Elevated Figures

at

Coverage of Saturday’s Rally for Life in Dublin

Tens of thousands?

Really?

Eddie Barrett tweets:

Ah.

8,310 apparently, was the attendance at #Pro8 March – while @rtenews & @IrishTimes gave it as much more ??? Can we not have balanced #Journalism please on this subject ?

meanwhile….

Saturday afternoon.

Dublin City Centre

Scenes from Saturday’s Rally for Life.


Rollingnews

Sponsored Link

85 thoughts on “Elevated Figures

    1. Pluto

      ? Because it’s the street they were on……..

      The one where they claim to have packed 100,000 people into when in reality it can only take 10,000 or so…

      1. fergalfurious

        Merrion Square South is many times bigger than Hill 16.
        How do the GAA comfortably fit 10,000 people, tunnels, stairs and all in?
        Magic presumably.

        1. Cian

          After a quick shifty on Google I’d estimate that Hill 16 (which includes the quarter circle alongside Cusack) is about half the size of Merrion Square South (full width wall to wall from the edge of the footpath @Merrios Sq West, to the traffic lights at the Merrion Sq East (i.e. not blocking traffic on MSE)
          I’d suggest 3,500 m² Vs 7500m².

          If Hill 16 can contain 10,000; then Merrion Square South could hold 21,500 – at the same density.

          1. Cian

            Hmmm… After posting this I realised that the photo above was Merrion Square West. And that is ~5000 m²… which make about 14,300 people same density as the Hill.

            FYI in Google maps you can use the “measure distance” option to create a line (or set of lines) and it tells you the total line distance and enclosed area (if the start and end point are beside each other)

          2. fergalfurious

            Thanks for the tip. If I ever don’t have access to a drawing program with a histogram feature I’ll consider faffing about drawing lines on Google maps to guesstimate things.
            People at gigs, rallies and the like stand far closer to each other than H&S would allow in a stadium as you may be aware.

          3. Cian

            “People at gigs, rallies and the like stand far closer to each other than H&S would allow in a stadium ”
            Yes – toward the very front. But the further you go back the less dense it gets.

  1. Andrew

    “8,310 apparently, was the attendance at #Pro8 March ”

    Where did that figure come from? Who has verified that?
    I will vote to repeal, however this squabbling over how many attended different marches seems a tad silly.
    Also to complain that the repeal campaign is somehow suffering from biased journalism is really disingenuous. Most of the media and its ‘journalists’ who now see themselves as opinion formers are pro- repeal and that seems very obvious to me.

    1. Weezer

      It matters when figures are conflated by 90%. It matters when people then go and vote with what they think the majority want. It matters when fake figures are in the national papers.

      It’ll matter when someone else is left to die of sepsis during a miscarriage as the foetus still had a heartbeat.

      It just bleedin’ does, ok.

      1. Cian

        if the actual number was 10,000 and they are saying it was 100,000 then they are inflating the numbers by 1,000% – not 90%

          1. Cian

            if there are 10,000 and you say 20,000 then you are doubling the number (increasing by 100%)
            if there are 10,000 and you say 30,000 then you are tripling the number (increasing by 200%)
            if there are 10,000 and you say 40,000 then you are quadrupling the number (increasing by 300%)
            [these left as an exercise for the reader]
            if there are 10,000 and you say 100,000 then you are increasing the number by a factor of 10 (increasing by 1,000%)

    2. Pluto

      Because the ”100,000 people” claim is not true – it’s completely made up that’s why. It is not physically possible to fit 100,000 into the one side of Merrion Sq. that they claim they did.

      All four sides of the Square would have to be filled and to a higher density than they were on Saturday at the anti-choice march.

      Take a look at the Worker’s Solidarity Movement methodology in counting:

      https://twitter.com/WSMIreland/status/972779366311714817

      1. Rob_G

        I am as unlikely to believe the WSM’s oddly-specific 8,310 claim as I am the organisers’ claim of 100,000 people attending.

          1. Brucely

            Yes. Three teams from the Workers Solidarity Movement, working independently of each other, who have videos of their counting and pictures of their counts on line for any and all to view.

            You asked where the figure came from. Now you know. If you choose to disbelieve it because you don’t like the source then that’s your decision but it won’t remove the massive discrepancy between the figure promoted by the organisers, before the march even took place, and that arrived at by people specifically placed to count participants.

    1. Daisy Chainsaw

      Apparently the introduction of the 8th amendment is the only reason any woman has a child these days. No children were born prior to 1983.

  2. Catherine costelloe

    Even if voted in , I believe women will still take the boat or flight to UK. There will be protests outside clinics here if abortions allowed, a never ending cycle.

    1. Pluto

      Just like the Life Institute, the Iona Institute, Youth Defence, Breda O’Brien, John Waters and EVERYONE else who voted against legalizing gay marriage and had a voice in our national newspapers goes to EVERY SINGLE gay marriage taking place today and protests………

  3. francis almond

    Why are these people allowed to have an opinion and worse, voice this opinion?? I thought we stopped this kind of thing years ago.

  4. newsjustin

    I think the squabbling over march numbers is silly.

    The thing we can all agree on is that the pro-life march was way, way bigger than the pro-choice march.

    Let’s just move on from there :-)

    1. Grace

      If you take away all the kids though, and all the religious fundamentalists flown in from the US, that would be a fairer numbers comparison. Where did they find those nuns in the 3rd last pic actually???

