Eighth Wonder Of The World

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cthl_jfxyaqtnkwParis, France

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Berlin, Germany

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London, England

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Dublin, Ireland

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Glasgow, Scotland

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The Hague, Netherlands

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Brussels, Belgium

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Kathmandu, Nepal

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Wellington, New Zealand

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Cork, Ireland

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Montreal, Canada

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Lisbon, Portugal

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Dublin, Ireland

Today.

Demonstrations around the world calling for a repeal of the Eighth Amendment to the constitution banning abortion in Ireland.

More as we get it.

Pics: Mark Malone, Rise and Repeal Paris, Hudson Taylor, Brian McDonald, Nathalie Sebbane, Liadan O’Connor, Meabh, Tricia Kehoe, Stoolio Iglesias) and Repeal 8th Global

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168 thoughts on “Eighth Wonder Of The World

  1. human

    I’m 100% behind repealing the 8th but these feminist activists make it sound like its the same as popping down the shops for bread and milk, ‘Free’ abortion should be a last resort.

  2. Custo

    There’s always one flute with a funny banner no matter what the cause.

    Ha ha ha CAREFUL NOW ha ha ha DOWN WITH THIS SORT OF THING ha ha

    urgh.

    1. pedeyw

      I dunno, I don’t find them especially funny but there’s nothing worse than a load of Po faced socialists, and that’s coming from a socialist.

        1. AssPants

          Yep…. that is women for you just going around killing children, old people, puppies, and cute little chipmunks. Never trust them with their own bodies; sure they might go and get the help and support they need….

          No flipp’n way should they be allowed to think for themselves and their own and their family’s needs…. Sure isn’t that what the Catholic Church is for…. The church is right, women will be going to Tesco’s for their shopping and popping into the abortion clinic after a frisky weekend and emptying their wombs. (as if they were going to the bottle bank)

          (all with tongue in cheek)

          f*&ki$g plonkers……

    1. Junkface

      I was there at the Dublin march. People did not look so angry, it was very a peaceful protest, and everyone was quite polite.

          1. MoyestWithExcitement

            In fairness, you don’t. Although you might have severe difficulties processing human emotions and genuinely did think all those smiling people looked angry. That isn’t actually that far fetched. Social conservative ideology comes from people with emotional problems.

      1. Sheik Yahbouti

        On the button, Mike. They’ve got plenty to be angry about – but seem to remain good humoured. If I was them I would object to publicity seeking Zappone leeching off them – but I suppose all support is welcome.

  3. Guess Who

    And meanwhile, social apartheid continues unabated in Ireland with generations of families being excluded from opportunity and influence and systemically oppressed by aggressive centre-right political parties and their willing partners in media and justice.

    But that’s not a sexy topic for middle class earnest righteous 20/30 somethings led by Mullally and her cohorts.

    Nah, let’s stick to things like personal rights issues and the tiny tiny tiny minority of transgender, non-binary, gender fluid people. Because that fulfills our requirement to be radical and socially aware, right?

    But it’s really just a cop out.

    100s of thousands of kids will continue to grow up being called scumbags and knackers and discouraged by every part of the state they are citizens of and told that they are no good, not even for a menial job.

    1. Mourinho

      I can see where you’re coming from.

      General elections are not as binary but are arguably far more important.

    2. Sheik Yahbouti

      I echo realpolithick’s comment. More whataboutery – the scourge of any legitimate protest in this country.

    3. LiamZero

      And meanwhile you’re sitting there writing that comment on Broadsheet when instead you could be out doing something about trying to end that apartheid. Where the hell are your priorities?

    4. Starina

      well, you know, lack of reproductive care is a tool of oppression against the impoverished. working class women would have more of a chance of pulling themselves out of poverty or finishing their education if they had safe, affordable access to abortions rather than being saddled with an unwanted pregnancy.

        1. DeSelby

          Where did you conjure up the number 3000? I’d expect nothing more from a very dishonest so-called “pro-life” movement.

    5. Daisy Chainsaw

      So stop saying that to them and rather than sitting on your bumhole whining on a website, go and help these 100s of thousands of kids.

    6. Bingo

      “But that’s not a sexy topic for middle class earnest righteous 20/30 somethings led by Mullally and her cohorts.”

      Yeah, abortion is reallllyyyyy sexy….

      But I agree with some of your points.
      I’m “pro-choice” but the “middle class earnest righteous 20/30 somethings” wearing jumpers around the middle class areas of D4/D6 ain’t as effective as wearing them outside Mass in some rural town.

