Wait No More: Ireland’s abortion laws and the bands fighting to change them

The anger, despair and hunger for change that flows through the streets of Dublin is being punctuated by jagged guitar riffs

by Dean Van Nguyen, The Independent
October 24, 2016

In Ireland, you’re not supposed to talk about abortion. The country with some of the most restrictive reproduction health laws in Europe has long hidden the issue under a dark, unchallengeable cloak. The number of women and girls who have travelled to access abortion services in other countries over the past two decades is in the six figures. But you’re not supposed to talk about that.

Abortion was a wicked taboo instilled by centuries of strong-arm Catholic influence. Forbidden back-garden gossip not meant for public airing. An inconvenient truth quietly exported to Great Britain, because that’s just how it was. But a grassroots movement to overthrow this oppressive strain of Irish society has greatly intensified in recent years. Last month, an estimated 30,000 people paraded through the streets of Dublin for the Abortion Rights Campaign’s March for Choice. Women, long silenced by the shackles of the Irish patriarchy, are voicing their fears and personal experiences in greater numbers.

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Source: The Independent