Tears and tallies on historic day

MUTED MOOD IN THE KERRY COUNT CENTRE AS VOTERS MADE HISTORY

EVERY election or referendum count is different but there is always one constant – the incredible skill of the men and women running the tally.

Friday’s exit polls had predicted a landslide win for the ‘Repeal’ campaign but – modern polling being notoriously inaccurate – no-one on either side was taking anything for granted until the contents of the county’s 212 ballot boxes were spilled out onto the counting tables.

The locks on the first boxes were opened in the Killarney Sports and Leisure Centre at 9am and some 40 tally men and women quickly went to work.

It didn’t take long for the result to become clear. Kerry had backed ‘repeal’ and had done so in a landslide.

Anyone with experience of count centres will tell you there’s a big difference between a referendum and an election.

While there tends to be a constant frisson of excitement at an election count, the same can’t be said about a referendum, no matter how emotive the issue.

Such was the case at Kerry’s Marriage Equality Feferendum counts in 2015 and so it was once again at Saturday’s historic count.

There was a degree of excitement as the incredibly accurate tally – which was managed by Sinn Féin and Fine Gael – neared completion but there was nothing like the scenes of elation witnessed at the RDS and in Dublin Castle.

Indeed, the sports centre itself probably detracted from the atmosphere with the 50 to 60 ‘repeal’ campaigners who stayed to hear the official result lost in the cavernous hall.

Even Kerry’s TDs appeared to demonstrate little interest in the result.

Martin Ferris was present for much of the day and Michael Healy-Rae arrived briefly after the result had been declared and the count centre was being dismantled – but there was no sign of the county’s other TDs.

What emotion there was came mostly from the defeated ‘no’ side, though only a handful of them remained in the hall by lunchtime.

Clearly devastated by the result, the ‘no’ side largely kept to themselves – even refusing to give the press details of their own tally – and most declined to comment on the disaster that was unfolding in front of them.

Such was the disappointment that there were even a few angry exchanges between anti-repeal campaigners and some members of the media – including some particularly harsh and unjustified name calling – with one ‘no’ campaigner becoming remarkably upset and frustrated following their side’s comprehensive rejection by voters.

When the result was officially declared, shortly after 4.30pm, there was a loud cheer from the ‘Kerry Together 4 Yes’ campaign whose members celebrated briefly before departing the count centre to toast a defining moment for Ireland.

Speaking after the national result was confirmed, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar called the referendum “a quiet revolution”.

It certainly felt quiet at the count centre in Killarney, though they do say history is defined by little moments.