The arts can change the world, as I've found through the support of the National Women's Council of Ireland, who just invited me to perform my play 'This is My Constitution' as part of a Dail briefing for TDs and Senators on changing what the Irish Constitution says about women!* Myself and actress Maria O' Callaghan performed a rehearsed reading from the play, which is made up of letters women wrote to De Valera in 1937 to protest the wording, to politicians including Senators David Norris, Ivana Bacik, Cait Keane and Fiach Mac Conghail (who is also director of the Abbey Theatre). Everyone seemed to enjoy it and to get a deeper understanding of how important it is to change the wording, so fingers crossed that the Constitutional Convention brings that change about! Maria and I were overwhelmed to be able to bring the words of those inspirational women to where they should have been heard almost eighty years ago.
*What our constitution says now, of course, is this: "By her LIFE within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved.".....
*What our constitution says now, of course, is this: "By her LIFE within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved.".....
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