Cake, chat and a chance to vote YES
Posted on July 31, 2009 at 03:13 PM
Women for Europe Chairwoman Olive Braiden, Lord Mayor Emer Costello and Nell McCafferty at the Launch of Women for Europe
The Lisbon Treaty was never like this before! Gorgeous cupcakes, shiny balloons and a bit of style thrown in. You see, that's what happens when women get involved. Give the thing a bit of panache, a bit of energy, and voters will turn their head and their attention to what was otherwise the preserve of the grey suits and the boring sections, subsections, articles and guarantees of a dense and inaccessible document.
Yesterday in the Mansion House in Dublin, Lord Mayor Emer Costello invited Women for Europe to launch its campaign to encourage a yes vote for Lisbon on October 2nd. Secretly I was hoping that we might all get a ticket to Lisbon for our efforts but hey, the cupcakes were a just reward. There was a handful of brave men in the room including Pat Cox, a man with many years dedication to the service of Europe.
We were entertained with a brass quartet, some pithy speeches led by Women for Europe director Olive Braiden and rounded off with a fiery note of warning from Nell McCafferty who reminded all in the room that Europe has brought much that is good to women's rights. To general laughing she said that the great advantage of being old is that you "can remember everything" and what she remembered is women tied to the kitchen sink and being treated as chattels in the Ireland of pre-Europe times. Not something we want to even consider again she added, never mind take any steps towards by voting ourselves out of Europe.
The event was well attended and Women in Europe is hoping that its campaign will work through women networking at work, hosting coffee mornings, wine evenings - whatever excuse they can find to have a yes to Lisbon conversation - even if it is only an excuse for a natter and a gossip!
They have some good literature and a website so really there is no excuse. And they are happy to network with other groups who are also encouraging a yes vote. Certainly this Lisbon Treaty will see more groups mobilising than the last time and civil society is playing its part - rightly so - rather than relying on moribund government parties to rally the troups. The Labour Party will be linking up with these groups wherever we can as we know there is always strength in numbers.
Tagged with labourforeurope
