The infamous Istanbul Convention on Violence against Women was ratified by our spineless government on March 8 2019, International Women’s Day, in an act of craven surrender to the radical feminist lobby. Since it came out in 2011 this appalling document has never been discussed in press, radio or TV. Not once. Men’s Voices has campaigned against it ceaselessly. We phoned journalists, reporters, spoke to members of the Oireachtas Justice Committee and asked to make a presentation to them, all to no avail. We wrote articles and sent them to newspapers, to Opinion editors of all the main dailies; they weren’t interested, they didn’t even respond.
It is entirely worthy of a totalitarian Stalinist state
So much for the press and media claim to be the cornerstone of democracy, the watchdog of a free society.
This was the most disgraceful betrayal in a lifetime and demonstrates beyond doubt that our media is a timid, pathetic, pitiful, poodle totally under the thumb of the radical feminist lobby and their male feminist counterparts in the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Irish Examiner and RTE. Newstalk and Today FM are no better, they hardly broached this issue either.
We have written about the Convention at great length elsewhere on the website. It is entirely worthy of a totalitarian Stalinist state which explains why the cowardly despicable media and political parties did not dare debate it in public at any time in the past 5 years.
The Sunday Independent did carry an editorial on March 10 2019, a servile and nauseating grovelling to the forces now dominant in our society, in which it said
“The purposes of the Istanbul Convention are noble”. It did not however deign to enlighten the public on these noble purposes at any time in the preceding years.
Any person who finds this noble is beyond redemption and is merely a mouthpiece for a vile ideology.
The Irish Times had no editorial on the subject, possibly because there would have been a torrent of comments underneath if it did. The Irish Independent allows no comments.
The Ministers responsible for this outrage: Frances Fitzgerald who initiated the process and put it before Cabinet where it was signed in Nov 2016 and Charley Flanagan the Minister who ratified it. We don’t forget either the Taoiseach responsible Leo Varadkar. By this action men and boys are now relegated to third class status as citizens of this benighted state.
We pledge these things will not be forgotten.
Male victims of Family Law and Domestic Violence
In what must be a first for RTE, there was an item on Drivetime on Thurs Feb 21 2019 on male victims of the iniquitous family law system and domestic violence. The reason for this very rare show of concern for suffering men was concern expressed by the Law Society of Ireland at a hearing of the Justice committee on Reform of the Family Law system on Feb 20. You can listen to the two men here
There is a more expansive account of the hearings elsewhere on the website.
On the rights of fathers, Keith Walsh told the committee that from a practical viewpoint but without empirical evidence, it appears that fathers who wish to have extensive access with their children face an uphill battle in the Irish courts.
MVI was contacted by Drivetime on Feb 20 and asked to contact men we knew who would be willing to go on radio and talk about their experiences. This was not an easy matter. Many men will not go on radio and be identified fearing that it could interfere with their precarious access arrangements. This is the fear that no one will talk about.