'The child is the heartbeat of the Church, now and forever, and every heartbeat counts,' said Fodhla from Kells, County Meath, as we stood in Parnell Square, Dublin city centre, waiting for the start of the All Ireland Rally for Life 2017. Actually, the front of the march had already reached the halfway point, but we’d yet to move – and we were far from being at the back.
Garda on the spot were estimating a turnout of 60,000 people even before everyone had arrived. One secular news outlet, in a rare attack of truthfulness, reported the figure 70,000 before ideology kicked in and numbers like 10-20,000 began to fill Ireland’s newspapers and television screens – despite the best final estimate of 80,000!
