Last night I got talking to my aunt. A staunch Republican, ex prisoner of conscience, ex dirty protester in armagh jail. We've not seen eye on eye on trans issues and fall out on a regular basis.
Last week I sent her #TheLetter and asked her to read it and to call of and she 1

Was ready to discuss it. She called me last night. An amnesty supporter and donor (she had amnesty put in her will years ago). And she was in tears. She'd read up, she'd read all of #Cxlms tweets on the matter and read feminist accounts here on Twitter and on other forums. 2

She couldn't believe that the people who say they are supporters of all freedoms and human rights where demanding the disenfranchisement of women all over Ireland. She couldn't believe limerick women's jail houses 2 fully intact male sex offenders. She couldn't believe what had 3

Been done to #KieraBell and 1000s like her. She couldn't believe the rampant misogny in 2020s Ireland. She likened it to the grasp the church had on Ireland until recently. She recalled the time male prison guards were called in from the maze to brutalise and intimidate the 4

Women in Armagh. She recalled her injuries which still plague her to this day. The PTSD she has from those men being present in an all female space. She cried for the women in limerick prison as she knows what they are going through. She cried for the children mutilated in the 5