Joe McCarroll | |
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Chairman of Pro Life Campaign | |
In office March 1992 – December 2015 |
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Vice-Chairman of the Anti-Divorce Campaign | |
In office January 1995 – November 1995 |
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National Secretary of Family Solidarity | |
Personal details | |
Nationality | Irish |
Known for | Anti-Abortion campaigning |
Joe McCarroll is a conservative campaigner in the Republic of Ireland. He has campaigned against abortion, against LGBT Rights and against divorce.
He was part of the editorial group of The Brandsma Review.
Joe McCarroll, along with Des Hanafin, is a founding member, and vice-chairman, of the Anti-Divorce Campaign which unsuccessfully campaigned for a No vote in the 1995 divorce referendum. He warned that if it were to pass, people would be divorced against their will.
Does that mean that if one partner says there is such a prospect [no reasonable prospect of reconciliation], the court is then obliged to deny a divorce? If it doesn't mean that, then you have unilateral divorce against the will of the other person
The referendum was passed by a slim margin, and after an unsuccessful court challenge by Des Hanafin, was signed into law in June 1996.
Joe McCarroll co-founded the Pro Life Campaign in 1992, and was its chairman until December 2015. He was active in the PLC, giving opening and closing statements at seminars.
While chairman of the Pro Life Campaign he called for a 'yes' vote in the Twenty-fifth Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 2002 (Ireland), which was rejected by the people in the vote. He said the proposed amendment was "not anti-woman" and would "put the unborn on the social radar screen" so that women with an unexpected pregnancy could be supported, and that the amendment would provide a very good barrier against "anyone smuggling in abortion and describing it as medical treatment."
In 1993, as national secretary of Family Solidarity, he campaigned against the decriminalisation of homosexuality, calling it "unnatural",. In 2015, in the lead up to the marriage equality referendum, he campaigned against it, and called for a no vote.