Getting ready for the divorce referendum

October 1995

Nine years after pro-divorce campaigners broke down in tears at the Dun Mhuire count centre when the Wexford vote came in, it’s back to the future and a new campaign.

Battle grounds are slowly being drawn in Wexford with little over a month to go before Ireland’s second divorce referendum, to be held on Friday November24 next.

A Divorce Action Group was formed in the town last week to canvass for a ‘yes’ vote, while this week, an advertisement was placed in local newspapers calling on people to join a ‘Rosary petition’ against divorce.

The DAG was established at a meeting attended by a representative of the Divorce Action Group in Dublin, who briefed intending Wexford activists on the campaign nationally.

A spokesman said afterwards that a ‘yes’ campaign would be organised locally but added that the level of activity depended on the involvement of the political parties.

Both the Labour Party and Democratic Left confirmed this week that they would be actively campaigning for a ‘yes’ vote, while Fianna Fáil say they will be leaving it to individuals to decide for themselves.

Fine Gael spokesperson, Minister of State Avril Doyle TD, called this week for a ‘yes’ vote. She said that a majority ‘yes’ vote would be ‘ the only compassionate response to separated/battered wives or abandoned husbands’, and that to vote ‘no’ would serve only ‘ to deny them the possibility of a happy second marriage.’