History: 2014

Projects in 2014

Some of the projects in 2014

National Convention for Life

The Convention for Life was held on 12 April 2014 in Dublin Castle. Over 800+ people packed the room to hear inspiring and motivating speakers from Ireland and abroad. First time we livestreamed a conference also, check it out on Youtube!

See the speeches on the Convention's Youtube Channel
Read the speeches and see gallery here
See the Convention website here
We're on Facebook too

Life Award 2014

Professor Eamon O’Dwyer was presented with the Life Award 2014, at the Convention for Life, in recognition of his work and commitment to caring for mothers and babies.

Vote for Life Initiative

Politicians thought the pro-life vote didn't matter - now an amazing 131 election results have proved them wrong. Election 2014 afforded pro-life voters their first opportunity to deliver an electoral message to Fine Gael and Labour since the government legalised abortion last year.

The election results were devastating for both government parties: Fine Gael's vote was down 30%, while Labour's vote fell by more than 60%, a clear rejection of the party and what it stands for.

Those local election results were significant - and impressive. The 'Vote Pro-Life' list, compiled by the Life Institute, excluded all parties which voted in favour of legalising abortion, including Fine Gael and Labour.

Naturally, that restricted the choices considerably, but the list still featured some 200 candidates in total, including Independents, Fianna Fáil, and others. The list was then made widely available by the Life Institute. The good news is that 131 candidates from that list of 200 were elected, meaning that a significant 65% of contenders identified as pro-life took a seat.

The big loser in terms of seats taken by these candidates was Fine Gael, and, in an election where the party was already feeling voter anger about austerity and the Alan Shatter debacle, these were votes they could ill afford to lose. But Fine Gael had lost the pro-life vote when they broke their pro-life promise last year and legalised abortion until birth, against all the medical evidence and despite enormous public protest.

In fact, the need to identify pro-life candidates, in particular at the local level, was driven by the demand from voters right around the country.

Rally for Life 2014

The 8th All Ireland Rally for Life took place on Saturday, 5 July 2014 in Belfast City Centre. 8,000 people marched through Belfast City Centre and heard speeches in Custom House Square. The biggest crowd so far in Belfast!

Gathering support and goodwill for the Baby forgotten in the latest abortion crisis

At the end of August, we heard the news that a tiny baby boy was struggling for life in intensive care in a Dublin hospital. Born at just 25 weeks gestation, he will have spent days gasping for breath and hanging onto life by a thread. He faces a very uncertain future: he may be blind, he may have cerebral palsy or brain damage, but perhaps he'll be lucky and pull through. Being born prematurely is really tough on a baby. But this little boy was born prematurely on purpose - all because of the horrific abortion act brought in by Fine Gael and Labour - which has now been shown to absolutely fail both mother and baby. The abortion act forced a doctor to deliver a baby prematurely and failed a mother who was suicidal.

We held a vigil for Baby Hope who was being ignored by the media and politicians. Almost all of the abortion advocates ranting about the case wished for this baby to be dead.

We set up an online petition, distributed leaflets all over the country, and published an open letter to Enda Kenny.

Regional Meetings

A big thank you to everyone who attended the regional strategy meetings in the month of September. It was such a pleasure to meet with you all again, and the meetings were crucial to sharing ideas, goals, and ambitions, and ensuring everyone has an input into what is required on the road ahead for the Irish pro-life movement.

The message from pro-life politicians who addressed each meeting - Cllr Mary Bohan in the West, Senator Jim Walsh at the Leinster meeting, and Mattie Mc Grath TD in the South - was very positive. They have all been champions for the unborn in their respective roles, particularly during the last two grueling years when, given the absolute intolerance of the pro-abortion lobby and the bias and bullying of the media, it would have been far easier to sit down in silence.

Delivering messages of hope to Department of Health

5,000 get-well wishes and gifts were delivered to Leo Varadkar, Minister for Health, for the baby at the centre of the latest abortion crisis. The baby was delivered prematurely at 26 weeks and was in ICU. An open letter from a premature baby to Taoiseach Enda Kenny is read aloud at the Department of Health.

Read this news piece on the project