Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 26, 1995 TAG: 9511270062
SECTION: NATL/INLT PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DUBLIN, IRELAND LENGTH: Medium
The first count Saturday was so close - 50.2 percent in favor to 49.8 percent opposed - that Ireland's chief election official ordered an immediate recount. The results of that count showed an even higher ``yes'' vote: 50.3 percent.
The margin was only 9,118 votes out of more than 1.62 million cast in Friday's referendum, making it the closest vote in Irish history.
Ireland was the only country in the Western world to constitutionally ban divorce, and lifting the prohibition marks the country's sharpest break with its Roman Catholic traditions.
The constitutional amendment was to take effect immediately, allowing divorces for couples who have been separated for at least four of the previous five years and can show ``no reasonable prospect of a reconciliation.''
The government has already approved the amendment's wording and a host of related laws defining the rights of separated spouses, children and property.
Prime Minister John Bruton, who had campaigned for the right to remarry for nearly 40,000 couples in broken marriages, said he was relieved by the outcome.
However, he said the government ``must reflect on why there was such a large `no' vote, and it wasn't all because of negative campaigning.'' He suggested that a government commission should develop ``a positive agenda to support the family.''
Appeals by Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa spearheaded the campaign against the referendum in Ireland, where 92 percent of the 3.5 million citizens are baptized Catholics.
``I feel shattered,'' said Eleanor McFadden, organizer of a church-based anti-divorce group, Parishes for Life. ``I've been canvassing for weeks, and this vote today is not like what we heard on the doorsteps of Dublin.
``Our group has been arguing the case for the common good and pointing out what goes wrong in divorce societies like England and America.''
Friday's vote marks the most serious rollback in the state's overtly Catholic laws. Voters in a 1992 referendum decided to keep the ban on abortion but endorsed the right of Irish women to have abortions overseas. Lawmakers previously had loosened restrictions on contraceptives.
The first count showed the constitutional amendment passing 818,112 to 810,592.
The count was a cliffhanger from the start, when it became clear that the ``yes'' vote was strong in the key battleground of Dublin, while traditionalists in rural Ireland mostly voted ``no.''
Results were in doubt until the last of 41 legislative districts reported Saturday evening. A ``yes'' vote of 64.9 percent in northeast Dublin clinched the vote.
The recount began immediately afterward, ending with a total of 818,843 to 809,725. The initial count had misidentified one set of ``yes'' votes as ``nos'' in south Dublin, election officials said.
However, all across the country the vote for legalizing divorce was stronger than in 1986, when the issue was first put to voters. Two out of three voters said ``no'' then.
The shift in support for divorce since 1986 can be attributed to several factors, but political analysts emphasized two: the rising number of broken marriages, and the erosion of the Catholic church's moral authority following a series of sexual scandals.
``We aren't going back to a confessional state where people turned to their priests to tell them how to vote,'' said Roisin Shortall, a Labor Party lawmaker who is one of 20 women in the 166-member Parliament. ``People finally are saying they'll work out their own sense of morality and make their own decisions.''
by CNB