International Women's Day: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-04 ============================================================ Tom Clonan (IND), University of Dublin It is highly appropriate on International Women's Day that a man gets up at the end to mansplain everything to everybody. I was struck by Senator Comyn's comment about International Men's Day. In many respects, every day is International Men's Day because of the structural inequalities and the obstacles to women and girls all over the world. At the moment in the world, things are at a very difficult point for women and girls, whether it is Islamic fundamentalism, the Taliban, fundamental Christianity in parts of the United States or the manosphere. While they differ philosophically and religiously, they all agree on one thing, and that is the exploitation and oppression of women and girls. That is something we all have to join together to fight. In the committees that I am involved in, it is quite clear. With the Joint Committee on Defence and National Security, we had a visit to the Gormanston integrated training camp. Afterwards, I was contacted by two young female soldiers. One had been the victim of a serious physical assault and the other the victim of a serious sexual assault in Óglaigh na hÉireann. We still have these persistent problems. In the disability matters and health committees, we found out that 99% of the burden of unpaid carer is taken up by women and girls, including girls like my daughter, who is 21 years old but who, when she was 14 or 15, was helping to toilet and clothe her older brother when he was 17 or 18. Senator Ní Chuilinn mentioned allies. We all have to stick together so that we do not collaborate with and extend patriarchal discourses that oppress women. I have come across sometimes in the reprisal that was visited on me for speaking out on gender-based violence in the Defence Forces that some of the people who engaged in that reprisal were women. That is very interesting. We have to be clear to all work together. I thank all my great female colleagues here. I have made some great friends. They are very formidable politicians. Senator McDowell has gone now. He would often give me a little bit of mentoring and advice on how to deal with some of the formidable and politically very able women here. I am looking at Senator O'Loughlin. I recall making a big speech one day. When we were going out, she said, "Great speech, Tom. I loved hearing it again." I love her collegiality, wit and political acumen. I am always learning from all my female colleagues. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-03-04/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:43+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-03-04