Mary T Sweeney: Posters getting taken down is not democratic and not 'inclusive'

Mary T Sweeney, Aontú’s Letterkenny Rep claims that several of her posters urging a ‘no no’ vote on Friday’s Referendum have been taken down in the area.

On Friday, Irish citizens will be asked to vote in two referendums to change our Constitution. The first Referendum concerns the concept of Family in the Constitution. The second Referendum proposes to delete an existing part of the Constitution and insert new text providing recognition for care provided by family members to each other. People have two separate votes on whether they wish to make the proposed changes to the current text of Article 41 of the Constitution.

“I am very disappointed by this,” Ms Sweeney said. I’m a democrat and believe in the principles of free speech and free, independent and critical thought.

“Aontú is a small party, we don’t receive Government funding and we have teams of hard-working, dedicated and generous volunteers who are taking time out of their very busy lives to put up posters. Many of these people are carers who are run ragged looking after family members.

“I simply cannot understand why people do this; I firmly believe if somebody is confident about his or her arguments or position on the upcoming Referendum, or indeed any issue, then why try to silence and close down any dissenting argument”.

“It’s so contrary to the utterances around diversity and inclusion… diversity of thought is seemingly not encouraged or indeed inclusion of people who have diverging opinions”.

“It’s totally unfair and it’s totally unacceptable. I would say to the people or person who took down my posters; have the courage of your convictions and allow people have information on this crucial Referendum”.