Irish gay marriage referendum: 'No' campaigners concede defeat

[NuclearDem]

Source: The Telegraph

Votes still being counted but opponents of same sex marriage admit 'disappointing' results so far

Gay rights groups hailed victory in Ireland's referendum on same-sex marriage on Saturday after "No" campaigners effectively conceded defeat in the historic vote.

"Everyone seems to be predicting a 'yes' ... and that seems to be the case at the moment. It's disappointing," said John Murray from Catholic think tank the Iona Institute, which spearheaded the "No" campaign.

Final results are not expected until later in the day in the poll, which could make Ireland the first country to adopt same-sex marriage via a popular vote.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ireland/11625847/Irish-gay-marriage-referendum-No-campaigners-concede-defeat.html

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Now that is a hell of a thing to wake up to.

[RKP5637]

1. K&R! n/t

[allan01]

2. bravo. excellente

[Berlin Expat]

3. Good news. You can follow

live updates here at The Irish Times - it's a liveblog.

http://liveblog.irishtimes.com/635f85be44/LIVE-The-counts---Ireland-decides/

Thus far, it's looking like a fairly resounding victory for the Yes campaign.

[Warren Stupidity]

4. Historic. One of the last bastions of the Catholic Church in western europe

has freed itself from their clutches. An historic event.

[rurallib]

8. I have this movie type scene in my mind

of the clouds and darkness lifting and the sun shining through with some gentle music lilting over the land.

[Berlin Expat]

9. Indeed:

https://twitter.com/arishapiro/status/602091161122115584/photo/1

[47of74]

11. The church over there took a big hit

All the cover ups going on drove a lot of Irish away from the church. The Church of Ireland got back up to where it was 60 years ago head count wise.

[LiberalElite]

18. As the old song says- It's a Great Day for the Irish!

[corkhead]

5. interesting that the headline and article are from the angle of the losers

wouldn't you normally expect an article like this to be about voters saying "yes"?

[Demit]

6. "Gay rights groups hailed victory" is in the first sentence in the first graf.

And the rest of the article includes very positive language, and pictures, or so it seems to me.

[malthaussen]

7. Looked at another way,

.... you could read the headline as the yes side getting a bit of a gloat in.

(In response to Corkhead, I must have hit the wrong button)

-- Mal

[MarianJack]

10. I can only say this to the land of my ancestory...

... !!!!!




PEACE!

[iandhr]

12. Excellent

[hrmjustin]

13. Great news!

[mountain grammy]

14. This daughter of Irish immigrants says thank you..

One struggle gone

[bpj62]

15. Under 50 crowd

The church does not have as much influence as it once did. Dfor years it was able to shut any social change down but no longer. The abuse scandals and the recent discovery of the remains of several hundred infants at a former catholic orphanage has sealed the churches fate in Ireland.

[LiberalElite]

16. as an Irish-American former Catholic with a gay brother I say

[brooklynite]

17. National Vote now 61%-38% (6 of 43 districts counted)

[hunter]

19. This is wonderful news.

[pampango]

20. Ireland is certainly at the other end of Europe, literally & figuratively, from Russia in terms of gay rights.

This is great to see. Congratulations to Ireland's citizens and voters.

[jwirr]

21. I misread the headline and was wondering what you all were celebrating! Reread it. This is great.

[romanic]

22. Congrats Ireland!

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. 19 out of 43 constituencies reported: 62% yes, all reported are over 50%

ranging from the low 50s in the rural west to the low 70s in Dublin:

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/marriage-referendum/results

[winstars]

25. The link now says 43 of 43 reported, 62.07 YES 37.93 NO !!!!

[47of74]

24. Moving Ireland up on the list of places I might want to go visit some day.

[Arugula Latte]

26. Suck it, RCC!

Big congratulations to the people of Ireland!

[bravenak]

27. Yay!!!

[riversedge]

28. Congrats to all of Ireland

[BigDemVoter]

29. I suppose we're going to see heterosexual marriages COLLAPSE. . . .

As we all know that gay marriage is a threat to "traditional marriages & families"!