How the Amendment works

Except for the way it has undermined confidence in Garret FitzGerald the Amendment will not make a big difference. It will just affect things in a small way. These are just. two examples of things which have already happened. There have been others and there will be more.

For the past 15 years Val Mulkerns has been television critic of the Evening Press. Val Mulkerns is a distinguished novelist and short story writer. On February 24 she included the following passage in her column. She was referring to a Today Tonight programme on the Amendment:

"Nobody could have faulted John Bowman's handling of both sides in the studio but one couldn't help feeling that the format was all wrong and indeed very carefully designed by the Pro-Amendment forces within the R TE Authority. Mr Fred O'Donovan knew what he was doing when he brought the chopper down on any popular discussion of the issues involved on the Late Late Show (The People's Forum). The People throughout Ireland are being subjected to ProAmendment pressure inside and immediately outside the Roman Catholic churches. No funds apparently are lacking to bombard them with sectarian propaganda and pseudo-scientific widely-disputed "facts" about the beginnings of life. But a popular comeback on the floor of the Late Late Show was closed to the man and woman in the street well in advance and the hatches firmly battened down by an Authority which is forbidden to express personal bias on any public issue. Calls for Mr Fred O'Donovan's resignation have fallen on deaf ears. His famous statement, "We are talking about murder", left hiin still in control of the RTE Authority despite public calls for his resignation. Were it not for the vigorous efforts of the RTE journalists themselves, operating within their restrictions, a very one-sided view indeed of the proposed Amendment would be presented. "

A few hours after she filed her copy, she had a phone call from the editor. He told her he did not "necessarily disagree" with her point of view, but he would not print her piece. He told her that the attack on the chairman of the RTE Authority was "irrelevant and over the top". Ms Mulkerns argued its relevance but the editor repeated that he would not print it. Ms Mulkerns offered her resignation and it was accepted.

Val Mulkerns is no longer television critic of the Evening Press. This is just one indirect effect of the Amendment.

Siobhan McHugh is a producer in RTE. She was working on the Mike Murphy Show and after a month's stint on Late Date was due to work on the Pat Kenny Show over the summer. She invited Anne Connolly of the Well Woman Centre on the morning programme when Marian Finucane was standing in for Mike Murphy. Anne Connolly did not discuss abortion nor anything like it. She talked about herself and played her choice in music.

Siobhan McHugh was told that she should not have had Anne Connolly on the programme. It was "untimely", she was told, because of the Amendment.

]As a result of having Anne Connolly on the programme, Siobhan McHugh has been told that she will not be working on the Pat Kenny Show during the summer. Instead, she will stay on Late Date for six months.

This is the way the Amendment is going to work. People will learn to be more careful.