As Grania reported on Saturday from Ireland, nearly 50,000 Irish came home to vote for the gay marriage referendum (no absentee ballots can be used in such a case, for the number of expatriate Irish is huge). And of course it passed by a huge margin—some good news at a time when everything else seems dire.
To prolong the joy, go to theslicedpan and have a look at the tw**ts (on #HomeToVote) from the many expatriate Irish who came home, often from huge distances, just to cast a vote. It’ll put a spring in your step.
Here are a few of my favorites:
Amazing to see. What a change Ireland has made since the 90’s.
Same-sex marriage made a lot of Irish very gay and the Catholic Church very cross.
Sorry for the puns. I couldn’t resist.
The hangover on Sunday was worth it.
I have a gay Irish friend who was told by the priest to leave the village in which he lived. I suppose the priest is now dead but I hope the message has reached him.
When did that conversation take place?
I would say 40-45 years ago.
Thanks!
The next big vote in Ireland is to end the anti-blasphemy law.
If it’s straight removal, yes but if they want to stick a weasel phrase of inciting religious hatred then a big fat no
Take THAT Catholic Church!!!!
Would you like to borrow a set of crampons?
Looks like they’d be perfect for a nice little stroll through the Vatican!
b&
Reblogged this on JerBear's Queer World News, Views & More From The City Different – Santa Fe, NM and commented:
The passion and pride that motivated Irish living abroad to return home to vote yes is an inspiring testament to the Irish’s dedication to social justice. ..
THIS IS GREAT AND AMAZING NEWS. Equal rights coming to a strict religious country is a major step and Ireland did it faster then we are doing in the United States.
My question at this point is
what has the Catholic Church said so far??? anyone know?
How is the Church going to spin this?? did the pope make a statement???
I am very interested in how the Church is
going to make this “major loss”
into a “win” for them.
This whole vote thing is amazing…..any other countries soon to do this?
Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said the church need a “reality check” (we atheists have been saying that for centuries). What he found particularly annoying was that the Irish youth massively voted in favor of same-sex marriage, despite 12 years of catholic education. Most schools in Ireland are run by catholics. So the religious indoctrination isn’t working. Which is nice.
I think he should be happy that so many come out as capable of making their own minds up!
Seriously read catholic teaching on homosexuality replace the word homosexual with Jew, Traveler and ethnic minority of choice and tell me it isn’t bigoted.
“Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity,141 tradition has always declared that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.” Seriously Diarmuid Martin has done a good deal of work on cleaning out the arch diocese, co-operating with investigations and accepting the findings of civil investigations of abuse. To be honest this was a lovely shot in the foot by the church in general.
I was annoyed that nearly all the Yes groups and a lot of the No groups joined SIPO, standards in public office, the church did not and was still given time in the media. Once again not playing by the same rules as the rest of us
I’m sure people will say that the vote was rigged. “It CAN’T be true!”
Already has happened. Chuck Feney has been blamed for the referendum being called in the first place. There is the suggestion that money came into the yes campaign from him, which isn’t true. He just gave around a billion to Ireland to causes he liked and that included some money for GLEN.
One of the no people claimed they won the argument but lost the vote? Others are claiming that the 700,000 who voted no are not being represented. It’s pretty clear that there will be a challenge lodged in the courts but with such a strong Yes it will be very hard for them to argue a case.
They want a “do-over” because they lost? Too bad!
Good on the Irish (majority)!
Surely, the pipes, the pipes were calling from glen to glen and down the mountain sides.
Bangkok to Ireland for a vote is a big kick in the nuts to the Catholic Church.
Oh, polarised light on fossils … very effective. Never seen it done on TV before. Impressive.
Sorry, where was I. Oh yes, offering Diana metaphorical crampons, for the kicking of the Catholic Church’s communal nuts.
By the size of the win, the 50,000 votes weren’t needed. But, knowing that 50,000 votes were steaming home might have encouraged others.
I drove from Dublin to laois, my cousin went to Cork on the train and voted and got straight back on to go back to work in Dublin all. Brother came home from England. I knew the guy who came back from Australia.
On Thursday we were worried about the silent no voters, the independent had the yes vote in free fall. Watching #hometovote was amazing it really gave the Yes side momentum, these are coming home and you should get out too. It was a like the Elves turning up in Helmsdeep
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl5tG3fRZhk
I should add that Donegal, an area that always votes no in referendum voted Yes only by 33 votes. A friend of mine took the bus about 5 hours and believes that she is one of the 33.
This was just fantastic! I am a liberal voter in Texas & we can not get the liberal voters to the polls!!!
The other two probably were afraid to come out. Just kidding. All those years in Texas, I can’t help it.
I can’t stop laughing!!
Everybody who voted ‘Yes’ is one of the 33…
The Irish vote made my heart sing!
I’d like to bring everyone’s attention to this song: https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/guest-post-a-new-anti-theist-but-popular-song/
A song by the Irishman Hozier, called: Take me to church. A powerful song indeed.
Did you hear about the homosexual Irishman?
He preferred women over drink.
Speaking as someone who is Irish and who grew up in the seventies and eighties in that country I think I should point out something that the Church must be looking at with absolute dread.
Those viewing the result as one of a change in outlook to a more liberal stance are only partly correct. Even in the late eighties and early nineties the majority of my generation would have been in the socially liberal camp. That was a time, however of mass immigration. Over half a million left the country for economic reasons in those years – almost all of them young people who were statistically, as today, twice as likely to vote for more progressive measures than the older population. This export of youth has had a significant role in skewing the voting towards a more conservative viewpoint such that the referendum of 1995 that legalized divorce was only carried by 9000 votes.
The difference with the current referendum is that the economic upturn in the past couple of decades has reduced the emigration to much lower levels and thus the youth vote is finally able to be expressed. More worrying for the catholic church is the fact that while the elderly population are still voting in line with what the bishops demand, they are now, like the religious orders, slowly dying out, and are not being replaced with likeminded individuals. We are witnessing a demographic nightmare for the church.
Some old people, and it was wonderful to see examples of this, really have changed their minds on the question of same sex marriage, but indications are that most did not.
As we have observed on many occasions, real change can be achieved by convincing young people – and then being patient as the elderly holdouts slowly dwindle into irrelevance.
Goods observation. I think this is also very important in the trends in the USA.
Good on youse, Ireland!!
I don;t know if someone else has already linked to this; but this advert still moves me when I see it. It makes the point very clearly.
Sinead’s Hand