WITH just a month to go to the abortion referendum, Irish citizens abroad are being urged to return home to vote on the 25th May.
Irish emigrants are being urged to travel home from all four corners of the world to vote for or against overturning the country’s constitutional ban on abortion in a referendum next month.
If you’re an Irish citizen living abroad you cannot be entered on the Register of Electors. This means that you cannot vote in an election or referendum here in Ireland.
The only exception to the rule is Irish diplomats and their spouses, who are on duty abroad and may cast their vote by post.
Roughly 40,000 of an estimated 750,000 Irish people living abroad are thought to be eligible to vote.
This only applies to those who have been away from Ireland for 18 months or less, and who intend to return to live in Ireland. Those people must register in advance and vote in person.
In London, two opposing groups are making a desperate effort to urge potential voters to take the opportunity to return home and be a part of Irish history, one way or the other.
The London Irish Abortion Rights Campaign adopted the hashtag #HometoVote and created a website to inform people of their rights and encourage them to vote if they are eligible.
The London-Irish ARC released a powerful video encouraging eligible Irish voters to come home and vote yes.
Filmmaker Jamie Hooper, who created the video said: “The video is an exciting and uplifting call to arms for Irish people abroad. We want it to encourage a tide of people back home, united not just by their destination, but by their common goal.”
Award-winning actress Lauryn Canny, 19, will be travelling home from Los Angeles for the referendum.
She said: “My grandmother, knowing how important this subject is to me, organised a whip-around for my flight home. All my family and friends contributed.
“This is the first referendum I’ll have voted in and one that I am extremely passionate about.”
On the other side of the fence, London Irish United For Life is campaigning to keep the Eighth Amendment in the Irish Constitution.
The aim of the group is to demonstrate that the Irish community in the UK includes many people who are pro-life, make known its support for saving the Eighth Amendment, and encourage eligible Irish people to go home to vote No in the upcoming referendum.
The group marched for the first time in the London St Patrick’s Day Parade this year, with 81 people coming together to take the opportunity to campaign for pro-life on the streets of the UK’s capital.
Anne Scanlan from Dublin said that she was “delighted to join ‘London Irish United For Life’ at the St Patrick’s Day parade.
"We were walking to ‘Protect the 8th’ which has saved the lives of thousands of babies and made Ireland one of the safest places in the world to have a baby.
“As an Irish woman living in London, I have seen first-hand the damage caused by abortion so I applaud the efforts of ‘London Irish United For Life’ as they defend the rights of unborn children and their mothers”.
With four weeks to go, an opinion poll conducted by the Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI revealed that a clear majority of the Irish public are in favour of repealing the eighth amendment.
47% of voters said they would vote yes, while 28% said they would vote no, while one in five voters are undecided.