      Some of the activists are really just preaching to the converted.
      I bet if this goes to a vote, we won’t see the same as the Equality referendum.

    7. Davros

      Not even joking, if we had abortion (like any sensible country that doesn’t let it’s morality be defined by kid fiddling wizards who very literally get tax emotions for their spell casting) there would be many less of the knackers and scumbags you care so much about. Unplanned pregnancies tend to be more prevalent in lower income brackets (tonnes of econ data for this) and having more control over their lives/careers/ choices may break the cycle of knackers on. Saying that can’t because there are birth control things is like not putting out a house on fire because you could have bought a smoke alarm and now you have to sit in a smoldering wreck for 20 years because precious spark of fire is a gift from God and who are we to interfere?

    8. Clampers Outside!

      “100s of thousands of kids will continue to grow up being called scumbags and knackers and discouraged by every part of the state they are citizens of and told that they are no good, not even for a menial job.”

      In fairness, abortion will lead to fewer single parent homes…. and if you look at the USA and UK, all crime stats show that if you have a large number of single parent households, crime goes up, a smaller number, crime goes down…. the effects take decades but the stats are there.

      It’s a benefit of abortion I welcome, many don’t mention this positive though – http://freakonomics.com/2005/05/15/abortion-and-crime-who-should-you-believe/ (there are other links, but this one gives the argument for and against quite well)

      1. :-Joe

        Ye, I’ve mentioned that before a few times…

        The clown mayor of New York Rudi Giuliani was incorrectly credited and still selfishly takes the credit for cleaning up NYC streets after peak levels of crime year on year for two decades.

        Although, in reality what really happened was that the stark reduction came from the effects of changing the laws to allow abortion to be legal and more easily accessible twenty years previously.

        The writers of “Freakonomics”, talk about that study from their book quite a bit as an example of cause and effect over medium to long-term time periods that often go unnoticed or misunderstood.

        It’ll be a good day when we have abortion clinics in every county or at least all the hospitals.
        It’s what we need if we care about equality, society and justice for Irish citizens.

        Down with NIMBY-ism!….

        :-J

    1. Darren Keane

      Cork sent a lot of buses of people to Dublin to join in on the march up there, hence the low turnout.

    1. Sheik Yahbouti

      Well done to the protesters, in less than ideal weather conditions. Repeal the 8th. Do NOT replace it with some other hideous fudge. Legislators just for once, do the job you were elected to do. It has never caused any of you to lose a night’s sleep when forcing through laws detrimental to your captive citizenry. The agonising only comes from legislation beneficial to a large section of the community. For once have the guts to do the right thing – then we can all move on. (PS Free bar and plenty of women to grope in de chamber – what more could yiz want?)

      1. newsjustin

        “…have the guts to do the right thing.”

        But widening access to abortion isn’t the right thing.

        1. Nigel

          I get that you don’t support abortion. i just don’t get why you’d support the 8th amendment, It’s an utterly dysfunctional piece of legislation that has caused enormous damage and national embarrassment and personal agony.

          1. newsjustin

            I don’t think it is. On the whole it balances the right to life of woman and their unborn babies rather well.

            Perhaps in an ideal world it wouldnt be needed. But please don’t try and tell me that most people who marched today don’t want abortion available, at any stage of pregnancy, for any reason.

          2. Nigel

            You can’t possibly look at the history of abortion in Ireland and possibly think that, not unless you actually think that the balance that needs to be struck has to undervalue women’s lives by a considerable extent.

            What the women marching today is irrelevant as to whether the 8th amendment is inhumane or not. It’s been demonstrated as such time and again. It’s people who dismiss the suffering inflicted on women as part of ‘striking a good balance’ that have lead to this movement of repeal, from people who oppose abortion except in cases of rape pr FFA or other risks to the mother, to people who want abortion on demand.

        2. MoyestWithExcitement

          “But widening access to abortion isn’t the right thing”

          It very much is the right thing. Women’s rights. Clue is in the name. History won’t, and never does, records the religious oppression you and your church bring in a good light.

          1. newsjustin

            “Religious oppression”?

            The big bad church won’t affirm my desire to abort humans. What oppression.

          2. Bob

            “The big bad church” as if it wasn’t an organisation that ran forced labour camps for women and protected pedophiles at every turn rather children. The 8th was the church’s was of reinforcing its inherent misogyny on Irish society.

            Always remember – every current priest accepted the leadership of men that prioritised the protection rapists over protecting children. They should not be believed, trusted or presumed to have anything resembling morality.

