Tomorrow’s Referendum
This referendum’s significance for the future trajectory of the country has not been lost on me, or on many fellow campaigners – on both sides. Whether we vote Yes or No, Ireland will change forever.
Many on the Yes side have attempted to present this referendum as being a strike of the people against the system. That if we vote Yes we will be somehow asserting ourselves against some sort of all-powerful beast. Yet this could not be further from the truth.
Over the last few weeks I have had the pleasure of meeting the people canvassing for the No side. They aren’t the caricatured Catholic fundamentalist, women-haters which the Yes side so often paint them as. They are truly salt of the earth, ordinary, decent people. They are deeply committed to the cause of saving lives. Many have made sacrifices, both of their own time and in their relationships with others, due to their fighting for the cause of Life. But it is a noble cause, and their only regret is that they couldn’t do more.
As we come closer and closer to tomorrow’s referendum, I am inclined to reflect upon the good work we have all done and I congratulate the many hundreds of willing volunteers across our great country. I am confident their sacrifices and efforts will not be in vain.
We have truly been engaged in a struggle like no other. As this isn’t merely another election or bread and circuses referendum. This is a referendum on the very survival of our Irish nation. Whether we choose life or death. We are faced by the ‘two roads diverged’ as Robert Frost famously put it. One leads to an Ireland which without doubt will adopt a UK-style abortion regime, one in which the individual is paramount and concepts such as the family or the community are viewed with scorn as being archaic and outdated concepts.
The other available road is one in where we choose life over death. If we follow this road Ireland will strike a blow not only for our own unborn generations, but also for international human rights. A No vote will be a wake-up call to the rest of the world, and will hopefully ignite the spark of a re-evaluation over the terrible realities of abortion. We will have taken a stand against the combined power of the political parties, the media, the government, the so-called elites in Irish society. A No vote will truly have been a revolt of the ordinary people.
A lot of bluster has been made during this referendum about ‘choice’. But the real choice we are faced with now is the one I have outlined above. How we treat the most vulnerable in society is surely the mark of a nation’s worth. The most vulnerable in Ireland today is the unborn child, she frequently has her very humanity discarded and has no voice of her own.
On Friday I will be placing my vote for No. I will be voting to defend human rights. I will be voting against the defeatist and glib view of humanity being espoused by an equally negative government. I will be voting for the national survival of my country. I will be voting for Life.
This article was written by a member of the National Party member who has been canvassing with the Abortion Never campaign.