CEO of the Countess Laoise de Brún. Photo: Free Speech Ireland Theo McDonald
Hundreds of protestors gathered outside the RDS on Saturday as women’s rights group The Countess held a conference highlighting the impact of ‘gender ideology’ on Irish society.
As protestors shouted “shame on you”, some attendees reported being spat on as they tried to enter the conference. One attendee mentioned how she had to enter through the back of the RDS.
CEO of the Countess Laoise de Brún spoke of how despite the setbacks “this is a landmark moment for the movement in Ireland”. De Brún, who is a barrister, spoke of reforming the Gender Recognition Act 2015 as opposed to repealing it.
At the conference she highlighted several amendments proposed. One amendment would see the prevention of self-identifying women being imprisoned in female prisons.
She highlighted how 60% of male prisoners who “say they’re women” are registered sex offenders according to a Freedom of Information Request from the Department of Justice. This is compared to only 16% of the general prison population who are sex offenders, she said.
Former RTÉ Journalist Paddy O’Gorman discussed misleading media portrayals of transgender individuals in reporting.
“The essence of the lie is an intention to mislead. They’ll say something like a woman has been sent to prison for molesting a woman or a woman is up for making death threats against other prisoners,” he said.
Speaking to the Irish Catholic Ms De Brún said the Government’s agenda is damaging to families and children. “The Government are determined to do and say anything to force their kind of hard left agenda on the country regardless of what the people on the ground want or actually care about.”
She also said she’s worried about the “zealots at the heart of Government” who are doing “untold damage” with reference to Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman.