Politics

Clare result: Yes 64.28% and No 35.72%

Repeal campaigner describes Yes vote as ‘Mnásome’

There were whoops of delight from Yes campaigners as returning officer Pat Wallace confirmed the result on Saturday afternoon. Photograph: Cyril Byrne

Sat May 26 2018 - 15:46

The Yes side delivered a knock-out victory in Clare, capturing 64% of the vote in the county.

A boxing ring had been installed at the count centre because a charity white collar boxing event was due to take place after the count was completed at the Oakwood Arms Hotel in Shannon.

The opposing sides in the referendum did not come to blows, but an emphatic Yes vote came after a very strong campaign in Clare where canvassers knocked on the doors of 21,000 homes - or half the occupied homes - in the county.

There were whoops of delight from Yes campaigners as returning officer Pat Wallace confirmed the result on Saturday afternoon.

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At the count, Together for Yes campaigner Róisín Ní Gháirbhith described the overwhelming Yes vote in Clare as “Mnásome”.

Mr Wallace confirmed that 34,328 or 64.27 per cent of voters went in favour of repeal. The turnout was 64.3 per cent, which was four points higher than the turnout for the marriage equality referendum in the county.

At the centre, Fianna Fáil TD and Yes campaigner Timmy Dooley said “our laws no longer support the entrapment of women” and that “Ireland was a far open and tolerant society that maybe our laws reflected”.

Senator Martin Conway (Fine Gael) said: “The silent majority have spoken. This has been the biggest social issue of our generation and I believe that women have been very badly treated for many decades through a whole myriad of scandals and what you have today is the people of Ireland saying ‘enough is enough and we now want to see fair treatment of our women’.

However, pro-life campaigner, Michael Leahy described the Yes vote as “an appalling step for Ireland to take”.

The Ennis-based architect and former board member at An Bord Pleanála said: “We are the first people in history to vote to exterminate a substantial part of its own population which is effectively what we are doing - what more can one say.”

He added: “I think it is going to lead to a greater level of pro-life activism as people come to realise the full dreadfulness of abortion.”

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