> The Family referendum has been **defeated in the constituencies of all major party leaders** – Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin (Cork South Central), Fine Gael’s Leo Varadkar (Dublin West), Green’s Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South) Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central), Social Democrats’ leader Holly Cairns (Cork South-West), Labour’s Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South) and Aontú leader Peadar Tobín (Meath West).
https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2024/0309/1436882-referendum/
This is astounding and unprecedented right? What happens from here?
by here2dare
36 comments
Some sort of Purge type scenario I’d imagine.
The most worrying part for me was the actions of the supposedly independent referendum commission. Also the polls that supposedly showed an ~80% yes vote. A reminder that opinion polls are designed to influence, not inform
Lisbon II -eh part 2
If that’s notable, it should also be too that Peadar Tóibín (Aontú) advocated a No vote.
What do you imagine would happen?
It’s a referendum, not an election. Losing it is embarassing for the government but it has no real impact beyond that.
Looking beyond the next election, if this government is returned I can’t imagine they’ll go near this issue again. Sinn Fein on the other hand have already said they will.
Sad day
it was case, where most just didn`t feel, changes will be beneficiary and probably didn`t even fully understand what it will do. therefore went for as it is.
It’s not unprecedented but the poor judgement by the coalition leaders in their rushed and poor choice of wording is a bit surprising.
The proposal to reduce the eligibility age limit for president was defeated by a greater margin: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-fifth_Amendment_of_the_Constitution_Bill_2015](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-fifth_Amendment_of_the_Constitution_Bill_2015). There were no political repercussions then and we all moved on, same as any other time the government lost a referendum.
Although that record will be beaten by the care referendum.
every poll before this election had yes at a comfortable 60% +were they only asking people from Dún Laoghaire ?
A well deserved humiliation for the government, particularly given the outright lies they spread.
>unprecedented
No considering that there have been what, 13 other referenda that be failed?
You’re easily astounded.
If people want to head off the mad US style divisions and the mad UK Brexit style divisions stop talking shite about 67-75% of Irish people being far right. Most of us voted for SSM. And Repeal. The fringes of the “progressive” movement are as mad as the far right. What we want is legislation to give access to benefits for all and proper provision for carers. Neither need referendums. Just money and political will.
Let’s watch FFG for delivery.
Looking at this, if I was looking to get elected on the next election I would be seriously considering my position on the hate speech legislation, that’s another issue which in my view is not what the majority of people want.
Wdym shocking? How is it shocking? I don’t know many that voted yes
This terrifies me tbh. All the moderate parties came out for a yes. It’s performance artists such as aontu and the national party that backed a no. I feel this is a warning sign the national party might actually get a seat somewhere next referendum. Just them getting one nutter in would cause chaos.
Referendums not passing sometimes is how they’re supposed to work. You ask the people to vote on something and sometimes they’ll vote no. It’s not astonishing or unprecedented, it’s how the process should work.
It’s time to crack open each others heads and feast on the goo inside
Who cares? It was a nothing referendum. Baffled that it was held. Virtue signaling arrogant nonsense. It’ll be forgotten, quickly.
Well it’s not like a mother was taking the government to the supreme court arguing they were breaching her constitutional rights as a mother because they denied her carer’s allowanxw because her husband earned too much. And if she won that case it could cost the government a lot of money, but at the same time if the referenda passed the case would be moot.
Yeah can’t really blame that on turnout
It’s amazing that I had to defend my no vote here a week ago and had to explain how I wasn’t sexist for doing so or that a no wouldn’t be a step towards women being “forced out of the workplace”
Now people are acting like it was a nothing burger of a referendum the whole time and that it was doomed to fail.
It’s clear that there are plenty of people here out of touch.
All the Pay Triots are calling for a referendum on immigration next, using McDowell as their mascot.
The uncertainty about the definition of the “durable relationship” and no mention of state involvement in care sank them
Hard to believe that nearly one in three voted for this moronic rubbish.
Good all of these pointless changes were just meant to distract us from the housing referendum that they failed to deliver on
I **think** it might be people telling politicians to stop wanting to change the constitution constantly.
A constitution is meant to be relatively stable, with a technical part defining the workings of the government and a more general part laying out a few key values for the country. Those things are not meant to change constantly.
This referendum was a poorly cynical attempt to generate referendum hype right before an election.
They thought it was gonna generate the good will repeal the 8th did and then they’d profit off that during the GE
It means that the president won’t sign the bills. He might let the dogs chew on them for a bit.
Waste of money for something that wasn’t a pressing issue tbf
73.9% no on the Care side. An absolute curb stomping for the NGO classes of Establishment Ireland. What a glorious day!
It just seemed like pointless issues to me (not saying to everyone) when there are far more pressing matters.
How much money was spent facilitating this referendum? Seems like a massive waste of resources when people have bigger problems.
A brilliant victory for any self respecting irish citizen. Congratulations, and be proud of yourself and your your country.
I expected it to be close enough but a little surprise how strong no vote was in the end considering opinion polling beforehand trended pretty strongly towards yes.
Just for fun, see how many posters in this thread you can correctly guess signed up in mid January to early February.
5 out of 5 so far!
I voted Yes/Yes in rural Clare. Not because I liked the wording (I didn’t) — but because I have always wanted those meaningless, dated provisions out of the Constitution and I knew this would be the chance. I am not remotely upset about the No/No vote — I think most people who voted No did so for the same basic reason I voted Yes — because they knew it made not a damn bit of difference to the reality of how the Constitution would operate.
The idea that all Yes/Yes voters are performative “woke” progressives who blindly support gesture politics is just as nonsensical as the idea that the No vote indicates a deep religious conservatism somehow.
People didn’t know what it meant because it doesn’t mean much. The current provisions don’t mean much. I voted yes in spite of it, many voted no because of it.
Government needs to learn that referenda are fine for clear cut cultural matters but that using them as a political tool to garner goodwill is a mistake.