Message from The Countess

Irish women are fighting back, and Dubin's Phoenix magazine doesn't like it

Unlike Private Eye, which has been admirable in its coverage of the JK Rowling affair, The Pheonix Magazine in Ireland is fully signed up to the gender revolution and all its attendant horrors (puberty blockers, men in women’s prisons, death and rape threats sent to children’s authors etc). The Countess Never Fought for this is an Irish group of feminists who have formed to fight gender ideology and The Pheonix obediently ran a hit piece on them. Here’s their response to it.

---

"The members of women’s rights group ‘The Countess Didn’t Fight For This’ would like to respond to the article, ‘The Countess Returns’ in the October 9 2020 edition of The Phoenix. There are possibly too many false accusations and erroneous statements embedded in this piece to address them all. Therefore we will address only three.

Firstly, let’s examine the general point that Irish women cannot think for themselves without the guidance of British feminists. In relation to Ireland’s abortion laws you accuse British feminists of being unaware of Irish women’s struggle. This is incorrect and the many Irish women who drew on the financial and practical support of British feminists to access abortion will find it tone deaf. The infamous ‘letter to British feminists’ from so-called Irish feminists objecting to the ‘We Need To Talk’ meeting organised by a UK women’s rights group was not representative of Irish women but organised and signed by a plethora of middle-class academic liberal feminists. We are certain that it was not signed by the women that are now housed in Limerick Prison with a male-bodied sex offender. This resort to ’no platforming’ and the refusal to countenance an opposing viewpoint does not suggest that the basis of an argument is solid.  Attempting to drive a wedge between women on the basis of their nationality only benefits those who do not have our interests at heart.

Secondly, the Gender Recognition Act was ‘uncontroversially’ adopted because the public were not consulted. Even Trans Rights Activist Aoife Martin says: “What’s less well known, and seemed to have somehow slipped in under the radar , is that the same year Ireland introduced the Gender Recognition Act.” Irish people were not consulted on whether or not they agreed with self-ID - the right to identify as a member of the opposite sex without any safeguards or gatekeepng - and there was no discussion on the impact this would have on the safety and well-being of women and girls. And it is having an impact: in less than two weeks since our launch we have been contacted by concerned women with stories of how it is affecting them and their daughters.

Lastly, our group took a stand against the wording ‘anyone with a cervix’ to describe women. We oppose dehumanising language and, as Dr Peter Boylan points out, the main reason for Cervical Cancer literature is to ensure women’s lives are saved. Anything that confuses or obfuscates this message must be removed. Everybody with a cervix knows they are a woman. Not all women know what a cervix is. This is such a simple point that even the National Women’s Council of Ireland (after having had its attention drawn to it by a concerned citizen) agrees. 

Believe it or not women organise outside the view of men and manage to overlook differences in nationality. We do not apologise for drawing on the support of other women internationally and will continue to do so. Our struggle is shared by women in the UK, in Canada, in Australia, New Zealand and the US.  Goldhawk takes pride in investigating its sources - we had no contact from you to clarify any of these matters despite contact details being available on our website. Your ridiculous attempt to insinuate that our group is part of some kind of takeover by British feminists is both inaccurate and misleading and speaks more to your own xenophobia, fear of open debate and contempt for women’s rights than a genuine concern for the ‘feminist’ movement in Ireland. It is patronising in the extreme to imply that Irish people should not engage with what is a growing,  global discourse. We are part of a global mass movement. Our membership is grassroots, the majority of whom are based in Ireland. We speak for the silent majority of this country and we condemn the publication of this toxic, personal attack-piece."