          3. MoyestWithExcitement

            Nobody is aborting humans. A clump of cells, invisible to the naked eye, with no consciousness is not a human. You and your church want to force your personal opinion that the lump of cells is a human on everyone else and keep women as walking incubators. You will lose. You and your church will be on the wrong side of history as religious oppressors always are.

          4. ceo

            “a clump of cells invisible to the naked eye”… I support choice but shit like, abortion is usually carried out up to 24 weeks. A fetus is far from a clump of cells well before that point. Treat it with the gravity it deserves.

          5. newsjustin

            It’s a question of human rights Moyest. You can’t try to deny rights to humans because they haven’t emerged from the womb. It’s arbitrary nonsense.

            Just like pro slavery, pro death penalty, pro war, pro euthanasia sentiment, the desire to abort the unborn will pass too.

          6. MoyestWithExcitement

            “You can’t try to deny rights to humans because they haven’t emerged from the womb. It’s arbitrary nonsense.”

            Good thing nobody is doing that, so. Again, that a clump of cells with no consciousness is a human is merely your personal opinion and not rooted in fact, an opinion you use to force people to adhere to your standards. That is coming to an end. The people are finally standing up to the bullying and oppression and hatred of women that you and your church inflict on us all. You and your church will be remembered on the wrong side of history, just like you were with science, slavery and homophobia.

          1. Daisy Chainsaw

            Ireland doesn’t do best practice when it interferes with makey uppy sky fairy stuff. Better to let women die than offend an invisible non-existent entity

          2. newsjustin

            Don’t bring religion into it. It’s humanism 101 to not kill one’s offspring or, indeed, other human life.

          3. Sirtuffyknight

            But it’s already happening, whether you like it or not. 11 Irish women a day. How do you reconcile that with your ‘moral’ stance? You need to grow up and accept this fact. The people who make this difficult decision shouldn’t have to ship themselves off to the mainland to save your blushes.

          4. Don Pidgeoni

            Ah well news, there goes your argument for schools in Ireland. Just don’t bring religion into it, get gone then church. Oh and pay what you owe victims of abuse on the way out.

          5. newsjustin

            It’s not about blushes sirtuffyknight. It’s about how it’s a really bad thing to end the life of a human being.

    2. Don Pidgeoni

      Amazing! Good work to all who went and those who organised. Keep it to. Fantastic to see international support too.

  4. Zuppy International

    Abortion Huggers: All of the choice, none of the responsibility.

    #BabiesAreEvil
    #AbortThemAll

  5. Loquacious

    The difference between these marches and the pro-birth (there is no point in calling the other side ‘pro-life’ given the way they demonise so many people) side is that they don’t have to shove the token young people to the front to pretend that history will be on their side.

          1. LW

            forfecksake covered that with anti-choice / pro-choice. Which is the correct dichotomy, one side doesn’t women to be able choose for themselves, one side does want women to be able to choose. Neither side are anti-birth

  6. Frank

    For fecks sake, we were the only one that got pissed on for the whole march. Well I guess it wouldn’t be a protest down o connell st. without someone nearly taking you eye out with an umbrella.

    1. Bob

      Just because something is growing in someone else’s womb doesn’t give you the right to dictate their choices.

        1. Bob

          And that’s beside the fact that Eamon shouldn’t be the one to decide what a woman he doesn’t know, does with her body.

    2. Daisy Chainsaw

      “Just because something is growing in your womb doesn’t give you the right to kill it”

      Really Eamonn? Not even tumours? Howabout something less serious like a polyp, or a nondescript growth? Do we have your permission to remove them, or do you just hate women enough to let them die because you don’t want them removing something growing in their womb?

  7. some old queen

    I am uneasy with abortion. Mainly because I don’t understand it so my default reaction is based on emotive religious conditioning.

    Please explain the science to me.

    Please use a language men like me understand, me who would need a woman body manual on hand with hot spots marked out in advance.

    1. Sheik Yahbouti

      I think you are toying with us now, some old. This really is not a subject for intellectual jousting and Smart Alecry. It is, on your own admission, something that doesn’t affect you. Disappointed.

        1. Sheik Yahbouti

          No, there is only one Sheik Yahbouti. Impostors hanging out in the USA don’t count ;-) Choose another handle.

      1. some old queen

        Thank you Lorcan. I suppose my point is that while activism and protest is important, the actual reason why this change is needed should be spelled out too.

      1. martco

        argue her point please instead of asking a question….if that’s not too inconvenient (or impossible) for you

  8. gorugeen

    Many a campaign could learn a thing or two from this one. 10 outta 10 guys, excellent organizational skill and presence.

