We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
ALMOST 66,000 PEOPLE have been added to the supplementary voter register ahead of this Friday’s referendums on same-sex marriage and presidential age.
The by-election in Carlow Kilkenny is taking place on the same day.
The Department of Environment has confirmed that 65,911 people registered to vote before the deadline on 5 May.
In Dublin city and county alone, almost 27,000 new voters joined the supplementary register. Some 4,700 people joined in Cork, more than 3,100 people in Galway, almost 2,000 people in Waterford and over 1,700 in Limerick.
Breakdown by registration authority:
Meanwhile, the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) launched its VoterMotor campaign today.
USI President Laura Harmon said the purpose of the campaign is to encourage people to carpool when going to polling stations and to offer lifts to people who need to travel.
“Thousands of students will be travelling all over the country on Friday to vote. This year saw nearly 28,000 new student voters directly registered by USI and over 10,000 additional forms were given out,” Harmon stated.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Fingers crossed this passes and we can all move on with our lives!
Fingers crossed that people remember that the other referendum is discriminating against our younger voters !
Vote No in the Presidential and Yes in the Marriage ….
We cannot vote for equality in one and target our youngest with discrimination in the other – Forcing 21 year olds to pull the ladder up after them – Do we want to live in such a society ??
How many new citizens have we gotten lately ?
There is always a huge interest in voting for new Citizens in all new countries – They often came from countries where their vote was taken by a tyrant and turned into debt and misery for his people .
AND THEY CAME HERE ????
Marriage – Ireland style ..
“But sure it was peeing down rain !”
We can move on with our lives regardless of the result. Lets stop this myth that a No vote condemns us as some sort of Third World backwater.
Ricky Spanish ha ha ha ha ha! Love that character, lost on most people!
If the yes side don’t get their way they’ll be out in the streets burning the constitution and crying continuously until they get another referendum.
If the No side do not get their way they will almost certainly challenge the constitutionality of the referendum in court instead of conceding defeat gracefully.
If the Yes side do not get their way they will make sure to bully people into closing their businesses.
If the Water Protestors get their way ,
Enda will be gone soon !
Life is all about getting the way ..
If I don’t get my way I’m gonna start bateing the lot of ye
Did you forget to take your tablet today Hermes
If it is a Yes on Friday, “Soft Yes” Joe, I will be thinking of you!
I hope these additional 66k voters will turn out for the general election and Confine FG and lab to the history books.
And FF.. Never forget FF!
The Age of the President vote will bring a lot of younger people out to vote, can only be good for the yes side! #getoutandvote
are you assuming that old people are homophobic and young people aren’t ?
I’m so confused again…what do I do again ..
Vote Gay to No Marriage is it ?
Even though at the moment it’s the 35 year olds pulling up the ladder? To me if your 21 or 22 and want to be president you need to give your head a wobble. Someone that age should be off seeing a bit of the world. That said I don’t think we’ll see a young president of it passes, they’d still need to be voted in after all.
I really hope that the 66,000 people who have registered to vote use this referendum as a starting point, and stay politically active after it’s over. Positive change can happen if people come together, and work together. I hope that people, young people especially, learn that from this referendum campaign.
Change?
Wasn’t that the Obama trick word mantra. “change you can believe in” while he went on to bomb and maim innocent people in the middle east and Asia – the Irish politicians still use that 7 years later hoping peoples her-worship of Obama will rub off on them. Change, what crap, it is code for selling out this country to globalism.
What in the name of christ are you on about???
Going on about Obama bombing people in a piece about voter registration.
Ok, we get it.
Nobody ever use the word “Change” again
Change
Vote no.
you know obama didn’t invent the word change for his campaign.
Diarmuid
You have the world of technology at your fingertips, go and use google, research it. Note how a Yes voter warps the issue, I never said people should not use the word change, I said politicians cynically use words that the most powerful terrorist on the planet used to get elected, it worked for him, (well goldman Sachs donations worked a lot more) so our politicians 7 years on still use it. Very simply notion to understand, but I find leftist gobshytes like yourself like to pretend and throw mud.
Simon
Who said Obama invented the word change, re-read what was said,
“Wasn’t that the Obama trick word mantra. “change you can believe in” while he went on to bomb and maim innocent people in the middle east and Asia”
Obama’s masters did come up with the political mantra of using the notion of “change”…it was all “vote for change”, change you can believe in and so on.
You do realise we live in Ireland? Your continuing rants about Obama and same-sex marriage sound suspiciously like those of a right-wing loon from America, you know, the ones which have been flooding our country with anti-SSM propaganda.
