
THE WORK
WE DO.
Founded in 2019, The Countess was created to shine a spotlight on the critical conflict of rights and child safeguarding issues stemming from the self-ID approach to gender recognition established by the Gender Recognition Act 2015.
Under the 2015 Act, the traditional “medical model” of gender recognition was replaced with a “self-ID model.” This landmark change allowed individuals to apply for a Gender Recognition Certificate simply by declaring their sincere intention to live as the opposite gender—without any medical assessment required. The result? A straightforward online process that can legally redefine one’s gender identity.
This seismic shift in Irish law, which has profound implications for women’s and children’s rights, was quietly enacted in July 2015, just two months after the Marriage Equality Referendum.
At The Countess, we advocate for constructive, respectful, & rights-focused dialogue on this issue and seek a balanced approach to gender recognition guided by our 8 Pillars of Concern. Our goal is to promote a balanced approach that:
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Upholds the rights of women and restores single-sex provisions
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Ensures best practices in safeguarding for children and young people
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Defends the hard-won rights of same-sex attracted individuals to love freely.
8 PILLARS
OF CONCERN.
AIMS &
OBJECTIVES.
Women and children deserve privacy, dignity and safety, in schools, workplaces, sport, changing rooms, toilets, hospitals, prisons and refuges. Self-ID means an end to single-sex provision.
We provide data-driven and evidenced-based resources to concerned citizens to help them take action on these issues. We offer a safe, moderated public sphere across our platforms for people of all ages and backgrounds to question the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) and gender ideology (the belief you can change your sex) and how these impact everyday life.
We believe our democracy must work for all of us, not just a tiny minority and their allies. Our position is that trans rights are human rights. Trans-identified people must have every possible human and civil right but not at a cost to women and children.
IMMEDIATELY.
We are calling on the Irish Government to uphold the legal protections and freedoms granted under law through our equality legislation. Discrimination on the basis of sex is permitted where it applies to intimate spaces. We are calling on policymakers to uphold the exemption in our equality legislation based on privacy. The plans for mixed-sex toilets in our schools must be rescinded immediately. The policy of mixed-sex hospital wards must end now.
We are opposed to all bills in circulation which have been brought in top-down to enforce gender ideology (the belief that one can change their sex). The Hate Crime Bill and the Anti-Conversion Therapies Bill must be scrutinised for their impact on society.
Of grave concern is the proposed amendment to our equality legislation to include gender identity as a ‘grounds’. If passed, it would mean an end to all single-sex provision with or without the need for a gender recognition certificate. This is what Biden did through his Executive Order, which is now being challenged by 30 US states.
This amendment could criminalise defence of a female-only space from male incursion. Already this is happening in other self-ID jurisdictions like Norway and provinces of Canada where women can be prosecuted for asking a man with a visible penis to leave their changing room. Males, no matter how they identify, do not belong in female-only spaces.
There is no evidence base for the medical transitioning of children. Trans ‘healthcare’ for minors results in their loss of fertility and sexual function as adults. Puberty is a natural biological process and dysphoria resolves in over 80% of cases – if there is no medical intervention. Children and minors are not equipped to make such life-altering decisions. It is normal to question identity and gender, but social transition traps children in what are often fleeting ideas and feelings. Child safeguarding of both the trans-identified child and their peers is negatively impacted by an affirmative approach. The proposed expansion of the GRA to children must be withdrawn immediately.
SHORT TO MEDIUM TERM.
We are calling on the Irish government to amend the Gender Recognition Act to include medical and legal gatekeeping. It must revert to the Medical Model with its built-in gatekeeping and safeguarding. Currently men are applying for and acquiring certificates while on trial for sexual offences. These fully-intact sex offenders are being locked up with women in Ireland. This is unconscionable.
The panel of experts that was convened to examine the issue, the Advisory Group, recommended the Medical Model – but this was amended to what we now have, the GRA. This allows anyone to self-declare – without any state or medical intervention.
