Today, the No campaign will be left looking at their leaflets, taking down their posters, and reflecting on their decisions with just one thought in mind.
“That didn’t work.”
Days ago, Senator Rónán Mullen went on television before the entire country, listened to a woman describe in the gravest terms her decision to procure an abortion in a foreign land, and told her she deserved love “regardless of what [she’d] done.” That didn’t work.
Abortion Never weighed down poles and lampposts across Ireland with posters that offered no information at all besides slogans like “Babies will die.” That didn’t work.
The No campaign sent mail-out leaflets that looked as though they were from objective sources like the government, or Women’s Aid. That didn’t work.
Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath stormed out of the Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment as it deliberated on which legislative recommendations to put before the government. That didn’t work.
Save The 8th pulled their spokesperson Cora Sherlock from a televised debate at the last minute, later claiming that they did so because the panel didn’t feature a pro-life doctor — even though they were happy to offer Maria Steen as Sherlock’s replacement. That didn’t work.
A group called Sligo for Life erected an enormous No sign on the side of Irish landmark Ben Bulben, and days later did the same in the Dublin mountains. That didn’t work.
A pro-life campaign group in Donegal placed thousands of white crosses along the side of the road. That didn’t work.
Another nameless group put up posters of Minister for Health Simon Harris stood in front of a graphic image of a foetus. That didn’t work.
At the last minute, prominent No voters like Sinn Féin TD Peadar Tóibín claimed that legislation could be introduced in order to allow for abortion in what the No side called “hard cases” — even though previous legislation of that nature has failed specifically because of the Eighth Amendment. That didn’t work.
The Irish Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform held graphic banners showing foetuses outside the National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street, and other maternity hospitals like the Rotunda and the Coombe. That didn’t work.
In the end, none of it worked.
For the second time in three years, the Ireland that international media headlines love to call “Catholic” and “conservative” has emphatically returned a vote that leaves no doubt as to where the nation truly stands when it comes to major social issues.
On May 25, Ireland voted to repeal the Eighth Amendment of Bunreacht na hÉireann, finally allowing for the Oireachtas to make laws that provide for abortion in certain circumstances. The result comes 35 years after the amendment was introduced in a landslide 2-to-1 decision. Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in 1983 anymore.
Ballot boxes across the country show virtually no urban-rural divide when it comes to a majority Yes vote. The across the board nature of the win entirely undermines the belief of some that the Repeal movement was a fantasy of the student-class in cities like Dublin and Galway.
That the grassroots Together for Yes campaign has achieved such a landmark result is one of the most impressive feats in Irish history. From pushing the government into finally calling for the referendum, from ignoring the misguided calls in the mainstream media to temper their message and appeal to the mythical middle-ground, to logistically running a successful political campaign, they have executed a masterclass.
Together for Yes proved that they are far more in tune with the majority of Irish voters on this issue than many paid commentators in the press, and beyond.
In retrospect, some may say that the writing was on the wall when the Yes campaign orchestrated a barely-believable fundraiser that raised half-a-million Euro in a day. But in real time, the Yes side was questioned at every turn, pinned to the mat, criticised for “lack of urgency” — and ended up pulling off a landslide.
On the other hand, there can be little dispute that No voters were sorely let down by their campaigners. The decision made by groups like LoveBoth and Save The 8th to target women and paint them as pantomime villains of the story roundly backfired — perhaps because half of the population is made up of, well, women. Perhaps because since the Eighth Amendment was introduced, 170,000 Irish have been forced out of their own country in order to access healthcare. Perhaps because those 170,000 women have at least 170,000 more people who love them.
Newspaper ads bearing slogans like “Men protect lives — children expect to be protected” evidently fell flat on a population of men who were not about to be tricked out of caring for the women in their lives.
The No side’s combative strategy, aggressive and unyielding, was a betrayal of the name “LoveBoth.” Any voter who truly does love both must have been left mystified by some of the No campaign’s moments — such as the warning that their huge No sign in the Dublin mountains was being guarded by a bull. The final result isn’t public yet, but as of midday on May 26, the No side has already conceded defeat.
After all that the women of Ireland have endured: this is the moment. At long last, the moment to point their fingers in the faces of those who have denied them their rights for so long and say “You lost. You lost because the country doesn’t agree with you. You lost because when the people have all the facts, they want to support us, they want to care for us. It’s not us they want to send away, but it might be you.”
The No campaign made the decision to appeal to Ireland’s sense of fear. Fears of “social abortion” and “abortion on demand” and other terms that simply do not reflect the reality, the nuance, or the sensitivity of the issue. It was a strategy that worked in 1983, in a faded photo of Ireland that many who voted yesterday don’t remember, or weren’t born for. It didn’t work this time. It didn’t work at all.
Ireland was once a state ruled by white collars beneath black shirts. Once ruled by misinformation, by misogyny, and most of all, by dogma. Ireland was once a state ruled by fear. Our wholesale rejection of the claims from the No side emphatically prove that this is no longer the case. Because that didn’t work.
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