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ABORTION, GAY RIGHTS AND IRELAND
 
(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if
source is cited.)
 
There is an obvious connection between the struggle of a
14-year-old rape victim in Ireland to get an abortion and the
Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization's struggle to march in New York
City's St. Patrick's Day parade.
 
The teenager there and the gay community here are both up against
the enforcement of social values that should have been outlawed
along with the inquisition. What really matters in both cases is
who benefits from the appalling backwardness and bigotry.
 
Every year since a 1983 referendum made abortion illegal, some
4,000 women in the Irish Republic have been forced to travel to
London for abortions. In early February the Irish supreme court
backed an injunction blocking the 14-year-old rape victim from
getting an abortion in England; the case is now on appeal.
 
The court's ban was met with outrage in Ireland and abroad. A poll
showed 64% in Ireland disagreed with the ruling. On Feb. 22, over
5,00 women demonstrated in Dublin. Women protested in front of the
Irish consulate in New York on Feb.  21.
 
Reactionary Irish laws banning abortion, divorce and homosexuality
must be considered in light of the long shadow cast by 800 years
of colonial rule and the partition of Ireland, with British troops
occupying six counties in the north. Economic and political
domination of the Irish Republic by Britain and the U.S. keep
Ireland impoverished, creating underdevelopment, which breeds
ignorance.
 
Not only the concentration of industry in the northern occupied
zone, the highest unemployment rate in western Europe and the
forced emigration of its youth lead to Ireland's backwardness. The
Dublin government takes its cues from Westminster and Washington,
carrying out repression to keep the Irish people subjugated.
 
In the U.S., there is a sharp division in the movement to demand
Ireland's unity. The Ancient Hibernians turn out for New York's
March 17 parade to _celebrate_ their northern European ancestry.
That spells racism.  They're the same ones who tried to ban the
Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization and a disabled group last year.
This year they're trying to bar lesbians and gays again.
 
Last year these groups had to fight for a position in the march.
Their brave perseverance in the face of the heinous attack made
them the real leaders of the St. Patrick's Day parade. It brought
a fresh breath to the event.
 
Support for a united Ireland, freedom of choice for Irish women
and an end to lesbian and gay oppression cannot be separated.
There is a strong, new, healthy current in the Irish movement to
carry forward the struggle.
 
                               ***
 
This article originally appeared in Workers World newspaper. A
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