Tag Archives: The Eighth Amendment

John Waters

‘The tenor of the contest has been so nauseating that the deepest parts of my psyche had begun to anticipate this outcome.

It was little things: the frivolity of the Yes side: “Run for Repeal”; “Spinning for Repeal”; “Walk your Dog for Repeal”; “Farmers for Yes”; “Grandparents for Repeal,” which ought to have been “Grandparents for Not Having Grandchildren.”

This, like the same-sex marriage referendum in 2015, was a carnival referendum: Yessers chanting for Repeal, drinking to Repeal, grinning for the cameras as they went door-to-door on the canvass of death.

Today, Ireland dances on the graves of little children. It is a country where freedom means the right to do just about anything you please, without risk of consequences.

On the day of the vote, the media gave us a picture of our Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, grinningly dropping his vote into a ballot box, over the headline: “All the lads in the gym are voting yes.”

It is the epitaph of the country I grew up in, the only one I had to call home, this ancient land, traceable into antiquity by its piety, its valor, and its sufferings.

This fool we are obliged to call Taoiseach (Chieftain), this man without qualities—who entered the last election three short years ago as “pro-life”—has led my people into a hell beyond imagining.’

John Waters. Ireland: An Obituary

He’s taking it well.

Ireland: An Obituary by John Waters (First Things)

Stop her.

She’s celebrating the wrong way.

‘I am more than happy with what happened last Friday and invigorated by the turnout – especially young voters’ participation. In retrospect, the difficult and uncomfortable debate was extremely good and productive.

So, what’s my point here? Well, it is that there is a certain dislikeable triumphalism among a minority on the Yes winning side…’

John Downing, today’s Irish Independent

‘I know that mixture of abjection and alienation, when the country you love and the people you care about go in one direction while you’re going in another; when your own deepest values are profoundly out of kilter with those of your compatriots. I know what it’s like to be the freak.

And that knowledge might also carry a small warning against revenge. For many of us, Saturday was the first day of our adult lives in which we felt fully like the normal Irish. That’s a fine feeling and God knows we’ve waited long enough for it. It is worth savouring. But let’s not do to them what they did to us.’

Fintan O’Toole, today’s  Irish Times

‘So, are we to replace decades of religious tyranny with a new secular intolerance?  And so, just as some members of that victorious 67pc in 1983 were obnoxious, smug and vengeful towards the losing side, that same miasma of triumphalist contempt has been clearly in evidence from many victorious repealers.’

Ian O’Doherty, today’s Irish Independent

So there.

Rollingnews

Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran

“What I’d say to a Catholic who voted Yes is this, if you voted Yes knowing and intending that abortion would be the outcome then you should consider coming to confession…

…Ultimately all sin, and sin is not just related to this area, but all sin is about decisions that impact on our relationship with God.”

Catholics who voted Yes should consider confession, says Bishop (irish Times)

Rollingnews

 

 

 

This afternoon.

Dublin Castle, Dublin 2

Jubilant Yes campaigners and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar celebrate the vote to repeal the 8th Amendment.

More as we get it.

Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie

Meanwhile, in the RDS…

This afternoon.

RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4

Minister for Health Simon Harris (pic 4) and Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald (pic 7) join Jubilant Yes campaigners at the  Dublin count centre as results from the Eighth Amendment referendum come in.

Earlier: Love Vote

Rollingnews

Rollingnews

Update:

A separate Exit poll was conducted by RTÉ and Behaviour & Attitudes.

Exit poll indicates large majority vote to change abortion laws (RTÉ)