Christy Moore

[TOBL]

We contacted Chrstie Moore via his guestbook and the conversation went:

Turn Off the Blue Light
Hi Christie, we would be grateful if you could give us an email address or postal address where we could write to you as we would like to talk to you about Turn Off The Blue Light | Sex workers need human rights, not legal wrongs. We know you are supporting Turn Off The Red Light.ie | End Prostitution and Sex Trafficking in Ireland but we are asking you to please listen to the other side of the story, the sex worker side. Thanks Date - 28/03/11, Location - Dublin
Christy's Reply

Christy's Reply
Thank you for your offer...I supported this initiative and attended the press launch for one reason only.... I am opposed to the enslavement of those who are being trafficked into this country and enslaved by the criminal elements within the sex industry, some of these unfortunate people suffer mental and physical abuse, are raped and have no where to turn for help.There is no "other side"...........However, any one is perfectly entitled to work in the sex industry, provided its of their own choosing and free will, if you chose to do so, it is no ones business but your own... I wish you the very best...

TurnOfftheBlueLight.com
Sex trafficking is abhorrent and real, we wouldn't argue with you there. We would like more to be done regards sex trafficking. But criminalising the buying of sex is a fundamentalist feminist/catholic agenda that will drive prostitution further underground, make it more dangerous for all sex workers, and much harder for the Gardai to combat trafficking, as clients will no longer report suspected exploitation or trafficking or be witnesses in court. Turn Off the Red Light is using trafficking as a trojan horse to make their own anti-prostitution views law. It is already a crime to pay for sex with a trafficked woman, this new law would only impact on adults paying other consenting adults. There is 'another side' but we aren't getting heard unfortunately, which is very wrong. I'm sorry to go on but I'm passionate and this does matter. I thank you for your reply and I won't comment here again, but you can email us anytime. I'm sure you support Turn Off the Red Light for very honourable motives. Date - 29/03/11, Location - Dublin

It was decent of him to respond to us. Thanks Christie.

[TOBL]

It is very understandable why people support TORL given the picture they paint for people. How could a decent man not support an organisation that tells him prostitution in Ireland today is all about women and children being trafficked, raped and abused, and they just want to help those poor victims? But we need people like Christie to look at this issue again. We don't expect everyone to agree with us, but it is right that everyone gets heard in this debate, and to date sex workers have not been heard. Although Christie said he wasn't interested, I hope we made him think a little at least.

[milkman]

Fair play to both sides re the respect and cordiality of views - i think its a smart process by TOBL campaign to contact as many high profile individual campaigns incl Mssrs Rabitte,Shatter,Finlay etc. in exactly the same courteous way to elicit specific responses on their support of TORL.As has been said many times before,there are completely illogical reasons for monitoring of consentual adults sexual behaviour and choices and its important that such high profile people should be politely pressed on that issue.Keep up the good work.

[carlos marvado]

We contacted Chrstie Moore via his guestbook and the conversation went:

It was decent of him to respond to us. Thanks Christie.

I can appreciate Christy Moore being against sex trafficking........who is'nt for God's sake apart from the traffickers abroad and their contacts here. But if as he stated in his reply to you "...........However, any one is perfectly entitled to work in the sex industry, provided its of their own choosing and free will, if you chose to do so, it is no ones business but your own...", what is he doing lending his name to a campaign which will criminalise all clients, including those of genuine independent sex workers, thereby damaging the business of "career escorts" who do this work of their own choosing and free will?

I wound suggest one of two possible reasons:

1. Either Christy Moore is not as clever as we thought and the people behind the TOTRL campaign have duped him into supporting the type of people that I would normally have expected him to run a million miles from, or

2. Christy Moore is being quite clever here and he's managing to get himself a bit of free publicity by being associated with this campaign.

He should have been told that he is either being naive, or hypocritical if he thinks that he can talk out of both sides of his mouth at the same time.

[Quarterpoundher]

If someone could show me one example in the whole of history of something that was banned/prohibited and the supply did not get taken over by criminal enterprises I would like to see it, it won't work. it can't work, when demand for something exists and its supply is not regulated by open society then things always get worse and not better. Christie forgot his shovel on this one and started digging without looking where the spoil will end up.

[carlos marvado]

Quite right Qph. If you listen to Christy Moore's songs, you would never take him as a right wing catholic with a few church prelates lodged between the cheeks of his arse. Here's a great song written and sung by Christy......listen to the words carefully brothers and sisters:



Brother Christy if you're reading this, and if you're now going to support the work of a church whoes "bishops blessed the blue shirts down in Galway" and issued "propaganda from the pulpit" in support of Franco and many other fascist movements in Europe during the 1920s, 30s and 40s and up until the 70s in the case of Spain and Portugal, and also supported many latin American right wing military dictatorships continuously during the 20th century, could you please leave the hypocracy out and stop insulting people who believe in a genuine republic by continuing to sing this song.

I'll send you the text of a few fascist or Nazi songs that you can learn instead.

[rubberbootlvr]

If you had mentioned that you were oppressed catholics been beaten up by British troops or some other such oppressed groups, or supported the IRA of course Christy would be intrested then.
Sorry to be scarcastic,but thats about as far as his intellectual ability goes.

[Mucker]

If someone could show me one example in the whole of history of something that was banned/prohibited and the supply did not get taken over by criminal enterprises I would like to see it, it won't work. it can't work, when demand for something exists and its supply is not regulated by open society then things always get worse and not better. Christie forgot his shovel on this one and started digging without looking where the spoil will end up.

This is a silly point. If something is banned/prohibited then anyone supplying it is by definition a criminal enterprise, as supply cannot be taken over by anyone legally. So your point is hardly a major breakthrough in the understanding of criminality.

The observation also seems not to be appropriate to the sex trade. It is perfectly legal for a woman to charge a man money for sexual favours in Ireland, yet there appears to be a significant criminal element involved in the business. So you cannot blame prohibition on the problem. The problem is driven by demand, and in fairness the 'turn off the red light' scheme seems to be aiming at the demand side.

It should also be said that many products e.g. cigarettes, alcohol, deisel etc. have their supply regulated by open society yet you still have criminal elements involved in counterfeit or unregulated production. Your argument is the standard one that unless every single possible loophole can be covered and every single instance of criminality be stopped there is no justification for doing anything. If we were waiting for such a legal utopia we'd have no law in the country. The reasons laws are there is because people breach the conditions which the laws aim to protect. Just because we have drink driving laws does not mean that people don't drink and drive. But it seems to me likely that less people do it because of the existence of the law.