The Late Late Interview From A ‘Yes’ Voter That You Won’t Get To See Again

On Friday night, The Late Late show hosted the first of three debates focusing on the upcoming Eight Amendment referendum in Ireland.

Ryan Tubridy had two guests on from the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ campaigns as well as talking to guests in the audience from both sides also.  

Dr. Peter Boylan, on the ‘Yes’ side and Wendy Grace were both given three minutes at the top of the debate to explain why they were voting and why they believed the Irish public should also vote the same. 

While we got to hear statistics and numbers from the experts on each side of the debate, we also got to hear stories from girls in the audience who had differing views also. 

While RTÉ has uploaded every other piece of content to their social channels from last night’s show, it doesn’t look like they will be providing videos from any aspect of the debate. 

We first heard from a mother from Mayo who’s daughter was diagnosed with a condition that meant her bones wouldn’t grow.

This meant either one of two possibilities, her lungs would be crushed before she makes it to terms or her lungs would fill out but her bones would crush them.

“I got to Liverpool on St Patrick’s Day and they induced me.

“36 hours later Grace arrived, perfectly. She had brown hair, she was perfect. The doctor confirmed the diagnosis.

“I should have been planning to deliver Grace, I shouldn’t have had to be booking flights.

“It shouldn’t be on me, I should have been planning on delivering Grace.

“Spent 12 hours with Grace in Liverpool. A week later she had her funeral.

“We couldn’t afford to go back to the funeral.”

Instead, her and her husband were given a tracking number for their baby’s ashes that were returning home to Ireland. 

“A yes vote would mean Grace could rest in peace and I would have to stop constantly tying to tell her story”.

Her story was then followed by a woman from the ‘No’ side who never dreamt of becoming a mother.

“I was 19 and in my second year of college, I was never maternal and on the 1st of April 2013, I found out I was pregnant.”

She wanted to travel to England for an abortion but after finding out her passport had expired, she ordered abortion pills online that never came.

That proved to be a big influence on her decision. 

“My turning point was when I talked to a colleague about it.

“She brought me for lunch and she told me that although she has a family of her own, all her children are adopted.

“We can not deny the humanity of the unborn child. When abortion was legalised in the UK and US, they did not have the ultrasound technology we have today.

“A No vote would really show that the people of Ireland are telling the government that we can do so much better for our sisters and mothers than the barbaric act of abortion.”

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