MAA – The Demo

Hi everyone—Yes it happened! There was great enthusiasm and a lot of shouting and chanting when ten of us gathered at the Bella Italia, a friendly restaurant next door to the Odeon, Leicester Square, last Wednesday evening, 16th Oct. with our placards calling for:

‘JUSTICE FOR BIRTH PARENTS AND THEIR CHILDREN’.

We were there to mingle with the crowds and give out leaflets about our cause, at the premiere of ‘Philomena’, a moving film about an Irish birth mother who lost her child to adoption.

We had great support from Green Party women, Sarah and RoseMary, who came along and also brought Sarah’s daughter Clementine, and we had male support too from Roger and Fred. Many thanks to all of them. It’s hard to know how many birth mothers actually came whom we did not know about, as we came across some later who had not been sure of the venue, but had gone in to watch the film.

Also as we are aware, very many women know nothing about our support group, NPN, or about MAA, and so I’m quite sure there were a lot of women arriving to see the film because of personal connections but who don’t yet know of any support groups or pressure groups. And indeed we met one such woman, early on, who was just waiting quietly by the barriers, to see the stars go in. So we need to start to find more of these people. An on-line petition could be the next thing.

And as to those barriers—well they were a pest, no denying it, and it was even more irritating to find that a bunch of hefty firemen pursuing their own campaign had somehow managed to elbow their way into the front. As a bunch of well-behaved women we obviously didn’t have their clout. Still—at least we did have one secret weapon, and that was a photographer from a national paper, who attached herself to us, and took loads of photos. So, I think it’s safe to say—watch out for some good coverage of our demo, and our campaign, coming out soon.

Jean Robertson-Molloy for MAA

MAA The Demo

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