Plunketts for Yes
Channel: Leitrim Together for Yes
Date: 2018-05-23

Text:
This is a statement in response to the use of Joseph (Joe) Plunkett’s image in support of retaining the 8th Amendment to the Constitution:

As descendants of Joe’s sister, Geraldine (Gerry) Plunkett, and as the author of the only biographies of both Joe and Gerry, we do not believe that either of them would support the 8th Amendment to the Irish constitution.
Joe Plunkett was a revolutionary and a feminist. He deeply believed in women’s rights, and his father, George Noble Plunkett, helped to ensure that women’s suffrage was included in the foundation of the state. It is no accident that the Proclamation of the Irish Republic specifically addresses both Irish men and Irish women. 
Joe was very close to his sister Gerry, who studied medicine and chemistry. Gerry was a great supporter of the work of Marie Stopes, and worked to try to open Marie Stopes clinics in Ireland after independence. She had been told by her doctor that “another pregnancy would kill her”, and was infuriated by the doctor being unable to intervene, through contraception or abortion, to ensure her survival. Although she did survive further pregnancies, she always believed in women’s reproductive rights and bodily autonomy.
We, Gerry’s grand-daughter and great-grand-daughter, have had our views strongly influenced by Joe and Gerry’s revolutionary thought. Neither of us has ever doubted that access to both contraception and safe abortion are human rights essential to women’s healthcare. Gerry’s own daughter, Bláth, stood in front of Gardaí as they raided the offices of Open Door Counselling, who provided women with information about procuring abortions through the 1980’s. We reject the co-opting of Joe Plunkett’s name, image or legacy by the No campaign. We are all voting Yes, and Joe, Gerry and Bláth would all be doing the same if they were still around.

Honor ÓBrolcháin – author, “16 Lives: Joseph Plunkett” and “All In the Blood: the memoir of Geraldine Plunkett Dillon”
Isolde ÓBrolcháin Carmody – playwright and performer, “Mamó: A Story of Geraldine Plunkett Dillon”

#WhoNeedsYourYes - our revolutionary predecessors
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