Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
Putting the campaign to Repeal the 8th centre stage
In May this year Irish citizens will vote in a referendum on abortion rights. FIONA O’CONNOR explains how her new play seeks to encourage women to make sure they vote for their right to choose
People carrying various signs gather outside The Custom House in Dublin, as participants take part in a march through the city calling for the repeal of the 8th amendment to the Irish constitution

FOR decades Britain has provided an escape hatch for Irish women.

There’s a long history of boats and trains releasing the Irish into the anonymous streets of London, Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham. 

Irish workers have been travelling across to Britain for centuries.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
FINDING COMMON CAUSE: Supporters of the Irish rap group Kneecap outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London with London Irish Brigade solidarity placards for Mo Chara
Ireland / 9 March 2026
9 March 2026

AARON SMITH discusses why the Protestant diaspora are still part of Yeats’s ‘Indomitable Irishry’, and an integral part of any future united Ireland.

Women's rights campaigners in Westminster, London after taking part in a march from the Royal Courts of Justice calling for decriminalisation of abortion, June 17, 2023
International Women’s Day 2026 / 7 March 2026
7 March 2026

As peers prepare to debate reform of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi leads a bid to end the criminalisation of women who end pregnancies at home. LYNNE WALSH reports

Investigators place a tarp over an item on a road near the site of an explosion in Palm Springs, Calif., May 17, 2025
United States / 18 May 2025
18 May 2025