The equal marriage movement – and make no mistake, it is a movement – is slowly spreading out across the Western world, with Ireland being the latest nation to recognize that equality for all its citizens must, by definition, encompass equality in all aspects of life. For some of us, that includes being able to marry the person we love and plan to spend our lives with.
The difference in Ireland, however, is that it was the will of the people, rather than a government edict, which brought about equal marriage to the country. Other countries that have embraced equal marriage did so by a change in law instituted by their respective governments. This was the situation in Canada, following several years of lobbying and debate. When it came right down to it, equal marriage became law in Canada because the federal government said so. In Ireland, the question went to a referendum. The people of Ireland voted overwhelmingly in favour of same-sex marriage, with 62 per cent of voters voting yes.
The vote has been viewed by many observers as a ‘dramatic social shift’ within Irish society. Ireland has long been one of the more staunchly Catholic nations on earth. You think Irish and you think not only green but Church/Catholic. The country, however, has long been divided along sectarian lines, with Irish Protestants and their allegiance, quite often, to the British Crown on one side, and Irish Catholics, often with Republican/nationalist sympathies, on the other.
Ireland was also a physically divided country, with the independent Irish Republic, or Eire, in the south governed out of Dublin, and the British-controlled province of Ulster, or Northern Ireland, in the North, governed from Belfast under direction from Westminster in England. While the Irish Republic enjoyed relative peace following the civil war waged in the 1920s against British control, spearheaded by the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the situation in Ulster was fraught with bombings; street fighting between British troops and anti-British gangs; neighbours against neighbours, if one happened to be ‘Orange’ (Protestant) and the other ‘Green’ (Catholic). Belfast was a war zone in the true sense of the word. Whole neighbourhoods reduced to almost post-apocalyptic skeletons of charred ruins, boarded up businesses and homes, crushing poverty and unemployment, and government-imposed curfews.
So for the Irish to set aside differences in a peaceful manner and work towards change together after such a history of strife – and the sad truth that such strife became normal – is truly a dramatic shift.
Predictably, of course, the Irish Church was vehemently opposed to granting marriage rights to homosexuals.However, the Church in Ireland does not have the influence it once did, especially amongst younger generations, the ones who voted overwhelmingly in favour of the amendment. Along with that lack of popular influence in the daily lives of Irish people came an increasing lack of dominance within Irish politics. The Church, which for centuries enjoyed a prosperous co-existence with government, one being almost an extension of the other, is, today, seen as almost irrelevant; or at least separate. One’s politics need no longer be tied up with one’s faith or vice versa. That, in itself, is a major shift.
After the results of the referendum were announced in Dublin the archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, stated on national television that it presented a "challenge" for the Church. "It is a social revolution," he said. "It’s very clear that if this referendum is an affirmation of the views of young people, then the Church has a huge task ahead of it. The Church needs to do a reality check."
Meanwhile Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state and second in power to the Pope, stated he was "deeply saddened by the result". He called the vote not just "a defeat of Christian principles" but "a defeat for humanity", and vowed the Church's challenge was to "strengthen [its] commitment to evangelization."
The referendum was one of the most highly voted upon ballot casts of the last 20 years, with Irish expatriates returning home to cast their vote and 60 per cent of registered voters voting. The proposal was supported by all political parties, ‘big business’, and heavily endorsed by various celebrities. In short, it would not be untoward to say there was truly a groundswell of support in favour of equal marriage. I find that exhilarating.
Prime Minister Enda Kenny told a news conference, following the vote, that the referendum showed Ireland had answered "yes to their future, yes to their love, yes to equal marriage. That Yes is heard loudly across the world as a sound of pioneering leadership from our people.
"Ireland, thank you!"
Ireland now joins several Western nations in legalizing same-sex marriage, along with the Netherlands (2001), Belgium (2003), Canada and Spain (2005), South Africa (2006), Norway and Sweden (2009), Portugal, Iceland, and Argentina (2010), Denmark (2012), Brazil, France, Uruguay and New Zealand (2013), Great Britain (2014), and Luxembourg and Slovenia (2015). Though some states have legalized marriage equality, it remains a 'hot button' issue in the U.S., with no resolution in sight for the near future. Finland is slated to bring in legalization by 2017 and Mexico, since 2010, legally recognizes same-sex marriages performed in various Mexican jurisdictions but has not actually made same-sex marriage legal federally. Israel – long a beacon of democracy, liberalism, and support for LGBTQ rights amid a region not known for such attributes – legally recognizes same-sex marriages performed outside of Israel but, because all marriages are performed under religious authority and, in the case of Jewish citizens, this means the orthodox Chief Rabbinate of Israel, which does not allow same-sex marriage, equal marriage amongst LGBTQ Israeli Jews is not yet officially recognized.
