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WITH IT LOOKING like a No vote in both the Family and Care referendums across the country, Government and opposition parties are both going to have some serious soul searching to do in the weeks ahead.
Speaking at the RDS count centre in Dublin a short while ago, Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan told reporters “obviously the case we presented didn’t win”.
He did not accept however that the direction of the votes so far means that something went wrong with his party’s campaign.
“It does look like a No vote in both the family and the care referenda. First thing to say is we will obviously have to respect this. That’s the voice of the people,” Ryan said.
“I don’t accept that our campaign did go wrong,” he said, adding that both questions were complex and there was a “myriad” of reasons people might vote No.
“To my mind, the case to update the Constitution is still there,” Ryan said.
He added however that this would be a job for the next Government.
Meanwhile, People Before Profit Solidarity TD Paul Murphy was firm in his view that there should be a rerun of the Care referendum.
He wrote on X/formerly Twitter: “Crap wording, crap campaign, crap government. This is the result. Left parties should commit to proposing a referendum recognising and supporting care inside and outside of the home and the rights of people with disabilities.”
Arriving at the RDS ahead of Ryan, Independent Senator Michael McDowell (who had campaigned for a No-No vote) was in high spirits as he spoke to reporters.
He said the Government now needs to explain why it wasted €20m on these referendums.
“The people have spoken, it’s their Constitution. They’ve made a wise decision and rejected what I consider to be foolish amendments,” he said.
Micheal McDowell at the RDS earlier. Says the tallies so far show the government is “out of touch with public opinion”.
— Jane Matthews (@janeematthews) March 9, 2024
Says €20mn was wasted on these referendums.@thejournal_ie pic.twitter.com/HGNXmH99yt
When asked by The Journal what the direction of the results so far says about the Government, he said it shows how they are “obviously out of touch with public opinion”.
“They should be concentrating on housing and issues like that,” he said.
Ryan rejected this idea that the Government is out of touch and said he does not believe the votes were a vote on the Government.
“It was a vote on the merits of both issues,” he said.
McDowell maintained his prediction that the final result will be 60:40 in favour of No.
Over at Dublin Castle, Aontú TD Peadar Tóibín who also campaigned for a No No said the results so far are “looking very positive”.
He told RTÉ News that the referendum was a “David versus Goliath referendum”.
Tóibín said it looks as if leaders of opposition parties like Sinn Féin and Labour are “marooned” from their support base in terms of the issues in these referendums.
“That’s a very dangerous place to be… in advance of an election,” he said.
Opposition parties
Labour leader Ivana Bacik also popped her head into the RDS earlier today alongside Labour Senator Marie Sherlock.
With the Labour party campaigning for a Yes Yes vote, Bacik said the results so far are “very disappointing”.
She lay the blame firmly at the feet of the Government however and said ultimately the blame lies with them.
It was put to Bacik by The Journal that a lot of disability advocates have said they felt betrayed by the position of political parties on the left.
Bacik said her party met with many groups representing people with disabilities and received a great deal of support from them for Labour’s position on a Yes Yes vote.
“The reality is, as we said from the start, we wanted to see a different wording here. And unfortunately, it’s not the wording the Government put forward,” she said.
On why the Government departed from the wording recommended by the Citizens’ Assembly, Ryan said it looked at all of the options but came to the view that it was not possible to accept the various concerns that had been reflected in relation to care.
More reaction to come throughout the day.
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Haloween and St Patricks Day – two great days we exported. Not bad for a little rock in the Atlantic.
@Paul P O’Sullivan: Thats not all! What about kn#cker drinking, Clancy Fuel Merchant GAA jerseys, the requirement for subtitles for people talking in English on Bondi Rescue, Frosted Lucky Charms, clapping on Airplanes, the list goes on
@Paul P O’Sullivan: Patricks day we can claim, though we are not the country who celebrate it the most.
Halloween may have been originally Irish, but the way we celebrate it has nothing to do with Ireland. And most people think it is an American holiday, which is not entirely untrue. Witches, dressing up, trick or treating are all American. There is no Irish part to it.
The saddest part is that if you want to celebrate either properly you go abroad.
@Andy K: Why would you have to go abroad to ‘celebrate them properly’? Don’t quite understand what you mean by that.
@O Swetenham: because Bonfires are now illegal. Because Catholicism equated anything not for their God as a Sin.
@Shannon Mcg: so no bonfires and Catholicism are the reason we can’t celebrate Halloween and St Patrick’s day, and have to venture abroad to experience them “properly”? Sorry, but that makes no sense.
@O Swetenham: Bonfires are a TRADITIONAL SAMHAIN celebration that was to represent bringing light back to the dark times, to give power back to the sun, to light the way for souls that were lost. With the ban on bonfires, that means a traditional celebration is now illegal here.
Catholicism made Halloween/Samhain into a watered down holiday. Originally, you would do Divination and leave offerings to Spirits but that was considered Witchcraft and was outlawed under Catholic rule.
I never mentioned Paddys day.
@Andy K: No country celebrates Patrick’s day more than ireland, certainly not per head. Halloween has Celtic/Christian origins, you learn something new everyday. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween
@Andy K:
Off you go so, we’ll definitely miss you.
We, along with Scottish exiles, exported a custom that is now practised by children of all ethnic backgrounds in North America (don’t forget Canada – but the Eskimos don’t do Halloween.) However, in Ireland today many children, abetted by parents, imitate American echoes instead of adhering to the púca origins. The same pickup on American echoes has been happening with St. Patrick’s Day. The Irish-Americans invented the Patrick’s Day parade in order to assert themselves against racial denigration; but nowadays it’s developed into razzmatazz showbiz, funny paddyhats, painted faces and exaggerated pre patrician ‘celtic’ mythological creatures dragged laboriously through main streets. There is a cultural forgetting and a slavish imitation of American kultur. It is found in many other aspects of Irish life today – speech, dress, popular music, attitudes to traditional beliefs, television and literary references. The words of Polonius to his departing son Laertes are worth quoting:
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell. My blessing season this in thee.
