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| Ireland gay marriage referendum: high urban turnout boosts yes hopes | Ireland gay marriage referendum: high urban turnout boosts yes hopes |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A huge turnout across urban Ireland has boosted yes campaigners’ hopes for victory in the republic’s referendum on legalising gay marriage in the Catholic country. It is expected that the national turnout will be about 60%, far higher than for any other previous referendum, with 3.2 million people registered to vote. Kevin Humphreys, a Labour party junior minister, said turnout was high in working-class and middle-class parts of his Dublin South East constituency. | |
| 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 will be counted. About 2,000 citizens will watch an outdoor screening of the announcement of the result on Saturday afternoon inside the castle’s grounds. | 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 will be counted. About 2,000 citizens will watch an outdoor screening of the announcement of the result on Saturday afternoon inside the castle’s grounds. |
| Related: #hometovote: Irish abroad return to vote in gay marriage referendum | |
| 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. | |
| On Twitter, travellers documented their disparate journeys home via London, New York, Bangkok and Nairobi, often under the hashtags #HomeToVote or, for those in neighbouring Britain, #GetTheBoatToVote. One posted a picture on a London-to-Wales train with travellers donning the rainbow colours and balloons of the gay rights movement. | On Twitter, travellers documented their disparate journeys home via London, New York, Bangkok and Nairobi, often under the hashtags #HomeToVote or, for those in neighbouring Britain, #GetTheBoatToVote. One posted a picture on a London-to-Wales train with travellers donning the rainbow colours and balloons of the gay rights movement. |
| “I’m coming back to @ireland to vote in #MarRef. I’m coming back to help make history. I’m coming back for the future,” tweeted Ian McCafferty on his way from Brussels. | “I’m coming back to @ireland to vote in #MarRef. I’m coming back to help make history. I’m coming back for the future,” tweeted Ian McCafferty on his way from Brussels. |
| I'm coming back to @ireland to vote in #MarRef. I'm coming back to help make history. I'm coming back for the future. pic.twitter.com/myq5tjAZ9e | I'm coming back to @ireland to vote in #MarRef. I'm coming back to help make history. I'm coming back for the future. pic.twitter.com/myq5tjAZ9e |
| Irish singer Hozier posted a selfie in which he held up a Yes Equality “I’m ready to vote” sign. “Flying in to vote ... It’s the most important thing you’ll do. Don’t forget!” he wrote. | Irish singer Hozier posted a selfie in which he held up a Yes Equality “I’m ready to vote” sign. “Flying in to vote ... It’s the most important thing you’ll do. Don’t forget!” he wrote. |
| However, voters leaving one polling station in north-east Dublin, a Catholic parish hall, demonstrated a clear generation gap when asked how they had voted. Those under 40 were solidly yes; older voters were much more likely to have voted no. | However, voters leaving one polling station in north-east Dublin, a Catholic parish hall, demonstrated a clear generation gap when asked how they had voted. Those under 40 were solidly yes; older voters were much more likely to have voted no. |
| Related: #hometovote: Irish abroad return to vote in gay marriage referendum | Related: #hometovote: Irish abroad return to vote in gay marriage referendum |
| “You can’t give the gays their rights without redefining the whole institution of marriage. What they’re asking for is too much,” said Bridget Ryan, 61, as she voted with her border collie in tow. | “You can’t give the gays their rights without redefining the whole institution of marriage. What they’re asking for is too much,” said Bridget Ryan, 61, as she voted with her border collie in tow. |
| The Fine Gael-Labour government and the main opposition parties all back a yes vote. | The Fine Gael-Labour government and the main opposition parties all back a yes vote. |
| This morning Fionnuala and I voted YES for marriage equality | This morning Fionnuala and I voted YES for marriage equality |
| The government’s minister for equality, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, cast his yes ballot in north-east Dublin, declaring it the most important vote of his life. He took heart from early signs of a strong turnout, since involvement by young, first-time voters is considered key for the gay-rights measure to pass. “This is a referendum like no other,” Ó Ríordáin told Associated Press. “There’s a buzz and an anticipation of this like I’ve never seen before.” | |
| The government believes the high turnout, combined with the 68,000 voters who registered in the last weeks of the campaign, will result in a yes verdict when the votes counted from all of Ireland’s 43 constituencies are collated into a final national result. “This morning Fionnuala and I voted YES for marriage equality,” the republic’s prime minister, Enda Kenny, wrote on Twitter. | |
| However, some gay rights activists continued to express caution yesterday, based on previous votes when anti-government sentiment and low turnout produced surprise referendum rejections. The no campaign, consisting mainly of lay Catholic intellectuals, writers and activists, have warned that a yes vote will create a crisis of personal conscience in Ireland. | |
| An alliance of evangelical Catholics and Protestants have 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 which, in the 1980s, voted forcefully in referendums to outlaw abortion and reject divorce. | |
| Poignantly on polling day, members of the public left flowers and candles at the spot inside Fairview Park in north Dublin where Declan Flynn was murdered in a homophobic attack 33 years ago that galvanised the gay community to speak out about homophobia and discrimination in Ireland. | Poignantly on polling day, members of the public left flowers and candles at the spot inside Fairview Park in north Dublin where Declan Flynn was murdered in a homophobic attack 33 years ago that galvanised the gay community to speak out about homophobia and discrimination in Ireland. |
| Currently 17 countries, including the UK, Spain, France, Argentina and Denmark, along with several states in the US, allow same-sex couples to marry. |