Why I Reject Repeal - To Give, We Must Take.

For a long time I swayed between the lines of both sides of the abortion debate. However, it was not until I attended an ultrasound scan of my son Cahir that I decided that I was pro-life. At that moment, I instantly recognised the humanity of the unborn child. It was undeniable. He was twelve weeks in the womb, you could see his head, arms and legs and it appeared as if his tiny hand was waving to the outside world.  (See image above)

At that point the unborn child could never again be rationally defined as blob of cells that did not qualify for legal protection.  Cahir is now five and he is as human as he was in his mother’s womb. There is no point in his existence that he was anything other than human.

I understand, that I am a man, I do not have a womb. However, I refuse to accept that my sex precludes me from advocating for the unborn, just as it does not preclude me from advocating for the right to choose.

I also appreciated that my fiancée’s circumstances at that time where much better than some of the women who are in this moment considering having an abortion. However, does a circumstance exist where the humanity of an unborn child should be excluded as a factor?

   

Therefore, the first question I asked myself is the amount of weight that should be given to the value of the unborn child’s life. Secondly, I asked myself if this value outweighs the mothers right to choose to end the pregnancy which ultimately stops the beating heart of another human being. Repeal factors out both of these important questions. 

When Cahir was two I started a Law degree at Ulster University. We were asked, at what point does the right to life begin? For me, it begins as soon as the life is recognised as human. Therefore, for me, the only qualification for the right to life is to be human.

The 8^th Amendment protects the right to life of both the mother and baby. When the babies’ life will cause the death of the mother the mothers rights prevail.

Repeal strips the right to life from the most innocent, vulnerable and voiceless section of humanity, the unborn. Stripping rights away is not progressive, it's regressive.

Repeal is discriminatory and anti-equality. The unborn are discriminated by being treated unequally by having their right to life removed. 

In the referendum, the Irish people will be asked if the mothers right to choose to end the pregnancy prevails over the babies right to life.

Two rights directly competing with each other and both sides of the debate are entrenched. There is no room whatsoever for a middle ground. 

However, we cannot escape the reality that to grant the mother the right to choose we as a nation must first take away the child’s right to life. To give, we must take.

For me, the right to life which is fundamental and inalienable always prevails over choice.  The right to life is not exclusive to the born, the planned, the healthy and the rich. 

To strip this right away would mean the right to life changes from a human right to a sectional right. For that reason, I support the 8^th Amendment.

Regardless of your position you must get out and vote. This is particularly important for young people as the effects of this referendum will first touch their generation and unborn generations to come. 

Cherish the Children Equally!

Ciaran Boyle, Derry

Irish Language Act, Not About Road Signs or Courtrooms – it’s About Certainty

Last year my partner and I decided to send our three-year-old son to Naíscoil Dhoire, an Irish-medium nursery school based in the Shantallow area of Derry. 

We took this decision to give us a better insight into bilingualism through an Irish-medium education and to explore it as an option for our son’s education. After nursery, we could always fall back and send him to the local English speaking school had things not worked out.

Both of us had little Irish proficiency at the beginning of the academic year.  I had learned some Irish at school and from my Dad who taught us how to count, say goodnight, hello and say thank you in our native tongue. My partner now attends weekly Irish lessons and our proficiency has improved as we engage with our son's learning.

As the academic year went on the Irish Language Act hit the headlines. Arlene Foster’s crocodile remark coupled with Paul Givan’s withdrawal of £50,000 of funding from an Irish-language bursary scheme made many parents like ourselves feel anxious about a decision to fully commit to the Irish-medium.

With that said, the blatant and relentless nature of Givan’s sharp decision was not at all surprising nor was his decision to overturn it as political pressure mounted.

However, the knowledge that ministers hostile to the Irish language could pull the plug on funding when it is politically expedient is somewhat unnerving for parents.

The anxiety felt by fellow parents, at that time, only demonstrates the importance of achieving statutory protection for our native language via an Irish Language Act in the North.

Foster's remarks and Givan's actions may not have been aimed and fired directly at parents but the implications indirectly affected confidence in the future of Irish-medium education.

However, the high energy Acht na Gaeilge and An Dream Dearg campaigns alongside the recent assembly election inspired parents and gave them some hope that the Irish Language Act issue is close to being resolved.

In the end and despite the issues, we decided to educate our son through the Irish Medium. He will start primary one in September 2017 at Bunscoil Cholmcille.

We made this decision based on the massive benefits to our son’s development, which are notable. The teaching standard was much higher than we expected and the school has a warming community feel.

Moreover, not only can he speak in two languages at the age of four, research into bilingualism by Queens University shows that bilingual primary school children outperform their English-only counterparts.

As a result, children who are bilingual are likely to sit Irish a GCSE and A-Levels a year or two earlier. This gives them more time to focus on other subjects as they progress.

Most universities require three A-levels as an entry requirement. This means that a bilingual child could have the prospect of a lightened workload as they work towards completing their final school year before going on to university.

There is no doubt that uncertainty regarding the legal position of the Irish language is a factor for parents to consider when deciding to send their children to Irish schools. Some parents are put off by this.

In 2017 an Irish Language Act has yet to be achieved despite it being signed up to by the DUP as part of the 2006 St Andrews Agreement.

With Brexit looming the protection and funding that flow's from the EU will add extra pressures to the Irish-medium.

Nevertheless, the number of applicants for both nursery and primary one at our local Irish-medium school are up for the first time in years. The class numbers will be highest for a long time. 

There is no doubt that the recent media attention and actions by some politicians have rejuvenated the Irish language cause in the North.

