The Guardian’s Henry McDonald is at Dublin Castle where the official results will be announced later today:
Unlike the result of the same-sex marriage equality referendum three years ago, there will be no giant screens on display at Dublin Castle today broadcasting the overall national result of the vote to legalise abortion.
Although no one is saying it too loudly, I understand “security reasons” have convinced the authorities at the former seat of British power in Ireland not to hold a giant screening of the main result this afternoon.
These were based on concerns about possible ugly scenes emerging between yes and no camp followers arguing on the cobblestones of the ancient square.
Which all seems a bit much given firstly that there appear to be few supporters of the no campaign around at present, and secondly, that despite some minor incidents the 2018 referendum has not been marred by ugly, fractious scenes on the campaign trail.
The British government cannot ignore the expected massive endorsement for abortion reform in the Irish Republic while a near total ban on terminations remains over the border in Northern Ireland, Amnesty International has said.
While describing the projected victory for the yes side as a “momentous win for women’s rights” the global human rights group said their counterparts in Northern Ireland were “still prosecuted by a Victorian-era abortion ban”.
Northern Ireland is now the only region in the UK where the 1967 Abortion Act does not apply, said Grainne Teggart, Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland campaign manager:
It’s hypocritical, degrading and insulting to Northern Irish women that we are forced to travel for vital healthcare services but cannot access them at home. The UK government can no longer turn a blind eye and deny us equality. We cannot be left behind in a corner of the UK and on the island of Ireland as second-class citizens.
The UK’s supreme court is soon expected to make a ruling on a case considering whether the regional abortion ban breaches Northern Irish women’s rights. And in September the court in London will hear the case of a mother who is being prosecuted for buying abortion pills for her daughter.
More from Lisa O’Carroll who has spoken to some overjoyed and tearful yes voters in traditionally conservative Roscommon:
Mother Georgina Barrow and daughter Natalie who had just done the tally on their own parish and it came in 90 to 66 in favour of repeal!. They were overwhelmed. "We had really good feedback on the doors, but you just don't know what people will do when they are in the booth"
Varadkar says he hopes abortion will be legal in Ireland by year-end
Lisa O'Carroll
Ireland’s taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, has said he hopes laws to allow abortions in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy would be in place in Ireland by the end of the year, with the expected referendum results giving the government “a clear mandate” to do so.
Vardkar told national broadcaster RTÉ the expected landslide for yes was the “culmination of a quiet revolution”, adding that the expected two-to-one backing for constitutional reform to liberalise abortion laws showed the country was not divided.
“We are united,” he said, and the referendum “allows us as a nation to come of age”. Health minister Simon Harris, who was at the vanguard of the government campaign, said he always knew Irish people were “decent and compassionate”.
In traditionally conservative Roscommon/East Galway, the first unofficial tally is showing 57% for yes and 43% for no, reports the Guardian’s Lisa O’Carroll.
Latest from Roscommon tallies: 98 out of 132 ballot boxes counted (none left unopened). Yes: 57.46% No: 42.59%
Lisa has spoken to one voter who explained that in this constituency, the “shy” vote was in favour of repeal in the eighth amendment, not saving it:
The “shy” voter won Roscommon for “yes” side. “ delight but for weeks now we’ve known there was support for the yes side. There were a lot of quiet voters who wouldn’t say how they were voting but if you had asked me to call it I would have said Ros was a yes,” Julie O’Donoghue pic.twitter.com/LhMsRfsmsf
Ireland’s minister for children and youth affairs has said she is grateful and emotional at voters’ apparent overwhelming decision to repeal the eighth amendment.
Katherine Zappone said she was confident new abortion legislation could be approved by parliament and put in place before the end of the year:
I feel very emotional. I’m especially grateful to the women of Ireland who came forward to provide their personal testimony about the hard times that they endured, the stress and the trauma that they experienced because of the eighth amendment.
Ireland’s prime minister, Leo Varadkar, has said the expected overwhelming win for the yes side was the “culmination of a quiet revolution in Ireland”.
The taoiseach said this process of change for women had started over a number of decades. “We will have a modern constitution for a modern country,” he said, adding that the predicted outcome also demonstrated that Ireland was not sharply divided by the abortion issue any longer.
Meanwhile his deputy prime minister, Simon Coveney, said the exit polls showed the result “was not a Dublin versus the rest” situation. Coveney said the predicted rural-urban split over the referendum had not materialised.
Cabinet approval for legal text to be sought as early as Tuesday
Ireland’s health minister, Simon Harris, has said he will ask for formal cabinet approval as early as this Tuesday to turn the government’s draft abortion law into a formal legislative text, Sky News is reporting:
Health Minister @SimonHarrisTD says he’ll ask for formal cabinet approval this Tuesday to turn the draft abortion law into a full text. #Repealed#RepealThe8th
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