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Here are some of the ways in which people who are too young to vote have been campaigning for the referendum
Niall Carson Niall Carson
IT WOULD PROBABLY be an understatement to say that now is a particularly frustrating time to be a teenager in Ireland.
Whatever the result of the upcoming referendum is, there’s no doubt that it will have a massive impact on the lives of young people in Ireland. We got in touch with several teenagers to see how this feels, and what they’re contributing to campaigns across the country, since they cannot use their vote yet.
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One of the first people we spoke to was a young transgender man, who we will refer to as ‘R’.
R, a 16-year-old from Dublin, got in touch with me to talk about how his frustration does not only lie in the fact that he cannot vote, but in the fact that many people like him are completely left out of the conversations surrounding the Eighth Amendment.
R told us:
R added that this is particularly troubling because of the fact that transgender and non-binary people are at increased risk of sexual assault.
It wasn’t until Savita Hallapanavar’s death that R learned that abortion was illegal in Ireland.
Since R became aware that abortion is illegal in Ireland, he has attended rallies and says that he has never been more comfortable among a crowd of people than he was at Strike 4 Repeal in 2017.
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Anna, who is 17 and from Dublin 7, has been canvassing and working at stalls to try and encourage as many people to vote as possible.
She told us that she’s really upset that she can’t vote in the referendum, but she knows that she’s doing everything possible to support the ‘Yes’ vote.
After her first canvass with her mam, Anna has grown even more enthusiastic.
One of these negative experiences was receiving verbal abuse from a middle-aged man, while working at a stall with another 17-year-old. Anna said that the man spent ten minutes telling cruel lies and making sexist comments, that left both her and the girl she was working with quite upset.
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Aoibh, from Dun Laoghaire, is 17 and has been leafleting for the ‘Yes’ side.
Until recent years, Aoibh believed that lowering the voting age would mean that people would begin to “brainlessly follow their parents/peers votes”, but she’s now stunned at how much she and her schoolmates have matured. She now thinks that the voting age should be lowered to 16, particularly for referendums.
Aoibh is too young to go canvassing (however, people under 18 can go with a parent or guardian) so she does her bit by going to rallies and marches, donating money through Flea Market for choice, and chatting about the importance of the referendum as much as possible with family and friends online and in person.
Repealing the Eighth Amendment really means a lot to Aoibh.
Niall Carson Niall Carson
17-year-old Ellen from Louth believes that all women, non-binary and transgender citizens deserve the basic healthcare that they’d get almost anywhere else in the world.
Ellen has been working on stalls and canvassing with Sinn Féin and her local Together For Yes group. The responses she’s had have only been positive.
Ellen hasn’t been pro-choice for her entire life, but it didn’t take her long to educate herself.
Like Aoibh, Ellen worries about the consequences that her friends and family could face because of the Eighth Amendment.
There are only 18 people in Ellen’s year at school, and she says that it’s a constant topic of conversation, as all but one student are pro-choice and are pretty active in their campaigning.
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Deborah from Westmeath is frustrated that she cannot vote, but she has to put her trust in the people of Ireland to make the best decision for her future.
Deborah is 17, and says she’s been pro-choice since before she knew what being pro-choice was.
She became involved in the campaign after she went to a meeting with the local Together For Yes group:
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We also spoke to a 13-year-old student from Wexford named Aoife*
Although she is only in first year of secondary school, she’s very engaged with the referendum.
Aoife told us that she’s “100% on the repeal side”, and knew straight away that it’s not up to her to make decisions for other women. She also feels like her input is dismissed far too often because of her age:
Unfortunately, because she’s very busy at school, Aoife can’t be involved in the referendum as much as she’d like to be. She’s a little bit concerned about the fact that people in her year aren’t educating themselves on the topic.
*Some of the people we spoke to wished to remain anonymous, so names have been changed.
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