Topfreedom is a cultural and political movement seeking changes in laws to allow women to be topless in public places where men are permitted to be barechested, as a form of gender equality. Specifically, the movement seeks the repeal or overturning of laws which restrict a woman's right not to have her chest covered at all times in public.
The Garda Síochána is the national police and security service of Ireland. It is more commonly referred to as the Gardaí or "the Guards". The service is headed by the Garda Commissioner, who is appointed by the Irish Government. Its headquarters are in Dublin's Phoenix Park.
Toplessness refers to the state in which a woman's breasts, including her areolas and nipples, are exposed, especially in a public place or in a visual medium. The male equivalent is known as barechestedness.
Blessington, historically known as Ballycomeen, is a town on the River Liffey in County Wicklow, Ireland, near the border with County Kildare. It is around 25 km south-west of Dublin, and is situated on the N81 road, which connects Dublin to Tullow. The town is in a townland and civil parish of the same name.
Pasties are patches that cover a person's nipples and areolae, typically self-adhesive or affixed with adhesive. They are usually worn in pairs. They originated as part of burlesque shows, allowing dancers to perform fully topless without exposing the nipples in order to provide a commercial form of bare-breasted entertainment. Pasties are also, at times, used while sunbathing, worn by strippers and showgirls, or as a form of protest during women's rights events such as Go Topless Day. In some cases this is to avoid potential prosecution under indecency laws.
Tanya Louise Bardsley is an English model and reality television personality. She is best known for starring in the ITVBe reality television series The Real Housewives of Cheshire since 2015, of which she is the longest serving cast member. She is married to Macclesfield Town F.C. assistant manager Phil Bardsley.
Lacken or Lackan is a townland and small village in the west of County Wicklow, Ireland, located on the shores of the Blessington lakes and western edge of the Wicklow Mountains.
Nudity is sometimes used as a tactic during a protest to attract media and public attention to a cause, and sometimes promotion of public nudity is itself the objective of a nude protest. The practice was first documented in the 1650s with Quakers "naked as a sign" practice. Later the tactic was used by svobodniki in Canada in 1903, and photographs of their nude protests have been published. The tactic has been used by other groups later in the century, especially after the 1960s. Like public nudity in general, the cultural and legal acceptance of nudity as a tactic in protest also varies around the world. Some opponents of any public nudity claim that it is indecent, especially when it can be viewed by children; while others argue that it is a legitimate form of expression covered by the right to free speech.
Ballyknockan or Ballynockan is a village and townland in County Wicklow, Ireland.
Larry Murphy is an Irish convicted criminal. After his conviction for kidnapping, repeatedly raping, and attempted murder of a young Carlow woman on 11 February 2000, in the Wicklow Mountains, he was jailed in January 2001. His release from prison less than 10 years later drew widespread criticism.
In Canada, topfreedom has primarily been an attempt to combat the interpretation of indecency laws that considered a woman's breasts to be indecent, and therefore their exhibition in public an offence. In British Columbia, it is a historical issue dating back to the 1930s and the public protests against the materialistic lifestyle held by the radical religious sect of the Freedomites, whose pacifist beliefs led to their exodus from Russia to Canada at the end of the 19th century. The Svobodniki became famous for their public nudity: primarily for their nude marches in public and the acts of arson committed also in the nude.
Free the Nipple is a topfreedom campaign created in 2012 during pre-production of a 2014 film of the same name. The campaign highlights the general convention of allowing men to appear topless in public while considering it sexual or indecent for women to do the same and asserts that this difference is discriminatory, contravening women's rights. The campaign argues that it should be legally and culturally acceptable for women to bare their nipples in public.
Micol Hebron is an American interdisciplinary artist, curator, and associate professor at Chapman University, located in Southern California. Hebron critically examines and employs modes of feminist activism in art.
Events during the year 2016 in Ireland.
The Irish Freedom Party sometimes referred to as IFP and initially known as the Irexit Freedom To Prosper Party, is a minor far-right, hard Eurosceptic political party in Ireland, launched on 8 September 2018. It advocates Irish withdrawal from the European Union.
Naturism refers to a lifestyle of practising non-sexual social nudity in private and in public, and to the cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both are also known as "nudism". Naturist organisations have existed in New Zealand since the 1930s. Although not a daily feature of public life, social nudity is practised in a variety of other contexts in New Zealand culture.
In the United States, individual states have primary jurisdiction in matters of public morality. The topfreedom movement has claimed success in a few instances in persuading some state and federal courts to overturn some state laws on the basis of sex discrimination or equal protection, arguing that a woman should be free to expose her chest in any context in which a man can expose his. Other successful cases have been on the basis of freedom of expression in protest, or simply that exposure of breasts is not indecent.
Farah Elle is an Irish born Libyan singer-songwriter.
Ballyknockan quarry, or more correctly Ballyknockan quarries, are a collection of disused granite quarries in the village of Ballyknockan, County Wicklow, Ireland. From the early 19th century onward, the site was "probably the most important area for supplying cut stone blocks of granite for the construction of many of Dublin city's major public buildings", according to a report by the Geological Survey of Ireland. At its height, from approximately the 1840s to 1870s, there would have been "hundreds of workers" active in various trades in the quarries, which lie some 15 miles south-west of Dublin city. Transportation of the materials alone to the city by horse and cart required considerable logistical effort.
