Sporting and TV personalities launch campaign urging men to vote ‘Yes’ in abortion referendum

Andy Lee and Gordon D’Arcy were amongst those to lend their support.

A number of well-known sporting and TV personalities have lent their support to a campaign urging men to vote ‘Yes’ in the abortion referendum next month. Former Irish rugby international Gordon D’Arcy, recently retired boxer Andy Lee and current RTÉ football pundit Richie Sadlier were joined by TV personalities Kevin McGahern and Con Murphy to launch the campaign supporting the repeal of the Eighth Amendment in the referendum on 25 May. https://twitter.com/RichieSadlier/status/988708739699134466 https://twitter.com/AndyLeeBoxing/status/988766734663503877 https://twitter.com/Gordonwdarcy/status/988707174670094337 https://twitter.com/ConMurphySport/status/988743727035363328 https://twitter.com/kevinmcgahern/status/988716859422887936 https://twitter.com/Together4yes/status/988696548241494016 Blindboy Boatclub from the Rubberbandits, Hozier and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar are amongst those to have lent their support to the campaign on Twitter on Tuesday. https://twitter.com/Rubberbandits/status/988736178579963906 https://twitter.com/Hozier/status/988763911674650625 https://twitter.com/campaignforleo/status/988744931501133825 The launch of the campaign comes only a few days after manager of the Tyrone football team, Mickey Harte and a number of other GAA figures urged the support of a ‘No’ vote at an event in Dublin at the weekend. https://twitter.com/SaveEighth/status/987959401389658112 The club where it was held, Ballyfermot De La Salle GAA Club, subsequently distanced itself from the event, issuing a statement to clarify that it only became aware of the event on the day it was being held and that it “would be wholly inappropriate for the club to be associated with the launch as the GAA and its clubs do not become involved in political matters”. To that end, the GAA has sent around a letter to county secretaries asking them to distance the association as a whole from talk of the Eighth Amendment debate. A letter was sent to all 32 county secretaries on Monday morning to inform them of the organisations' unbiased statement and keen interest to be excluded from the referendum debate's rhetoric.