There is a lot to reflect on from the Repeal The 8th March on Saturday, a crowd of some 40,000 people demanding equality in a peaceful, colourful and good spirited demonstration in the nation’s capital.

However the topic is quite serious and what troubles me is that advocates of the 8th have an unjust advantage in that they seem to very easily manipulate our inherent good nature by implanting falsehoods, claiming the 8th amendment protects children.

So here are five quick pointers from the weekend, which most people on the march would know but that you need to share with your friends in order to overcome the bias of the pro-eighters and their glam rag hate flyers.

1.  The Citizen’s Assembly voted that the issue of abortion should not be dealt with in the constitution but the government have not acted on their independent recommendation to remove the 8th amendment. FF, FG, and SF remain silent on the issue so as not to alienate themselves from voters. This is nothing but cowardly from the largest parties in the state.
2. Ireland has the most repressive abortion laws in Europe. Women or Doctors found aiding an abortion face up to 14 years in prison in Ireland. This is the same sentence women face for having an abortion in Nigeria. This also includes doctors offering medical advice on abortion.
3. Amnesty International called Ireland out for failing to comply with International Human Rights Law. Amnesty’s website carries the following message for Ireland: ‘Women and girls must also have access to abortion on the minimum grounds set out under international human rights law for the duration of their pregnancies. Therefore, they should have access to safe and legal abortion when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, when the pregnancy poses a risk to the woman’s health or following a severe or fatal foetal impairment diagnosis. Abortion ‘on request’ should be available without limits for adolescent girls, guaranteeing their best interests, and ensuring in law and practice that their views are always heard and respected in abortion decisions.’
4. Every day, between 10 and 12 women and girls living in Ireland travel to England for an abortion. The majority of the women are aged between 20 and 34. The 8th amendment does not stop abortions from happening; it just prevents Irish people from accessing medical advice and procedures in Ireland. The 8th amendment also discriminates against asylum seekers and people trapped in Direct Provision who cannot travel for medical procedures.
5. People who want to have children will have children. Irish people are not gendercide monsters who want to terminate all ginger fetuses, not all teenage pregnancies are unwanted babies, access to abortion does not mean we have mass graves of unknown human beings – that was the Catholic Church’s method of dealing with the Tuam babies. We must trust people with their choices. We must show the courage to act now when our government has failed us. 

Act now and demand a referendum to repeal the unlawful 8th amendment, we must ensure it is fully removed from our constitution. 

This week the Vatican ordered the arrest of an Italian journalist by the name of Gianluigi Nuzzi for obtaining secret state documents. The Vatican have accused Nuzzi of trying to reap financial gain from publishing hidden information and Vatican secrets in his new book ‘Merchants in the Temple'.

It’s always concerning when we see someone being persecuted for speaking out against a government or for exposing unpleasant truths about the institutions which have helped formulate western culture, but Gianluigi Nuzzi has taken that brave step and in doing so has become the Vatican State’s Edward Snowden.

Nuzzi’s aim is to expose the corruption within the Vatican and in particular within the Vatican bank. One of Nuzzi’s claims is that the Vatican have misappropriated funds gathered from church collections, in particular a worldwide collection called ‘Peter’s Pence’.

Peter’s Pence is collected in churches all over the world, and it totals about €60 million annually.
Nuzzi claims that in the last few years sixty per cent of the donations have been used to pay off bad debts accrued by the Vatican and its council.

Nuzzi also claims that the Vatican bank have in their possession hundreds of thousands of Euro held in the names of dead Popes, with no explanation as to the purpose of these funds or as to who manages these accounts. Nuzzi elaborates that in the Vatican bank there exists many hidden people with useable interests. He claims to have possession of reports which identify the existence of accounts of ‘lay people’ who have nothing to do with the Vatican, these accounts are worth millions of Euros according to Nuzzi.

The Vatican continues to be rocked by scandals over the last few years but blind faith has prevented a backlash which would cause the collapse of any other government in the western world. If Nuzzi’s claims are true it would mean that an institute we trust to carry out the good will of fellow man holds no integrity in its mission to help the poor. I think it’s about time we demanded full transparency as to exactly what’s going on within the Vatican bank and stop allowing corrupt organisation to continue stealing money out of the pockets of people who are acting in good will.
​
"And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves." Matthew 21:12-13