Irish government: Voters keep motherhood, traditional family in constitution
Voters in Ireland appear to have voted to preserve the country’s constitutional recognition of the central role of the traditional family founded on marriage as well as the societal value of women within the home, rejecting a pair of referendums held March 8, pro-referendum government leaders conceded Saturday.
“It does look like a no vote in both the family and care referendums,” Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan told RTE News on Saturday. “The first thing to say is that we respect that. It’s the voice of the people and in our constitution, it’s the people who are sovereign.”
“It’s they who decide what goes into our constitution,” Ryan said. Official results were not released yet.
The “Family Amendment” would have removed a clause about the importance of marriage and family to society from Ireland’s 1937 constitution and legally redefined “family” as either “founded on marriage or on other durable relationships.”
The proposed “Care Amendment,” meanwhile, would have removed a clause noting that the “state recognizes that by her life within the home, woman gives to the state a support without which the common good cannot be achieved.”
Ireland’s leading political parties and other influential groups strongly backed the well-funded referendum initiative, while some conservative groups and the country’s Catholic bishops urged a “No” vote on both measures.
“This decision by the Irish electorate sends a powerful message about the importance of preserving foundational values in the face of sweeping societal changes,” Family Solidarity, an Irish conservative advocacy group that opposed the constitutional language changes, said in a statement Saturday.