Hamlet 1:3
@Garreth Byrne: If we are to follow your advice (and to our own selves be true), can you kindly outline what version of Ireland and its culture you feel is appropriate? People and cultures evolve.
@Olllie B: I’m in a dressing gown at the moment. As soon as I get dressed it’s a good walk for me. Enjoy this autumnal day. Read Keats’s poem, To Autumn.
@Garreth Byrne:
The day it went full Americano was when – “help the Halloween party” was finally replaced with “Trick or treat”
Next thing you know we’ll be giving out candy instead of sweets. And don’t try handing out fruit or nuts to kids now days they’ll look at you as if you have 10 bleedin heads.
@Honeybadger197: Cultures evolve, yes. Cultures also degrade. Cultures disappear and are replaced. I’ll let you try to work out what kind of Ireland and what kind of culture is ‘appropriate’. Maybe another thread, after we’ve enjoyed the Bank Holiday.
@Garreth Byrne: love that Hamlet quote at the end. Great comment too.
First world complaint.
@John Michalski: Should we let our traditions and culture die?
@Mary Murphy: Depends on whether they’re good or bad.
@Mary Murphy: Our traditions and culture? What part that is left is Irish? The holiday is purely American culture and tradition. Just like your christmas dinner.
@Andy K: Yes it has become Americanised (you called it a holiday????), but unless people like the author if this piece stand up we will completely lose our identity and traditions. I for one hope that Starbucks and McDonald’s don’t take over the world.
@Mary Murphy: Already have
@John Michalski: actually a third world complaint about becoming a first world cultural change. Like Irish, there is no implicit need for Halloween or st Patrick’s (unlike music and dancing), so it has to evolve to it’s current commercial state (like the Dutch Santa) to become popular.
@Gary Mason: not my world. I still eat and drink local food wherever I go. I will support local industries and jobs and do everything I can to keep them going.
Complete horse … Who is the editor on this site ???
@Paul Maher: ahh Paul, why the long face?
@Paul Maher: I agree. What’s wrong with a young boy dressing up as superman instead of a skeleton, or a girl dressing up as a princess instead of a witch, if that’s what they want to do and so long as they have fun doing it? Author here sounds like a miserable you know what to me. Would he really refuse to let one of his own girls dress up like that if that’s what her friends were doing and what she wanted to do too?
@Paul Maher: the editor is cholly appleseed
@Michael Geraghty: Id reply if yours wasn’t an alias …
@Jumperoo: yes, because we couldn’t possibly prevent and deny the precious little ones from getting and doing what THEY want all of the time, everything and everyone else be damned.
@☘️: are you the author, or just answering the question? Either way, I’m not talking about letting them do absolutely everything they want, absolutely all the time. I’m just asking what’s wrong in letting them choose their own costume for a bit of dress up fun. As for everything and everyone else be damned – does that not also work the other way? I.E. you (author?) Say child and child’s choice of costume be damned, and you (author?) tell them the only kind of costume they can wear instead?
@Jumperoo: Didn’t read the article because it’s not newsworthy .
No it wouldn’t have died out here
@Dermot Lane: Care to back up your point with some examples and facts? Lúnasa celebrations, the Wren Day traditions for Stephens Day and various other customs mostly died out. What makes you think Halloween would have been so durable?
Has always been strong in West of Ireland and the country treats Samhain as a national holiday with kids off school. They don’t get that in America! The old Jack O’Lanterns that you can see in Turlough House country museum in Castlebar carved out of turnips are a lot scarier than the American pumpkins. But pumpkins are easier carve. The American Halloween has not changed all that much.
TBH I don’t know most kids that know at my door, not because how they are dressed but because they don’t live in my estate. There are rich pickings to be had so parents drive their kids/teens come from far and wide to take advantage. Once our estate is hit, they move on to the next one.
@Lily:
Don’t be such a misery. Welcome all the kids no matter where they might come from.
If Hallowe’en had not survived me for one would have gave 0 FuKCs
It is perhaps because we do not get weather extreme as a normal part of the seasons that the swings in daylight and darkness throughout the year has more relevance for us than the States where their seasons are built around weather. With Easter dates varying from year to year, St Patrick’s day was closest to the Equinox and cultures have eventually adopted it as a Spring festival. Our body clock registers February as the beginning of Spring and a really tangible feel for more daylight just as we now experience nature shutting down for the dormant period of winter (Samhain/November). Behind all the masks and traditions are the necessary adjustments we make or suffer the consequences as known through seasonal affective disorder or the body’s response in the same way our bodies respond to the daily wake/sleep cycle.
Many of these folklore types are miseries. What is wrong with kids dressing up they way they want to and enjoying themselves? They are actually honouring this old tradition their way, which is the way it should be and is essential if these traditions are to progress.
Maybe the writer would prefer if they wore rags and had holes in their shoes, or no shoes at all as in the past.
What utter nonsense. Halloween is ours and always has been. Our new year begins tomorrow, enjoy. Halloween has been around forever, the USA just a few hundred years, this writer needs to get some perspective.
Great article. We are buying back our own mangled custom from America. Our should protect our cultural heritage better than that.
What a cranky crappy article
It would have survived look at Irelands Own, it would have been a sub culture except for the tricks and fireworks?
Great time of year for flashers and criminals
@Johnny Hihats: Absolutely!! I wouldn’t answer the door to an adult in disguise mask and all!!
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