Homeless Period Tipperary – volunteers/donations wanted

Homeless Period Ireland gathers sanitary products for girls and women who are experiencing homelessness, poverty or who are in direct provision or safe houses.

Tipp Collective is looking for volunteers to collect donations of products. Ideally we would like for local businesses to act as drop off points across Tipperary. The Green Sheep Café in Thurles (opposite Bowe’s pub) is first on board and will be accepting donations in Thurles.

We would like to have drop-off points in Nenagh, Roscrea, Carrick, Tipp Town and Clonmel if possible. All it involves is keeping a box for donated products on your premises and we will come and collect once a month and arrange delivery to local groups.

Even if you can’t get involved as a drop off point, consider picking up a pack of towels or tampons to donate next time you do your big shop.
If you or your business would like to get involved, please get in touch!

If you would like to learn more about period poverty and ways to help, Tipp Collective member Meg (@TheGoldenMej – The Social Seagull) has written an overview here.

Logo of Homeless Period Ireland

Correspondences Anthology

An anthology to call for an end to direct provision

Poet Jessica Traynor and actor Stephen Rea are calling for expressions of interest for inclusion in a once-off arts anthology to raise awareness of inhumanity of direct provision in Ireland, and to call for an end to a system that the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has called ‘a severe violation of human rights’.

They are now seeking expressions of interest from artists and writers working in the genres of prose, visual arts, journalism, essay, poetry and photography, and who have experienced or are experiencing direct provision in Ireland. It’s not required that the work submitted solely reflect the artists’ experiences in direct provision, but they would be interested to offer their readers a chance to learn more about the plight of asylum seekers in direct provision.

They may at a later date put out a general call, but at this time they are focusing on engaging with artists and writers who have experienced the above circumstances.

As part of the process of the anthology, they hope to pair emerging artists and writers with more established artists in their chosen genre – to create a ‘correspondence’ between artists that might outlast the process of the anthology – so when expressing your interest, please specify if you would like to offer mentorship, or to be the recipient of mentorship.

Those included in the anthology and engaging in the mentorship process will be paid a fee.

The anthology will be published in Autumn 2019, with all proceeds from the sale going to MASI.

Submission Guidelines

Please send an expression of interest to correspondencesanthology@gmail.com including the following:
a. For writers, a 500 word extract or up to three poems
b. For visual artists or photographers, up to five images
c. A biography detailing your experience to date
d. An expression of whether you would like to offer mentorship to an aspiring artist, or to receive mentorship from a more established artist.

The submission deadline is the 28th February 2019.

Read the details of the call out in a Word doc or pdf

Posted by Tipp Collective on behalf of Jessica Traynor. All enquiries to the above contact points.

RTE Primetime and trans rights

To whom it may concern:

We at the Tipperary Feminist Collective are deeply concerned about RTE’s decision to include the views of Mr Graham Linehan in their upcoming programme about trans rights and the supposed “debate”.

There is no logical reason why a comedy writer should be invited on to a current affairs programme to discuss a topic they have no personal experience of and have no qualifications in.

Inviting someone who is not trans or who has no medical or psychiatric expertise in the subject means that their contribution is based on opinions and not lived experience or facts. This creates a dangerous false balance meaning that misinformation and potentially damaging rhetoric could be viewed as being equal to the factual content presented by those with expertise in the subject.

In the age of fake news and propaganda we rely on our media, and in this case our national broadcaster, to maintain a high level of service and to make sure that reporting on every topic is factual, respectful and more importantly protects vulnerable viewers.

As per the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland Code of Programme Standards (Section 42(2)(f)) broadcasters have a responsibility to protect audiences from harmful or offensive material. We are aware of Mr Linehan’s views of trans people and trans rights. We are aware that his views are harmful and offensive to the trans community. It is the responsibility of the broadcaster to protect the trans community from harmful and offensive views like those consistently and daily expressed by Mr Linehan.

Ireland has changed considerably over the last few years. We are now a more open, compassionate and understanding nation. As part of the Irish feminist movement we at the Tipperary Feminist Collective work with people from all parts of our society including the LGBTQI+ community. But as progressive as Ireland is we are concerned that the trans community is one which faces prejudice, discrimination and harassment.

Therefore we are asking RTE to reconsider their decision to have an anti-trans activist on their programme to discuss trans rights as this is not protecting their audience (as is their duty as a broadcaster); instead it is spreading hate which will do nothing but hurt the most vulnerable.

There are many aspects of trans rights that we need to discuss, including access to health care, discrimination in the law, societal attitudes, and how best to protect rights and increase understanding of trans issues. Treating Mr Linehan as a knowledgeable commentator will only fuel hatred and misrepresentation of trans lives. We call on RTE to reconsider.

Signed,

The Tipperary Feminist Collective