Sir, – Last Saturday the pro-life movement in Ireland held its annual Rally for Life march in Dublin, which was attended by 70,000 people. Opposing this rally, the pro-choice movement organised a counter-protest at the Spire in Dublin. In Galway, the local pro-choice movement organised a similar protest, which started out at Eyre Square and ended up at at the Galway Sea Fest at the docks. About 20 very vocal participants chanting slogans took up position alongside the Celtic Explorer ship, where many families with young children were queueing up for free guided tours of the vessel.
Why do pro-choice groups feel the need to organise counter-protests on the same day as pro-life protests? Another example of this is the protest pro-choice activists held inside the RDS in Dublin that disrupted the annual pro-life meeting at the venue a couple of years ago. Do they believe that whoever shouts the loudest and is most disruptive will get their own way? Their loud and offensive protest at the family-friendly Sea Fest in Galway was disgraceful. These tactics may have won them the right to have a referendum on abortion rights next year but people will not be bullied, and the majority of Irish people will reject at the ballot box their proposals for abortion on demand in this country. – Yours, etc,
TOMMY RODDY,
Salthill, Galway.