A Lasair Dhearg contingent was in attendance at the International Women’s Day event in Belfast City Centre today. Assembling at Writer’s Square, thousands made their way to Belfast City Hall as part of the event.
Lasair Dhearg member Nicola Nic Gabhann said that today’s march was about “remembering all those women who have walked before us, making those same demands but also of rededicating ourselves to ensure that those demands are met with the justice that they deserve”.
Speaking from Belfast City Centre, Nicola said “our activists unfurled a banner at the march featuring IRA Volunteer Mairéad Farrell. Herself a Belfast woman, the anniversary of her execution by British forces occurred just yesterday. Mairéad fought hard to deconstruct the social, economic and political system that enforced the subjugation of not just her people, but also her gender.”
“Days like today are bittersweet. It is sad that the rights that Mairéad and others fought for are still being demanded by women more than 30 years since her death; though it is also an inspiration to see so many people, young and old, getting feet on the street on days like this to demand those rights.”
“Mairéad said that ‘we can only end our oppression as women, if we end the oppression of our nation’, and in that, there is an eternal truth; we can only bring about real lasting social justice and equality for all within a Socialist Republic. A Republic that will foist upon its flag the rights of those who hold up half of the sky.”
ENDS
