By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

On Friday Irish Citizens went to the polls to vote by referendum on a constitutional amendment allowing same-sex marriage. If passed Ireland will join nineteen other nation states who have legalized such marriages and will be the first to enact the petition by popular referendum.

The topic of the referendum garnered such strong interest it is expected that a large percentage of Ireland’s 3.2 million registered voters will go to  the polls. In fact, reportedly, unexpectedly high numbers returned home at their personal expense to cast votes.

The Yes Vote drew wide support from youth as well as Taoiseach Enda Kenny who urged its passage and cited it would represent a civil rights breakthrough. Much of the impetus to return home was triggered by promises of conservative church leaders and conservative groups voicing their opposition and political activism.

The outcome will be difficult to predict due to the nation’s large Catholic majority which has shown traditional leanings in the past.

Twitter users sympathetic or supportive of the Yes Camp utilized the hashtag #HomeToVote and reportedly sixty-four thousand followers of the tag were either neutral or supportive of allowing gay marriage in Ireland.

The results are to be announced Saturday.

By Darren Smith

Source: CBC News

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