WATCH: 'This is our Rising' - Repeal protest finds its voice at pro-choice rally

After a while, we stopped counting and began, instead, to time the endless waves of people who braved the rain, and bus strike, to march in the biggest pro-choice rally the country has seen.

It would take a total of 26.5 minutes for the sodden crowd and all the paraphernalia of protest — banners, real drums, frying-pan drums and loud speakers — to pass, 10 or more abreast, into the northern end of Merrion Square in the city centre.

That might be 20,000 people, as some estimates put it, or it might be more, but whatever the final tally, it proves one thing — the movement to repeal the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution has gathered unprecedented momentum.