Thousands of people have protested in Dublin, calling for an end to Ireland’s strict abortion laws.

Campaigners took part in the March for Choice in the capital’s city centre, chanting: “Hey, hey Leo, the eighth amendment has got to go” and carrying banners which read: “Keep your rosaries off my ovaries” and “Parent by choice for choice”.

This year’s march, the sixth in a series of annual events, was more significant than ever given the recent confirmation there will be a referendum on abortion next year.

The government recently set a potential timescale of early summer 2018 for a referendum on the eighth amendment, the section of Ireland’s constitution imposing tight legal restrictions on terminations.

The amendment, which was voted into the constitution by referendum in 1983, affords equal rights to unborn babies and pregnant women and gives foetuses the right to life by law.

Terminations are only permitted when the life of the mother is at risk, and the maximum penalty for having an illegal abortion in Ireland is 14 years in prison. Thousands of Irish women travel to England each year to have a legal termination.

Campaigners gathered at the Garden of Remembrance at lunchtime, making their way down the city’s main thoroughfare, O’Connell Street. They marched along the river Liffey and past the landmark Custom House before reaching the Irish parliament.

Among those who spoke at the end of the march in Merrion Square were the civil rights leader and former politician Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, comedian and actor Tara Flynn, British Labour MP Stella Creasy, and poet and LGBT activist Matt Kennedy.

Some of the signs here today in Dublin at #arcmarch17 #repealthe8th #trustwomen A post shared by Stella Creasy (@stellacreasy) on Sep 30, 2017 at 7:27am PDT

Anti-abortion activists staged counter-events in Dublin and across Ireland calling for the eighth amendment to be preserved, indicating protests from both sides are likely to intensify in the lead-up to the referendum.

A pro-choice rally was staged outside the Irish embassy in London on Saturday, with campaigners highlighting the numbers of Irish women who have travelled to Britain for an abortion in the last three decades.

A few hundred demonstrators gathered outside the embassy, chanting: “34 years since ’83, stop sending women across the sea” and holding placards which read: “Healthcare not Ryanair” and “Irish women deserve better”.

The campaigners also attempted to make more than 205,700 white chalk marks on the pavement to represent the number of women who have travelled to mainland Britain from both the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland since 1983 to access a safe abortion.

How many is enough? We are making a mark for 205,704 people who have been exiled from Ireland for safe abortions in the UK #205kTravelled pic.twitter.com/sNZ0J1eRDs — London-Irish ARC (@LdnIrishARC) September 30, 2017

Maeve O’Reilly, from the London-Irish Abortion Rights Campaign, said: “These journeys, which are often taken in silence and are very stigmatised and shameful in the eyes of our government, we wanted to make them visible by making these physical marks on the pavement here today.”

She said campaigners were encouraged by recent polls which she said have shown that “most Irish people want to see a liberalisation of Irish abortion laws.”

She added: “We’re really confident that the Irish public will engage with this issue, will have a good debate and people will begin to see that abortion is already happening. It’s just not happening in Ireland.

“And the time has come to kind of wake up to that and do better for our women and offer this care at home, rather than exiling them to other countries.”

• This article was amended on 5 October 2017 to amend a geographical reference.

