ms Shortall hit out at the proposed new national maternity hospital to be built on the Religious Sisters of Charity-owned grounds of St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin.