Greg Daly
Pro-choice campaigners. Fr Ted co-writer Graham Linehan, has defended his “gothic horror” style video which calls for the abolition of Ireland’s constitutional protection for the unborn.
The video, called ‘Chains’, which was released in October 2015, has been strongly criticised in numerous quarters.
Former Taoiseach John Bruton described the video as “totally anti-Christian” and Sunday Independent columnist Eilis O’Hanlon, who herself favours legalised abortion, accused it of peddling “familiar stereotypes” and being “rife with grotesque subliminal clichés”.
The video shows images of graveyards and ruined churches shrouded in mist while ‘spooky’ music plays in the background.
It claims we are chained to our past because of our constitutional ban on abortion.
The video was produced for Amnesty International’s Irish branch and actor Liam Neeson did the voiceover.
Writing in the Sunday Independent last weekend, Linehan defended the video on the grounds that it is Ireland’s ban on abortion that is like something from a “gothic horror”.
Linehan was prompted to make the video after he and his wife were told their unborn baby would not live long after birth but they could not have an abortion in Ireland.
Cora Sherlock of the Pro-Life Campaign said Linehan’s video “represents Ireland in a misleading way. Instead of acknowledging that our medical profession is a world leader in terms of looking after women when pregnant, it wrongly suggests that there is something backward about our pro-life laws.”