DUBLIN: Leading Irish actors have urged voters in a video posted online Sunday to legalize abortion in the country, as campaigning intensifies ahead of a referendum later this month on the issue.
The black-and-white video features an ensemble of screen stars voicing their opposition to laws making abortion illegal in Ireland unless there is a real and substantial risk to the life of the mother.
Women are free to travel abroad for abortions — and thousands do so every year, mainly to England — but they face 14 years imprisonment if convicted of having an illegal termination on the island.
“In Ireland today,” begins “Game of Thrones” actor Liam Cunningham, “if the woman sitting next to you is pregnant” continues local TV star Peter McDonald, “she does not have full rights over her own body” adds Owen McDonnell, famous for playing a fictional police sergeant on Irish TV.
Staring into the camera, a host of other actors — from Cillian Murphy, lead in the BBC hit show “Peaky Blinders,” to Andrew Scott, star of its “Sherlock” series — continue to deliver short messages in the more than two-minute video.
“Why should anyone but me decide what happens to my own body?” Murphy asks.
It concludes with Oscar-nominated actress Saoirse Ronan’s blunt appeal: “Please, vote yes!”
Irish citizens head to the polls on May 25 to decide whether to alter the eighth amendment of the constitution, which recognizes the equal right to life of the unborn and the mother.
There have already been several referendums related to the issue, the first in 1983 which introduced the amendment after a wide margin voted in favor.
A 1992 ballot approved an update to the constitution stating it did not restrict the freedom to travel to another state for an abortion.
Meanwhile a 2013 change in the law, which was not put to a referendum, allowed for the exemption of mothers whose lives are endangered.
The Catholic Church in Ireland has been voicing its opposition to any change in a series of pastoral letters — and urging voters to watch YouTube videos celebrating life.
“It is wrong to terminate life, human life,” wrote Ray Browne, bishop of County Kerry, in one such letter.
“The right to life of the unborn child is a fundamental right. Abortion is wrong.”
If proponents of change prevail at the ballot, a provision will be added to the Irish constitution allowing for “the regulation of termination of pregnancy.”
“How could a person not but be sad to see such a phrase inserted in our Constitution?” Browne asked.
Leading Irish actors have their say prior to abortion referendum
Leading Irish actors have their say prior to abortion referendum
- Black-and-white video features an ensemble of screen stars voicing their opposition to laws making abortion illegal in Ireland.
- Catholic Church in Ireland has been voicing its opposition to any change, in the law, in a series of pastoral letters.
Russia says captured Ukraine’s Siversk in key eastern region
- The Russian army in Ukraine is “confidently advancing along the entire front,” Putin said
- He said last month his troops were advancing on Siversk, home to around 11,000 residents
MOSCOW: Russia said Thursday its troops had seized full control of Siversk, a Ukrainian city in the eastern Donetsk region where fighting has intensified in recent weeks, though Ukraine denied the key settlement had been lost.
The Russian army has been slowly but steadily grinding through eastern Ukraine and taking ground from outnumbered and outgunned Ukrainian forces, with some of the fiercest battles taking place in Donetsk.
Russia’s military chief of staff, Valery Gerasimov, said Moscow’s forces had captured Siversk in a report to President Vladimir Putin during a televised meeting with army commanders.
The Russian army in Ukraine is “confidently advancing along the entire front,” Putin said, thanking the commanders and soldiers “for their combat work.”
Putin said last month his troops were advancing on Siversk, home to around 11,000 residents before the war, claiming that the Russian offensive was “practically impossible to hold back.”
The Ukrainian army’s eastern command denied Russian claims it had taken Siversk, saying that it “remains under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
“The enemy is trying to infiltrate Siversk in small groups, taking advantage of unfavorable weather conditions but most of these units are being destroyed on the approaches,” it added in a Facebook post.
Siversk is located about 30 kilometers (18 miles) east of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, the last two major cities still under Ukrainian control in the Donbas — an industrial and mining region in Moscow’s sights.
Moscow earlier this month said it had captured Pokrovsk, a former road and rail hub also in Donetsk, but Kyiv claims fighting in the city is still ongoing.
Putin has said that Moscow is ready to fight on to seize the rest of the land it claims in eastern Ukraine if Kyiv does not give it up as part of a peace deal.
Eastern Ukraine has been ravaged since Russia launched its assault in February 2022, with tens of thousands of people killed and millions forced to flee their homes.
