The attempt to change Ireland's Constitution, underlining a woman's place in the home and makeup of the family, seems to have failed. The early tallies showed a strong support for ‘No-No’ votes signalling a failure to adopt changes to the Irish Constitution.
Ireland’s government was not expecting such a failure. "We haven’t expected this. We respect the voice of the people. We have to wait until the final count is done," said Eamon Ryan, the transport minister.
“It’s quite complicated when you try to change the constitution in any way. We didn’t convince the public of the argument for a Yes-Yes vote. I think the next government will have to come back to this and consider the campaign and what were the arguments that merited a No vote in both cases,” he added.
On International Women's Day, Irish voters voted to decide whether to change the 87-year-old document's passages that the government called outdated and sexist. The twin referendums are on deleting a reference to women's domestic duties and broadening the definition of the family.
WHAT ARE THE REFERENDUMS ABOUT?
In the recent voting process, the citizens of Ireland were first presented with an amendment to their constitution, related to the protection of the family as the primary unit of society. The amendment proposed the replacement of the existing clause that mentions marriage as the basis of a family with a new clause that allows families to be founded on other durable relationships as well. This amendment, if passed, will mark the 39th amendment to the Constitution of Ireland.
A proposed amendment, known as the 40th amendment, would make two changes. Firstly, it would remove a reference implying that women's primary role is to support the state by taking care of their homes. Additionally, it would delete a statement that says mothers can't be forced to work outside the house due to economic reasons and neglect their duties at home. Instead, the amendment would include a new clause stating that the government will strive to support families in taking care of their members.
The conditions and situations in Ireland have changed since 1937. A conservative society has become increasingly diverse and socially liberal over the years. According to the Central Statistics Office, the proportion of residents who are Catholic fell from 94.9% in 1961 to 69% in 2022.
Therefore, social transformation paved the way for a constitutional change. Irish voters legalized divorce in a 1995 referendum, backed same-sex marriage in a 2015 vote and repealed a ban on abortions in 2018.
Prime Minister Leo Varadkar announced a year ago, on International Women's Day 2023, that the government would hold a referendum to enshrine gender equality and remove discriminatory language from the constitution.
Earlier, opinion polls suggested that many voters remained undecided and the turnout may be low.
All major political parties supported a 'Yes-Yes' vote. Nearly 3.5 million people were eligible to cast their ballot.