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Ireland’s historic vote for marriage equality prompts amazing Twitter celebration

by Zack Beauchamp
Charles McQuillan/Getty Images
Zack Beauchamp
Zack Beauchamp is a senior correspondent at Vox, where he covers ideology and challenges to democracy, both at home and abroad. His book on democracy, The Reactionary Spirit, was published 0n July 16. You can purchase it here.
  1. The Republic of Ireland will be the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage through a national referendum, according to preliminary results from the election held Friday.
  2. While the votes haven’t been fully tabulated, the reported margin of victory even in conservative districts is so overwhelming that even the leaders of the opposing campaign are conceding defeat, the Associated Press reports.
  3. Ireland is the 18th country to legalize marriage equality (or 21st, if you count England, Scotland, and Wales as separate countries. The UK as a whole doesn’t count, as Northern Ireland still doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages).

Polls indicate overwhelming “yes” vote in favor of same-sex marriage

Although only a fifth of constituencies have returned their official results thus far, the referendum looks set to pass by an overwhelming margin. According to the Guardian, current estimates suggest that close to 65 percent of voters voted to legalize same-sex marriage.

Opposition leader David Quinn, the director of the Iona Institute, has already conceded the vote, tweeting, “Congratulations to the yes side. Well done.” The Iona Institute also issued a statement congratulating the yes supporters on their win.

Turnout was bolstered by the #hometovote campaign, which encouraged Irish citizens living abroad to return home to cast their ballots in the referendum.

Rainbows everywhere

As it became increasingly clear that the referendum was going to pass, jubilant Irish people took to Twitter to celebrate. Pictures purporting to show actual rainbows over Irish cities as the vote went on were particularly popular:

But people also had all sorts of other ways of celebrating. Like this one, from Ireland’s Minister of State for Equality:

Or these:

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