This is a picture thread about the months leading up to this day two years ago.

In Autumn 2017 we had the BWalsh furore and JmcG to contend with in the office, as the #8comm sat and the report outcome was unclear. It also was when @WomensIreland was quietly formed, cross party.

Opening the post was...unpleasant, apart from the day Kate’s Christmas present for Bernard Durkan arrived.

Members of the #8thcomm were bombarded with all sorts of correspondence, abuse, pictures and threats. In the Dáil, men would “advise” us that this was only the start...

As unicorns were the mascot of the office, sometimes I’d wear this hairband to cheer myself up. The post became more threatening, and creative, and...dirty?

The report was published. A FG TD condemned his colleagues on the comm for releasing it “so close to baby Jesus’ birthday”

After Christmas, we went to UL to discuss the report, @jschweppe invited us. We travelled on to Clare, where antis stood up in the crowd and shouted at the panel.

A tiny jelly pig arrived. I would ask TDs if they would save their wife or the jelly pig in a crisis situation.

@Together4yes launched in the Rotunda, and the room was massive, and packed. I stood at the back beside Noel Whelan. It was very emotional hearing all the speeches.

The other crowd launched as well.

I made a new best friend, Dr Mary Henry, a former @labour Senator and a medical doctor, we spoke twice a day and met frequently. @WomensIreland invited TDs of all parties and none to unite in support or yes. Mary and I organised fundraising dinners and raised 30k. We had a plan.

Together with @Fionnuala_Walsh and @EtainH we wrote, designed and printed 125,000 copies of a newspaper.

They arrived in batches on pallets to my cottage in portobello. The day they landed, women came from all over to bring thousands of them back to their home counties.

There were papers everywhere. I sat on the canal drinking wine and every 15mins a different woman would turn up and stuff their car with bundles of thousands.

A turf shed in Limerick was jammers. Kate went to Donegal with @EtainH. @lichamber packed her boot for Mayo.

In the Dáil, we gave bundles to @AodhanORiordain @JoanCollinsTD @FitzgeraldFrncs - @1Hildegarde packed her boot for Galway and I rang @KathyDArcyCork to see if she could take a pallet for @CorkTogether4Y - she could - I went to the pub to meet @1GaryGannon and @amomcnally

We posted hundreds to @Ciaraioch and to @Berlinnaeus - held another fundraiser to print more, where @campaignforkate fell in love with @AndreaHoran. We put Kate on stage at the Olympia with @aoibhinn_ni_s and Tara Flynn. She went to Kildare to speak for Yes, for Bernard.

We held another, public gathering of cross party support. People from @FineGael @sinnfeinireland, @fiannafailparty, @greenparty_ie, @labour, @SocDems came. The room was too small! We had to move outside.

I went with Kate to Westmeath to the launch of their @Together4yes.

That’s not to say there wasn’t cross party opposition around the country, and not just within Fine Gael too, for that matter...More than half of Fine Gael were in favour of it; more than half of Fianna Fáil were against it.

In fairness though, we got support from within the party from young women and men who hung posters and campaigned for Yes

One night at 11pm @aliceeire turned up at my house in a taxi and packed the boot with papers. Herself and @SenLynnRuane were going on a bus to the country.

We went to Tullamore where the fab @MarcellaCK had been canvassing with @ArcOffaly and @DrSumiDunne was there. @simoncoveney did a bit of canvassing around the town. Kate went on Prime Time to discuss the Portuguese model. The Sawdoctors sent me two CDs.

I packed my last bundles of papers into a #repeal bag and went to meet Anna C at Fallon’s pub. She brought @Hozier and we went for a last minute canvass around D8 before going to Grogan’s for a pint. The next day we made sure Kate got to vote and I passed out for 4hrs on a couch.

We worked our asses off, we campaigned, we voted and all because of these people.

Without the darkness there can be no light.

These people campaigned *for* the 8th so don’t discount them and don’t forget... that when we all worked together, we defeated them. #RepealMemories