Update 15/1: Gráinne Maguire is due to appear on Question Time from Belfast on BBC1 next Thursday, January 21. She was originally due to appear shortly after this story below ran but was replaced in that line-up.

Irish comedian Gráinne Maguire has been tweeting the Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny about her period.

Maguire is doing this as a unique form of protest in support of the Repeal The 8th campaign – the fight in Ireland to stop abortion from being illegal and give women control over their bodies. Women face a prison sentence of up to 14 years if they have an abortion in Ireland and so regularly have to travel to England if they want to terminate a pregnancy.

Explaining her actions in The Guardian, Maguire wrote: “Sure, some could argue that it’s none of his business what happens inside my fallopian tubes, but if we took that logic to its conclusion, I wouldn’t need to tweet him in the first place.”

Maguire has been asking Kenny for advice on what she should do about “Ireland’s littlest embassy”. She has asked the TD about daily discharges, cramps, heavy-flow versus light-flow tampons and itching. “You and all the men in your government feel comfortable controlling so many aspects of my body, at least tell me how to deal with PMT!” 

Others have followed her example and have also tweeted the TD on the subject. “Enda Kenny, of course, ignored the tweets, but then he is used to ignoring women. We are second-class citizens in our own country.” The story has now gone viral and has been covered by the media all around the world.

Graham and Helen Linehan also recently wrote movingly about their opposition to Irish abortion laws here.