Chemist defends controversial poster

March 1993

A Wexford chemist has defended his right to publicly display a poster showing a foetus being lifted out of a bucket with a forceps.

Matt Murphy of North Main Street said he felt forced into the action because of what he described as a one-sided media approach to the current amendment issue.

For the past few weeks, the front window of Mr Murphy’s premises has featured a graphic anti-abortion poster of a foetus being taken from a bucket.

The Wexford chemist, who has used his shop window to display anti-abortion literature since the 1983 referendum campaign, admitted that the poster had given rise to complaints from passers-by, but said he had received an equal number of supportive messages.

‘I was forced to show what abortion is. People don’t really understand what it is about,’ he said. ‘ The media is really quite one-sided. I didn’t do it to offend people, but to get a point of view across.’

The poster displayed in Mr Murphy’s window was this week branded as ‘offensive’ by Workers’ Party councillor Michael Enright, who said he received several complaints from parents of young children.

‘Everyone is entitled to their view,’ he said, ‘ but I think that kind of publicity in a public place where it can be viewed by visitors and children is most unfortunate.’

Cllr Enright brought up the issue at Monday night’s meeting of Wexford Corporation. He believed that if the Corporation had the right to tell someone that they can’t erect a plastic sign, surely they could advise people against displaying posters of this kind.

‘ The proprietor is perfectly entitled to his views,’ he said. ‘But what I object to is the manner in which he is choosing to express them.’

He added that he was not advocating censorship, but ‘ there was too much hysteria about abortion in 1983, and it seems to be emerging again.’