SF splinter group invoke Bobby Sands and leaders of 1916 during anti-abortion rally at GPO
‘Solution for one person can never be ending life of another’ – Tóibín
SINN Féin’s spokesman on arts and heritage spoke at a pro-life rally outside the GPO yesterday, using the same republican imagery used by the party leadership to urge for abortion rights.
In an event that included posters of the 1916 leaders, a reading of the Proclamation, Bobby Sands quotes, and a rendition of Amhrán na bhFiann, Peadar Tóibín TD told the ‘republican, left wing, prolife’ event that repealing the Eighth would ‘radically change who we are as a people and our core values’. Mary Lou McDonald has long used the 1916 Proclamation’s guarantee of equality to urge for repeal of the Eighth. Yesterday, the pro-life wing of the party sought to take back the idealism and authority of the Easter Rising for their cause.
The ‘Cherish All The Children’ event was also attended by Sinn Féin Offaly TD, Carol Nolan, who is suspended from the party for three months for refusing to vote in favour of holding the referendum.
She said yesterday she was actively canvassing for a No vote and predicted defeat nationwide for the repeal proposal.
‘I am very confident it will be defeated. Where I have been on the doorsteps, in Offaly, Laois and north Tipperary, I would say the reaction is 70 to 30 in favour of No,’ she said.
She had experienced no blowback from colleagues, she said, and added: ‘I hope to have a role in the party in the future.’
Mr Tóibín began his speech to the crowd saying: ‘First of all, it is important for me to state that my own party, Sinn Féin, believes that the Eighth Amendment should be repealed and that abortion should be made available in certain cases where there is a life-limiting disability, rape and incest, or if there is a threat to the health of the mother.’
But he added: ‘The Eighth Amendment is in my view the most important human rights debate of our generation. In the upcoming referendum, each citizen is being asked the most serious of questions, one that will radically change who we are as a people and our core values.’
The life of the mother should in all cases be protected, he said. ‘I have asked doctor after doctor, and obstetrician after obstetrician are they aware of any mother who had lost her life due to the Eighth – they have all said no.
‘The solution for one person can never be the ending of the life of another individual.’
Ms Nolan was not among the speakers, but the slate included Ann Brolly, mother of GAA pundit Joe; Sinn Féin councillor Íde Cussin, who said her mother had been advised to abort her when the family was living in England; Mairead Hughes of the Life Institute; GP Dr Judith Gant; and trade unionist Gina O’Brien.
Mrs Brolly paraphrased a quote from IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands: ‘Our revenge was supposed to be the laughter of our children, not their abortion.’
The majority of all citizens in the North were pro-life, she said.
Mrs Brolly also said her son was ‘very disappointed’ at the GAA’s direction this week that members should be non-political on the referendum.
Asked about the party’s contrasting treatment of Carol Nolan and Peadar Tóibin, leader Mary Lou McDonald said: ‘There is one set of rules that are applied fairly transparently and without fear or favour. Carol is outside the parliamentary party because she voted against party policy in the context of legislation here in the Dáil chamber.
‘I would prefer Peadar was not speaking out in this way.
‘He does so in a personal capacity and it’s very plain in so doing that he is expressing a view that is not party policy.’
‘I am confident it will be defeated’
Mother advised to abort her