Kieran Rose

8 March 2026

Below is Kieran’s speech (in full) from a Catherine Forde tribute event chronicling her life. The event was held on Saturday 24 January 2026 at the Devlin Cinema, Ranelagh, Dublin. Relevant photos are included throughout. Other speakers included Eilis Barry (FLAC), Peter Ward and Ivana Bacik TD. Mary Carolan (Irish Times) chaired the event. Catherine Forde gave a lovely concluding speech.

It is a great honour to be asked to say a few words to pay tribute to Catherine Forde and her great work for human rights and equality over many decades and focusing on Catherine’s role in Cork in the early 1980s especially as chair of the Cork Anti-Amendment Campaign.

I got to know Catherine in Cork in the early 1980s during the Anti-Amendment Campaign to stop the anti-abortion amendment being put into the Constitution. The campaign went on for a long time, initially to try to stop the amendment being put, and then to campaign against the amendment in the Referendum.

I was a member of the Cork Gay Collective and we more or less disbanded to throw all our energies into the anti-amendment campaign. Catherine was a very dynamic and effective chair of a very dynamic and ambitious campaign in Cork and reaching out to other centres in Munster

It was very much a grass roots campaign in Cork, activists were mostly young, with little or no experience of election campaigning, but we had huge enthusiasm and a strong commitment to win if we could. We managed to raise the funds for a full-time worker, Eleanor Lambe who had an office and campaign HQ in the recently opened Quay Coop on Sullivans Quay.

Catherine with her great sense of humour and wit, her quiet determination and common sense, were all vital to melding together an effective campaign in Cork. Catherine’s great smile and Derry accent were a delight, and won people over.

In ways our grass roots energetic campaign pre-figured the successful Referendums of 2015 on equal marriage and the Repeal of that 8th Amendment in 2018.

We were a bit brazen, we leafletted for a No vote outside churches at Sunday masses while inside priests preached for a Yes vote. We went door to door canvassing for a No vote .. sometimes talking about ectopic pregnancies. We organised open air music festivals in the Coal Quay beside the Union Quay Garda Station.

Catherine was our crucial leader .. empowering us.

Cork then was a very conservative almost reactionary small town dominated by the Catholic Church, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, and the ‘merchant princes’ like the Crosbies who owned the local newspapers, the Examiner and the Echo, and censored reporting of events they didn’t like such as the First National Gay Conference in Connolly Hall Cork in 1981.

But due to our campaigning I think .. conservative Cork had one of the highest votes in the country rejecting the anti-abortion amendment to the Constitution.

The dynamic Cork Anti-Amendment campaign did much to open out that insular small town, to blow apart it’s restrictions, and pave the way for all the subsequent progress .. all under the leadership of Catherine.

Catherine went on to campaign in Cork against the repressive Criminal Justice Bill and there is a great photo of Catherine holding the ‘People Against Repression’ banner with Eleanor Lambe (in my photo collection, and below).

In 2015, I was delighted to meet Catherine again at the launch of the Lawyers for Yes campaign .. those lawyers played a crucial role in the successful marriage equality Referendum.

To conclude.I am delighted and honoured to say these few words in praise of Catherine Forde:

A doughty battler over many decades
With many successes under your belt
That transformed people’s lives

Thank you Catherine.

Other resources

Below are some insightful resources from the life and times of Catherine.

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