Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Councillor
This morning I filed my nomination papers with the returning officer, Maurice Manning at National University of Ireland, for the Seanad 2020 election campaign.
A very big thank you to all of my terrific nominees.
If you’d like to support or get involved, please email me: eva.dowling@greenparty.ie
If you would like to financially support the campaign, please click here.
Here’s to a great few weeks, back on the campaign trail!
The hard work of campaigning over the past months and weeks has reached its conclusion and now all that’s left is to get out and vote!
Running for the Stillorgan electoral area of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council has been a wonderful experience and it has been a privilege to engage with so many people on the doorstep.
The last few months have certainly been busy as we recently welcomed my newborn daughter into the world. Having a baby has given me even more motivation to do what I can to safeguard the future for the next generation. More than ever, I can see that the decisions taken now will have a lasting impact on our children.
There is so much we can do at local level to protect our environment and decisions taken in the Council will affect our local transport, housing, waste management and green spaces. Together, the actions taken on these issues will decide how we tackle the issue of climate change and whether we can meet the challenges ahead.
My campaign team and I have been humbled by the warm responses at the door and we are hopeful that a green wave is about to hit Ireland!
I’d like to thank my family and campaign team for all their support in recent months.
Whatever you do this Friday, please get out tomorrow and vote!
And remember, if you want green, vote green!
This Summer I am contesting the 2019 local elections as the Green Party candidate for the Stillorgan electoral area of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.
Some of the biggest decisions for our environment and our communities are taken at local level, which is why I am campaigning on the pledge of building ‘A Sustainable Future for Our Community’.
Building a sustainable future involves ‘Green Thinking’ which means planning for the long-term, particularly when it comes to our environment and the pressing issue of climate change.
Some of the biggest challenges that the incoming Council will face, such as housing and transport need solutions that will last well into the future, so that our children and grandchildren can benefit from the choices we make now.
To bring about this sustainable future, I’m asking for your first preference vote on Friday, May 24th.
If you would like to contact me, or if you would like to join my campaign, please get in touch: eva.dowling@greenparty.ie. If you would like to contribute to my campaign, please support my GoFundMe page: https://www.gofundme.com/elect-eva
Thank you!
Hi there!
I’m Eva Elizabeth Dowling and I am the Green Party candidate for the Stillorgan Ward of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.
Between now and Election Day on May 24th, I’ll be out on the doors, trying to meet as many of the 22,000 voters in the area as possible.
In order to reach everyone, I’ll be printing posters, leaflets and cards – as well as running a complimentary digital ad campaign. I have set a fundraising target of €3,000 to cover these costs.
All funds raised will go directly to getting me elected. Your support will be very much appreciated: https://www.gofundme.com/elect-eva
Here’s a snapshot of what your donation will purchase:
€10 = 10 letters delivered to households
€20 = 3 election posters
€50 = 10 branded campaign jackets
€100 = 250 promotional bike saddle covers
€200 = 750 postcard flyers
€500 = 4-week digital ad campaign
€600 = 8,000 leaflets (enough to reach every household)
€1,000 = 150 election posters (enough to cover the electoral ward)
I would be very grateful for any contribution you can make – https://www.gofundme.com/elect-eva If you’d rather give your time, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!
Thanks so much for your support,
Eva Elizabeth Dowling
Join Catherine Martin TD and myself this Friday for International Women’s Day (IWD) 2019!
Meeting at O’Dwers, Kilmacud from 11am to 12:30pm.
Hope to see you then!
This year marks five years since the closure of Glenalbyn Swimming Pool – one of the main issues that I get contacted about by local residents.
The loss of this amenity to the community is immense. If you haven’t already, I’d encourage you to sign this petition to call for the re-building and re-opening of our local pool: https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/re-build-re-open-glenalbyn-swimming-pool-we-want-our-funding-back?source=facebook-share-button&time=1550706786&fbclid=IwAR0BiKrVR_JEO_b6BLcqKF2OFm-AtAR46kwEu8BiX9ilQc722G21gyXMV_8
Give Us The Night is a campaign that is highlighting the contribution of the night-time industry to culture, community and the economy in Ireland. Although I wish that there was no need for this campaign, as a former bartender I was happy to attend their re-launch in the Sugar Club and am very supportive of their key aims:
You can follow the campaign and sign up for updates here: http://www.giveusthenight.com
Last weekend, I spoke at the European Day/Journées d’été, in Strasbourg, France, about my work on the Repeal campaign and my reflections on Ireland’s abortion referendum more generally.
The panel, ‘This is My Body’, was convened by Charlotte Soulary from the Green Feminism Commission and included fellow European feminists: Evgenia Giakoumopoulou, founder of the Advocacy Centre on Council of Europe Standards (ACCESS); Daria Marx founder of the Fat Political Collective; and Emmanuelle Josse from the Collective for Feminist Parenting.
Ireland is still celebrating our recent feminist triumph, and the overwhelming mandate received from the Irish people to repeal the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution and to legislate for abortion services. It was clear from this panel’s discussion however, that women’s rights and women’s bodies are still very much a political battlefield across Europe.
According to Evgenia Giakoumopoulou, there is an emerging trend which is seeing far-right movements and religious political parties using gender ideology, paradoxically, as a means to restrict women’s rights. She gives the example of recent developments in Croatia and Bulgaria to renege on the Istanbul Convention – which aims to combat violence against women and domestic violence – with grassroots campaigns in those countries, which are being fronted by women.
Another trend that needs to be addressed, according to Daria Marx, is discrimination against body size. Though this form of discrimination can be targeted at everyone, women are particularly vulnerable through the emphasis that society and the media place on women’s body shape. Marx argues that more should be done from a political perspective to combat this and to make European societies safe for all to participate in without fear of discrimination.
