Nozzferrahhtoo
19th March 2010, 05:23 PM
In the last 24 hours a pressure campaign against venues planning to host the Exit International (Assisted Suicide) workshops succeeded in having those venues cancel the meetings.
The last of these venues had promised that nothing would cause the cancellation of the meeting, but the sheer pressure of protests changed this and they cited the sheer volume of the anti meeting pressure as their reasons (though the venue before that gave no reasons at all).
Thankfully Atheist Ireland (http://www.atheist.ie) protected free speech and stepped up with an appeal for a venue. The Irish Times reported on This Today (http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0319/1224266597246.html) and the Press Release below has been released by Exit International.
Regardless of whether you agree with Exit International or not, it is wonderful to see that the pressure of ANY group in their attempts to silence another's right to air their views with a campaign of intimidation has failed utterly. Well done all involved and well done Atheist Ireland who have protected free speech in Ireland a second time this week, after earlier this week causing Dermot Ahern to fold on the Blasphemy law, citing as he did the "incredibly sophisticated campaign [against me], mainly on the internet.” (http://www.atheist.ie/2010/03/ahern-proposes-referendum-on-blasphemy-this-autumn/)
Of course anyone can support Atheist Ireland by Joining Up (http://www.atheist.ie/information/join/), using their forum, or even financially by using the PayPal options to either join Atheist Ireland formally or engage in once off or ongoing donations.
Dublin Exit Meeting to Go Ahead
After third and then fourth venues - the Macro Building and the Carmichael Centre - buckled under church pressure and cancelled bookings, almost preventing the planned meeting of the Australian, pro-choice voluntary euthanasia group Exit International to go ahead, the organisation's director, Dr Philip Nitschke, announced that the meeting would go ahead at independent Seomra Spraoi (http://www.seomraspraoi.org:8080/Plone).
"In the space of 5 hours today, we had no fewer than 2 venues (4 in total) cancel our bookings which is quite extraordinary. While in other countries we have occasionally had venues withdrawn from us because those leasing the premises disagreed with our ideas, we have never had 4 separate venues refuse to host a meeting" said Dr Nitschke from Dublin tonight.
When we came to Ireland we understood that there may be some opposition, but we did not expect such a well orchestrated campaign of censorship. It is simply unacceptable in a civilised, western country such as Ireland to have one section of the population threaten everyone else in this way."
"Voluntary Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide are important cutting edge social issues. It is only right that they be discussed by the community. Silencing one's right to free speech is the most cowardly way of keeping people in the dark. We are extremely grateful to Seomra Spraoi and Ciaran Mac Aoidh at the Irish Atheists for their support and preparedness to defend free speech on this issue.
"I fully respect the Churchs' right to hold their opinions but I take issue with those who try to ram their opinions down the throats of non-believers and people who elect to reconcile their faith with their right to know about safe suicide."
The Exit International meeting will now be held at 3 - 5.30pm on Friday 19 March. Seomra Spraoí is located at 10 Belvedere Court, Dublin 1.
The last of these venues had promised that nothing would cause the cancellation of the meeting, but the sheer pressure of protests changed this and they cited the sheer volume of the anti meeting pressure as their reasons (though the venue before that gave no reasons at all).
Thankfully Atheist Ireland (http://www.atheist.ie) protected free speech and stepped up with an appeal for a venue. The Irish Times reported on This Today (http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0319/1224266597246.html) and the Press Release below has been released by Exit International.
Regardless of whether you agree with Exit International or not, it is wonderful to see that the pressure of ANY group in their attempts to silence another's right to air their views with a campaign of intimidation has failed utterly. Well done all involved and well done Atheist Ireland who have protected free speech in Ireland a second time this week, after earlier this week causing Dermot Ahern to fold on the Blasphemy law, citing as he did the "incredibly sophisticated campaign [against me], mainly on the internet.” (http://www.atheist.ie/2010/03/ahern-proposes-referendum-on-blasphemy-this-autumn/)
Of course anyone can support Atheist Ireland by Joining Up (http://www.atheist.ie/information/join/), using their forum, or even financially by using the PayPal options to either join Atheist Ireland formally or engage in once off or ongoing donations.
Dublin Exit Meeting to Go Ahead
After third and then fourth venues - the Macro Building and the Carmichael Centre - buckled under church pressure and cancelled bookings, almost preventing the planned meeting of the Australian, pro-choice voluntary euthanasia group Exit International to go ahead, the organisation's director, Dr Philip Nitschke, announced that the meeting would go ahead at independent Seomra Spraoi (http://www.seomraspraoi.org:8080/Plone).
"In the space of 5 hours today, we had no fewer than 2 venues (4 in total) cancel our bookings which is quite extraordinary. While in other countries we have occasionally had venues withdrawn from us because those leasing the premises disagreed with our ideas, we have never had 4 separate venues refuse to host a meeting" said Dr Nitschke from Dublin tonight.
When we came to Ireland we understood that there may be some opposition, but we did not expect such a well orchestrated campaign of censorship. It is simply unacceptable in a civilised, western country such as Ireland to have one section of the population threaten everyone else in this way."
"Voluntary Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide are important cutting edge social issues. It is only right that they be discussed by the community. Silencing one's right to free speech is the most cowardly way of keeping people in the dark. We are extremely grateful to Seomra Spraoi and Ciaran Mac Aoidh at the Irish Atheists for their support and preparedness to defend free speech on this issue.
"I fully respect the Churchs' right to hold their opinions but I take issue with those who try to ram their opinions down the throats of non-believers and people who elect to reconcile their faith with their right to know about safe suicide."
The Exit International meeting will now be held at 3 - 5.30pm on Friday 19 March. Seomra Spraoí is located at 10 Belvedere Court, Dublin 1.