Agent Kildare, the man who first brought attention to the Radfem 2013 conference to be held at the London Irish Centre, now writes this short but incredibly poignant piece about the Irish men who built London, including the very hall that was to be used by Radfem themselves. Ed (MRAL)

As an Irish Citizen living in London, I am personally delighted that the London Irish Centre came quickly to its senses and booted the Radfem bigots out of its venue after protests by men’s human rights activists, MRA London. Many have suggested that the fact that the Radfem 2013 event may have been contrary to UK equality law was the primary reason for its cancellation, but this misses the point entirely.

Irish Navvies Built London

The real issue is that the Radfem 2013 event would have been held at a centre which regularly hosts ‘family’ music and arts workshops. This is a centre which has a history of supporting both women and men in finding their feet in London; a city which quite literally was built by the Irish – the ‘navvies’ who also built the canals and underground, the labourers who still maintain and build its roads and buildings, sewers and water pipes (and Olympic Parks).

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duA9wxRfZmw]

To host an event by bigots who describe men like these – who still disproportionately account for some of the capital’s highest rates of homelessness, mental illness, suicide, workplace injury, work-related disease and poverty; as “dominant oppressors” and “rapists” who need to have their families “destroyed”, isn’t simply grossly offensive, it’s contrary to the values of the community the London Irish Centre serves.

The organisers of Radfem are fortunate that it was men’s human rights advocates who caught them out, because if it had been the Catholic Women’s League who had first learned that these bigots were proposing to “castrate” their sons, and were going to use the London Irish Centre as their venue, then they would have really been the ones on the receiving end of anger for a change.

See also: PRESS RELEASE – London Irish Centre Says No to Radfem 2013 Conference

This article was first published on the MRA London website.