Tony Flannery

Will next Friday’s vote bring the debate about abortion to an end in this country? Absolutely not.
Let me make a few predictions:

If the NO vote wins………..
The committed YES campaigners will not give up. We will be bombarded with ‘hard stories’ and lurid descriptions of the ‘sad journey to England’.
Despite the fact that the Taoiseach would probably respond by saying that the people had spoken, and that was it (and, I suspect, breathe a sigh of relief at getting that off the agenda) the campaign to have a re-run of the referendum would begin.

Reflection following the AGM of the Association of Catholic Priests, 2013

The ACP is three years in existence. It is a miracle that it came to be and a further miracle that it has achieved such significance. Destiny was crying out for its emergence. The wheat grew on barren ground from a wizened seed. The great seed sown by Vatican ll was trampled upon with the heavy boot of those who abhorred a fresh growth.

In less than four weeks time we will be faced with a vote to decide if we will keep or repeal the 8th amendment to the Constitution. In 1983 I voted against putting it into the constitution, mainly following the advice of Peter Sunderland. Now I am undecided as to how I will vote this time.

I believe that as an elder male, who was never married, neither myself or any of my siblings having had children, leaving me with no close experience of pregnancy or birth, I am in a particularly unsuitable position to be making any statement on the question before us.