Abortion emerges as vital issue in the run-up to Republic of Ireland's general election

ABORTION HAS emerged as the key issue in next Friday’s Irish general election, with bishops urging Catholics to lobby candidates over their stance on the constitution’s pro-life eighth amendment.

Bishop Kevin Doran of Elphin in his pre-election statement said he found it “very difficult to see how any Catholic could, in good conscience, vote for a candidate or a political party whose policy it is to legalise abortion”.

Archbishop Michael Neary of Tuam also highlighted those standing for election who have declared their intention to work to remove this protection for the unborn from the constitution and Irish law.

The Labour Party, the junior coalition party in the outgoing government, has made scrapping the amendment a key demand of any post-election coalition talks. The party has said if it is in government after the vote, it will hold a referendum on the amendment.

However, its coalition ally, Fine Gael, has only said it would like to establish a citizen’s convention to discuss the issue and make recommendations. Fianna Fáil said if the issue arose its MPs would be allowed to vote according to their conscience.

With just a week before the election, polls show the Fine Gael-Labour coalition has a fight on its hands if it is to be re-elected, and it may need a third party to join it, with Fine Gael at 30 per cent, Labour at 8 per cent, Fianna Fáil at 18 per cent, Sinn Féin on 17 per cent and Independents/
Others at 27 per cent.

This week, Archbishop Neary warned that to withdraw the constitutional protection to the right to life of an unborn child that has a life-limiting condition would be “inhumane”.

Bishop Doran urged the faithful to also tackle politicians on the “drastic” reduction in funding to Accord, the Catholic agency for marriage and the family, even though demands for its services continue to increase. He said the next government needs to work to resolve the refugee crisis, the persecution of Christians, and the housing crisis, which was contributing to family breakdown.

Meanwhile the leaders of Ireland’s two main Christian Churches have criticised state plans to commemorate the 1916 Rising, which will make it impossible to access city centre parishes in Dublin on Easter Sunday.

This week, the Church of Ireland Primate, Archbishop Michael Jackson, hit out at the Easter Sunday parade organisers for their lack of consultation with faith communities.

The Church of Ireland has been forced to provide alternative venues for its parishioners after clergy were informed that a traffic cordon will be imposed, shutting down the city centre to all traffic on Easter Sunday. Gardaí have also requested that the front gates of Christ Church Cathedral, where Archbishop Jackson was due to lead Easter services, remain locked for the day.

A spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Dublin said St Mary’s Pro Cathedral is likely to be the only Catholic church affected by the traffic cordon.

The archdiocese is “in discussions with the organisers to try and improve access”, she said.