Pro-life activist Michael O’Dowd is to run for election to the European Parliament.

The Renua Ireland member has announced that he plans to run in the North-West Midlands constituency vowing that the theme of his campaign will be ‘Family, Community & Country’.

Mr O’Dowd said that “today, if you have a traditional view, you are banished to the backwater of public life. In this new Ireland, it almost seems like a crime to be a Catholic. Our Government is determined to relegate Christian values from the public sphere.”

He said that “this year alone we have witnessed the gleeful introduction of extreme abortion laws in Ireland and the holding of a referendum on blasphemy – the sole purpose of which was to aim another kick to the heart of Catholics in Ireland.

“The liberal juggernaut is barrelling through traditional Ireland. Only when electoral defeat is inflicted on the establishment will that juggernaut be stopped in its tracks,” he said.

Mr O’Dowd has been a highly active campaigner for the rights of people with intellectual disabilities for many years and is a former board member of Down Syndrome Ireland and a board member of Ablevision Ireland, a media production and training company for people with intellectual disabilities.