From the Irish Times….
Ireland has voted by a landslide margin to change the constitution so that abortion can be legalised, according to an exit poll conducted for The Irish Timesby Ipsos/MRBI.
The poll suggests that the margin of victory for the Yes side in the referendum will be 68 per cent to 32 per cent – a stunning victory for the Yes side after a long and often divisive campaign…
This is really great news. I am stunned by the magnitude of the vote – especially among the young. Even where it is still illegal, Abortion will always be a difficult decision for an unwanted pregnancy, when the mother’s health is in danger or when the fetus is deformed. And in many cases, the choice will still be made to have the baby, but now the woman knows that she will have the ability to make that moral and complicated decision – and not the uncaring government.
I hadn’t been paying attention to this and am quite surprised that the vote was favorable at all,much less the wide margin.
Truly great news. We met some young Irish Americans in London who were on their way home to vote for the change in the constitution. It was interesting, they were all under 30, very well educated, and vow they will never vote Republican again. Clearly they hated Trump, but were also very well informed about Congress and the Republican majority. It was heartening to hear how well informed they were about all the terrible things this Congress has done over that last 18 months. I was afraid that most young people were simply not paying attention.
We are in Porto today looking for potential real estate investments. I haven’t been here in 20 years and the changes are amazing. The husband’s family is looking to move money out of Britain before Brexit is finalized. The British expats living in places like France and Portugal can expect problems when, and if, this “divorce” is every finalized. Portugal offers citizenship for those buying property over a certain price point and that makes it attractive to some of our cousins in England. The Tory government seems incapable of
Thanks for 411 Keith….
I got cut off before.
I was about to type that the Tory government seems incapable of working out an agreement with the EU that will protect its citizens living in other parts of Europe. This is a huge mess.
Off to Lisbon tomorrow.
The overwhelming vote on abortion is a diss to the Catholic Church…..
The Irish Catholic Church (all right, the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland) suffered from a host of scandals, not all of them primarily sexual, often involving abuse, neglect or contempt of those placed under Her care, such as unwed mothers and their children. [I can’t remember all the ghastly details, but they were pretty terrible, e.g. how unwed mothers were basically trapped for life and exploited in Church-run laundries while the bodies of their offspring who died in childhood were anonymously dumped without gravestones.]
The Church’s loss of power, respect and prestige was a huge contrast to the very close relationship between the Church and the Irish Free State (established 1922) and its successor the Republic (1949). Basically, the extremely poor secular government of early independent Ireland gave the Church control of most social, health and educational services. (Their close relationship was not hurt by the fact that both the Free State — whose army was first commanded by Michael Collins — and the Church shared an intense and heartily-reciprocated hatred of the Irish Republican Army.)
So great was the political power of the Church over Her parishioners, that the then-governing Fine Gael-Labour coalition was unable to pass a Mother and Child health care plan in 1948 which the Church opposed on grounds that it somehow interfered with individual conscience and morality.
And the Church won early referenda on issues such as divorce, birth-control and abortion.
But, as independent Ireland became more educated, more cosmopolitan, less rural, more closely-connected with continental Europe, less obsessed with the Border and more prosperous (catching up with and perhaps surpassing Northern Ireland in the U.K.), the Church’s influence in secular matters, apart from a generally praiseworthy contribution to peace between the Unionist and Nationalist communities, weakened. So the Church (and for that matter conservative Protestant churches) was unable to prevent successful popular referenda liberalising secular laws on divorce, birth-control and abortion.
About the same thing has happened to the Catholic Church here….
Most Catholics I know favor abortion and do not speak highly of the church….
Against that?
The local Catholic Church has actually increased it’s parish because it has embraced the diversity of where I live..
Other parishes have not and are suffering membership…
The result was a thumping Yes to repealing the anti-abortion Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution — 66.4% to 33.6%. [Turnout 64.1%]. The only constituency out of 40 to vote No (52%-48%) was Donegal in Ulster, northeast of the UK-Republic border. According to Radio-Telefis Éireann (RTÉ), the independent public broadcaster:
Ireland votes decisively to repeal the Eighth Amendment
Updated / Saturday, 26 May 2018 18:23
By Conor McMorrow
Reporter, RTÉ Political Staff
Ireland has voted decisively to change the constitution to repeal the Eighth Amendment, paving the way for new legislation to allow for the termination of pregnancies.
The historic result, declared at Dublin Castle this evening, put the Yes vote at 66.4% with 33.6% voting No.
Just one constituency, Donegal rejected the proposal.
The country voted to repeal the Eighth Amendment by a majority of 706,349, referendum returning officer Barry Ryan announced.
In what is expected to be the highest Yes vote, 78.4% of voters in Dublin Bay South opted to repeal the Eighth.
On a day described by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar as the “culmination of a quiet revolution”, Galway East was the first constituency to declare a result delivering a decisive Yes vote at 60%.
In the capital all declared constituencies have come in with over 70% for the Yes side.
In Cork, the two city constituencies also returned decisive Yes votes in excess of 60%.
While Wicklow – the constituency of Minister for Health Simon Harris – returned a Yes vote of 74%.
In Tipperary, the home constituency prominent No-campaigner Mattie McGrath, people voted by 59% in favour of repeal.
In Kerry, where the Healy-Rae brothers advocated a No vote – the result showed 58% voted Yes.
In Carlow-Kilkenny, where just one TD supported the Government’s position on abortion, the people voted 64% Yes.
Its neighbouring county of Waterford returned a yes vote of 69%.
In Tipperary, the home constituency of prominent No campaigner Mattie McGrath, people voted by 59% in favour of repeal.
Roscommon-Galway, which was the only constituency to return a No vote in the Marriage Equality Referendum three years ago has today returned a Yes vote of 57%.
https://www.rte.ie/news/eighth-amendment/2018/0526/966152-eighth-amendment-referendum/
Detailed results by region and county: https://www.rte.ie/news/eighth-amendment/results/
Reactions of Irish party and government leaders:
Taoiseach hails ‘resounding’ abortion poll victory
https://www.rte.ie/news/eighth-amendment/2018/0526/966132-reaction/
[The Taoiseach is the Republic’s prime minister, whose deputy is called the Tanáste. In the coalition governments to which modern Ireland is now accustomed, the Tanáste often leads the second-largest party on the Government benches in the Dáil Éireann or lower house. Currently, I think, Fine Gael rules with the help of the Irish Labour Party, while the Official Opposition is led by Fianna Fáil, the party of Eamonn De Valera, which is marginally more nationalist, populist, rural and socially conservative than Fine Gael.]
Thanks as usual DSD…..
The Catholic Church was not as actively opposed to the measure in Ireland as it has been opposed to abortion in the US. But then the Catholic Church has lost some credibility in Ireland with sex scandals and the like.