County Pride, this afternoon.

Waterford, Co Waterford

Rob Power writes:

This particular piece of cliff face will be familiar to natives of both Waterford and Kilkenny who have, for many years, used it to express pride in their counties. Many a young hurling fan has gotten up at the crack of dawn to stealthily paint it white and blue or yellow and black. Tit for tat friendly jibes at their neighbouring sporting nemesis.

Of course, there have been times when the tricolour was the daub of choice as the counties were united in support of their country for one reason or another.

Well last night, a group of similarly stealthy individuals took the time to call for unity once more.

The upcoming vote is for everyone’s benefit. In as much as I look forward to attending the same sex weddings of my close friends, and wholeheartedly anticipate to a time when our children can express their sexuality casually and without fear of rebuke. I also take this referendum personally.

The fact that I am not gay won’t mean that I will be unaffected by a no vote. It would be an affront to all of us who have built philosophies around kindness and understanding, all of us who have used thought and empathy to create a moral compass, rather than taking our cues from one book or another.

Unfortunately a no vote won’t mean a return to the status quo; it will legitimise the woefully outdated thinly veiled homophobia that is rampant throughout our society.

When there is systematic injustice, it gives a certain momentum, a kind of inertia to bigotry and intolerance. This must be removed; we must be proactive to combat this. When our national system doesn’t allow for this sentiment anymore, then I believe it will wither and die in due course, like so many forms of discrimination has done in the past.

Well done those painters! Thanks for the colour! Vote Yes.

Rev Stephen Neill, Anglican Rector for Celbridge and Straffan with Newcastle–Lyons, Co Kildare

 A Late night call to the vicarage…

Most interesting – had a phone call [Last night] from someone claiming to be a non attending parishioner of mine urging me to tell my parishioners tomorrow to vote no – Had a fulsome and reasonably courteous debate but assured the said person (who only gave me a first name) that I would not be directing the congregation from the pulpit despite my own widely known views.

After the phone call ended I did an internet reverse look up on the telephone number and discovered that the number was nowhere near my parish and was infact the number of a prominent solicitor used by a prominent organisation campaigning for a No vote!

I decided to phone back and got the person (not incidentally the solicitor in question but they did admit their location) and same individual was a little bit rattled – I don’t know if said person is a parishioner and lives in my parish as they claimed but to me it was all a little less than transparent – This sort of behaviour only serves to undermine whatever cause a person is advocating – It certainly did nothing to weaken my resolve to vote YES…

Rev Stephen Neill

Stephen Neill (Facebook)

Thanks Derrick Howard

Dublin this afternoon.

Now that‘s a Whopper

Andy Sheridan writes:

I guess that settles the debate… #VoteYes

Meanwhile…

This afternoon.

Liam sez:

Dublin says yes