Ireland – Battle on doorsteps reveals different truths for Yes and No campaigns

Battle on doorsteps reveals different truths for Yes and No campaigns
Both sides in abortion referendum believe they have the edge. How can both be right?

April 27, 2018
Harry McGee

When you ask Joe Walsh, a No campaigner, when he started canvassing for the referendum on the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, his response takes you aback. “We started three years ago,” he says, matter-of-factly, “and have not stopped since then.”

Although the media spotlight over the past five years has been mostly on the evolution of the referendum to decide whether to repeal the amendment, which bans abortion in almost all circumstances, anti-abortion campaigners have not been idle, as is immediately apparent outside Dublin. The No campaign was first to put up its posters, and it has big canvassing teams, in which young women tend to be to the fore, in most parts of the State.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/abortion-referendum/battle-on-doorsteps-reveals-different-truths-for-yes-and-no-campaigns-1.3476881


Ireland – Abortion referendum: Many minds not made up

Abortion referendum: Many minds not made up
Most young, urban dwellers favour repeal, but in rural areas the ‘12 weeks issue’ is key

March 16, 2018
Harry McGee Political Correspondent

The phrase “silent majority” has fallen out of fashion in Ireland in recent times. US president Richard Nixon popularised it the 1960s, when he claimed a majority of Americans were conservative by instinct but didn’t voice their opinions publicly as did the liberal minority.

During the 1983 debate on the Eighth Amendment, the outspoken Fine Gael TD and anti-abortion campaigner Alice Glenn used the phrase to great effect.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/abortion-referendum-many-minds-not-made-up-1.3429636