Oireachtas members told: This is our Constitution!

Published: Sunday, December 09, 2012

Just three days before Taoiseach Enda Kenney launched the Constitutional Convention in Dublin castle TDs, Senators and their advisors gathered in the AV room in Leinster House for a NWCI briefing on the Constitution. The briefing was hosted by Labour Leader in the Seanad Ivana Bacik. Her colleague from Trinity College Law School, Dr. Alan Brady, was commissioned by the NWCI to conduct a 'gender audit' of the Constitution.  AT the breifing Dr Brady gave Oireachtas members a synopsis of his working paper 'The Constitution, Gender and Reform'. He focused on the areas of his research slated for inclusion in the Convention, namely Marriage Equality, increasing women's participation in politics and public life and the clause on women in the home. Dr. Brady outlined the changes he believes the Convention should propose to create a Constitution which is inclusive of women and focuses on women's rights, including economic and social rights.

Afterwards Kathy D'Arcy and Maria O'Callaghan did a reading of Kathy's powerful and funny play 'This is My Constitution.' The play is composed entirely of correspondence around the formulation of the 1937 Bunreacht na hÉireann. It shows how women's voices were marginalised from the debate and how the male dominated decision-making bodies decided to assign women to a place either in the home or the civil service typing pool, rather than allowing women to take their full place as active citizens in Irish society.

Orla O'Connor, Director of the NWCI, spoke about how the Constitution badly needed to be overhauled and that it was long overdue a change. She reminded the gathering that those who formulated the 1937 Constitution were all men and that the impact of this was clear in the final document. Although the process of the Convention is not ideal the NWCI wants to work with it to make sure it is the best forum possible. 

The event was covered in the Irish Times.