Exit poll: The post referendum thread. No electioneering.

PurvesGrundy wrote: »

No, it's young people bowing to peer pressure and not being able to think for themselves. A mob mentality among youth voters even saw a pro life student union president thrown out.

I am only a year outside that age group and am glad to know that I was true to my thought in how I voted.

I’m young. I didn’t “bow” to anything. I knew this was what I wanted to vote and I couldn’t give two shimmery ****s what you think. Thank god this attitude is dying out. We voted to Repeal the mess you made. Your day is over. You are the weakest link goodbye

The Golden Miller wrote: »

I'm was talking in general. As for this particular case, they all love a "progressive liberal social justice" bandwagon to jump on to get their fill of self-righteousness. The amount of faux celebrations going on tomorrow will be cringeworthy

I don't agree that it's a bandwagon, or that it's self-righteousness, or that the celebrations tomorrow will be faux.

Most of us are of a generation which spent the preteen Celtic Tiger years of the 1990s feeling like we were growing up in a modern, progressive, wonderful country to live in. Being taught by our parents about how Ireland won independence from a much more powerful empire, how we have a unique system of democracy (the PR system) which allows each person to meticulously state exactly what they want their government to look like, that after years of recession and corruption, Ireland was now the best economy in Europe and that Irish people had the freedom to do and be anything they wanted. The usual ideology millennials are often bashed for having grown up with, basically.

Then, in the mid-2000s, this entire fantasy of Ireland being such a wonderful place to live was shattered with unbelievable speed and thoroughness. The Ryan and Murphy reports were commissioned and published. A dark, dark history of neglect, abuse, torture, sexual repression and downright evil was suddenly exposed, and for my generation this was the cruelest wake-up call that the free, modern, happy Ireland we had been told about as children was a horrible illusion built to hide the most appalling skeletons in the closet. Suddenly we were ashamed of our country, of the things which had been done in the name of a religion many of us grew up believing was a compassionate one based on love, and which had been done by the democratic, independent republic which our parents had spend our childhoods waxing lyrical about.

We learned of young boys being raped by creepy paedophiles and of our state's institutions doing everything in their power to cover it up. We learned of young women being imprisoned, indefinitely and with no due process, for everything from having a child out of wedlock to being too sexy and extroverted. We learned of defenceless children of both genders being beaten to within an inch of their lives, sometimes tragically beyond the last inch of their lives, by sadistic adults who acted with total impunity and who to this day have never seen the inside of a prison cell for the unimaginable evil they administered for their own perverted gratification. We learned of a society in which it was illegal to express one's own sexuality if it didn't conform to what the establishment had decided was the only acceptable one, and in which it was illegal for people to use devices designed to allow them to enjoy sex without the burden of becoming parents - sometimes, becoming parents for the fifth or sixth time.

Most of us were still reeling from this all-out assault on our rose-tinted sense of our own country's identity when the Savita case happened, and for those of us who became ardent repeal supporters, that was the straw which broke the camel's back and opened the flood gates of rage, a tide of white-hot fury which had been building inside our psyche's for years and finally could no longer be contained.

I don't know what generation you come from or what values you were raised with regarding your identity and your country as a child, but I can tell you that nobody who didn't experience it will ever be able to understand how unbelievably soul-crushing it was to witness our country's spectacular fall from grace in such a gruesome and sudden manner. It's a feeling I will never forget and I suspect nor will most people of my generation; indeed I'd argue that it eclipsed the 2008 recession and its ongoing fallout in terms of the amount of psychological harm done to these people.

It is utterly ignorant and offensive to describe any of this as a bandwagon or a virtue signalling exercise. Today, as with the gay marriage vote several years ago, feels like we're finally getting the chance to punch back against this corrosive force of social conservatism which led to so much heartache for this country, both those who directly experienced it and those who had to learn about it on the Six One news after spending their lives in sheltered ignorance of what a truly awful legacy this country now has to come to terms with.

In that context, as far as I'm concerned, the people who drove this campaign have earned their celebration. They've been waiting for this moment for more than ten years (in the case of Gen Y whose rude awakening was the Ryan Report) and for many decades (in the case of older generations who have been waiting for this day since the amendment was created in 1983).

Anyone who believes this to be an insincere exercise in narcissistic self-indulgence hasn't got a f*cking clue what they're talking about.

Kh1993 wrote: »

So basically yes voters of that age have bowed to a mob mentality. What a disingenuous post. I’m delighted so many of my age group have voted to put views like yours in the past. People who feel they can tell young people what to do, and scold them for not doing that, you people are relics. You think you can tell young people what to do. Well guess what? You can go and sh*te.

Ascough was impeached for breaking the SU’s mandate. Do keep up.

Up the republic. Up the youth.

Ah here no need to be getting all ageist about it!

I'm in my late 50's and voted Yes. As did my 87 year old mother and 93 year old aunt. I've been pro choice my entire life and voted that way back in the dark 80's, when pro choice was a minority.

So don't assume the older generation are all aul relics. Some are for sure but many are not. Just as there are also a fair few youngsters on the no side who love to preach and patronise.

This victory is for everyone, young and old, who want to give Irish women the dignity of choice.

PurvesGrundy wrote: »

Well of course it was important for you. You obviously had no real deep views on it and wanted to make sure you voted like everyone else.

After your previous post it occurred to me that you don't sound very young, but with this post you do. Very.

I'm curious, when did you perform the Vulcan mind-meld that gave you such penetrating insight into you interlocutor's thought processes?



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