DUBLIN — Voters determined to have their voice heard on same-sex marriage turned out in strength Friday for Ireland’s most hard-fought referendum in decades, a contest that pitted the liberal forces of social change against the nation’s conservative Catholic foundation.
Polls closed at 10 p.m. after 15 hours of voting that featured long-distance trips by Irish citizens, including thousands of emigrants who returned by aircraft or ferry to take part in the world’s first national vote on same-sex marriage.
Backers of same-sex marriage had hoped for high turnout, reflecting strong participation by young and first-time voters. Electoral officials said this appeared to have happened, particularly in Ireland’s major urban centers of Dublin and Cork, where many arriving at polling stations declared it was their first time voting.
Polling station officials said Ireland could top 60 percent turnout nationally for the first time since the country narrowly voted to legalize divorce in 1995, but was unlikely to reach the 68 percent achieved when the Irish voted to ease access to foreign abortions in 1992. Results will be announced Saturday.
“This is really a turning point in our country, and I fully believe we’re going to have a ‘yes’ vote,” said Aodhan O Riordain, the government’s equality minister.
He spoke after he cast his own ballot to amend the description of marriage in Ireland’s 1937 constitution to a contract between “two persons without distinction as to their sex.” O Riordain, 38, called it the most important vote of his generation.
Ireland has no system for mail-in voting, so Irish expatriates in London, New York, Bangkok and Nairobi planned weekend trips home. Many documented their journeys on Twitter, often under the hashtags #HomeToVote or, for some of those in neighboring Britain, #GetTheBoatToVote.
Voters questioned by The Associated Press as they left Dublin polling stations demonstrated a clear generational gap. Those under 40 were solidly “yes,” with older voters much more likely to have voted “no.”
“You can give the gays their rights without redefining the whole institution of marriage. What they’re asking for is too much,” said Bridget Ryan, 61, as she voted with her border collie in tow at a Catholic parish hall.
On the same-sex marriage question, leaders of the country’s predominant faith, Roman Catholicism, have led the opposition, arguing that legalization would undermine marriage as a pillar of society.
Yet even within the church, a grass-roots minority voted in favor, arguing that their bishops had no right to stop the state from managing civil wedding rules. “A lot of practicing Catholics are voting yes, and it’s no different in the clergy,” said the Rev. Tim Hazelwood, 56, a County Cork parish priest.
