66.4% Yes to allowing abortion. In Ireland.
Every single county voting Yes except Donegal (52% No). 57% Yes in Roscommon, same in Mayo, 58% in Kerry, 59% in Sligo. Almost 80% Yes in parts of Dublin.
A crushing majority for women’s rights —even in Western Ireland.
I never set foot there, I don’t know the place, but for as long as I remember it was considered (at least in my head) the western equivalent of Poland. Hardline Catholic priests everywhere, large swaths of the country holding on to an almost hysterical religiosity, a State structure beholden to the Church, and women’s rights routinely trampled.
Yes, it had gotten better; but I spent the afternoon in awe, manically refreshing my link to the Irish Times’ results page, as county after county came through with unbelievable results (at least,unbelievable to me).
Apparently I was not the only one bowled over. Nice video here, taken at Dublin Castle:
https://twitter.com/Niamh_Cupl/status/1000360082260054017/video/1
The man in the video is the Irish Minister for Health.
So I think a little celebration is in order. From a Frenchman —nobody is perfect—, here is to Ireland’s women who won the day, and to Ireland’s men who stood by them, and to the most exhilarating and liberating electoral success of, let’s call them the forces for Good, we in Europe have enjoyed since I can’t even remember when. We don’t have too many occasions to rejoice these days, this is definitely one.