    1. Lorcan Nagle

      That really means a lot. We’ve been working on the march since the spring and it’s all about the people who come out and support us on days like today. I had so many great conversations with people about what we do and why we do it at the march.

      And it needs to be noted that everyone at ARC is a volunteer. Nobody gets a single cent and everything we get in terms of fundraising goes into logistics for the march, paying our rent, sending lobbyists to the EU and UN, and providing training for activists around the country. And the vast majority of that budget comes from people buying our merchandise or donating their time to the Worker’s Beer Company. No George Soros billions here.

      1. newsjustin

        Wait, so the media reports were wrong?? George Soros or his associated foundations hasn’t donated money to ARC?

      2. Daisy Chainsaw

        Lorcan, you and your ARC colleagues should be proud. It was a brilliant day and not even the weather could stop the thousands of us turning out.

  9. Turgenev

    I was there. I waited in Parnell Square and watched – noticed others doing the same – to see how big the march was. It took 55 minutes – just short of an hour – for the whole march to pass. Most of the people marching were young, in their 20s or 30s. A huge number had bought and were wearing Repeal T-shirts or sweatshirts. Some were shouting slogans, most were just walking quietly along. They’d brought their children and their dogs and their bikes. The procession streamed out along O’Connell Street and along the quays, and up to Merrion Square, good-humoured and mutually considerate. There were hardly any gardaí; it must have been obvious that this was a group that needed minimal policing. A single ambulance was at the rear, in case someone in such a huge crowd needed help.
    No matter how passionately you feel about this, in the end it’s a question for an individual young woman to decide. She’s the one who will have to bring up a child if she decides to bring her pregnancy to term and have a baby. She should be the one to make the decision about whether she can take this on or not.

    1. Frunobulax

      Thanks for that Turgenev. And kudos to Lorcan for putting in the hard effort to organise feet on the ground to fight such a mess of a legislation. The moral or legal opposers above on the thread defy rational thinking. They must be from of, choose one or all; passive aggressive anachronistic old lads (hetro, homo or androgynous), misogynistic delinquents with little care of how a progressive society might work for them and a ‘different’ other, or any desire to support the impacted, rather scorn and sneer from afar. And the lazy Catholic religious institutionalised who use words like ‘I think’ when that is the last thing they actually do regards issues that do not directly affect them. You’re sick puppies boys, trolling or not, so repent before it’s too late. Or just vote to repeal the 8th for those who need it most and let the goodwill toward others shine.

      1. some old queen

        I don’t think you will find many of us gay men who are in favor of keeping the 8th and while it is first and foremost a woman’s choice, there are plenty of women who are pro 8th too.

        It would be interesting to see within the various demographics if there actually is a M/F divide however. I would expect more generational than gender myself.

        1. Frunobulax

          You’re most probably right. And let’s hope sizable generational exceptions occur too. My grandmother is 94 and she’d vote for that choice for others yet never would have undergone it herself. Most on here are preaching to the choir too, which if BS is a bell-weather of Irish society… probably not as half us don’t live there now.

          What’s odd is for men, women, young, old, of any persuasion in the Irish bi-cameral democracy (and our small cohort of posters here) opposing choice and inclusiveness in favour of exclusivity and dominion over a significant percentage of citizens.

          Enough testimony is seen in similar systems to its benefit, service and societal value. I speak about full abortion rights. I live in such a country. Seems mature to me that its not an emotive hot topic. It doesn’t impinge the rights of the opponent at all where their reasons to oppose are multiple. In Ireland such a repressive view in a progressive society must heavily stem from old dogma, bigotry and nimby-ism.

    2. Clampers Outside!

      “She’s the one who will have to bring up a child if she decides to bring her pregnancy to term and have a baby.” Hopefully she makes the decision to keep, if that’s her choice, and hopefully she consulted with her partner too.

      And if choosing to raise the kid alone, hopefully she’s going to be good at it, and not be totally reliant on the state, as raising kids in single parent household by choice is not good for society on the whole.

      1. Clampers Outside!

        Before the crazees attack….. yes, some single parents do well and everything works out. They are not the norms and suggesting they are means gambling with children’s well being for the sake of a few breakthrough kids.

  10. Zuppy International

    More censorship from the Broadsheet hipsters.

    Apparently any combination of the words [redacted] and [redacted] will trigger the memory hole bot.

    Cognitive dissonance is essential to convince the millennial-mothers-to-be that they can [redacted] their [redacted] without consequence.

