The right to life of the unborn is not just an irrational religious diktat

The Eighth Amendment was never about Catholicism. The Catholic Church did not insert it, the political system did, writes Victoria White.

I turned on the Six One news because of the referendum on Saturday and watched the report compiled by RTÉ’s religious and social affairs correspondent, Joe Little, with my jaw on the floor.

Billed as a look at the “key events which had led to this turnaround” in the nation’s attitudes since the insertion of the Eighth Amendment into the Constitution in 1983 — described as “the brainchild of Catholic lay activists” — it began with grainy footage of elderly people holding graphic anti-abortion posters.