Limerick feminist group protest after 'abhorrent' killing of young mother
"A LAND of a thousand welcomes - was she welcomed? Was she given what she needs?"
These were the words of ROSA member Saibh Millane who spoke at a protest in Limerick city this Thursday afternoon after what Cllr Elisa O'Donovan called the "abhorrent" killing of Geila Ibram.
Members of ROSA, who describe themselves as a "socialist feminist movement in Limerick", gathered on Bedford Row to stand in solidarity with the late Ms Ibram and victims of femicide (intentional killing with a gender-related motivation). Their slogan was: 'Not One More.'
Ms Ibram, 27, from Romania was found dead at a residence on the Dock Road on Tuesday afternoon, April 4.
Flowers and candles were placed beside pictures of the mother-of-four at the protest spot on Bedford Row.
Across the city, on the Dock Road, more bouquets of flowers - withering now from the rain and gales - remained at the doorway to the apartment block where Ms Ibram's life was violently taken.
Her death prompted ROSA's call to action leading to approximately 80 people gathering in the city centre this Thursday afternoon.
"It is just so shocking," commented one Rosbrien resident. "It was so hard for her to be away from her family, and have to make that decision to leave, and come here and have this happen, it's just horrific."
Aside from femicide, other reasons for ROSA's protest included their call to decriminalise sex work, and their fight against misogyny, racism, anti-migrant beliefs and capitalism.
"Like every other person [Geila] deserved a happy, fulfilling life, but that is taken from migrants every day," said Saibh.
This Thursday's protest came just over a year after protests and vigils were held nationwide following the violent killing of Mary Immaculate College graduate Ashling Murphy in Tullamore.
As people went about their business in the city centre this Thursday, the streets once again played host to chants of: "Women's safety is a right, stand up and join the fight."
ROSA member, Stefanie Dicroce, took to the microphone to share her anger at the deaths of both young women. "I am furious that we are standing here, yet again, honouring and mourning a young woman's life cut short," she asserted.
Referring to the social change they hope to engender as a group, she added: "We mourn for the dead, be we fight like hell for the living".
"Geila Ibram was only here for four weeks, but the fact she had to come here and leave her home, her four children, to hopefully find a better way to support them speaks to the deepest levels of immiseration, violence and misogyny of this capitalist system - this system that at all levels failed her."
Aislinn O'Keefe, another spokesperson for ROSA, read a statement on behalf of a Romanian socialist feminist group.
"Thank you for the solidarity," she began. "It is international solidarity we need," she continued, "this is not a problem that is just an Irish problem, this is a problem that unfortunately knows no borders."
A similar protest was held by ROSA at the Spire in Dublin's city centre this Thursday afternoon.
The Limerick protest came just two days after a vigil, organised by Cllr O'Donovan, was held in memory of Ms Ibram on Steamboat Quay in the city on Tuesday.