Observations from Dublin’s pro-life march
I could write an endless amount, but I’ll just stick to the redoubt of the poorly-expressed, the bullet point.
- I was shocked by the sheer number of buses dotting Dublin used to transport pro-lifers to the march. Shocking yet unsurprising given the national call to action.
- I was similarly shocked by the aggression shown by the pro-lifers towards the pro-choice counter-demonstration (and the ensuing garda antagonism against the pro-choice side). I saw people attempting to strike people holding signs and to tear the signs from their hands.
- The average age of pro-lifer was 50 or so.
- Seeing children trotted out as props in a protest turned my stomach.
- Seeing those same children crying as they marched doubly so.
- I was filmed more in that hour than I have been in the last few years. I’m not entirely sure what the intended outcome of this was, but one of the pro-lifers I attempted to question said that she was “not afraid” of me. Maybe this was because her camera had verified that I was not a vampire. There is a chance that they plan on telling my mammy about my misdeeds.
- If I was actually a child of the night, I would have been melted in an instant by the literal hundreds of crosses pointed at me by various shades of marcher.
- The description of the pro-life protest as being an acid house protest made me smile. Extra kudos go to the chap who changed one of their signs to say “I’M PRO-ACID”
- I was called “murderer”, “scum”, a “nazi”, “filth”, “heretic” and a “fascist”. Quite exhausting as regards accomplishment really.
- Most bizarre protestor award is a tie between the “VEGAN AGAINST ABORTION” who held a sign reading “NAZI SCUM”, clad in an Israeli flag who smiled back when we looked at him in bewilderment and the well dressed man who held a crudely scribbled sign reading “NO TO SODOMITES, NO TO NORRIS, NO TO ABORTION”.
All in all, a cracking way to spend an afternoon.