It is expected that the Republic of Ireland will adopt a neo abolitionist regime in relation to prostitution within the coming years, following its neighbours in Northern Ireland who adopted such a policy in October 2014.
This paper will attempt to understand the dynamics and politics of the highly successful Turn off the Red Light campaign that managed to successfully internalise the norm of neo-abolitionism within a ten year period. The campaign brought together radical feminist ideas, the women’s movement and civil society actors across the entire spectrum of Irish society to frame the ‘problem’ with prostitution in a very particular way.
The focus of the paper will be on this mobilisation process and particular attention will be paid to parliamentary processes, the position of political parties, the role of key insiders within the houses of Parliament allied to the Campaign and that of civil society groups such as the women’s political agency the National Women’s Council. The campaign’s support from within Catholic or religious organisations will also be noted. The virtual absence of any (national) organized sex-worker group and the weakness of its capacities (both human and material resources) will be identified as will points of resistance to neoabolitionism within and without the parliament.
The paper will conclude that the success of the TORL Campaign illustrates the power of morality politics (Wagenaar and Altink 2012) within the Irish polity a type of politics that has deep historical resonance. Of less significance is the convergence of neo-abolitionism with any external orientation of the state although there may indeed be a close fit between it and the role of the state in a neo-liberal world order, most specifically in relation to securitisation of borders, criminalisation, responsibilisation and the shrinking of the state’s role in welfare provision.
