{"id":3149,"date":"2019-09-23T09:13:30","date_gmt":"2019-09-23T09:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/?p=3149"},"modified":"2022-03-02T12:39:40","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T12:39:40","slug":"did-20000-people-participate-in-an-anti-abortion-march-in-belfast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/topics\/health\/did-20000-people-participate-in-an-anti-abortion-march-in-belfast\/","title":{"rendered":"Did 20,000 people participate in an anti-abortion march in Belfast?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The figure provided by the event organiser cannot be substantiated. However, the accompanying rally event at Custom House Square could not have been attended by more than the venue capacity of 5,000 people.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On Saturday, 7 September 2019, there was an anti-abortion march in Belfast, \u201cMarch for their Lives\u201d. The accompanying rally was held in Custom House Square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The All-Ireland Rally for Life is a yearly event<\/a> held alternatively in Dublin and Belfast since 2007 (concurrently in both cities since 2019). It claims to be the largest annual national pro-life event in Ireland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2019 Belfast event<\/a> was organised by Precious Life<\/a> and Youth for Life NI<\/a> (a project<\/a> of Precious Life).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 20,000 claim<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Precious Life claimed on Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a> and Twitter<\/a> that 20,000 attended the event. On its website, Precious Life published an article<\/a> with this headline figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Precious Life told us that this figure of 20,000 came from an estimate that a PSNI officer gave to event stewards on the day. When we contacted the PSNI, they said that they did not hold figures for the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, the organisers told us that their claim was informed by emerging estimates on social media on the day. They confirmed that they did not use any other methods to evaluate the 20,000 figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Estimating the march<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We contacted Dr Pam Lowe, a sociologist from Aston University, who was researching the event and was present on the day. Dr Lowe stood at a fixed point early on in the route on the march and counted people with a clicker as they walked past. She then repeated this exercise as the march looped back. Dr Lowe did not count children, only adults. The figure she counted was 3,000-3,500.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This method is of course open to human error. It only captures those who marched past the particular locations where Dr Lowe was located, and may not take into account people who drifted in or out of the march at different stages. It also does not include children, many of whom were present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All-Ireland Rally for Life published a video that shows clips of the participants walking on the streets of Belfast city centre:<\/p>\n\n\n\n