NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / World

Irish ayes smiling as Church loses faith

Other
24 May, 2015 05:00 PM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

A couple wait for the final result in the Irish referendum at Dublin castle. Photo / AP

A couple wait for the final result in the Irish referendum at Dublin castle. Photo / AP

Catholic leader says Vatican needs reality check after resounding poll backs gay marriage.

A top Irish Catholic leader said the Church needs a "reality check" as the predominantly Catholic nation voted to approve gay marriage.

"I think the Church needs to do a reality check right across the board ... Have we drifted away completely from young people?" Diarmuid Martin, the Archbishop of Dublin, told national broadcaster RTE.

"It's a social revolution that didn't begin today," said Martin, who voted 'No', arguing that gay rights should be respected "without changing the definition of marriage".

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"There's a big challenge to see how we get across the message of the Church. We're becoming a Church for the like-minded and a safe space rather than the Church that Pope Francis is talking about that is reaching out."

Gay rights campaigners hailed a "historic watershed" for Ireland.

Rory O'Neill, known by the Drag persona Panti, celebrates with yes supporters at Dublin Castle, Ireland. Photo / AP
Rory O'Neill, known by the Drag persona Panti, celebrates with yes supporters at Dublin Castle, Ireland. Photo / AP

In the first endorsement of gay marriage via a national referendum, the Republic's population of five million voted 'Yes' by a clear majority. Final results showed a 62 per cent vote in favour and 38 per cent against. More than 1.2 million backed the 'Yes' side to less than 750,000 voting 'No'. Only one of Ireland's 43 constituencies recorded a narrow 'No' majority, Roscommon-South Leitrim in the boggy midlands.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott reacted to the result by all but ruling out holding a referendum on same-sex marriage, saying Parliament will deal with the matter if it's brought to a vote again. Abbott said referendums in Australia were reserved for approving constitutional changes. He recommitted to letting the Coalition party room decide whether MPs would get a free vote on the matter should any legislation get to that point.

Yes supporters celebrate. Photo / AP
Yes supporters celebrate. Photo / AP

The Catholic Church once controlled virtually every aspect of Irish life but its clout has been vastly reduced by the impact of secularisation and a wave of child sex abuse scandals that discredited the clergy. Ireland has followed a more secular narrative in recent years, highlighted by Prime Minister Enda Kenny's scathing attack in 2011 on the Vatican's handling of clerical child abuse. Its inability to properly deal with the issue showed "the dysfunction, the disconnection, the elitism" of the culture at the Vatican, he said then.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Attendance at masses has dropped sharply in recent decades, though 84.2 per cent of the population still identified as Catholic in the last census in 2011. Despite their opposition to the referendum, bishops framed their arguments in a conciliatory manner, admitting that gay and lesbian people were treated in a harsh way by the church in the past. It follows similar comments from Pope Francis, who posed the question, "Who am I to judge?" when asked his views on homosexuality. He has since repeated his opposition to same-sex marriages.

The culmination of what the 'Yes' camp described as a four-decade struggle for equality under the law saw thousands of campaigners celebrate in the courtyard of Dublin Castle, many waving rainbow flags. The turnout for the vote was high at 61 per cent.

Fred Schelbaum, 48, standing with his civil partner, Feargal Scott, 43, said he intended to marry. "Up to now a lot of gay people felt they were tolerated in Ireland. Now we know that it's much more than that."

The move, which will give Irish gays the same right accorded last year to those in Britain, represents a huge change in social attitudes in a land once seen as one of the most socially conservative in western Europe. Homosexual acts were decriminalised in Ireland only in 1993, and a vote on divorce in 1995 was passed only by a 51 per cent majority.

Discover more

Sport

'Coming out' in sport

09 May 05:00 PM
World

Funds row as gay marriage vote nears

18 May 05:00 PM
Cartoons

Wake-up call at the Vatican

25 May 05:00 PM
World

Pope misses going out for pizza

26 May 05:00 PM

However, 'Yes' campaigners say it also shows how Ireland has become a more open-looking country in the past two decades, with the "Celtic Tiger" throwing off the social shackles that once held it back.

A yes supporter waits at Dublin castle for the final result. Photo / AP
A yes supporter waits at Dublin castle for the final result. Photo / AP

"Ten years ago Ireland was still a very dark place," said Pat Carey, a former government minister who waited until his late 60s to open up about being gay. "I think the young people of Ireland have grabbed this country by the neck and it's unrecognisable from what it was 10 years ago."

Crowds at Dublin Castle cheered as a succession of prominent Irish homosexuals appeared on the square, part of a gay celebrity scene that would have not have existed a generation ago. They included Senator David Norris, 71, a veteran homosexual campaigner who lobbied for the 1993 decriminalisation of gay sex, and Rory O'Neill, whose drag queen character became the face of the campaign. In a symbol of how Ireland's political class has embraced the gay cause, Kenny visited O'Neill's gay bar in January to show his backing for the 'Yes' camp.

"The future for young LGBT [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender] people in this country is incredible," O'Neill said. "I'm just glad to be here on the day this Ireland came into being." As well as Kenny's endorsement, the 'Yes' vote was backed by a raft of famous Irish names, including Bono and Sinead O'Connor.

Irish Senator Katherine Zappone, right, and partner Ann Louise Gilligan. Photo / AP
Irish Senator Katherine Zappone, right, and partner Ann Louise Gilligan. Photo / AP

Many in the 'No' camp expressed anger that not one of the major political parties had come out in opposition to same-sex marriage. Instead, the political establishment unanimously backed the 'Yes' vote, and put party whips on their MPs not to speak out against it. For 'No' voters, that signalled that just as pro-gay sentiment was once deemed unmentionable in polite society, now it was the other way around. Alexander McKay, a 'No' campaigner with the Irish Society for Christian Civilisation, a Catholic group that views homosexuality as morally wrong, also complained that he and his fellow canvassers had suffered verbal and physical abuse. "Some of the people who were asking for us to respect their civil rights don't want to respect ours," he said last week.

The Irish Parliament is expected to draw up a bill for legislation this week with the first same-sex weddings to take place towards the end of the year.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

- Telegraph Group Ltd, AFP, AAP, AP

Save

    Share this article

Latest from World

World

Manga prophecy sparks flight cancellations to Japan amid quake fears

19 Jun 10:45 PM
World

US bases that could attack Iran — and become targets

19 Jun 10:43 PM
Premium
Opinion

James Acton: Why we can’t bomb our way out of this

19 Jun 09:59 PM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from World

Trump confirms timeline for US strike on Iran decision
live

Trump confirms timeline for US strike on Iran decision

19 Jun 11:09 PM

It comes after Iran’s missiles hit Soroka Hospital, leaving it in flames.

Manga prophecy sparks flight cancellations to Japan amid quake fears

Manga prophecy sparks flight cancellations to Japan amid quake fears

19 Jun 10:45 PM
US bases that could attack Iran — and become targets

US bases that could attack Iran — and become targets

19 Jun 10:43 PM
Premium
James Acton: Why we can’t bomb our way out of this

James Acton: Why we can’t bomb our way out of this

19 Jun 09:59 PM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP