Anna O’Laoghaire

Answering The Call

(In 1987 the Irish High Court ruled pregnancy counselling services which included any information about abortion were illegal and they were closed.  The formation of the  Women’s Information Network helpline was one response)

We shouted out the slogan of our illegal helpline – Oh – one – six – seven – nine – four-  seven – double-oh – Women have the Right to Know!  We proclaimed it on banners and stickers on toilet doors. On tv or radio we would say it slowly… twice if we could so women could remember or jot it down. Swapping the megaphone for a stationary landline in a windowless room on a top floor in Crowe Street,  we sat mostly alone waiting for the phone to ring. Our voices, strident in protest, now became soft and kind. Actively listening, at times just to the breathing or crying of a ‘silent’ caller who could not bring herself to speak.

urine sample in a washed out jar but too scared to go to the local G.P.

the journey to the clinic in town was fraught with worry that

someone might see her and say it back to her family

fretful wait for the results … her life felt surreal

the phone box was on a triangle of grass

across from the convent and church

the result they called positive

it was not the way she

would describe it

these words

damned

her

like stones

splitting open her head

Anna O Laoghaire is from Baldoyle in Dubin. Her poems ‘Sentinels’  and ‘Two Women Embrace’, included in ‘Poetry as Commemoration Project’, with University College Dublin, demonstrate how poetry can be  a medium for reconciliation. She has been shortlisted for the Kilmore Quay ‘Write by the Sea’ Poetry Competition 2022 and ‘Poems for Patience’ 2023. Her poetry appeared in Sparks Literary Journal 2024 and the Poetry Diary 2025. Also in 2025, she self-published Ukrainian Duo Poetry Postcards, with translations by Katya van Huystee.