Meet the Cork-based transgender woman seeking to change political representation

A 26-YEAR-OLD transgender woman living in Cork says she will have to choose between having a house deposit or having surgery.

Saoirse Mackin, originally from Tipperary, now lives in the outskirts of Cork city. She believes she was assigned the wrong gender at birth.

“I was maybe around ten or 12 when I realised that I felt a bit different to everyone around me and the people who I went to school with. I felt like I didn’t fit in with other males. At that age, I didn’t even know what trans was.”

She explained that a lot of trans people would often go through a period of thinking they were gay, as that was talked about a lot more than being transgender.

“I’m probably one of the few who didn’t go through that, I always knew my sexuality.”

She says that she hit puberty at a relatively young age and went through it quickly, but that her “voice literally dropped overnight”.

Saoirse says puberty was hard, but that she tried to remain positive with a somewhat open mind.

I was trying to just learn to live with things, but it always comes to a stage when that’s no longer bearable and you have to come out.

She came out to a core group of close friends years before she came out to others. Even though they were a tight knit group, Saoirse admitted that “the fear was always there that they would tell someone else”.

She said making the decision to come out was a big one and coming to terms with the vulnerability she felt was difficult.

“There was always the feeling of not being comfortable enough to come out, I would have liked to come out when I realised myself [that she was transgender].

“I knew something was different, but most people who are trans just know rather than questioning it and it was very quickly cemented for me.”

Saoirse made the decision to come out more widely to most of the school community just before she finished secondary school.

“It was always my goal to come out before the debs or Leaving Cert - I wanted my new name on my Leaving Cert form and I knew that there was never going to be a perfect time to come out.”

She says that telling family wasn’t that daunting.

“I knew that my parents and brother would love me no matter what, but that it would take time to get used to - I knew it would be OK and would work out fine.”

Before she told her family, she was trying to think of every possible reaction and prepare for it. She says that her mother always knew there was something different, but assumed she was gay.

“It was a shock for my parents, they wouldn’t have known much or anything about being trans really.”

Saoirse says having the support of a trans friend and his mother was hugely helpful, as they were there to answer any questions.

She says that for a trans person, it’s a complicated process, it’s not just a matter of coming out and that’s it.

“It’s important to listen to people when they say they are trans. I was lucky that my parents did that, they did allow me to talk about it and brought me to a psychologist and it’s important that everyone has support.”

Saoirse has been engaging with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) since she was 16, she spent two years working with them, and then, at 18 years of age, was referred onto adult services.

Once a diagnosis confirmed that she was trans, she went down the route of hormone therapy, continued talk therapy, and was referred to an endocrinologist with a wait time of three and a half years.

Saoirse says when working through the process, there’s a requirement to be living as your preferred gender for a certain amount of time, and the approval of two psychologists was needed to start the hormone therapy.

Saoirse says she was happier living life as a woman, but she was worried about not getting the approval for the hormone therapy.

The therapy, once approved, involved taking a blocker to reduce the amount of testosterone her body was producing, giving the mild effects of being a woman of the same age, and she says she found that she was a lot happier.

That’s normally the point that people realise they are on the right track.

When she started taking the female hormones, she started to see things like an increase in oestrogen levels which could cause more fat on her hips and help with breast development, and mild facial changes, and sometimes there would be changes to the voice at this stage.

“At that stage, I had no doubts about who I was, I was a lot happier in myself and it really helped my mental health.”

Earlier this year, Saoirse was declared as a Local Election Candidate for the Social Democrats party in the Cork City North West constituency. She is the first transgender election candidate in the history of the State.

Speaking about the decision to run, she says that she didn’t see people like her represented in politics and she wanted to see that.

“Whether that’s young people or queer people, I think we’re very under-represented and for me that was important to change.”

She is passionate about campaigning for change in healthcare, affordable housing and climate action - all issues which have affected Saoirse in her own life.

Putting herself out there in the public realm as a candidate, she says she “knew there would be people who would target” her as a trans person in politics.

“I see that unfortunately, there’s a lot of discrimination towards people in politics who are more diverse than what we usually see.”

She added that she expected to see a lot of transphobia and misogyny directed towards her.

It’s very sad that it happens and it’s very sad that I would expect that to happen, in 2024. Ireland has moved on a huge amount over the past few years from the very, very conservative- leaning country that we used to be.

Saoirse says that healthcare and access to appropriate care is challenging. She says the injections she takes every three months cost about €1,000, the oestrogen wasn’t covered initially, it was about €35 a month, which isn’t affordable for some, but it’s now under the Drugs Payment Scheme and medical card.

The endocrinologist she saw was based in Drogheda, which involved a lot of train travel - another expensive element of the journey to becoming who she knew she really was on the inside.

Saoirse says an endocrinologist in the South of the country is badly needed.

Addressing the idea of whether or not to have surgery, Saoirse says it’s a very personal choice, but that “unfortunately, a lot of people can’t afford it”.

The UK has the most affordable surgery options at £35,000, but she would need someone to travel with her, there would be flights and accommodation and some health insurance companies cover a portion of the cost.

I now have to decide if I want to have surgery or if I want to buy a house. I will probably put surgery first.

Gender confirmation surgery involves either bottom surgery or top surgery and the basic cost of both can vary massively. For some, they will opt to have an Adam’s Apple removed or for facial feminisation surgery.

Saoirse told The Echo that people from the trans community can also face barriers to employment.

“A lot of trans people find it difficult to get employment - I was lucky that the first company I started with when I came out was very progressive and supportive.”

She says there’s often a fear of having to talk about being ‘out’ with colleagues too, which some people aren’t comfortable with, or being treated differently because of being trans, which unfortunately happens a lot.

At the time she was looking for work, Saoirse was living as a woman and presenting as a woman and she thinks some prospective employers were possibly transphobic and didn’t hire her because of it, or like the idea of someone transitioning while working there.

“There can’t be any reason for that - trans people can do a job just as well or just as poorly as anyone else. People are discriminated against for all kinds of reasons - it’s hard to tackle and hard to know why people feel the need to discriminate.”

Housing is another area that is challenging for trans people, Saoirse says. She came across situations where she spoke to someone on the phone, as regards a house share, but when they would meet her the offer wasn’t followed through.

“I started noticing road blocks - on the phone I sounded like the perfect fit - a young professional female, and then they opened the door and suddenly the room wasn’t available or they weren’t interested.

There is a higher risk of homelessness because of this - a lot of trans people can’t get a place to live.

“Sometimes, their parents have kicked them out of home, some don’t have parents or families to fall back on - it’s really hard to know the reasons.

“Every house I’ve lived in has had a mix of males and females and it’s hard to know why some people have this prejudice.”

Having children is another really tough decision for Saoirse. She froze some sperm before taking the hormone blockers. This involved an initial payment and then an annual fee to continue the storage.

“If I do decide to have children down the line - it will be worth the cost,” Saoirse added.

She said accepting the fact that she can’t physically carry the pregnancy in her own body is hard to accept, and also she doesn’t have the option of having a period.

She acknowledged that cis women who don’t have periods can carry pregnancies.

“I think this doesn’t make me less of a woman or change who I am.”