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Ireland gay marriage referendum: both sides say yes vote has won Ireland on course to be first country to legalise gay marriage by popular vote
(35 minutes later)
Voters in Ireland appear to have voted strongly in favour of legalising same-sex marriage in the republic’s referendum, leaders on both sides of the campaign said on Saturday. Ireland is on course to become the first nation in the world to legalise gay marriage by popular vote, leaders on both sides of the historic referendum campaign said on Saturday.
With the ballot count still underway, the Irish health minister, Leo Varadkar, who came out as gay at the start of the government’s campaign, says Dublin looks to have voted about 70% in favour of gay marriage, while most districts outside the capital also were reporting strong leads for the yes campaign. Early tallies from open ballot boxes across the Irish Republic indicate a strong showing for the pro-same sex marriage proposition. The trend suggests that there will be at least a 2-1 majority for the yes side.
Senior figures from the no campaign, who sought to prevent Ireland’s constitution from being amended to permit gay marriage, said the only question now was how large the yes side’s margin of victory would be from Friday’s vote. A huge yes vote from the republic’s electorate would mark another major milestone in Ireland’s journey from a Catholic church-dominated state to a more liberal, secular society. Gay rights campaigners say it will also bolster their struggle for equality across the world.
Varadkar said: “We’re the first country in the world to enshrine marriage equality in our constitution and do so by popular mandate. That makes us a beacon, a light to the rest of the world of liberty and equality. It’s a very proud day to be Irish.”
Aodhán Ó Ríordáine, the quality minister, told Reuters: “I think it’s won. I’ve seen bellwether boxes open, middle-of-the road areas who wouldn’t necessarily be liberal and they are resoundingly voting yes.”
Related: Ireland gay marriage referendum results: vote-counting begins - liveRelated: Ireland gay marriage referendum results: vote-counting begins - live
Final results are not expected until Saturday afternoon in the poll, which is expected to make history in the global struggle for gay rights in a nation where only 22 years ago homosexuality was still criminalised. In some parts of Dublin the yes vote was running at more than 80% while the first box to be tallied from the rural eastern coast Wicklow/East Carlow constituency indicated a pro-gay marriage majority of 67% to 33% against.
Grainne Healy, co-director of the Yes Equality group, said: “It’s an extraordinary day. Based on the early tallies the overall result could be at least 60% in favour of gay marriage.
“We were going out not telling people to vote yes, we were going out saying: ‘I am voting yes and I’d like to tell you why.’ That’s how the campaign started and that’s how it has worked.” Confident of securing a yes vote across the republic on Saturday, Ireland’s prime minister, Enda Kenny, declared that the result was sending a “message of pioneering leadership” from the Irish people.
Just after the taoiseach’s remarks, it emerged that out of almost three-quarters of the ballot boxes opened in his own Mayo constituency – an area of western Ireland normally regarded as conservative and religiously devout – there was a 55% vote in favour of gay marriage.,
His cabinet and Fine Gael colleague Leo Vradkar, Ireland’s first openly gay minister, said the huge support for a yes vote made him think “the Irish people had their minds made up on this some time ago”.
Varadkar said: “We’re the first country in the world to enshrine marriage equality in our constitution and do so by popular mandate. That makes us a beacon, a light to the rest of the world of liberty and equality. It’s a very proud day to be Irish.”
Aodhán Ó Ríordáine, the quality minister, earlier told Reuters: “I think it’s won. I’ve seen bellwether boxes open, middle-of-the road areas who wouldn’t necessarily be liberal and they are resoundingly voting yes.”
Opponents of gay marriage had also conceded by mid morning that the yes campaign had triumphed.
Dave Quinn, one of the most prominent lay Catholic opponents of same-sex marriage, tweeted: “Congratulations to the yes side. Well done.”
Later Quinn, the director of the religious-traditionalist Iona Institute, said: “Obviously there’s a certain amount of disappointment but also I’m quite philosophical about the outcome.”
On the sunlit cobblestones of Dublin Castle, the former seat of British power in Ireland and the location for the overall national result, 27-year-old Emily Glen held up a picture of her parents wearing “vote yes” badges.
“I wanted to show people that parents in Ireland love their children whether they are gay or straight. My dad even put a yes sticker on the back of his wheelchair when he and mum went into the polling station yesterday to demonstrate his support for our cause.”
Glen added: “I’ve been meeting up with older gay people who have told me about what life was like in the dark days of the 70s and 80s in Ireland. I want this yes vote to be for them as much for my generation. It’s their day and they deserve it.”
Senator David Norris, one of the key figures in having homosexuality decriminalised in the 1990s, said a yes victory would be a wonderful result.Senator David Norris, one of the key figures in having homosexuality decriminalised in the 1990s, said a yes victory would be a wonderful result.
