“There’s something exciting in the air ... seeing lads walking down the street wearing Repeal shirts, seeing the Maser mural. Seeing every single article or blog adds solidarity, and up until this year we felt so alone. We felt vilified and we felt like we were criminals ... and we’re not having it anymore, “ comedian and author Tara Flynn told The Women’s Podcast as part of Una Mullally’s documentary ‘The Year The Conversation Changed’.
In the run up to the annual March for Choice on September 24th the podcast explores a year in the pro-choice movement when women began sharing stories and new groups and projects sprang up.
It covers key moments from the past 12 months in the rapidly growing movement - the ‘Repeal’ mural on the wall of the Project Arts Centre in Dublin, Sydney Rose Brianna Parkins’ call for a referendum while onstage at the Rose of Tralee and the live-tweeting of a journey for an abortion by #twowomentravel.
Mullally spoke to some of the key instigators about how and why the movement to repeal has progressed from whispers to shouts.
Some of the participants included owner of Tropical Popical nail salon Andrea Horan who founded pop-culture based pro-choice movement The Hunreal Issues, Anna Cosgrave of the Repeal Project which produced a range of Repeal clothing, and Cian O’Brien of the Project Arts Centre where the Maser mural was put up and then painted over.
One year after she wrote about her abortion in this newspaper, Róisin Ingle discussed her experiences of hearing women's stories and the new audiences being exposed to the movement
The podcast is brought to a close with the Saw Doctors’ song ‘Everyday’ from 1996, which tells the story of a woman, “the girl you know from down the road,” travelling on a boat for a termination.
