On the campaign trail: A mixed response on the doorsteps, with some people more worried about potholes than abortion. Frank McNally reports on the No campaign
It's A cold night in Templeogue, but the referendum campaign is hotting up. Fine Gael TD Brian Hayes is going door to door dispensing leaflets and guidance, the latter much in demand. But although the people of Dublin 6W are no less confused than everyone else, there's a level of interest and a willingness to debate the issue here which was conspicuously missing from earlier canvasses in Tallaght.
On the doorstep of a house in the Willington estate, one woman explains that she views the issue in the context of having three daughters, "but I'm very, very confused". "Youse are against abortion?" she asks her Dáil representative; and Hayes explains that Fine Gael would legislate for termination in the "very limited" circumstances arising from the X case. The woman adds: "My husband is dead against abortion. But when you have three daughters, you're always thinking . . .what if?"
A few doors away, a middle-aged man has his mind made up. "I'm voting No, I don't agree with putting legislation in the Constitution," he says. But it becomes clear there are other issues at work here too, nothing to do with abortion.
The man is a former taxi-driver. "I don't believe in fascism either," he adds, "and I lost a business because Bertie Ahern and Mary Harney did me out of it. That man's a fascist, as far as I'm concerned."
This becomes a minor theme in the Willington canvas, when on the same road a Leitrim-born woman compares the Taoiseach with Adolf Hitler. A "life-long Fine Gael" supporter, she invites the TD into the house and shows off graduation pictures of her two sons, before referring briefly to the business at hand: "I'm voting No, of course, but I don't understand it."
Nearby, back on the main topic, another woman detains the TD for a full five minutes to discuss the implications of a Yes or No vote. She was clearly impressed by "the three gynaecologists" [the Masters of Dublin's main maternity hospitals] calling for a Yes. "I was a definite No until I heard that," but politicians have put people "in a terrible position", she adds. The majority in this estate seem to intend to vote No. Hayes admits this is in contrast to the neighbouring Glenbrien estate.
The levels of public interest in the campaign are put into perspective by the last house-call of the night, where a woman ignores the referendum literature and asks: "When are we getting our green bins?" She also warns him about another household nearby where he'll be tackled about "three potholes" in the road: "They'll show them to you if you call."