Handmaid’s Tale author says Eighth Amendment referendum wouldn’t have passed “without the support of men”

Margaret Atwood has said that the referendum on the Eighth Amendment would not have been won "without the support of men."

The Handmaid's Tale author said that issues such as abortions rights need to be back by people who they don't directly affect in order to pass. Speaking on Friday on The Ryan Tubridy Show on RTÉ Radio 1, Atwood said:

"That referendum would not have been won unless a lot of men had voted for it... this particular thing would not have been won without the support of men nor would votes for women... all of those things, you're always in the minority position. "Therefore you need the support of people who are not like you to back you up on it, and that happened this time which was very very interesting to see."

She also added that in the lead-up to Ireland's referendum, "there were some handmaids here." Atwood is in Ireland ahead of her appearance at the Festival of Writing and Ideas in Borris House, County Carlow. The Canadian author, who published The Handmaid's Tale in 1985, also said that she believed "Salem witchcraft" is still in operation due to the language that was used to describe Hillary Clinton in the lead up to the US presidential election two years ago.

"When I saw the enormously seventeenth century vocabulary that was being implied to her by the opponents, I thought OK, all of this Salem witchcraft stuff is still there, because basically those were the kind of nouns and adjectives that were being implied to her... just to be clear 'witch'. "She was very demonised, quite astonishingly."

You can listen to the full interview below.