March Referendums

RTE wont know how to report on this if its a No No....

Probably put it down to a low turnout....

At least we wont have those cringe scenes from Dublin Castle....

Couple of things I felt was that the government weren't really pushing it. To me it seemed like some FF/FG agreed to in order to form the government with the Greens, but their heart wasn't really in it and shied away from it as much as possible.

The other thing I noticed, and more worryingly, is that any articles I seen linked or headlines for were coming from not so center publishers like Gript or The Ditch. Very few things for yes were making it through or seemed to have the same profile. And the only social media **** I have is this or Twitter, and I don't be into far right or far left scutter and following mad lads and lassies

88-96 percent No in “working class” areas in Dublin.

earky days but I suspect a strong defeat

That doesn't count - the voting was held yesterday - we'll have to revisit?

McDowell on radio said they should go back to the fundamentals and start getting them right.

too much time wasted on this kind of crap and people homeless- farmers not getting paid-Garda moral at an all time low and people leaving the force.

but it will be “the people didn’t understand and want to stay in the dark ages.”

They'll have to if Cowen makes it to Europe..

I don't get why this referendum should be a reflection on happiness in the government. Like, if the government were doing fantastic and everyone was happy, would ye vote yes then? I know some clowns would use it to "send a message" but sure, let's be honest, that would be a stupid thing to do. On the other side, if the government were doing shite, woeful unpopular and then held a referendum guaranteeing everyone 50k minimum a year, free health and utilities, would people vote no then in protest at a **** government? Ya have to take these things in isolation. The elections are the place for sorting the government and sending them messages.

On my drive this morning there was a FF senator on Newstalk going on about how the No side were naughty with factual incorrect posters up and were being dishonest. She even said it was so bad that the head of the electoral commission came out and said they were lying and to quit it. And that move was unprecedented. Until Brenda Power, who was also on the radio piped up, and said that Catherine Martin, she of RTE debacle fame, wouldn't delete a tweet saying the referenda were about womens' place in the home. This despite the same head of the electoral commission taking her to task over that bullshit.

It's a great day for democracy. Isn't it great to live in a country like this that the people collectively, still have more power than their ruling elite. A lot to be said for a strong constitution. I remember years ago a great history teacher telling us that Ireland had a very solid constitution, as it was modelled by DeValera on the USA one.

I don't know if that is a fair statement although I agree that the Dublin set are the tail that tries to wag the dog. I hope they realise now that the dog is in control of it's tail.

Dun Laoghaire (so far) are the only constituency with a slight "yes" vote (50.29 to 49.71%) for the "Family Amendment". The same constituency voted down the "Care Amendment" 57.79 to 42.21%.

As Brian said, 23 million was spent on a wasted referendum, not the first money wastage and will never be the last, voice listened to or not.

There's many problems with housing in this country, but money isn't one of them

If the USA constitution was strong it wouldn't have been amended 27 times! Of course people have more power that the ruling elite, that's the whole point of voting isn't it? I'm not sure what your first sentence means, would it not have been a great day for democracy if the results went the other way?

The country has spoken anyway, the right leaning crowd of lunatics on twitter will hail this a "new awakening" of Irish people and paint it as a major victory. I'd love to know how much this vote was influenced by people that actually knew what they were voting for as opposed to going against it purely because of their hatred for the government.

Commentary in one of the papers this morning

"For one example, the proposed addition of justifiable social and economic rights in the Constitution, a campaigning goal of some NGOs, maybe looks a bit different now. Future governments will tread these steps with more caution."

Might be a benefit of the strong No votes this time round....

Interesting that it's the biggest no vote ever. More than divorce or abortion at a time when the influence of the church was still huge and obviously strongly against both.