A national teacher’s conference has heard calls from delegates for the INTO to disaffiliate from the National Women’s Council of Ireland, with one speaker afterwards saying she felt she was “speaking for the silent majority” who were unrepresented by the NWCI.
The INTO Annual Congress, held this week in Derry, was debating a motion on female health and equality when the proposer said that one section which called for the organisation to work with ‘recognised civil society groups’ would include the National Women’s Council in such groups.
Dublin-based teacher Aisling Considine told Gript that, in the wake of the recent colossal NO vote in the referendum on care, she and another delegate felt they “had to speak up”.
Just spoke against the @NWCI (National Women’s Council of Ireland) being recognised as a "civil society group" from whom we should seek support for this motion, as they do not represent women.@NWCI called for women who believe in biology to lose political representation.#INTO24 pic.twitter.com/OpIWFbplEK
— Aisling Considine AONTÚ (@AislingAontu) April 3, 2024
Addressing the conference, Ms Considine said that NWCI should not be included in recognised civil rights societies the INTO proposed to work with, because the NWCI had signed a letter calling on media and politicians to no longer provide legitimate representation for people who seek to defend biology.
“We used it as an opportunity to point out that INTO should cease affiliate membership of the NWCI and that they should not be called upon to support any INTO campaign,” she told Gript.
She said that the NWCI’s actions in seeking to silence anyone who believed that there were two biological sexes, coupled with their decision to campaign strongly for a Yes in recent referenda, showed that they did not represent the majority of women.
“Most teachers are female, most women voted No, and most of us know what a woman is, but the NWCI is out of kilter with Irish women on these issues,” she said. “I feel that the INTO, like many other organisations is affiliated the NWCI without members having a full understanding as to what that body stands for, so that’s why I read out the NWCI’s open letter to the Congress.”
The letter, signed by NWCI and other groups such as TENI, called “on media and politicians to no longer provide legitimate representation for those that hold bigoted beliefs” in the context of those that “seek to defend biology”.
“I’m a teacher and I will ‘defend biology’ and its outrageous that the NWCI wanted to shut down and silence science and scientific beliefs in this way,” Ms Considine said. “People came up to me afterwards and said they were shocked to learn that about the NWCI, and that they too were ‘defenders of biology’. I felt like I was speaking for the silent majority”.
She said that there was “some heckling from activists” but that she felt that those who wanted to deny the reality of biological sex had “lost the room”.
She said that it was notable that there had been a shift away from gender ideology at the Congress this year: saying she observed that far fewer delegates seemed to introduced themselves with pronouns while addressing the conference.
“I feel the INTO pays to be affiliated to this organisation – the NWCI – which is meant to represent women but doesn’t. It doesn’t even recognise a woman is an adult human female,” she said.
“It’s like the adults are no longer in charge,” she said. Ms Considine said she was running as an Aontú candidate in South West City Dublin because the only party standing up on these issues was Aontú and the Independents.
“Like a lot of women, I feel misrepresented and unrepresented and that’s why I’m standing,” she said.
Her call at the INTO was backed by another teacher, Caroline Moore, who also said that the INTO should stop affiliate membership of NWCI, “and consulting them on women’s health and rights given their ‘YesYes’ Campaign in Referendum and latest ‘Destigmatise Abortion’ campaign.”
I spoke today to ask #INTOCongress2024 to stop affiliate membership of @NWCI & stop consulting them on women's health & rights given their 'YesYes' Campaign in Referendum & latest 'Destigmatise Abortion' campaign. Well done @AislingAontu 1st time speaking is hard, esp if AGAINST!
— Caroline Moore (@cmooooore) April 3, 2024
Ms Moore posted that she believed NWCI should be defunded and that INTO should cease its affiliation to the organisation. She said NWCI had “lost their mandate to speak on women’s health”, and urged INTO to focus on winning members “the right to use their Maternity Leave before sick leave if undergoing cancer treatment as well”
Both speakers stressed they were not opposing the equality motion – which was carried – but wanted to speak on the NWCI’s role and their belief that the INTO should end its affiliation with the body.