Twitter Addresses for “How to elect more women” Conference

This blogpost contains a list of  Twitter names of people speaking at the Conference. [See below]

You can add your name to the list below by posting a comment.

The Conference in Dublin Castle on Friday is now full,  ‘sold-out’…[300+ attending]. Many citizens, who can’t be there, will be keen to hear about proceedings on the day – as it happens, rather than wait for press reports.

Twitter is now more important than ever.
It enables people outside the Conference to be informed & to comment on what’s going on. Twitter helps people feel involved & to feel “ownership” of the event. Twitter helps build movements for change. [The 50:50 Group is active on Twitter]

To help those who wish to…

  • tweet from the Conference
  • tweet to Conference attendees
  • tweet comments about the Conference all over the world
  • even gather all related tweets together for publication later.
Here’s a Twitter list I put together…
(Those marked with  * are live  current accounts, with apologies for any mistakes.  Those without a Twitter address have been included – in case they really do tweet.)

@kathleenlynchTD  Minister Kathleen Lynch 

Department of Justice & Equality

European Social Fund

Dublin Castle

Olivia O’Leary

@alanshatterTD  Minister Alan Shatter

Ms Ajla Van Heel, Gender Officer OSCE ODIHR

@osce_odihr  * OSCE ODIHR

@nansloane  Ms Nan Sloane

@cfwd  * Centre for Women & Democracy

@marywhiteGRN Mary White, former Minister for Equality

@claire_mcging * Claire McGing, NUI Maynooth, 50:50 Group

@ivanabacik  * Senator Ivana Bacik

Susan McKay, CEO NWCI

@nwci  National Women’s Council of Ireland

Deputy Catherine Byrne, Fine Gael;

@sinnfeinwomen  Deputy Sandra McLellan, Sinn Féin;

@cathmurphyTD * Deputy Catherine Murphy, Independent;

Senator Averil Power, Fianna Fáil;

Councillor Jane Dillon Byrne, Labour;

@finegaeltoday  * Tom Curran, General Secretary, Fine Gael;

@labour  * Ms Ita McAuliffe, General Secretary, Labour Party;

@fiannafailparty  * Seán Dorgan, General Secretary, Fianna Fáil;

@pb4p *  Ms Ailbhe Smyth, ‘People Before Profit Alliance’.

@endakennyTD Taoiseach & Leader of Fine Gael, Enda Kenny

Tánaiste & Leader of Labour Party, Eamon Gilmore

@michealmartinTD  Leader of Fianna Fáil, Micheál Martin

@eamonryan  * Leader of the Green Party, Eamon Ryan

Gender Equality Division, Department of Justice & Equality

@the5050group   * The 50:50 Group

Others who have publicly tweeted that they’ll be at Conference, include:

@carolmhunt *Carol Hunt

@barbarascully  * Barbara Scully

@margareteward  * Margaret E Ward

@mammisammi  * Samantha Long

@sinchul Sinead Ni Chulachain

@playcock *Paul Laycock

 

__________________________

Please add your name to the list of Conference attendees by leaving a Comment here – with your Twitter address

– I’ll add your name to the list.

 

Nicola Byrne, CEO 11890, speaks her mind…

Discussing a recent ESRI report on NewstalkFM radio on 13 December, Nicola Byrne, founder & CEO of 11890 had this exchange with Jonathan Healy

Jonathan: … Funny you mention politics, because that’s the one area where there has been absolutely no change. We seem to have had very few new female politicians coming through. There have been some, and some of them have gone on, but, if you look at the Cabinet, it’s mostly an “old boys” affair.

Nicola: Well we have seen a lot of changes.  I know we have only 14% women I think currently in the Dail, and I have one or two of them as friends, but the difficulty there is that the system in the Dail hasn’t changed. We haven’t had enough power & influence, and it’s been left deliberately that way, that it isn’t family-friendly.

The Dail goes on until 10 o’clock at night sometimes. If you’re a young mother, you can’t participate. We’ve lost one or two TDs to the fact that two working TDs when they got married, she had to cut her job because she just couldn’t put the hours in. So we haven’t built the system for equality.  We’ve actually just built the system to suit whoever was in power at the time.  ‘He who has the power is the king-maker’.  And so the Dail has remained a traditional male bastion for that reason.  It’s not some great mystery why it hasn’t happened.  The boys just suited themselves, and nobody stopped them.

Jonathan (laughing): I think they do that across the board in relation to gender issues…