Skip to main content

Vote Yes for Marriage Equality


 
Dublin Launch of Referendums Campaign
Two years ago this week the 100 members of the Constitutional Convention, meeting in the Grand Hotel in Malahide in north Dublin, delivered a decisive vote of 79% in favour of amending the Irish constitution to provide for marriage equality. The three Sinn Féin delegates voted in favour of amending the Constitution to include a positive obligation on the State to give effect to a guarantee of marriage equality and to the equal rights of the children of these marriages. It was described by advocacy groups as ‘an historic step’ and it was.
But like all such historic steps toward ending discrimination in all its forms and building real equality into society, there has to be a next step and a next step. In January the government finally published the wording for the referendum on same-sex marriage.

In just five weeks’ time two referenda will be held. One is to reduce the eligibility age for a candidate for the Presidential elections. The second is on marriage equality. This referendum vote will decide whether the proposed new wording should be added to the constitution: ‘Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex.’

Launch of Yes campaign in Louth
Early opinion polls indicated that there was an overwhelming majority for a Yes vote. Last December the polls indicated as many as 80% of voters would cast a Yes vote. More recent trends have suggested a small decline in that. An Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll at the end of March had the Yes side remaining relatively strong at 74%. However campaigners on both sides are very conscious of the volatility of the electorate and the inaccuracy on occasion of polls.

In 2013 opinion polls indicated that the Yes side in the referendum to scrap the Seanad would comfortably win with 62% of the vote.  On referendum day however the proposal to abolish the Seanad took only 48% of the vote losing by four per cent to the No campaign.

So there can be no room for complacency in advance of May 22nd. Sinn Féin is for a Yes vote. I would appeal to everyone to vote Yes and I would especially urge Yes voters to become active campaigners for a Yes vote.

Many of us will have a member of our family or extended family who is gay. All of us, whatever age we are or wherever we live or work, know someone who is gay. They are our family, our friends, our workmates and our neighbours. They are of all ages and from all walks of life. They want what we want – the right to live their lives as full and contributing citizens and to share in the love of a family of their own.

This month there has been a lot of focus on the Easter Rising. Sinn Féin, the Irish government and many other individuals and organisations have commemorated that historic event and have been setting out their plans for next year’s centenary celebrations.

At the heart of the Easter Rising is the Proclamation of the Republic. It is the founding document of modern Irish Republicanism and for me it is the starting point for my approach to issues of human rights, injustice and inequality.

The Proclamation declares that: ‘The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all of the children of the nation equally …’

And there you have it. Irish republicans are for equal rights and equal opportunities for all; we are resolved to pursue the happiness of everyone in the nation; and to cherish all the children of the nation equally. It does not say unless you are gay or bisexual or transgender. It doesn’t say unless you are black or a traveller or a woman or a Catholic or a Protestant. There are no exceptions. It doesn’t say whether you are disabled or sick or old. It says ALL its citizens.

The Proclamation wants all of the children of the island of Ireland to be cherished equally and to be happy.

Irish republicans want a society which is inclusive and which respects our diversity. Nothing less can be tolerated in a modern, progressive and inclusive society. A lot of progress has been made on this in recent years. But much more is needed, including tackling the worsening problem of race crime.

On May 22nd there is an opportunity to take another historic step forward. I would urge everyone to vote Yes. I would also appeal again for everyone to join the campaign for a Yes Vote. If you feel you can’t become part of any of the formal campaigns being organised then become part of the informal campaign.

Talk to your friends, to your workmates, to your family and neighbours and ask them to vote Yes. Text them. Facebook them. Use Twitter. Let’s get the biggest vote possible and ensure that on May 22nd the marriage equality referendum is passed.

 
 
Dublin Launch of Marriage Equality Yes campaign

Canvassing in Dundalk

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Best International Documentary | Defend the GPO and Save Moore St. | A Week in the Life and Death of GAZA

  Best International Documentary I spent the weekend in Galway and Mayo. The weather was amazing. The countryside with its miles of stone walls separating plots of land and the lush colours of green and rocky inclines was a joy to travel through. I was in Galway on Saturday to attend the Galway Film Festival/Fleadh where Trisha Ziff’s film – A Ballymurphy Man - was receiving its world premiere. The cinema in the old Town Hall where the Festival is centred was packed to capacity for the screening. The audience was hugely attentive and very welcoming when Trisha and I went on the stage at the end of the screening to talk about the making of the documentary. The next day I was in Mayo when Trisha text me to say that ‘A Ballymurphy Man’ had taken the Festival award for Best International Documentary. So well done Trisha and her team who worked hard over five years, with very limited funding to produce this film. In Mayo I met Martin Neary, who has bequeathed his 40-acre homeste...

Turf Lodge – A Proud Community

This blog attended a very special celebration earlier this week. It was Turf Lodge: 2010 Anois is Arís 50th Anniversary. For those of you who don’t know Turf Lodge is a proud Belfast working class community. Through many difficult years the people of Turf Lodge demonstrated time and time again a commitment to their families and to each other. Like Ballymurphy and Andersonstown, Turf Lodge was one of many estates that were built on the then outskirts of Belfast in the years after the end of World War 2. They were part of a programme of work by Belfast City Corporation known as the ‘Slum clearance and houses redevelopment programme.’ The land on which Turf Lodge was built was eventually bought by the Corporation in June 1956. The name of the estate, it is said, came from a farm on which the estate was built. But it was four years later, in October 1960, and after many disputes and delays between builders and the Corporation, that the first completed houses were handed over for allocation...

The murder of Nora McCabe

Nora McCabe was murdered almost 29 years ago on July 9th 1981. She was shot in the back of the head at close range by a plastic bullet fired from an RUC armoured landrover. She died the next day in hospital from her injuries. It was the same morning Joe McDonnell died on hunger strike. Nora was aged 33 and the mother of three young children, the youngest three months old. Over the years I have met her husband Jim many times. He is a quiet but very determined man who never gave up on getting the truth. Jim knew what happened, but as in so many other similar incidents, the RUC and the Director of Public Prosecutions office embarked on a cover up of the circumstances in order to protect the RUC personnel responsible for Nora’s murder. At the inquest in November 1982 several RUC people gave evidence, including James Critchley who was the senior RUC officer in west Belfast at the time. He was in one of the armoured vehicles. The RUC claimed that there were barricades on the Falls Road, tha...