Greg Daly
Amnesty Ireland’s push for abortion in Ireland does not reflect the organisation’s historic values and is hurting its traditional role, according to members of the Kells Amnesty International Group.
The group, which was founded in 1986, is to disband today (Thursday) in protest against Amnesty Ireland’s continued campaigning on the abortion issue.
“It seems that the abortion issue has taken over the time and the energy of the Amnesty organisation, to the detriment of the longer established and – as we felt personally – the more highly-motivating issues of anti-death penalty, anti-torture and so on,” group convenor Michael Browne, an Amnesty member since 1983, told The Irish Catholic.
Dr Danny Cusack, who first joined Amnesty in 1977, agreed, telling this newspaper: “There are any number of pro-choice groups out there who can take up the cudgels on the Eighth Amendment campaign – it doesn’t need Amnesty to in a sense be piggybacking on it, let alone leading the charge.”
Challenging the propriety of taking a partisan stand on such a divisive and sensitive domestic issue, Dr Cusack said there was a “basic contradiction” between Amnesty Ireland’s “mission creep” and its limited funds.
“When you read in the paper of Colm O’Gorman or Amnesty Ireland taking a particular stand, the phrase that immediately comes to mind is ‘not in my name’,” he said, “and the group is saying ‘not in our name’.”
