“They can call themselves what they like. I call them inhuman, insensitive, misogynists.”
Those were the words used by Labour Party Councillor Conor Sheehan to describe the Men’s Rosary Group whose sound system disrupted female speakers involved in the ‘Stand for Ashling’ event on Bedford Row last Saturday.
Women who had gathered to speak or share their experiences at the event in memory of 23-year-old Mary Immaculate College graduate, Ashling Murphy were drowned out as members of the Rosary Group increasingly upped the volume on their electronic sound system.
Cllr Sheehan said he recognised “about 70 per cent of the same faces (in the Rosary group) from the recent anti-vax protest organised by the Irish Freedom Party in Limerick.
“The people on Saturday had no compassion for the women who were trying to speak about their own experiences or what happened to Ashling Murphy. One of the speakers was a very shocked fellow student of Ashling’s.
“They just continued louder and louder with this demonic chanting of the Hail Mary. It was the most un-Christian act I have ever witnessed,” Cllr Sheehan told the Limerick Post.
It’s understood the Men’s Rosary Group, which normally gathers at a nearby location, moved their prayer meeting to stand beside the event commemorating the murdered women
Former Limerick Councillor, Mary Cahillane was at the event and approached the Rosary Group to allow the women to speak.
“The party said on Twitter that no-one appealed to them to turn the volume down but that’s not true. I asked them to allow women to speak and they just ignored me.
“I have seen the Rosary group on Thomas Street and that’s where they meet and where they advertise their meetings every other Saturday since 2017. They have never held their meetings on Bedford Row. All they had to do was move their event back across the street to where they usually are – everything they had was on wheels but they just had no respect for what was happening.”
A woman who was attempting to read out the names of women who had died by femicide was drowned out as the Rosary speakers were turned up, and she left the podium in tears.
