Irish Abortion Referendum : six days to go, and as dirty as I predicted.
I have largely tried to avoid the incessant debates and ads, because I was always going to vote Yes to Repeal the 8th Amendment to the Irish Constitution, and I just knew I'd end up with blood pressure from the constant lies and dirt from the Pro-Life crowd.
The numbers were always going to narrow once the Anti-Abortionists were in full flow with their lies and deceptions, but with a week to go there is still a 58-42 lead in the Irish Times poll of a couple of days ago. It will be a close run thing.
https://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.3497939.1526501307!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_620_330/image.jpg
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/irish-times-poll-repeal-has-large-but-reduced-lead-1.3497830
The Yes side retains a clear advantage in the abortion referendum campaign, but its lead has reduced sharply in the last month, the latest Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI opinion poll has found.
Asked how they will vote in the referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment, 44 per cent of voters now say they will vote in favour of the proposal, a decline of three points since the last poll in late April.
The No vote is at 32 per cent, an increase of four points, while 17 per cent are undecided (a decline of three points). Seven per cent said they will not vote or refused to say.
https://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.3498719!/image/image.png_gen/derivatives/landscape_620/image.png
Once the undecideds and those who will not vote are excluded, the Yes side leads by 58 per cent to 42 per cent, with just over a week to go before polling day.
While this shows a decline of 10 points in the Yes lead since late April, those in favour of repeal still command a 16-point lead as the campaign enters its final, decisive stage.
A tightening of the race was expected by all sides as polling day approaches, and pollsters say that process is likely to continue in the days ahead. But while the Yes side lead has been cut, the No side requires a dramatic acceleration of that process if it is to secure a majority on May 25th.
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Some of the sicker posters are
= new reply since forum marked as read
You could say that the last implementation of the 19th century was the 8th Amendment Referendum in 1983. Since then we had the Church scandals of Bishop Eamon Casey, Father Michael Cleary, followed by the Child Sex abuse, Magdalene Laundry and Mother & Baby Home scandals, each of which has hit the Catholic Church hard. As bad as they were, the uncovering of the coverups, and refusal of the Church to accept a true and just financial atonement for what they did...and they are still not accepting. The fall off in Church attendance is directly related to them not facing up to their crimes.
Yes the young people in general have moved on from the Catholic Church, and use them mostly as reference points i.e. the Catholic Church still control 90% of primary schools in the state (5-13 years of age), so there has to be engagement with them for Communion/Confirmation, but they mostly pay lip service to them. That spell of control has been broken in all but the really rural areas. In some ways it's a pity that it came to this, because in small towns/villages where everyone knows each other, the focal points are the local Church, school and GAA club. It's a real community effort. I live in a city but my son goes to what is essentially a country school 10 miles away, where the school is next to the GAA club and across the road from the Church, with the pub a little further beyond. It has been a wonderful experience for him, and I can see the huge benefit in the entire community working together, having lived in cities all my life.
However, if I do go to Mass, the vast majority will be people over 55, followed by young kids (who would have no choice but to go) and a small percentage of those in between.
No, the Anti-campaign has a lot of young, university educated zealots as the public face. I liken them to stormtroopers. They are articulate and I would imagine have spent years on debating teams because their tactics are well honed. Even when they don't have a valid argument or have been caught lying, they usually will turn the debate into a shitfest, which then turns people off listening. One of the most active groups of young Antis is Youth Defence, the well funded (thanks to a lot of American money), Hitler Youth wing of the Catholic Church. I'd say a fair few of them like to give themselves a good ould flailing in private 
. They'd have a lot of 55 years old plus, Holy Joes and Josephines going door to door, those who'd know the parish very well. Another is "The Iona Institute", which isn't big but manage to have inserted themselves as the other side in a lot of debates over the years. They're older people, and work in the same way Tobacco companies have these "independent think-tanks".
