If you all would allow me, I’d like to talk a bit about the recent referendum we had back in Ireland. On May 25th we removed the constitutional ban that denied abortion to all women except in the case of certain death. #Repealed
I understand that this might be a difficult topic for a lot of people. And that’s ok. But what my country went through was extremely difficult and while it was an extremely tough task, I am so proud of the outcome and of what we managed to do with dignity and respect
A bit of a back story. Many of you may recall in 2015, Ireland voted to legalise gay marriage. I was living in Finland at the time and I flew #hometovote for that. I would never have missed that vote.
There was already a pretty big movement to remove our ban on abortion then, but the success of the marriage referendum inspired the #RepealThe8th movement to really amp up.
I moved home from Finland in December 2015. In February 2016 I contacted @freesafelegal to get involved somehow.
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Alright, alright, alright y’all, I’m gonna sign off here for the week. Thank you all for being kind and listen to me ramble about my research, human rights, language and tides.
If you enjoyed my stint and wat to follow me, you can find me @GaRoDean. I tweet mostly about minority rights, feminism and Irish. You can also listen to me on the @Motherfocloir podcast where I talk about these things AND about Finland.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh ar fad, tabhair aire agus slán go fóill a chairde! Tack så mycket och hej då, kiitos paljon, moi moi!!
Earlier in the week I shared some little graphics looking for people to participate in my research here in Finland. I'm still reall eager to hear from anyone who thinks they might be Abe to help, or who knows someone who might be able to help.
Keeping that in mind, a very kind translator friend ran up these two graphics in Swedish and Finnish for me so that they might have a wider reach! Feel free to copy, paste, share! Also, as ever, DM are open on my personal account @GaRoDean
Last tweet had a typo with my personal account, fml.
I was recently made aware of comments by a Finnish politician about our referendum. I didn’t hear about it at the time (after the vote, I had to catch up on 3 months of sleep)
A Finnish friend was really upset and wanted me to know that this didn’t represent Finland.
I believe many of the Finnish government came out to say something similar, that this wasn’t an official line. To be honest, they need not have done so.
Because I knew that those opinions don’t represent Finland. Finland is a country with many flaws. But for someone who lived almost all her life in a country that has historically and consistently degraded women, Finland is a feminist state.
In Ireland, there is a euphemism of “going to England” or “taking the boat”. It refers to women who have abortions. Because up until recently, the only way you could access an abortion was to do it in a different country, usually England.
Women would have to seek kindness, compassion and medical care in the arms of strangers because our state refused to acknowledge their existence
With the growth of the Internet, women started ordering illegal abortion pills online, taking them at home, in secret. But this could be dangerous. Abortion carries a 14 year prison sentence.
Today’s topic continues to be language (again, due to yesterday’s divergence)
I was raised monolingual English-speaking. But in Ireland everyone has to learn Irish throughout school. I never really cared much for Irish until I was about 16/17.
I have dyslexia and for many dyslexic people, you are given an exemption from studying Irish. I talk more about my relationship with Irish (and a bit about Finnish!) in an early episode of @Motherfocloir headstuff.org/motherfocloir/…
Falling in love with Irish was like a gateway drug for me. I love learning languages. I began to learn Swedish back in 2014 when I studied at Åbo Akademi and I think I have a pretty decent level of Swedish now, partially thanks to Duolingo, partially to Swedish speaking friends