“I believe that by the end of today gay people will be equal in this country. I think it’s wonderful,” he said. “It’s a little bit late for me. As I said the other day, I’ve spent so much time pushing the boat out that I forgot to jump on and now it’s out beyond the harbour on the high seas, but it’s very nice to look at.”“I believe that by the end of today gay people will be equal in this country. I think it’s wonderful,” he said. “It’s a little bit late for me. As I said the other day, I’ve spent so much time pushing the boat out that I forgot to jump on and now it’s out beyond the harbour on the high seas, but it’s very nice to look at.”
Mary Cunningham, director of the National Youth Council of Ireland, praised a new generation of voters for making a difference.
“It represents a victory not only for the yes side, but also for Irish society, Irish democracy and the young people of Ireland,” she said.
“This result sends a strong message to young people across Ireland that they are valued equally; and that we want to promote respect and eliminate homophobia.”
David Quinn, director of the Iona Institute religious thinktank, one of the leading groups fighting the reform, took to Twitter: “Congratulations to the yes side. Well done.”
But pro-change voters were eagerly awaiting confirmation that the measure they had campaigned for would be passed. “It’s very hard for it to sink in, inside screaming and jumping already but I’m just waiting for that exact moment when I can say it,” said Ger O’Keefe, 27, a gay yes campaigner from Waterford.
The Fianna Fail leader, Micheál Martin, told RTE Radio on Saturday that he was confident the result would see the introduction of gay marriage.
“I think it was a debate that captured the imagination and I had a strong sense that the yes vote would win,” he said. “I think that will be borne out today.”
It is expected that the national turnout will be about 60%, with 3.2 million people registered to vote. Kevin Humphreys, a Labour party junior minister, said turnout was high in both working-class and middle-class parts of his Dublin South East constituency.
Friday’s nationwide vote to give same-sex couples the constitutional right to marry has drawn worldwide attention, with dozens of foreign broadcasters arriving in Dublin for the count.
The focus now shifts from the polling stations to the counts at 43 parliamentary constituencies and then Dublin Castle – once the seat of British power in Ireland – where the overall national vote is being counted. About 2,000 citizens will watch an outdoor screening of the announcement of the result on Saturday afternoon inside the castle’s grounds.
I believe that by the end of today gay people will be equal in this countryI believe that by the end of today gay people will be equal in this country
The national turnout is expected to be higher than most referendums held over the past 25 years. Yes campaigners believe that a whole new generation of younger voters have turned up at polling stations for the first time. A pro-gay Irish Christian campaign group urged the leaders of the main churches in Ireland to embrace the change. Dr Richard O’Leary, an Anglican member of Changing Attitude Ireland, also appealed to the churches’ hierarchies to support gay marriage in Northern Ireland – the only part of these islands were same sex couples still cannot get married.
The proposition drawn up by the Fine Gael-Labour government asked Irish voters to amend their 78-year-old constitution, which originally defined marriage as purely between man and woman. O’Leary said: “We hope that the Catholic bishops and Protestant church leaders in Northern Ireland will notice how so many ordinary people of faith in the Republic of Ireland have voted yes and that they too might be encouraged to support the extension of civil marriage equality to same sex couples in Northern Ireland.”
The proposition drawn up by the Fine Gael-Labour government asked Irish voters to amend their 78-year-old constitution, which originally defined marriage as purely between a man and a woman.
Voters were offered the chance to amend that constitution to: “Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex.”Voters were offered the chance to amend that constitution to: “Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex.”
Opinion polls throughout the two-month campaign suggest the government-backed amendment should be approved by a majority of voters, which would make Ireland the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage through a referendum when the results are declared on Saturday. People who left the country less than 18 months ago were able to vote, but needed to show up at a polling station in person.
The Fine Gael-Labour government and the main opposition parties all back a yes vote.
An alliance of evangelical Catholics and Protestants has distributed more than 90,000 anti-gay marriage pamphlets in the last week across Ireland, urging the electorate to veto same-sex marriage. They argue that the legalisation of gay marriage would undermine the Catholic faith and trigger unintended legal consequences in Irish courts, where adoption and surrogacy rights loom as distinct legal battlegrounds.
A yes result would provide fresh evidence of waning church influence in a country that, in the 1980s, voted forcefully in referendums to outlaw abortion and reject divorce.A yes result would provide fresh evidence of waning church influence in a country that, in the 1980s, voted forcefully in referendums to outlaw abortion and reject divorce.
Currently 17 countries, including the UK, Spain, France, Argentina and Denmark, along with several states in the US, allow same-sex couples to marry.Currently 17 countries, including the UK, Spain, France, Argentina and Denmark, along with several states in the US, allow same-sex couples to marry.