On Saturday 27th February, the "Munster Rally for Life" took off from Grand Parade in Cork City. To counteract this demonstration, the Cork Women's Right to Choose Group hastily put together a march of its own outside City Hall. From what I personally saw, the Rally for Life appeared to dwarf the hurriedly put together Pro-Choice crowd, and proved an intimidating presence.
However, when I broached the subject with Dr Mary Favier, Cork GP and Doctors for Choice advocate, she emphatically disagreed.
“That’s interesting… I actually thought it was really small. It was relatively small in comparison to how big they’ve been in the past at any rate. I really got the sense that, though let’s not underestimate them, their day is done. I thought to myself that they might even regret calling that rally. It was supposed to be a Munster Rally, and it wasn’t a Munster Rally by any means…”
Though nonetheless, I offered, it felt like the march would never end as it went past.
“It did, didn’t it? Let’s not underestimate how powerful a force it is. Now, it’s an aging group, but people have very strongly held views in Ireland, and they’re entitled to their views…but just don’t impose them on anyone else.”
As I spoke to Dr Favier, she was keen to stress why repealing the 8th amendment (thus allowing for human rights compliant abortion legislation in Ireland) is an issue that students should care about.