Now please go and use it.
I cannot wait until this moratorium and Saturday when this is all over and done with. I’d encourage people to vote yes but at the end of the day your opinion is your own. If you’re not part of the LGBT community then it will have no impact on your life come Monday morning regardless of the result
It will impact your life if part of the way you live includes caring about your fellow human beings and their happiness and well being.
That was a diplomatic dig at the no side if I’m being honest. I’d love nothing more for all my friends and family who are LGBT
@Pontius
Gay stag parties can not be worse than straight stag parties
In fairness, Gay Stags sound like they’d be great craic.
Doe Parties?? (ignore the sterotyping)
I’m all for any excuse for more cake anyway
Vote Yes for cake !!!!!
Yaaaaayy !!
Hang on ..what kinda cake ?
Fruit cake !?!… Im going to hell for that.
How about a nice fresh Swiss Roll ? Do you know how to make a Swiss Roll ???
I know how to buy one ..
It’s easy to make a Swiss Roll.Just push him down a hill…. Now I know Im going to hell for that one.
We are all connected. Straight people have gay friends, children, parents. I want to live in a country where everyone is valued equally. A no vote hurts more that the LGBTQ community, who would be devastated by it.
This is promising, odd are most were young people seeking change and to put Ireland in the foreground of progress #voteyes
I thought it said ‘water registration’. Oh the relief!
I.W. is running on silent since the Referendum and the almost silent vote on the Presidential election took stage .
A lot of number crunching to be done from the data between now and these votes and the General Election , Giveaway budgets to organise , but tell us first that we can’t go mad (appeal to core Fine Gael) , then lo-and-behold , our friends in Europe ease restrictions or better again the figures that come from consultants are up and there is more money in the “Kitty” .
The Troikas – 9Europe’s) and (Lab, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail) – guaranteed to pull strokes on the Kitty ….
But don’t worry about the water. Next week we will a Dubble referendum sizes hole to fill. I’m sure Irish water will obliging and fill it with stories of leaks.
Great news. In my family when we all turned 18 my mam registered us all. No debate. Voting is important. Haven’t missed a referendum or election since.
My daughter registered to vote for the first time. I’ve brought her every time I have voted and she puts my vote in the box, ok not as a teenager, but now she gets to vote for herself. It’s a yes BTW.
So young Dublin hipsters primarily, sure they’ll be so stoned they’ll forget to vote.
Yet another enlightened comment from you Joe. You should write a book!
Cavan people too mean to give away a vote.
Joe – how is that “every child deserves a mother and father” argument working for you today?
http://www.thejournal.ie/courts/news/
Ironic that holy joe should mentioned people getting stoned, his beloved bible demands that women who aren’t virgins on their wedding night be stoned to death on their fathers doorstep.
Deuteronomy 22:21
WereJammin sorry to disappoint but I don’t have a bible nor am I religious none of my opposition to SSM is founded in faith.
@Paul not really sure what your point is with that one, sorry.
“Young people will be too stoned to vote so vote no!”
Seems legit alright.
Here’s “Soft Yes” Joe again. Hey, Joe!
No to same sex marriage and yes to presidential change
Why would you want a president who has literally zero experience in anything, ever? Ridiculous. No to presidential reform and yes to marriage equality.
If you don’t want a 21 year old president then dont vote for one if they are in the race.
However, a 21 y/o shouldn’t be excluded from running if they want to just by their age. Each person should be measured by their individual merits. The more important part is that a 34 year old is also excluded from running for president!
YES to both
I can’t decide on this one. I’d hate to see the presidential election looking like an episode of x factor which I fear could happen if the age is lowered as far as 21. Makes me feel like a real old fogey though.
How many 21 year old TD’s do we have? How many MEP’s? Age limit should be lowered and then let the electorate decide.
Yes it is a wasteful and transparent attempt at trying to claim that they’ve done something regarding the political system in Ireland.
Vote yes and ignore all the unsupported arguments being made up by the no side… Hypothetical children you are talking about … Protect the children by keeping them from bad parents. Protect the gay children that the straight couples are having by affording them their Civil entitlements
Given the population is approx 5,000,000 and average life expectancy is 75 yrs approx. 5 million divided by 75 means how many people turn 18 each year? Well holy God.
About 66,000 people.
The number of people reported by the journal to have registered.
Sorry- where’s the news and what’s the message?
Wha ..
Tom could you graph that for us …..
Yea because there such a tradition of people rushing to register to vote on their eighteenth, think the point is that for a change these people ARE getting registered, but you knew that, just tryin to muddy things up, shock!
