In light of the upcoming referendum on 25th May on whether or not the 8th Amendment should be repealed, Trinity College Students' Union have launched a campaign to try involve those who may be apathetic about voting.
The campaign, called #RingTheLads, aims to get students to ring their male friends who may not feel as if the issues involved in the referendum do not directly affect them. Despite debate surrounding the referendum cementing itself at the centre of national discourse over the last couple of weeks, there are still a large number of men out there happy to not engage with the issue, viewing it as solely affecting women.
Having a stance on the issue is something that everyone, regardless of gender, should have and something they should feel comfortable expressing. Apathy is dangerous, apathy diminishes curiosity which leads to ignorance, and remaining ignorant of the difficulties of a subject such as this is a luxury that women do not have. As such it is incumbent on men to educate themselves, and indeed, for anyone with concerted opinions on the topic to talk to those who are willing to ignore the trauma that has been wrought on Irish society by the 8th amendment.
They have released a video showing several students calling their male friends asking, and imploring, them to vote to repeal the 8th amendment.
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This is not the first campaign of this type Trinity College Students' Union have launched. Back in 2015, in advance of the Marriage Equality Referendum, they created a similar video convincing students to contact their older relatives and to try open up a dialogue with them about whether they were going to vote, and - if they were planning on voting against the bill - asking what their reasons would be for doing so.
This is a fantastic initiative and hopefully it furthers the growing support in Irish society to overturn this archaic law.
