McAleese calls for Yes vote in referendums next weekend
FORMER president Mary McAleese has called for a Yes vote in the referendums on family and care.
Ms McAleese said the amendments would take Ireland ‘another step towards the egalitarian future that our citizens desire’.
Two referendums will be held next Friday, March 8, proposing to change the Constitution.
The family amendment proposes extending the meaning of family beyond one defined by marriage and to include those based on ‘durable’ relationships.
The care amendment proposes deleting references to a woman’s roles and duties in the home, and replacing it with a new article that acknowledges family carers. Ms McAleese told a media event yesterday: ‘I intend to vote Yes to both proposed changes to the Constitution because I am persuaded strongly that they will reflect the overwhelming impulse for equality and inclusivity that is the hallmark of modern Ireland.
‘They remove from the Constitution language and attitudes that have long been controversial on account of perceived sexism. They will also stop the marginalisation of many good, decent people whose strong contribution to family and community life has been completely under-valued, rendered second class.’
Ms McAleese was speaking at an event titled We Are Family, jointly hosted by Treoir and One Family as part of a wider platform of civil society organisations calling for ‘Yes’ votes.
The event was chaired by columnist and former Barnados CEO Fergus Finlay.
The former president said it was ‘unacceptable’ that families outside marriage and civil partnerships were not being recognised by the Constitution .
On the second referendum, which deals with what is commonly referred to as the ‘women in the home’ article, Ms McAleese said: ‘It is no longer suited to an Ireland anxious to promote gender equality.’
She said the reality is that care can be ‘stretched across a vast spectrum of everyday reality life’. She said a ‘Yes’ vote for the proposed amendment would put a ‘renewed spotlight’ on family care.
Ms McAleese added: ‘To leave those articles as they are would contradict the dynamic of the momentum of our people.’
Other speakers included John O’Meara, who recently won a case at the Supreme Court which found he was entitled to the widower’s pension even though he was not married or in a civil partnership with his long-term partner. Speaking at yesterday’s event as the carer of his children, he said that the case did not change his constitutional position, adding: ‘I’m still not recognised as in a family even though I won that case.’
The first of the proposed amendments would extend constitutional protection to families founded on ‘other durable relationships’. Mr O’Meara said he was supporting a Yes vote in both referendums.
Sinéad Gibney, a single parent and former chief commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, said her relationship with her daughter was a ‘unique bond’.
She said the ‘reality is families come in all shapes and sizes’, adding: ‘It is painful for me that my beautiful little family, of me
‘The fight won’t be over’
and my daughter, is not recognised in the Constitution as a “real” family.’
Christopher Tuite, a support worker, said he became a father at a very young age.
He said he is an equal partner with his child’s mother but he is recognised constitutionally as a single male because they are not married. He said he would be voting Yes in both referendums, adding: ‘Fathers cannot continue to be left on the sidelines.’
Maxine Walshe, a psychotherapist and carer, said she works with lone parents who struggle to make ends meet and feel isolated. She added: ‘The fight won’t be over on March 8, but a Yes, Yes vote puts us in a much stronger position to push for that change.’