Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On Friday, we took a big step on an ever-evolving journey. We all talked about being on a journey. Plenty of Members, including some of my colleagues, and people outside the House were on a journey. I was very lucky in that I was raised in a pro-choice house. My parents, if they ever were on that journey, had been through it. They campaigned against the insertion of the eighth amendment. I have used as many opportunities as possible not just to thank them, because obviously they are my parents and I am very fond of them, but also to thank all the people who campaigned in 1983 against inserting it. They were right. They were absolutely castigated at the time yet they were completely right. Everything they said would happen did happen. They said it would harm women and it did harm women. The vote on Friday and the count on Saturday were a vindication of the stand they had taken, and the stand taken by all the people who campaigned up to then.

I cannot thank all of the people who need to be thanked. There are not enough hours in the day. The sun is shining and nobody wishes to sit here and hear me reel off a list of names. However, I do wish to thank Ailbhe Smyth, whom I have known for a long time. She provided incredible leadership not just in the last few weeks when she was more visible but in the years up to the historic result. We do not have the words to thank those who have been active on this campaign since 1983 other than to tell them we finally listened, recognised that they were right and fixed it. It was wrong to put the amendment in and now it is out. That is a very good thing.

Throughout the referendum campaign, we all spoke about one group in particular whose members touched our hearts. I recall when members of Terminations For Medical Reasons, TFMR, gave their evidence to the Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution. It was disappointing that the Deputies who call themselves pro-life - it is not a term I use but they use it and seem to like it - could not stay for whatever reason to hear those very difficult stories and to see all of their colleagues in tears. I am not ashamed to say that I was one of them. That was the case for both men and women as well as members of the press. Some people might say they had a bit of dust in their eye but there were definitely tears that night, and rightly so. The stories were heartbreaking. I look forward to the day when they no longer have to tell those stories and bare their souls.

The campaign that was run in my constituency by Fingal Together for Yes was one of the most honest, straightforward, grassroots campaigns in which I have ever been involved. I have been a Deputy for just over two years but I have been an activist all my life and have been involved in many campaigns. I can say with my hand on my heart that I have never been involved in a campaign like it. That is not to do down what happened before the campaign by Together for Yes. In particular, I thank the men and women in my area. Whether it was a banner drop at 7 a.m., a leaflet drop after a canvass or a stall we always had more people than we had leaflets or work to do, which was great. We are politicians so we go out knocking on doors. It is great to turn up and find one will have to split a group into two canvass teams because there are so many people. That happened every time.

The most important thing Fingal Together for Yes and the general Together for Yes campaigns did was talk to people. We knocked on doors and we had honest conversations with people. We talked about the nine women who leave Ireland every day, the women who are taking abortion pills by themselves, the chilling effect the eighth amendment has on doctors, the cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment the State failed to prevent for women such as Amanda Mellet and the real, lived experience of the eighth amendment for women. We talked about our own stories and our communities. We knocked on thousands of doors and I believe we changed people's minds.

The old certainties have definitely been challenged, and a new and better Ireland will emerge from this. For the avoidance of doubt, the North is next.

See this speech in context