The 20th anniversary of Ireland's first abortion referendum looms, but the issue remains as emotive as ever, writes Kitty Holland

It has been described by commentators as a watershed in Irish politics; like a civil war; desperately necessary; the biggest political and social battle of modern Ireland; a time when it seemed things were going out of control.

And as the 20th anniversary of that first referendum approaches, abortion is the issue that just won't go away.

Polling day for the first of five - so far - referendums on abortion was September 7th, 1983. The night before, the then Taoiseach, Dr Garret Fitzgerald, made what he described as "the most difficult" television broadcast he had ever made. Calling on the people to vote no, he said to do so was his "duty as a Christian concerned with peace and reconciliation and the protection of human life".

He has said since he regretted accepting the "dangerous" wording of the amendment "without adequate legal advice".

The wording, actually framed in December 1982 by Dr Michael Woods, Minister for Health in Charles Haughey's Fianna Fáil administration, reads: "The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right."

One of the great anomalies of the wording - which confused and turned many off the whole debate - was that voting yes was pro-life and meant voting against abortion, while voting no was pro-choice and meant, to many, voting for the possibility of it.

In the election fever of late-1982 - amid economic crises, factory closures and sit-ins, high emigration and at a time when the Catholic Church's power was unquestioned - Fitzgerald made a pledge to the increasingly-vocal Pro-Life Amendment Campaign (PLAC), to adopt and put the wording to the people.

The three-week campaign towards the vote was frenetic, optimistic, vicious, emotionally draining, hurtful, insulting, even violent, according to both sides.

There was, in the words of journalist Susan McKay, who was working with the Rape Crisis Centre in Belfast at the time, a "great whoosh of energy that it was difficult not to be swept up in".

The question of whether it was all necessary is moot. Abortion was already illegal under the 1861 Offences Against The Person Act. Evelyn Conlon, of the Anti-Amendment Campaign, says it was "foisted upon us", although William Binchy, of PLAC, who was then working in family law reform, says it was "desperately necessary".

"The manner in which constitutional law had been developing up to 1983 would suggest wide-ranging legalised abortion would be recognised on basis of constitutional principles - of privacy and autonomy - and the way they were developing. I think it was a very prudent thing to go to the Constitution and invite the people to insert explicit protection for the unborn."

At the time, about 3,600 women were giving Irish addresses who sought abortions in Britain. The latest figures, for 2001, indicate at least 6,673 women with Irish addresses had abortions.

The campaign convulsed social and political life. While the Catholic Church came out strongly in favour of the amendment, most Protestant Churches came out against it.

The Church of Ireland advised its members to vote according to their consciences, apart from such notable exceptions as Dean Victor Griffin of St Patrick's Cathedral, who at a concluding campaign rally in Liberty Hall called the amendment "divisive, sectarian, unnecessary and futile", and urged people "in the cause of liberty to vote No".

Strange and extraordinary groupings were forged at all levels, on both sides. There were Lawyers Against the Amendment and Lawyers For the Amendment, Musicians Against The Amendment - including Paul Brady and Christy Moore - and Musicians for it, farmers for it and farmers against, trade unions and families were split and "friendships were destroyed", according to one commentator.

No one on the anti-amendment side ever said they actually wanted to have abortion in Ireland - although some, such as Conlon and journalist Nell McCafferty say it "stuck" in their throat not to.

Their campaign focused on women's health, danger to best medical practice and the alleged sectarianism of the legislation.

It was not sectarian, insists Binchy. "It is a non-sectarian issue in the North", he says, pointing out opposition among the Protestant communities frequently even more virulent than among pro-life groups in this State.

However, according to McKay: "Certainly what struck us was the dominance of the Catholic Church in the Republic".

The Sunday before the vote pastoral letters were read out at masses throughout the State, urging people to vote Yes. In a number of churches parishioners walked out. At morning mass in St Columba's Church, Glasnevin, Dublin, Sunday Tribune journalist Helen Lucey Burke left her seat, and standing before Bishop Desmond Fornstal, accused him of misusing his office "to make a political statement to a captive audience". It was before the decline of church authority and the sex abuse scandals, and an almost unthinkable act.

In the end, the amendment was carried by 66.45 per cent of those who voted. Just 55.6 per cent of the electorate turned out but it was a victory for the Pro-Choice lobby nonetheless, and the Eighth Amendment saw Article 40.3.3. inserted into the Constitution.

Since then we have experienced the 1992 X case - when a 13-year-old rape victim sought an abortion because she was suicidal at the thought of carrying her pregnancy to term. After the High Court said she could not travel, thousands of people poured onto the streets in protest. The issue had become "humanised".

Nine days later, the Supreme Court decided that when the threat of suicide posed a "real and substantial risk" to the life of the mother, a termination was lawful.

Further battles through the courts, flowing from the 1983 result, have established the right to abortion information, the right to travel, crisis pregnancy counselling paid for by the State - things even the most optimistic pro-choice campaigners would not have hoped for in 1983.

Other changes, such as the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1993, says journalist Anne-Marie Hourihane, who campaigned against the amendment, "went through without a whimper, because I think everyone got such a fright after the 1983 campaign. It was an epoch-changing experience. No one wanted a row like that again."

Last year's referendum, which sought to roll back the 1992 Supreme Court decision, was defeated, an indication, say the pro-choice lobby, that abortion in some circumstances is acceptable to the majority. Binchy, however, believes it was defeated by "some small element of people against abortion" - i.e. the Mother and Child Campaign, led by Justin Barrett, and that the pro-life sentiment is stronger.

"One can't raise these issues on a daily basis, but it would be a medium term goal of myself certainly to bring about a change in the law and legislation, and this would not appear possible." He would favour a sixth abortion referendum.

Pro-choice groups seek legislation in line with the 1992 Supreme Court decision. Alison Begas, chief executive of the Well Woman Centre (WWC), says the number of women seeking pre-abortion counselling is increasing "year on year". Indeed, the rate of abortion here - calculated as the number, aged 15 to 44, per 1000 - has increased from 4.1 in 1979 to 7.2 in 1999. Today, it is about eight.

Catherine Heaney of the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA), says Article 40.3.3 "needs to be deleted", adding that it does not "deal with the reality" of abortion in Ireland.

Julia Heffernan, spokeswoman for Life Pregnancy Counselling, agrees the current legal situation needs clarification. However, she believes this should be achieved through another referendum, as does Dr Ruth Cullen of the Pro-Life Campaign. A Government spokesman said the implications of last year's result were "being considered".

The one thing on which all are agreed is that the reasons women find themselves facing crisis pregnancies must be addressed. The IFPA and the WWC both describe as "frightening" the numbers of well-educated women who do not know the basics about their own reproductive cycles and how to use their contraception. Sex education in schools is inadequate, they say.

According to Heffernan, too many pregnancies are regarded as "crisis" because support for the women facing the prospect of unplanned motherhood is inadequate, if there at all.

As in 1983 those at greatest risk of poverty in this State are first, children and second, women.

"The women we see feel they will have to give up too much themselves and will not be able to give their babies a good life," says Heffernan. "Twenty years on, it should not be like that."

The Alliance For Choice is publishing Reflections on 1983 on Friday. The Pro-Life Campaign is also planning a commemorative event for later in the week.