If necessary, we will bring a judicial review to challenge the GRA, and we are building the requisite paper trail.
MEDIUM TO
LONG TERM.
We want to live in an Ireland where women and children are not second-class citizens. For 80 out of our 100 years as a state, we incarcerated, tortured and abused unmarried mothers and their babies. The last laundry closed in 1998 and a moment later in 2015, we gave men the right to ‘become’ women before we had granted women their reproductive rights.
Now policymakers are erasing the word ‘woman’ and ‘mother’ from public health literature and legislation. They are eroding single-sex provision and child safeguarding. This is not progressive – this is another turn of the same wheel.
We will be at the table when these decisions are being made in the future.
We will advocate for and centre women and children.
We will defend them against the march of ‘inclusivity’ which is catastrophic for child safeguarding and women’s hard-won rights.
OUR
CAMPAIGNS.
OUR
SUBMISSIONS.
We are proud to be the first advocacy group in any self-ID jurisdiction worldwide to propose an amendment Bill that excludes prisons from the scope of gender recognition certificates.
Thanks to our dedicated campaigning, we’ve garnered support from numerous TDs, paving the way for a long-overdue debate in the Dáil. Our opponents will face the challenge of justifying the placement of men who identify as women in women’s prisons.
COUNTESS SUBMISSIONS:
PRISON RULES REVIEW
CONSULTATION
In September 2021, The Countess responded to an open call by the Irish Prison Services for submissions on proposed rule changes within the prison system. The IPS sought to update its rules to take into account general European practice in prisons. The changes proposed by The Countess cover various aspects of prison rules, including but not limited to the issue of housing dangerous males in the female estate, an issue The Countess was a groundbreaker on. Our submission examined the issues of non-custodial sentences, access to children, children in prison amongst other issues, putting forward its own set of proposed changes to improve the situation for women in prison, most of whom are inside for non-violent petty offences.
COUNTESS SUBMISSIONS:
NCCA SPHE JUNIOR CYCLE
CONSULTATION
The Countess has produced a submission to the public consultation on the draft Junior Cycle Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) Short Course curriculum. We encourage parents, students, educators and other interested parties to make their own submission.
COUNTESS SUBMISSIONS:
REVIEW OF THE EQUALITY ACTS CONSULTATION 2021
We are opposed to the inclusion of “gender identity” as one of the protected grounds in our Equal Status Act, where it displaces or supplants the primacy of biological sex as one of the protected grounds and interferes with the provision of single sex spaces and services for women and girls; fair competition in sports; ring-fenced opportunities for women by way of positive action; and safeguarding of children.
COUNTESS SUBMISSIONS:
REFERENDUMS ON FAMILY, CARE
AND GENDER EQUALITY
On 19th May 2023, we submitted the below document to the consultation on Referendums on Family, Care and Gender Equality. We are pleased to see our reasoning echoed in the argument offered by the government in their decision to drop the proposed third amendment, which is something we suggested. We are proud to defend the Constitution as a living document and our State’s founding legal text.
COUNTESS SUBMISSIONS:
THE IRISH HUMAN RIGHTS AND EQUALITY COMMISSION STRATEGY STATEMENT 2025-2027
We submitted the below document to The Irish Human Rights & Equality Commission following their strategy statement for 2025-2027. We highlighted the tensions between legislation, specifically the Equality Acts and the Gender Recognition Act.
COUNTESS SUBMISSIONS:
PRESENTATION TO
THE UNITED NATIONS
Our working group on Sport has made great progress behind the scenes building relationships with sport governing bodies (SGB) and in the public sphere raising awareness of the incursion of males into female sport in the name of trans rights. We are so very proud to announce that our working group lead, Sorcha Nic Lochlainn was invited to present to Ms Reem Alsalem UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls on behalf of our organisation and indeed our constituency, those people concerned about this issue. The online expert consultation was convened by the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls; specifically focussing on violence in sport. We were invited to contribute following a submission made in April, which outlined all the ways in which women and girls are at risk of violence when the female category is breached.