REFERENDUM ABIG WEXFORD YES!
EVERY single ballot box in every one of County Wexford’s 191 polling stations returned a majority Yes vote in the Eight Amendment referendum with no notable pattern of difference between urban and rural areas, a result described as ‘extraordinary’ by the Wexford Together for Yes campaign which had expected a closer result.
The official return in the county was 68.4% Yes to 31.6% No but the Yes vote reached highs of up to 80% in some areas including Glynn, Gusserane and Crossabeg while the lowest Yes vote was from Kilmyshall Community Centre at 53%.
‘From canvassing on the doorsteps, we felt it was going to be very close but in the end there was a big silent Yes factor and people who were swaying towards Yes but didn’t want to say,’ said Aislinn Wallace of Together for Yes which held an early ‘thank you’ party for supporters in the Sky and the Ground pub on the eve of the count to pre-empt the sadness of an after event if the result went against them.
When the results of an Irish Times exit poll came out that night, the mood of the group changed from nervous anticipation to ‘tears of relief and joy’.
‘A two-to-one margin was incredible. The message of care and compassion came through in the end,’ said Aislinn, who took time off from her voluntary work with Wexford Housing Action Group to focus on the repeal campaign.
‘I really think what swung it was ordinary people becoming engaged with the issue and giving personal commitment to it and this has given people a sense of ownership of the result’, said activist Aislinn, adding that the battle is not yet finished.
‘There is the legislation and the question of whether it will be led by GPs. There are a whole lot of variables which we as a group want to highlight.’
Labour leader Brendan Howlin, who opposed the Eight Amendment in 1983 and was loud in his call for change in this referendum, was one of the first to arrive at the count centre in St Joseph’s Community Centre when it opened on Saturday morning.
He said he was ‘heartened’ by the decisiveness of the result. ‘The people of Wexford and Ireland have issued an emphatic instruction to the legislators to repeal the Eighth Amendment. The mandate we have received today is unambiguous. Ireland has matured and changed forever,’ he said.
A few hours later, Deputy Howlin was at the RDS in Dublin, paying tribute to the national body of Together for Yes on running ‘a dignified and decent campaign’.
‘For 35 years we have denied something essential to Irish women. We’ve denied them security and protection at crucial points in their lives. Today is a levelling day for them. And it is very much a cause for celebration. For many of us this has been a long road to travel,’ he said.
More than 100 staff were involved in counting the 73,220 votes cast in County Wexford out of a total eligible electorate of 110,494. A total of 216 spoiled votes left a valid poll of 73,004 with 49,935 people voting Yes and 23,069 voting No.
It wasn’t long after the boxes were opened that it became clear Wexford had voted in line with the national trend of two to one for Yes with John Mullins, chairperson of Wexford Pro-Life, accepting early on that there was an unstoppable landslide towards repealing the controversial amendment.
‘I felt it was always an uphill battle this time. On the doorsteps, we didn’t feel it was that bad, certainly not the numbers we are talking about’, he said after a first glance at the tally figures.
There was co-operation between the two sides with a large number of Yes and No campaigners joining forces to tally figures from the boxes of votes as they were counted, coming up with an accurate 68% to 32% prediction before the official result was announced at 2.45 p.m. by acting returning officer John Garahy.
The Wexford count was largely completed before 1.30 p.m. but there was a delay while figures were checked and authorisation awaited from national count headquarters in Dublin for the announcement of the local result.
Tallyman John Ryan said he was struck by the similarity in voting patterns between urban and rural areas, a feature that was also commented on by Fianna Fáil councillor Malcolm Byrne who was in St Joseph’s throughout the count.
‘You would normally expect a significant difference between urban and rural polling station but that was’t the case. Some boxes in areas like Riverchapel and Duncannon voted more than 70% yes’.
Mr Mullins, who spearheaded the No campaign in County Wexford described the result as ‘the blackest day in Irish history’ and said he was ‘bitterly saddened for the unborn child’.
‘Yesterday was the worst day in Irish history when the Irish people decided to remove the right to life of unborn children and replace it with the right to terminate unborn children for no reason. We have disowned our unborn. There is no going back’, he said.
‘Over the next 10 years we are
going to be looking at 10,000 to 12,000 abortions in Ireland, 97% of which will be healthy babies from healthy mothers. The other frightening thing is what it is going to do to the medical profession - doctors will be asked to execute patients, that is what abortion on demand is’.
Asked what he felt had caused people to change their minds about the Eight Amendment, he said: ‘People have become far more liberal in their views. They were lied to by the Yes campaign’.
Mr Mullins said the pro-life movement will fight on until protection for the unborn is restored in the Constitution.
In 1983, 72.8% of County Wexford people voted to insert the amendment into the Constitution with 27.2% against and they largely voted to reverse that decision this time around.
Younger voters are being given some of the credit for the swing but there were also reports among canvassers at the count of a surprising number of elderly voters who indicated a preference for repeal.
Yes campaigner and former People Before Profit councillor Deirdre Wadding drew much laughter with her soundbite comment: ‘I’m not one to quote a pope but young people of Ireland, we love you!’
There was a 66.7% electoral turn-out in Wexford in the repeal referendum, compared to 59% for the amendment referendum of 1983 while the turn-out for the marriage equality referendum as 57.8%.
Among the local politicians who visited the count centre was Minister of State with responsibility for Defence Paul Kehoe who arrived with his seven-year old daughter to speak to count staff and campaigners.
Minister Kehoe declined to publicly outline his position on the referendum before polling day. ‘I didn’t declare and I won’t be declaring’, he said, before adding that he will be supporting abortion legislation.
’I think this has been the people’s referendum. I absolutely respect each and everyone’s decision in how they voted. I will be supporting the legislation. I hope the Government and the Oireachtas will now get on with it. I absolutely trust women 100% to make the right decisions for themselves. People have spoken for a resounding change and we have to respect that. As a country we have matured so much’.
‘I respect the people who came out and told their personal stories during the campaign. It was a clean campaign. I thought it would be a very divisive campaign but people were very respecful towards all sides’, he said.