Emmanuelle Josse wants to see more done to encourage a feminist approach to parenting. She argues that this needs to start with societal and political attitudes towards couples and individuals who want to start a family. In particular, work needs to be done right across Europe to legislate and provide for assisted reproductive services for all couples and individuals, regardless of their family status or sexuality.
Although Ireland’s recent referendum is being celebrated by feminists far and wide, Europe still has some way to go when it comes to women’s rights, and we must remember that, even in countries where abortion is legal, it is being challenged. You can watch the full panel (in English and in French) and my talk here with the speaking times listed below:
“SO, TELL ME why you don’t eat meat?” – it’s the question that, as a lifelong vegetarian and now vegan, I get asked all of the time. The answer to which is constantly evolving, mainly because there are just so many good reasons to reduce your meat and dairy consumption.
Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board have recently decided to invest in research to ‘win back’ vegans and vegetarians. By their own estimations, 8 per cent of the Irish population are vegetarian, and 2 per cent of those are now vegan.
That’s eight per cent of the population – a ready-made market – that our national food board have decided they would rather twist their arms, than cater to their needs. By their own ‘Brexit Barometer’ published just last week, 85 per cent of Irish food producers and farmers are looking to expand their business into new markets. So why are Bord Bia so quick to shun one that is ready-made, and at their doorsteps.
Interfering in national diet
Let us be clear that Bord Bia’s remit is not to prescribe the Irish diet – it’s to support our farmers and food producers, by promoting Irish food, both national and internationally. Attempts by governments to interfere with the national diet have, in the past, proved catastrophic.
The blanket promotion of fructose in the US food market for example, has been detrimental to rising diabetes and obesity in America – not to mention the impact that mass-production of corn has had on the environment.
Bord Bia play a hugely important role, supporting a sector that is so valuable to our heritage and our economy. So why have they decided that they should be setting food trends, over meeting the needs of a burgeoning market?
Rather than explore how lucrative this very healthy and environmentally-friendly trend could be, Bord Bia have dismissed it as a ‘faddy diet’, opting for a naïve approach, trying to ‘win back’ this cohort, when it’s already there for the taking.
Foodism?
It’s also erroneous to view vegetarianism and veganism as a ‘foodism’ or ‘faddy diet’. Plant-based diets have been around for millennia, and the drivers toward them are complicated and multifaceted. Just as so many are now ditching the car for a bike, there is a sway towards eating more plant-based foods for better health, wealth and to lower your impact on climate change.
As with all diets, a predominantly plant-based one isn’t perfect, but in those imperfections lie real opportunities for Ireland to become a world leader. Bord Bia’s investment could be much better spent in researching how to overcome, and where the opportunities lie in, the countless challenges that vegetarians and vegans face on a daily basis.
For example, how to easily supplement vitamin B12; the only nutrient that is not readily available in a plant-based diet – or how Ireland can compete in the market of providing plant-based alternatives.
For farmers who want to add value to their incomes, by growing more vegetable, fruit and grain, the environmental and financial challenges can be difficult and complex. If they are to face them head-on, and meet the market demand, then Bord Bia really do need to up their game and find ways to make this transition easy.
Something we do well
We’re incredibly proud of our agricultural and food sectors, because food is something that we do really well in Ireland. Irish farmers and food producers don’t need Bord Bia to try and persuade vegetarians and vegans to eat meat.
It’s clear from their own survey data that where they actually do need help, is in finding new and lucrative markets. If we are to best help our farmers and food producers, then Bord Bia need to stop asking vegetarians and vegans “why don’t you eat meat?” and start asking us “what do you want to eat?”
Eva Elizabeth Dowling is the Green Party’s Stillorgan Area Representative.
Published in The Journal: Jul 8th 2018 https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/column-bord-bia-need-to-stop-asking-vegetarians-and-vegans-why-dont-you-eat-meat-4098610-Jul2018/
Eva Dowling Joins Activists From Around the World to Tell Public That Torment and Killing of Bulls Must Stop Now
Clonskeagh, Dublin – Holding a sign that read, “Stop the Bloody Bullfights,” Eva Dowling, from Clonskeagh, joined more than 100 other protesters in the centre of Pamplona, Spain, today. During the high-octane demonstration, activists – half of whom were “runners” and half of whom were “bulls” – shot blood-red flares into the sky to call for an end to the city’s yearly torment and killing of bulls during the San Fermín festival. The protest – which was organised by PETA and Spanish animal-protection group AnimaNaturalis – took place ahead of the Running of the Bulls, during which dozens of bulls are terrorised and struck as they’re chased through the cobbled streets on their way to a violent death in the bullring.
Photos of Dowling are available here, and here, and video footage of the event is available here. More photos are available upon request.
“I was proud to represent the vast majority of people around the world, whose tolerance of the archaic, murderous spectacle of bullfighting ran out long ago,” says Dowling. “It’s time that Pamplona stopped allowing terrified bulls to be speared and stabbed to death for this form of so-called ‘entertainment’ that’s nothing more than bloodlust.”
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – notes that more than 100 Spanish towns and cities have banned bullfighting. But in Pamplona, bulls are tormented with electric prods and sharp sticks before slipping and sliding along the narrow streets. Once in the bullring, as many as eight men taunt, beat, and jab each bull with daggers and harpoon-like banderillas until he becomes weakened from blood loss. Then, the matador stabs the exhausted animal with a sword and an executioner cuts his spinal cord. Many bulls are paralysed but still conscious as they’re chained and dragged out of the arena.
ENDS
Eva Dowling 
