At last week’s conference organised by the LARABII project, Professor David Farrell was interviewed by RÚV about the role of citizens’ assemblies in Ireland’s abortion reforms. Professor Farrell, who is Chair of Politics at University College Dublin, was a keynote speaker at The politics of abortion in Iceland, Ireland & Northern Ireland, the inaugural conference of the LARABII project. The conference took place at the University of Iceland on 18 and 19 May, and featured scholars based in Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Canada, and the US, as well as Iceland-based scholars. Other keynote panellists included: Dr Fiona Bloomer (Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at Ulster University), Þórhildur Sunna Ævarsdóttir (member of the Althing for the Pirate Party), and Ivana Bacik (leader of Ireland’s Labour Party).
In his remarks to the Icelandic state broadcaster, Professor Farrell described the threat posed to women’s lives by the previous abortion law in Ireland, the overwhelming support for change in the 2018 referendum to remove the constitutional ban on abortion in most circumstances, and the role that the Citizens’ Assembly played in shaping the change.
The interview was broadcast during the 19:00 news on Saturday 21 May. You can watch the clip here (in Icelandic, but Professor Farrell’s remarks are in English with Icelandic subtitles).
