Breda O’Brien: I was shouted down for 40 minutes at Oxford University

Pro-choice students screamed to prevent anti-abortion speakers being heard

Sat, Nov 4, 2017, 05:00

Breda O'Brien

Oxford University. One sweet moment happened when a transgender woman said to me: “I am so sorry. This is not Oxford.” Photograph: Getty Images

Oxford University. One sweet moment happened when a transgender woman said to me: “I am so sorry. This is not Oxford.” Photograph: Getty Images

It is not pleasant to be shouted down and prevented from speaking for 40 minutes, particularly since it happened in what is allegedly one of the best universities in the world, Oxford. I had been invited, along with Lorcan Price BL, by a small society, Oxford Students for Life, (OSFL), to speak about Ireland and abortion. (My son is on the OSFL committee but I choose to hope I might have been asked anyway).

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