    Truth hurts. It must not be allowed.

      1. Zuppy International

        I wrote [redacted]. To make the point about broadsheet’s censorship.

        As Orwell wrote “In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” and apparently too much for the millennial [redacted] [redacted].

        1. Bob

          Or you’re jusy really bad at posting and blame the site for it. Many other anti-choice fanatics don’t have the same problem.

    1. Nigel

      Zuppy, the new High Priest thundering from his pulpit blames low attendance on the attention span of the congregation.

  11. Rigobert

    We need abortion now so in twenty years we’ll have fewer twenty-year-olds pontificating to us about morality.

  12. Guy Bague

    Nobody gives a poo about these Generation Snowflake whingers and their trigger warnings and intellectual safe spaces. Until they’re capable to accepting others have a right to alternative views they should be consigned to the safe space of their own infantilism.

    1. Clampers Outside!

      There’s nothing ‘intellectual’ about ‘Safe Spaces’… in fact many have argued, from the point of Safe Spaces on campuses is it’s ani-intellectual with regard to academia – https://feltd.wordpress.com/2015/11/09/does-campus-safe-space-produce-coddled-anti-intellectual-students/

      On top of that ‘Safe Spaces’ works to benefit feminism’s drive (intentional or not) to infantalise students and create persons with a ‘victimhood’ complex rather than encouraging the students to deal with the trauma and gain a full recovery from it. Feminism is a social science, yet it is acting like a shrink.
      And with regard to trauma…. asking feminism, is a bit like asking a nightclub sanitary engineer (toilet cleaner) how one would fix Irish Water.

    1. Caroline™

      They go to great lengths to demonstrate that using the phrase “Repeal the 8th” is basically as fascist as 20 Holocausts because it’s using a word to hide its real intent… then they unveil their own slogan… “Save the 8th!” Which, as they have just explained, is as fascist as 20 Holocausts.

      Genius.

  13. Guess Who

    People think abortion would reduce the numbers of unwanted babies among working class. The truth is the number of unwanted pregnancies has dropped dramatically among working class.

    What people like to ignore is that almost as many middle class women have unwanted pregnancies but they have the money to go to the UK for an abortion. I know a few professional women who have had abortions, one of whom had three.

    So they needn’t be so judgmental towards their hairdresser Jacinta for having two kids out of wedlock.

  14. Murtles

    If there was a referendum tomorrow to Repeal the 8th, I think it would fail due to the demographics of voters in this country. Apathy amongst young voters is the reason why the same shysters in Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are getting re-elected. Having said that, it was younger voters that swayed the marriage equality vote so maybe, MAYBE, it could happen again in this case. I fear that a majority of the 80,000 newly registered voters for that equality vote did not exercise their right in the General Elections but again the Governments insistence to hold election on a Friday, which I think is to deliberately stifle the student vote, could have a hand in that.

    1. :-Joe

      Not everyone in government is against it and most of the career politicians don’t really care about abortion being legal or not.

      As usual, the establishment just cares about appeasing the religious right wing voters and sorry folks, all of their other idiot supporters who are living in the dark ages or haven’t read the memo from the sum total of knowledge, logic and human understanding…. As long as they are seen to be against it and look good then business as usual.

      I think we’ll all be surprised how many people will make a show to get it passed, over and done with so we can move on like any other modern society.

      :-J

  15. :-Joe

    I just want to say how cool it is to see all these people making an effort around the world. Well done folks.

    We’ve already seen the abortion debate play out in Europe, the US and many other countries over fity and more years. People would do well to look into it more and look at the facts and results along with all the moral, ethical and philosophical issues from other people’s point of view along with and not just exclusively from their own situation.

    I think the idea of anyone involved in having an abortion is terrible and I wish it didn’t have to happen but I also wish people having to clean city sewers and filthy pipes for a living didn’t have to happen either. It has to be done so at what point does reality kick in for some people?…

    The Pro-lifers can give it all you want and good luck to you… but you’re just on a power trip under another bloody stupid term for regressive, selfish, ignorance and NIMBY-ism.

    Abortion needs to be legalised and implemented asap so we can take responsibility for our own problems or mistakes. Y’know?.. Like adults are supposed to do….

    We can always repeal the repeal if it doesn’t work out… I think it’s called democracy or something.
    Translation for Pro-Lifer’s : Yes, I mean we should be able to kill what you call unborn babies for a while and then stop it and do a u-turn if we change our mind later.

    Cue the hail of abuse and long term vengence…. thanks be to dog, eamonn.

    :-J

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