Sunday

2nd Apr 2023

Ireland votes Yes on same-sex marriage

  • Dublin city centre (Photo: QueenSunshine)

Ireland has voted Yes to same-sex marriage, becoming the first country to enshrine marriage equality in its constitution by popular mandate.

The Yes vote won with 62 percent while 38 percent voted against on a 60.5 percent turnout.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

  • Dublin mural ahead of Friday's referendum (Photo: William Murphy)

“I’m calling it,” equality minister Aodhan O’Riordain tweeted on Saturday (23 May) in Dublin. “Key boxes opened. It’s a Yes. And a landslide across Dublin.”

Prime minister Enda Kenny said the outcome of Friday's referendum sends a “message of pioneering leadership” from the Irish people.

Health minister Leo Varadkar, who recently came out, said the result represents a “social revolution in Ireland” and makes the country "a beacon of equality and liberty to the rest of the world”.

Homosexuality was, until 1993, illegal in Ireland, where the Catholic church exercised a strong grip on society.

But its grip weakened in recent decades amid a series of clerical scandals.

O'Riordain, the equality minister, highliged the extent to which social attitudes have changed even outside cosmopolitan Dublin.

"I’ve seen bellwether boxes open, middle-of-the road areas who wouldn’t necessarily be liberal, and they are resoundingly voting Yes”, he told Reuters.

Social media has been busy, with photos and tweets on emigrants who came back home to vote, and with the hashtags #hometovote and #MarRef trending on Twitter.

The Iona Institute, which promotes socially conservative values and which campaigned No, congratulated the Yes side.

But it urged the government to respect concerns about "freedom of religion and freedom of conscience".

Following the referendum, parliament will introduce a bill to amend the Irish constitution. The Irish Times says the law will pass before the summer break.

The new wording in the Irish charter is to say: "Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex”.

The vote means Ireland joins several other EU member states allowing same-sex marriage including Belgium, Denmark, France, Spain, and the Netherlands - the first in the world in 2001.

Firms will have to reveal and close gender pay-gap

Employers will no longer be able to hide behind secret contracts to disguise how much less they pay women than men for the same work, due to new EU law. Countries will have three years to transpose the new rules.

Firms will have to reveal and close gender pay-gap

Employers will no longer be able to hide behind secret contracts to disguise how much less they pay women than men for the same work, due to new EU law. Countries will have three years to transpose the new rules.

Latest News

  1. EU to press South Korea on arming Ukraine
  2. Aid agencies clam up in Congo sex-for-work scandal
  3. Ukraine — what's been destroyed so far, and who pays?
  4. EU sending anti-coup mission to Moldova in May
  5. Firms will have to reveal and close gender pay-gap
  6. Why do 83% of Albanians want to leave Albania?
  7. Police violence in rural French water demos sparks protests
  8. Work insecurity: the high cost of ultra-fast grocery deliveries

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains
  2. InformaConnecting Expert Industry-Leaders, Top Suppliers, and Inquiring Buyers all in one space - visit Battery Show Europe.
  3. EFBWWEFBWW and FIEC do not agree to any exemptions to mandatory prior notifications in construction
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us