- Marriage is the heart of the family and women have an important role in the household. This is what the Irish constitution says.
- Now those entitled to vote have spoken out against changing the relevant constitutional articles.
- Ireland’s government has conceded defeat in two referendums that would have modernized the constitution.
It is clear at this point that the referendums have been comprehensively rejected, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar told Irish broadcaster RTÉ on Saturday afternoon, while the votes were still being counted. “The government accepts the result and will fully respect it,” he said. “It was our responsibility to convince a majority of people to vote yes and we clearly failed.”
Legend:
Not all votes for the two referendums in Ireland have been counted yet. But the government has already admitted defeat.
Keystone/Damien Storan/PA via AP
In the Republic of Ireland – on International Women’s Day on Friday of all days – people were able to decide in a double vote on two constitutional amendments whether the definition of family should be expanded and a wording on the role of women at home should be changed.
Specifically, the first referendum decided on an expanded definition of family. Article 41.1, which recognizes the family “as the natural, primary and fundamental unit of society”, should have been supplemented with the addition of “Family – regardless of whether it is based on marriage or any other permanent relationship”.
Deletion of two constitutional articles
The second referendum was about the role of women in the household. Articles 41.2.1 and 41.2.2 should be deleted. They said that the state recognized that “the woman, through her life at home, is a support to the state, without which the common good cannot be realized.” The state should ensure that mothers are not forced out of economic necessity to work “while neglecting their domestic duties”.
This passage should have been replaced with gender-neutral wording, and the importance of care work should have been anchored: “The state recognizes that the mutual care of family members is a support of society due to the bonds that exist between them, without which the common good cannot be achieved can be achieved and strives to support this care.”