It’s not about road signs or the language used in courtrooms, it’s about certainty and certainty cost very little.

It’s about knowing that the Irish culture and language is legally secure going forward. It is also about being safe in the knowledge that our children's education through the Irish-medium, is a safe bet. 

The only thing that can achieve this is legislation. In weighing up what’s best for our children the legal status of our indigenous language should not be a factor.   

As demands for an Irish Language Act grow, so too does the interest in bilingual education. I have no doubt that the promulgation of an Irish Language Act in the North will result in a sharp rise in the number of parents applying to send their children to Irish-medium schools.

Hopefully, certainty and legal protection for the Irish language will be high up on the agenda in ongoing negotiations between the main parties. Parents of Irish-medium children are waiting patiently on the outcome. 

One last push could get this over the line, it would be a shame to stop now.

Ciaran Boyle Derry

Returning to Study, the Second Chance.

In early 2001 aged fifteen, I dropped out of my final compulsory year at school. I was due to sit several GCSE exams that June in St Brigid’s College. However, I never showed up.

At the age of 15/16, I struggled to fit in or adapt to school life. In those day’s I carried a lot of anger which greatly affected my ability to concentrate, fit in socially or to use the talents and gifts that others said I had in a positive way.

Family breakdown and other factors meant my home was far from the average nuclear family. However, despite our issues, my family home was full of love and each challenge was dealt with as they kept on coming.

We are all subject to our environments and the social conditions we that were born into. We can only grow from the soil that we have been planted. Some are lucky and instantly grow in fertile soil, whilst others have to wait for the right conditions to appear.

With that said, I believe that an incident which occurred when I was six years old in Fort George military base in 1991 involving two British soldiers completely knocked my direction off course. The fear triggered by this incident taught me how to use anger in a negative way at the age of six.

This factor coupled with the choices that I made based on these emotions reduced everything in my life to one thing, fear. I meet many people like this, albeit the trigger is a lot different.

There are only two primary emotions, fear and love. Hate and anger and other negative emotions all flow from fear. For a long time, my choices were made from fear, not for the love of myself or of others around me.

With that said, I am sure there are lots of young people who face similar difficulties and do well at school. However, that wasn’t me. On GSCE results day I remember going to the school with some friends to collect our results.

Of course, my printout said UUUUU as I never showed up. Others did well and some like one of my friends didn’t do so well neither he got FUDGE. This guy went on to get a trade and is doing really well for his young family.

Bizarrely, my form teacher referred to me as a 'solitary child' on my 'record of achievement', it was true but how on earth could I show that to employers? Thankfully, the old burgundy booklets have been dumped.

In 2014 at the age of 29 after thirteen years of beating myself up and being badgered by my partner and friends repeating that I was too intelligent to be sitting driving a taxi without a single GSCE to my name, I decided to act.

My plan was to beg Emer O` Sullivan to get back into the access course at NWRC that I flopped at a few years before due to my involvement in politics and the drama that went with it. After convincing Emer and the NWRC that I was serious this time around and convincing myself that I was done with politics, I gave it another go.

2014/15 became eventful years. Inter alia this included a full year of illness and a six-week stay in a hospital after getting diagnosed with a large tumour on my thyroid which was pressing against my throat with crippling symptoms. All of this was going on in the middle of my course.

I can remember researching assignments whilst be connected to all sorts of medical equipment. Encouragement and support from NWRC staff and fellow students helped a lot and I was determined to get to the end.

There were moments when I believed that this thing would beat me, however, the tumour was successfully removed. Nevertheless, an equivocal report regarding the nature of the tumour, indicating a carcinoma and continuing symptoms led to health anxiety that crippled my mental health for the rest of the academic year.

Despite these hurdles, I sat five exams over two weeks in May 2015. A Maths GCSE was followed by Psychology, Sociology, History and Law A- level equivalents. Each of these helped me to see the world in an entirly different way. 

I passed every one of them and I graduated with a distinction in the Diploma.  I had every excuse to drop out, but by the Grace, of God, I kept going.

Earlier that year Emer O` Sullivan had helped me fill out a UCAS application and helped me draft a personal statement. I applied for 5 courses in Queens and Ulster University. Results pending, I received offers for all five places and I later was awarded the results which allowed me to choose the course I most greatly desired.

I decided to choose one of the tougher courses, a Law LLB with Honours at my local university in Magee and I began in September 2015. I have just completed my second year with a chunk of my results sitting in the first-class division. Results from my latest exams are due soon and I am confident of making it into the final year.

It's not just me doing so well, I know social workers, nurses and a young determined mum from Gallaigh who is about to graduate as a result of the access course. Great things lie ahead. Over 2000 people have graduated as a result of the NWRC access course.

I am planning to use my academic achievements in a positive way to help others in my wider community and my city. My short-term plan is to become a local welfare advisor, before continuing my legal studies and completing an LLM later down the line.  Many challenges and hurdles lie ahead.

My final point notes the importance of refusing to write yourself off.  Regardless of your past and your failures, great things can be achieved.

An insurance company wouldn't write a Porsche off because of a few dents and a chipped window screen, nor should you do the same to yourself without knowing your true value.

If you think the academic path is for you, the first thing you should do is believe.  The second is contact the NWRC and the third is to keep on believing in yourself and jump over the hurdles as they come.

There is always time, it is never too late, people in their sixties have completed access courses and went on to university.  Oh and make choices out of love, not fear and never allow anyone to write you off.

Ciaran Boyle Derry

To apply for NWRC access course click this link 

Ciaran Boyle, Derry Access Graduation 2015