FROM THE ARCHIVES:Women marched through Dublin in 1978 to protest against violence against women and launch the Rape Crisis Centre, as Mary Maher reported. – JOE JOYCE
ABOUT 2,500 women marched through the centre of Dublin last night protesting against violence against women, and a speaker announced from the platform in Parnell Square that a Rape Crisis Centre will be opened this month which, when fully operational, will provide a 24-hour advice and counselling service to rape victims.
The march began shortly after 8 p.m. at Stephen’s Green and swelling by another 200 or 300 en route, ended at the Garden of Remembrance in Parnell Square. About 100 women carried flaming torches behind a banner announcing “Women Against Violence Against Women” and the Emerald Girls’ Pipe Band led the demonstration.
At the Garden of Remembrance, Monica Barnes, of the Council for the Status of Women, addressed the crowd, saying: “I rejoice in tonight; this is an historic night. We are showing our fear and also our anger at the way in which women are treated. Rape is the extreme of the fundamental attitude toward women in society.” Women were exploited throughout society in the workplace and home, Ms Barnes said, and the march was a demonstration of the solidarity which would move forward to a revolution.
Nell McCafferty, formerly of the Irish Times, said: "There isn't a woman on this march who hasn't been abused physically or mentally. Every woman has been raped in thought, word or deed." The Minister for Justice's recent admonishment to girls for their dress or provocative behaviour Ms. McCafferty described as "sordid and insulting."
Ms McCafferty told a cheering crowd: “The streets are ours. We are not looking for jail for men, we are not looking for castration for men, we are not looking for men at all.”
A spokesperson for the Rape Crisis Centre, who was not identified, said that what women were seeking was a change in the law. “As women who have been raped know all too well when a rape case comes to trial it is unfortunately not the man who is on trial for rape it is the woman. What we want is a change in the laws of evidence so that a woman’s sexual history is not brought out in court to be held against her.”
The speakers all referred to the punitive and insulting attitudes towards women and there were a few shouts of altercation through the general cheering and applause, with some chants of – “Not all men are rapists.”
A final speaker, “Lillian, who, lives in this area and will tell us what it is like,” said: “I am not anti-man. I like men as much as anyone here. But we have situations now where a man can plead guilty to rape and get 15 months in prison while girls end up dying or in mental hospitals. I am not anti-man, but it is not men who get raped. It is women.”
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