The Eighth Amendment to Ireland’s constitution, repealed by voters last week, reads: “The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.”

This is a simple and eloquent statement reflecting the basic fact that the right to life is the mother of all rights. To talk of a right to privacy, or of a freedom of speech, or of a right to a trial, or any other right is meaningless if the right to life is not respected and upheld in law.