Hello, and happy Friday to you!

In case we haven’t met yet, my name is Michelle, and I’m the editor here at Her.ie. In a new feature we’ll be running here every Friday, I’ll be taking a look back at the week that was.

It feels a little like a first date, so bear with me, first dates are really hard! 

It’s exciting times in Her.ie towers. Since our launch all those months ago (July feels like it was about two weeks ago), we’ve moved ourselves into some swanky new offices and continued on our mission to TRY AND TAKE OVER THE WORLD.

Nope, that was Pinky and the Brain. We’re just trying to make your day a little brighter, with a mixture of news, features and fun stuff that we think Irish women might like. 

In the coming months we’ll be bringing some new features to Her.ie readers, alongside those you already know and (hopefully) love. Part of this is making a big effort to hear what it is you have to say about the site, and what you’d like to see more of. We’re always open to feedback, and we love hearing what you have to say. You can always get in touch with us on Facebook here, on Twitter here, or on email, at hello@her.ie.

We’ve spent a large part of this week making lists. We love lists, and judging by the reaction it seems you do too. We were talking about holiday plans, which led to chatter of airport rituals, which led to the twelve things you’ll always see Irish people do in the airport. I’m especially guilty of number eight, every time. 

Another tea-break chat (there are quite a few of those, along with chocolate breaks – it’s a thing) had us talking about that horrible moment when someone offers you a cup of tea, you politely say “No thank you”… and they take it at face value?! That is NOT supposed to happen, and it served as the inspiration for the ten things you’ll never hear an Irish person say.

As evidenced above, we spent a lot of our week laughing. It’s a pretty happy office here; I’m delighted to say. However there were two things in particular this week that the whole Her.ie team was sobered by. The events in Boston this week, still ongoing as I write, have the whole world watching in slack-jawed shock. There are acts of terror and violence happening every day, all over the world, but there was something about seeing this attack on an international event, in a city that so many of us know and love, and even have family and friends residing in, that made the scenes all the more chilling. Stranger again, that the times we live in mean that the usual sources of news media have been largely replaced by the Internet. It’s a double-edged sword; more information coming at you faster, but often from very questionable sources and in a way that can cause immense damage to innocent people.   

The other news is even closer to home, as the jury in the Savita Halappanavar inquest has made an official ruling of “medical misadventure” and endorsed the coroner’s nine recommendations for abortion laws in Ireland. (You can read the recommendations here if you wish.)

The ruling will be cold comfort to Savita’s husband Praveen, who should have been celebrating his fifth wedding anniversary with his beloved wife today. Nothing can change the horror hand that has been dealt to this poor family, and the least we as a country can do in response is make sure that no other woman has the same experience in our hospitals. Whether you describe yourself as pro-life or pro-choice, (though both labels are woefully outdated and simplistic), it’s time that this country opened up the doors to a real discussion that actually leads to change and finally give Irish women the chance to speak for ourselves about we should be treated in the country we call home. 

The Irish government has promised to enact legislation surrounding abortion by the Dáil summer break this year, a step that cannot come soon enough, and we’ll be handing over the floor for you to have your say here on Her.ie too.

This is already much longer than I intended, (what can I say, we’re long overdue a chat!), so one more quick thing before I wrap up.

We’re hiring. Team Her.ie is a fun place to be, and we’d love to have you here too. We’ve got space for a full time journalist and an intern on a six-month placement, and we’ll always have space for someone exceptional who wants to join our team. If you’re a friendly person (yes, lads are welcome too), who wants to be a part of this site and hang out in our offices every day talking news, entertainment, health, fashion, beauty and fun – we’d love to hear from you. Drop us a line to work@her.ie.

I’ll be back here, same Bat time, same Bat channel, next Friday. In the meantime, thanks for hanging out with us on these pages every day. You’re only brilliant.

 

Michelle xxx