Tens of thousands of people ranging from newborn babies to the elderly staged a pro-life rally on the streets of Dublin over proposals by the current government to introduce abortion into Ireland.
While tens of thousands walked through the streets of Dublin toward the gathering point on Dublin’s Marrion Square near the offices of Ireland’s prime minister, upward of 250,000 gathered around the country for a holy hour of prayer and adoration in front of the Blessed Sacrament.
Dublin’s Archbishop Duirmuid Martin led hundreds in prayer at the Westland Row Church of Saint Andrew’s, where there was standing room only. It would seem that the people of Ireland, 82% Catholic, stood together imploring God not to allow abortion into the Land of Saints and Scholars.
Ireland’s government, led by Prime Minister Enda Kenny, currently president of the EU, promised the Irish people that if he and his party were elected they would not introduce abortion into Ireland. However now the Irish people feel yet again betrayed by their politicians who say one thing and do another. There have been calls for a new political party in Ireland that would be a pro-life party, pro-common good, and pro-God in its legislation.
Many of the speakers at the pro-life rally called on the government to abandon the idea of abortion. Mickey Harte of Tyrone said, «Ireland is almost unique in the Western world in looking out for, and fully protecting, two patients during a pregnancy — a mother and her unborn child. We are here to oppose the unjust targeting of even one unborn child’s life in circumstances that have nothing to do with genuine life-saving medical interventions.»
Ireland’s Catholic bishops likewise have stated their opposition to the direct and intentional killing of the unborn. The government insists it wants to introduce abortion only in cases of a risk of suicide, however the pro-life groups say that this is a ploy with no validity and is tantamount to opening the door to abortion on demand despite the disaster it has caused and continues to cause other nations around the world. Ireland’s psychiatrists almost unanimously said that abortion is not a treatment for those with suicidal tendencies.
Beside the quiet and respectful presence of between 40,000 to 50,000 pro-life supporters, there was a well guarded smaller group of pro-abortion demonstrators — not more than 20 individuals whose organization is partly funded by American billionaire Chuck Feeney and his Atlantic Philanthropy organisation.
The pro-life group said they were thrilled at the massive turnout at the Saturday Vigil and that they and Catholic Ireland would be relentless in their efforts to save human life from the first moment of conception to natural death.
