Number 10: : Masterminds of the Right by Emily O’Reilly
Selected by: Barbara
First published: 1992 (Attic Press)
Why: “Masterminds of the Right investigated and exposed the shadowy world of right-wing forces that plotted the 1983 referendum on abortion and the 1992 Maastricht Protocol to deny women reproductive rights. It is a slim volume that succinctly traces the links and agendas of individuals and organisations at work behind the scenes, but close to Official Ireland, who were determined to introduce and maintain regressive and socially conservative initiatives.”
It stays with you: “Because it is almost chilling to discover the power these people and groups exercised over politicians and the judiciary, not just in the 1980s where a “national” constitutional issue was at stake but much later in 1992 for the great European initiative that was Maastricht. It is also chilling to realise the ease with which these forces moved almost invisibly to wield huge power without any accountability.”
Who would like this? “Anyone interested in the roots of the opposition to the recent referenda on marriage equality and abortion, many of who may be too young to remember the darkness of the 1983 campaign to insert the Eight Amendment into the Irish Constitution, and the shadowy world occupied by the masterminds of the Right.”
Availability: Not currently in print; available on Amazon and elsewhere online; Also available in most library branches nationwide (list here).
‘Great-Irish Non-Fiction’ is a reading list of 100 books chosen by YOU and highlighted over the coming weeks. If you would like to include a favourite leave your suggestion below.
Previously:
Graham Howard
David Flanagan
Maura ‘Soshin’ O’Halloran
Kevin C Kearns
Ed Moloney
Gene Kerrigan
Bobby Sands
George O’Brien
Eamonn Sweeney
Terence Patrick Dolan
they (or their ilk) haven’t gone away you know…
Everybody join your local library the online service is brilliant.
Who would have thought that the treaty that laid the groundwork for the single european currency and strenghtened the framework of the EU was really just about denying womens reproductive rights! If you think about it, we should be quite grateful to the shadowy patriarchy for being so concerned about 1% of the population of europe and ensuring their continued bodily slavery that led to such sound fiscal policy.
Thanks Patriarchy!
Of all the Nominations for the Broadsheet Non-Fiction Shelf
(besides my own here @ no. 1 https://www.buzz.ie/sport/ten-greatest-gaa-books-213613 )
this is the one I would lobby for a reprint run
and kinda sits nicely along this Frill-Bit https://www.broadsheet.ie/2018/05/09/if-human-life-begins-at-conception-can-we-get-child-benefit-nine-months-earlier/
thanks Barbara
sorry to hijack your thread n’ all
but shur’
‘couldn’t help meself
like 25 years since that Emily O’Reilly’s book and the message still hasn’t sunk in