Following a week in which tens of thousands marched in Dublin calling for the Eighth Amendment to be repealed, and where Mr Barry wore a ‘Repeal’ jumper in the Dail, his office was tagged with large yellow lettering reading “BABY KILLER OUT!”
![Deputy Mick Barry's office in Blackpool was spray-painted last night.]()
Deputy Mick Barry’s office in Blackpool was spray-painted last night.
Earlier this week, Mr Barry had come under fire from a number of constituents who claimed that they were not aware of his pro-choice stance before they elected him to the Dail in February. However, Mr Barry said that repealing the Eighth Amendment is a priority for his party, and has been his goal for more than 30 years.
“I was involved in fighting the insertion of the amendment 33 years ago.”
“I’ve stated my support for a repeal of the Eighth Amendment on countless occasions down through the years. The first leaflet that the AAA distributed around the constituency during the election called for a woman’s right to choose and it specifically stated our support for access to abortion services,” he said. He said that he will continue to fight for a referendum as “there isn’t a woman in the country of child-bearing age that had a say on the matter back in 1983.”
Graffiti which was spray-painted on the front of Anti-Austerity Alliance (AAA) T.D. Mick Barry’s Blackpool constituency office in Cork. Video by Denis Minihane.
Mr Barry said that he was not surprised by the graffiti, but that it would be upsetting for any woman in his constituency that had an abortion. “I’ve been an activist for 35 years. I know that there are fanatics on the anti-abortion side. It doesn’t shock me, it doesn’t faze me.
“It’s particularly upsetting for women who have had abortions, and, at the end of the day, that kind of action is aimed at fostering an atmosphere of fear and silence, but we’re not going to be influenced by that kind of activity,” he said.
CCTV footage from a nearby church showed one person, whose face was obscured by a hood, painting the words at 9.50pm on Wednesday night.
The Gardaí were called and the graffiti was being painted over yesterday.