    2. Daisy Chainsaw

      “We had more” bit childish to reduce it down to a dick measuring contest. Of course, there were way more dicks at the anti choice march than vags

    3. Rob_G

      The pro-life signs definitely are more numerous and more professionally-produced, I’ll give them that much. I wonder where they get the money from…

  5. Digs

    Whatever the amount , t’was a decent turnout. This is nuanced and complicated referendum. The noise from the poles is masking the interesting conversations in the middle. People may be surprised at the outcome…

    1. Pluto

      A decent turnout including people from Northern Ireland, America etc.. who can’t vote here. Religious fundamentalists carrying statues of the Virgin Mary and Jesus who were flown in….

    2. Well

      The people in the middle are discussing term limits etc

      The people at this march ate extremists.

  6. fergalfurious

    Eddie Barret clearly has his crowdsize estimator set to “Claustrophobics’ Convention”. Look at the dots on the coaches ffs.
    Could you at least do a sanity check, while sober, before repeating obvious rubbish you find on twitter. You’re needlessly making the Repeal Campaign look like desperate clowns.

  7. Junkface

    Its funny how the Religious Right are the worst liars of all! They always lie on their crowd numbers as well as on their signs and placards. They accept money and manipulation of media from the US religious nuts too. They don’t stick to Jesus’s teachings at all, ugh, religion.

    1. well

      It’s all ok though, because the religious right believe that that human rights, good behavior and telling the truth all come from God, then it’s perfectly ok for them to lie and deny others rights in the service of that god..

        1. Neilo

          It can also be a comfort to the afflicted: I’ve been moved to tears at the devotion shown by loved ones in the most desperate pain and need that can be imagined. That said, I don’t like state in my church, or church in my state.

          1. Cian

            My grandmother was a devout (and kind) Christian woman. She was told that her stillborn child (who couldn’t baptised) could not be buried in consecrated ground and never get into heaven (Limbo was suggested).
            Don’t talk to me about ‘comfort to the afflicted’.

            It was a cruel and unusual punishment.

          2. Janet, I ate my Avatar

            while I respect that and the sentiment I believe if one was not indoctrinated young other coping mechanisms would have naturally occurred

  8. dav

    I hope it’s a wake up call to those of us who want repeal. The anti choice brigade are well financed and organised. They will learn from their mistakes made in the marriage equality referendum and are energising their core vote to turn those who might be pro choice but uncomfortable with the 12 week timescale, our use of the term “unrestricted”. This fight could well be lost unless pro-choice get their act together.

    1. Neilo

      There’s campaigning to be done, but Official Ireland is foursquare behind repeal so I’d be genuinely shocked if the status quo were to remain in place.

  9. Sean

    Mother’s day card for next year sorted with that last pic.

    She loves a bit of dark humour so my mammy does.

  10. Ron Dolan

    Anyone who makes a child stand there with a sign thanking their parents for not killing them needs serious help.

    The best people to get the 8th repealed are the ones like Ronan Mullen and Cora Sherlock -they are doing a fantastic job convincing people that most pro-lifers are head cases.

    I know a lot of people with pro life views and the are not nuts, yet RTE and all the rest get Ronan ”Yer man from the inbetweeners” Mullen on as if his brand of mental illness is representative of the ordinary person.

    Mullen isn’t ordinary, he is clearly a deeply distressed person who shows zero empathy with anyone then prays to a figure who is supposed to be possessed of infinite compassion.

    You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried.

    1. Digs

      Excuse me if I’m mistaken, but don’t some on the other side also bring their children to these rallies and occasionally give me them signs or put them in T-shirts? Often the extremes on both sides are as bad as each other,

  11. Daisy Chainsaw

    Antis were bleating the 100k figure in the days leading up to the march. It had to be bigger than last year’s made up figure, so twice the amount of people in the Aviva for the rugby was decided on as the number attending in a space that holds 15k. A health and safety nightmare… Why weren’t 10s of thousands suffocated in the crush?

    All the antichoice side has is lies. Nurse Noel and his certificates, breast cancer, child abuse etc and faked numbers at a march.

    1. newsjustin

      The organisers of the Repeal the 8th march on Thursday night are really to be commended. No such health and safety concerns for them. They planned it really well, allowing lots and lots of empty space between the marchers. Better safe than sorry.

      1. Daisy Chainsaw

        And no need to lie either.

        Why do antichoice need to lie to get spurious points across?

        1. Frill the 8th

          The big fairy in the sky policy and practice
          And then there’s the habit of covering up truths

          They can’t help themselves

  12. Frilly Keane

    naw’ful pity for them that most of those supporters don’t have a vote

    btw, anyone know if John McGuirk’s butty the No Nurse Pattern lad has a vote here

    1. Ron Dolan

      Is John McGuirk really that disturbed that he thinks people do anything but laugh at his (admittedly hilarious) nonsense?

      The guy is an utter legend, he makes Dubya look coherent.

    1. Ron Dolan

      By the time the vote comes around, roughly 5% will probably have passed away and another 55% will still be under 10.

      By the time the 10 year olds are old enough to vote, approximately 75% of them will have left the country for specialist psychiatric services for being forced to hold up signs saying their parents don’t kill them.

      1. Brucely

        That group at the end are an American church that came over especially to campaign. The woman between the two children was interviewed on the news.

  13. david

    So what 1000 10000 1000000 10000000000000000
    The only thing that counts referendum and the ways its handled
    So far its all going to end up in tears
    remember the words used by Hillary about the baskets of deplorables and the yes side are using this strategy of making out any pro lifers are vile evil deplorable backward in thinking and bedevil in principles

Comments are closed.

Sponsored Link
Broadsheet.ie