Irish abortion referendum: yes wins with 66.4% – as it happened

Ivana Bacik, an Irish Labour party senator and leading light of the campaign to repeal the eight amendment, has written for the Guardian about her reaction to the anticipated referendum result and why she thinks it happened:

How did we succeed? Over the many weeks of this long campaign, I have been out canvassing extensively for a yes, in Dublin and elsewhere. The growing public awareness of the immense harm and hardship caused by the eighth amendment became increasingly apparent to me over the campaign.

In truth, many people in Ireland had already recognised the reality that the eighth amendment represented an absolute bar to any lifting of the prohibition on abortion, even in cases of rape, risk to women’s health or fatal foetal abnormality ... Over the years, public opinion had thus shifted towards supporting repeal.

The government’s proposed legislation was vociferously opposed by no campaigners, who argued it would lead to “abortion on demand” and it was dangerous to leave the job of making law to elected legislators, on the basis that “politicians can’t be trusted” – a profoundly populist and anti-democratic argument.

The resounding yes vote we appear to have now achieved shows that the majority of Irish citizens simply rejected the scaremongering tactics of the no side. It shows that as a society we recognise the need for our democratically elected legislators to introduce an appropriate legal framework for the regulation of lawful termination of pregnancy.

As a student campaigner in the 1980s I was taken to court and threatened with prison for distributing information to Irish women on where to access abortion. I am very grateful to my fellow Irish citizens who appear to have voted so overwhelmingly for a more democratic, equal and progressive Ireland.

You can read the full article here.

Leading no campaigner John McGuirk, communications officer for Save the 8th, has posted a message on his Facebook page for all who voted to keep Ireland’s strict anti-abortion laws.

Today will be a “hard and difficult day”, but he says no one should give up:

Like many of you I am broken-hearted about the apparent result, and it’s many implications, which go way beyond abortion.

I fear that over the coming years, more and more women and their families will sadly learn that it was never the journey that was lonely, but the decision, and that it was not the country that is cruel, but the decision.

Thank you all, so much, for your work and your friendship. Today will be a hard and difficult day, but hold your heads high. It is never wrong to speak up for what you believe in. It is wrong to stay silent, and especially wrong to stay silent when the crowd is totally against you. I will never stay silent. I hope the rest of you will join me.

If you voted no, be proud, and defiant. Now is the time when your voice is needed more than ever.

Expecting a close result, one Dublin students’ union hosted a “chill village” that provided a “quiet space” where students could “de-stress” while watching the result, writes Sinéad Baker from Dublin.

But after the hugely encouraging signs for yes, it appeared many students found that they didn’t need it. From those here, the results coming in are met with huge cheers.

The welfare officer of the students’ union at Trinity College, Damien McClean, said the union had expected a closer result and a lot of stressed students:

“It’s better that we have these spaces open and they’re not used and they’re not needed to be used rather than not have them in the first place,” McClean said.

26 May 201806.46 EDT

Opposition Fianna Fail leader promises backing

Henry McDonald

The leader of Ireland’s main Irish opposition party, Fianna Fail, has insisted his anti-abortion parliamentarians will “not stand in the way of the will of the Irish people” and block legislation leading to abortion up to 12 weeks.

Micheal Martin gambled with his leadership by coming out in favour of a yes vote even though 32 of his Dail deputies were on the no side in the campaign. The RTÉ exit poll breakdown of political parties’ attitudes to the referendum also found that a small majority of Fianna Fail voters, 50.3%, backed the no camp in Friday’s poll.

But speaking his native Cork City on Saturday morning, Martin said he believed that members of the Dail would have to “honour the will of the people” and allow for the passage of the government’s planned legislation.

Martin said it was now clear from the two exit polls that Ireland had “emphatically passed” the referendum and that his party should back the Fine Gael-led government to legalise abortion.

26 May 201806.40 EDT

Lisa O'Carroll

Roscommon, which was considered a bellwether for the “no” camp, has confounded all expectations with tallies currently showing a 57% victory for yes.

MEP Luke Ming Flanagan, a former TD for the constituency said he always knew voters would come out in favour of repeal: “I always knew voters were not conservative – they are just a bit complicated.”

Ireland’s health minister, Simon Harris, sums up for RTÉ Radio what the expected referendum result will mean for the successors of the tens of thousands of Irish women who have had to travel abroad for an abortion:

The count began shortly after 9am and is now well under way, with ballots from the 40 constituencies being tallied at 26 centres around the country.

At the same time, unofficial tallies – which give an accurate picture of the result, and are so far confirming the exit polls’ forecast of a landslide for yes – are being kept and released piecemeal through the day.

First official results are expected from early afternoon, with local returning officers reporting their constituency results to the referendum returning officer who will will formally declare the national result at Dublin Castle when all 40 constituencies are in.

In past referendums, according to the national broadcaster RTÉ, the overall result has been declared as early as 2.15pm, and as late as 7pm.

More from the streets of Dublin from Sinéad Baker:

The relief is palpable from those who were hoping for a yes victory. Signs are already been taken down at one Temple Bar shop, where manager Mark Ryan says the shop sold out of repeal mechanise before the vote.

Andanappa Yalagi, the father of Savita Halappanavar, who died of sepsis in Galway in 2012 after being denied an abortion during a protracted miscarriage, said he was “very happy today”.

Speaking to Harriet Sherwood by phone from his home in Karnataka, in south-west India, Yalagi said:

We’ve got justice for Savita. What happened to her will not happen to any other family. I have no words to express my gratitude to the people of Ireland at this historic moment.

Halappanavar’s death galvanised the movement to repeal the eighth amendment. Prof Sir Sabaratnam Arulkumaran, who chaired an official investigation into her death, called on voters this week to back the repeal, saying it tied doctors’ hands.

She was 17 weeks pregnant when she died at the age of 31.

Sinéad Baker is out and about on the streets of Dublin, where the mood is “very positive”, she reports:

People are struggling to articulate exactly how they’re feeling, but relief seems to be the dominant emotion, particularly for those who have been campaigning for years.

Sarah Brennan is celebrating in Temple Bar today with her sister and nephew. “I’ve been working towards this for quite a while,” she said. “It’s amazing. It shows that Ireland is moving on. Women don’t have to tell their stories anymore, and that’s important.”