Leo Varadkar suffers resounding defeat on double referendum to modernise Ireland’s constitution

Prime minister Leo Varadkar admitted Irish voters had given his government “two wallops” on Saturday, after a shock upset led to a resounding defeat of his double referendum on changing the constitution’s language on family issues.

Mr Varadkar had pushed for proposals to modernise constitutional references to marriage being the foundation of the family and a “mother’s duties in the home”.

The Irish leader had pitched the referendum vote, held on Friday to coincide with International Women’s Day, as a chance to delete some “very old-fashioned, very sexist language about women”.

His government had urged the Irish public to not take a “step backwards” by voting No and polls suggested it would easily pass.

But even before the final results had been published, Mr Varadkar was forced to admit that the amendments were “defeated comprehensively on a respectable turnout”.

Relationships and duties

Mr Varadkar said voters had delivered “two wallops” to the government.

“Clearly we got it wrong,” he said. “While the old adage is that success has many fathers and failure is an orphan, I think when you lose by this kind of margin, there are a lot of people who got this wrong and I am certainly one of them.”

“It was our responsibility to convince the majority of people to vote ‘yes’ and we clearly failed to do so,” he added.

The referendums were the latest attempt to reflect the changing face of Ireland from a conservative, Roman Catholic country to an increasingly diverse and socially liberal society.

The two proposals – called the family amendment and the care amendment – aimed to change the text of Article 41 in the Irish constitution, written in 1937.

The first asked citizens to expand the definition of family from those founded on marriage to also include “durable relationships” such as cohabiting couples and their children.

‘Sick to death of NGOs’

The second proposed replacing old-fashioned language around a mother’s “duties in the home” with a clause recognising care provided by family members to one another.

Carol Nolan, an Independent TD for Laois Offaly, described the result as a “political earthquake” which showed “how far the Irish government is out of touch with ordinary people”.

Ms Nolan said the referendums were championed by a number of “unelected NGOs”, including the National Women’s Council of Ireland, and were as much about the “dominance that NGOs have in our current political system as about anything else”.

“People are sick to death of being talked down to by unelected NGO’s such as the National Women’s Council of Ireland, who should now clearly be seen as an ideological poison within the body politic.”

The constitution, the core legal text of the nation, can only be modified through a national referendum.

Opinion polls had suggested support for the “yes” side on both votes, but many voters remained undecided as Friday’s polling neared and some said they found the issue too confusing or too hurried to change the constitution.

Changes could increase immigration

All the major political parties had supported a “Yes-Yes” vote and until recently polls predicted a smooth passage for both proposals.

But “No” campaigners argued the concept of “durable relationship” was undefined and that women and mothers were being “cancelled” from the constitution.

Campaigners also argued the changes could constitutionally protect polygamous relationships and increase immigration via migrant family reunions – claims all denied by the government.

Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Fein leader, told reporters the government had failed to convince voters to vote “yes” by not consulting with the opposition “or with other stakeholders”.

“People were left with an unbalanced decision to make and I think it’s a great pity that the government went on this kind of solo run, and they’ve had their answer,” she said.

Recent law changes

Senator Michael McDowell, the former attorney general who campaigned for the No side, said the government had got it wrong.

“The government misjudged the mood of the electorate and put before them proposals which they didn’t explain and proposals which could have serious consequences,” Senator McDowell told RTE News.

Ireland has made a series of changes to its constitution in recent decades following successful referendums. Irish voters legalised divorce in a 1995 referendum, backed same-sex marriage in a 2015 vote and repealed a ban on abortions in 2018.