Referendum ensures all has changed – utterly and forever

The result of the abortion referendum was like the classic closing line of a Frank O’Connor short story: “She knew from that moment on, things would never be the same again.” The emphatic nature of the result took us all by surprise – although, in retrospect, I should have seen it.

I was in rural Kilkenny and Carlow ten days before and half the people I met on the street were saying Yes. And they weren’t not just your young liberal, voters but parents, and grandparents… country people who went to Mass every Sunday.

Up until about ten days beforehand it was close enough. But after that the tide turned and people started moving en masse to the Yes side.

I met a lovely women, Aine Killian, in Roscommon on the day of the count. She was a committed No canvasser.

“Last Sunday I knew the feeling on the ground was not good. I felt that people were not listening and not prepared to listen. I went home and cried,” she said, clearly shocked by the outcome.

“I am a single mother and my daughter is 13 years of age. So many girls like me have had their baby and not regretted it; who rang abortion clinics in England, and then changed their minds.

“But is giving a message we are giving blessing to have abortions in Ireland in future,” she said.

Over in Castlebar later that day, the Save the 8th campaigners were also glum. One of them, Tom Horan from Kilmovee said it became evident to him at the weekend.

I spoke to a lot of people who voted in Mayo over the weekend and all of them said it was tough and they grappled with it. But the vast majority went for a Yes vote.

Why? All counties that were expected to vote No voted Yes and with something to spare. The only exception was Donegal which took on Roscommon’s unwanted mantel from 2015 (when it rejected the same-sex marriage referendum) as the only county which went against the grain.

There were various theories put forward – the personal stories; judgements that hard cases needed to be dealt with, that twelve weeks was not excessive, that women deserved a choice, being persuaded that Irish abortion would not be UK abortion.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.