Pro-life campaigners gathered for an event in Inishowen to reuse the white crosses from last week's roadside display.

One of Donegal’s busiest roads made headlines last week when a group of ‘No’ campaigners planted 17,000 white crosses across a 26km stretch of road. There was a widespread reaction to the stunt on the Letterkenny to Bridgend route, while a number of the crosses had to be removed by Donegal County Council due to road hazards.

On Sunday afternoon, a gathering was held on Lisfannon beach outside Buncrana to reuse the white crosses. Locals spelled out ‘Love Both Vote No’ in a display designed “to show support for life”, they said.

Image via Facebook

In an advert on Facebook, the group said crosses were pulled up by Yes campaigners on the N13 road “in an effort to censor the symbolic display of innocent lives that will be lost if the 8th amendment is repealed.”

The 17,000 crosses were intended to demonstrate the number of abortions which they believe will occur per year if the 8th amendment is repealed.

Donegal Pro-Life has distanced itself from the white crosses to say they ‘had nothing whatsoever to do with it’. In a statement, they said they were unaware of the demonstration until Friday. “This was done by a group of individuals and in no way sanctioned by DPL,” they said.

The pro-life act was described as “insensitive and crass” by Labour TD Jan O’Sullivan, who called on the official No campaign to condemn the act.

Families of road accident victims also expressed their upset by the display which met them as they travelled to Letterkenny. Locally, some pro-choice Yes campaigners wrote on the crosses and added names to remember the women whose cases have been linked to the 8th amendment abortion law.