A Candle For Savita

I was in town, wondering why I was stuck in traffic on Stephen's Green, when I heard about the demo for Savita, who died in October from a miscarriage and septicemia. The medical team refused her and her husband's request for an abortion despite there apparently being no prospect of saving the 17 week fetus. The story, for those who haven't heard, is here.

I parked the car and went around the corner to Leinster House, where the march had ended. There was one final speech; things were winding down. But there was still plenty to take in: the placards, the candles many were holding, the alert intelligent faces (mostly women but a generous sprinkling of men too).

I was invited to light a candle for Savita so I did. That makes the second candle I've recently lit for the dead; I went to a mass for my mother and others who had had funerals this year at our local church. Not because I am a believer, but I just didn't like the thought of a candle with her name on it being left unclaimed and unlit.

There were chants of 'never again' (summoning, for me, the cold gaze of those ironic, postmodern gods) but the old bitter carnival of Irish politics wasn't too vocal this time. This event was more intimate, and perhaps more heartfelt than the usual marches and demos. A dying woman, in great pain and distress, had called for an abortion and had been refused because of the heartbeat of a fetus that could never have survived. The reason given was apparently that 'this is a Catholic country'. This last is particularly outrageous in the light of the church's recent cycle of scandals.

And anyway, can Ireland really still be called Catholic? Almost all my friends were raised Catholic and all but two are no longer so; a few like myself are agnostic (in the Martin Amis mould, simply acknowledging our ignorance) and probably more are either quasi or fully fledged atheists, like my wife. Churches have closed, the congregation has dwindled hugely, fewer and fewer priests are ordained each year... Catholic?

I was glad I caught the end of the demo. I missed the speeches but caught the candles, banked against the biting cold, the nostalgic comforting smell of burning wax, a marrying of funeral and birthday for a woman who wanted to give birth and now can never do so.

For anyone interested, I've added a series from the demo to my Flicker sets here.