FitzGerald labels Coir posters 'noxious propaganda'

The anti-abortion group Coir has been accused of spreading “noxious propaganda” though its posters by former Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Garret FitzGerald in his Saturday column in The Irish Times.
FitzGerald said that Coir was seeking to abuse the memory of three of Ireland’s 1916 leaders, Thomas Clarke, Padraic Pearse and James Connolly, by including them in their “xenophobic campaign”.
Of the Coir ‘They Won Your Freedom – Don’t Throw it Away’ message, FitzGerald said it does not need much imagination to guess what the stance of those men would have been in respect of Coir’s alignment with “British Europhobes” – a reference to the UK Independence Party (Ukip).
On the Coir claim that the EU might reduce Ireland’s minimum wage to a “fictitious figure of €1.84”, FitzGerald said the minimum wage – as with all wage policy – was a matter for the Irish government only.
FitzGerald also rubbished suggestions made in Coir posters about a diminution of Irish controls over current EU milk quotas and vetoes relating to fish catches. “Facts are sacred,” he added. “Lies and inventions should have no place in public debate.”
Addressing a vote No to Lisbon conference in Shannon airport on Saturday, Socialist MEP Joe Higgins and Patricia McKenna of the People’s Movement, called for curbs on the Ryanair and Intel campaigns urging Yes to the treaty.
At a meeting of pro-treaty group Ireland for Europe in Temple Bar in Dublin yesterday, campaign director Pat Cox said voters should reject the philosophy of “Irish Ayatollahs” and “Little Englanders” who want to see Ireland return to the past.