Well assuming English is your native tongue... you’re not Irish, or your would know what a communion dress is called and would know they’re not on sale everywhere. You would also know why and how Irish law works the way it does, and you would know how hard we are fighting for equality in this country and you wouldn’t…

While you make some valid points, the unjustified superiority of your tone is unpleasant. This site has given plenty of examples over the years of how many politicians and their supporters in the USA would happily take away women’s rights.

The vote was to change the constitution to make it a basic right and protect that for future generations. Nobody was listening to the pope lol. That was the whole point for a lot of people. It is very much an internal debate and all credit goes to Irish people to decide their future. The church has been discredited…

People are gone from their home countries for work for extended periods of time, university study or other training programs, waiting out a visa situation with a spouse, caring for family members... I can think of so many reasons. They are still very much a part of their communities and plan to return after a year or…

Irish people are highly educated and good at languages. We travel worldwide for work because Ireland is a country of 4 million people and the job market is small. Getting experience overseas can make all the difference to your career. Many, many people are abroad but not settled there. Think of them as commuters who…

We all had to leave to get jobs because of the recession but most are temporary working visas abroad or are within the EU which has free movement of people. For most it’s a temporary fix and we will all be back so still entitled to our say. I’m very proud of all who made the extra effort.

Our governments shitty stance on abortion is pure cowardice, there are shitty loud minority groups like Youth Defence that imply Irish people are against abortion but opinion polls don’t back this up. Basically a number of Irish governments have been to scared to legislate in the area of abortion out of fear of there…

Yes, and now Gerald Fitzpatrick can marry Patrick Fitzgerald.

to be honest emma, your comment suggests you’re very much out of touch with the way things are in Ireland nowadays. I’m not going to respond to all what you’ve written. I don’t have time. But what I would like to say that there is a positive in having a referendum in that the debate helps to move those who would not…

irish people abroad are eligible to vote if they’ve been out of the country less than 18 months. you are not eligible to vote if you think you might like to go to ireland on holiday sometime. hope this clears things up.

The Pope gets zero credit. The Irish have basically deserted the Catholic Church en masse, and the Church still came out hard against it.

Also, as much as people can’t believe it, many people are lax Catholics or agnostic/atheist. Church of Ireland (Protestant) also came out in favour of marriage equality, along with many priests. Though Bishops were obviously against it.

Ireland has to vote by referendum to make a change to the constitution. The government could have passed legislation, however, by changing it through a referendum, that means that it cannot be changed without ANOTHER referendum.

I totally get what you're saying about voting on human rights but it means so much that we altered our constitution by a popular vote. We wanted this as a nation. We came out and showed that we did and the No side now have no weight in this country. The rainbow tastes so sweet!

I have lived outside of the US since 2010, yet I am still registered to vote and do. I am a citizen of the United States and may return one day—why should I be cut out of the process because I am currently away?

Um, we have birth control. Multiple forms, all reasonably priced. Now the abortion thing, we DO need to sort that one out.

Birth control is not illegal in Ireland and hasn’t been since the 80s

It has to do with the Irish legal system. Any change to the constitution must be voted on by the people under Irish law. Theres no way around it. It was the only way to enshrine protection for same sex unions in the constitution. They could have just legislated for it without a public vote but without that protection…

Birth control is perfectly legal and this victory gives us a much better chance of getting an abortion referendum passed soon.

So proud of Ireland today,voted yes myself yesterday.