Don’t try to confuse Tom with numbers or statistics.For whatever reason they’re not his strongest subject.Its not like the number of registered births for the late 1990′s are available online or anything.
Ah I can remember turning 18 and registering to vote
Magical ,sepia toned times with the waltons theme music playing ..
Glad to see its still such a tradition
Hang on angelus is on brb
People tent to register when they are old enough to vote and there tends to be a bit of a surge when there is a vote coming up. Funny that.
I guess it’s a bit like people rushing to get the Christmas shopping done at – well Christmas actually.
These trends baffle me immensely.
There are 4.6 million people in the Republic and the average life expectancy is 80.9 years. So wrong on both counts.
More importantly, dividing the number of people in the country by the average life expectancy does not give the amount of 18 year olds….
Turn the lights off in the countdown studio when you’re done Tom ..
Today’s conundrum is : NZAQRYGH4 ..
You’re 60 seconds starts now ..
Tend
Ok ok
It was a back of a fag pack I worked it out on. Oops sorry, am I allowed say that word.
So not good with numbers OR words ..
You’re so funny. I almost laughed.
Diarmuid.
I bet you didn’t know those numbers this morning. You googled it didn’t ya. Go on, ya did. Admit it will ya….
Are voting cards still being issued or do we just go to the local polling station?
Or a passport
I never received my polling card either, I checked the register online and I am on it. Is it just one form of photo identity that I need?
Yeah me too, local council are saying I’m registered (though I’m not coming up on the register, but I believe it’s only updated once a year). Just thought I’d have something in the post.
very difficult to get an answer from the council
Should be fine with a passport or similar. You can bring a marriage certificate, birth certificate etc.
Bring two if you want to be sure
All these people registering.
What does that mean?
Perhaps they have just turned 18?
Lies, damn lies & statistics.
That’s usually your tack Joe.Minus the statistics part of course.You don’t seem to like statistics do you ???
Except there’s no mandatory sign up. You only get a polling card if you bother to fill in the forms. This would indicate that a lot of people who never registered before decided now was the time to do so. I woukd imagine a fair chunk of them might have just turned 18, but I would imagine there’s a few in their 20s, 30s and above in there too.
The Solomon Test:
Let us design a marriage for gays that is called by a different name, it will not be known as marriage as we have it now in the constitution which is for a man and a woman and for the potential children they may have. Instead let us devise a marriage for gays that has a completely different name, let us call it “gay marriage”, it is a ceremony the same as marriage but its constitutional component does not redefine heterosexual marriage’s protection of the child. So gay marriage will simply be a constitutional component for gays who wish to call their partnership, gay marriage, but it will not be the constitutional marriage we now have because it will not allow any change to the impact of children now or in the future which enshrines the child having a Mother and Father as part of a stable family.
If gays who want to vote yes truly value children, they would accept such a marriage for them, being called “gay marriage” if not, then they truly are not interested in the child and their Yes vote is truly all about their own adult wants and wishes, putting the needs of children last.
@Lasair, referendum is NOT about children.
This is all about children and blindly putting adult homosexual wishes before the needs of children, you are opening up a legal quagmire and nightmare for children of this state.
Senior Lawyers urge No vote in marriage referendum
3. The systematic cutting of biological ties between children and their natural parents
The Marriage Referendum is the next major step in a programme of social engineering which not just obscuress our understanding of the human person as male and female (the new ‘gender theory’) but which endorses the severing of the natural ties between a child and his or her biological parents. This radical programme has already begun with the enactment into law of the Children and Family Relationships Act, 2015 on April 6th, 2015. While Germany, Italy, Austria and Switzerland ban donated sperm or egg use, so as to preserve the genetic link between parents and off-spring, the Government has legislated to make this practice normal in Ireland. If the Marriage Referendum is passed, a same-sex couple, as a married couple, will have the same constitutional status as a married heterosexual couple. This includes a constitutional right to procreate. A lesbian couple can only procreate with donor sperm.
A male homosexual couple can only procreate with a donor egg and a surrogate mother. There is a strong argument that these practices will enjoy constitutional protection if this referendum proposal is passed. This will serve to copper-fasten in law the programme to cut the natural ties between a child and his or her biological parents which was commenced with the enactment of the Children and Family Relationships Act, 2015. The Government’s programme is then intended to find its fulfillment, after the anticipated passing of the referendum proposal, in the enactment of a Surrogacy Bill in due course which will provide for surrogacy in accordance with the new constitutional right of two married men to procreate. In regulating surrogacy, if the referendum proposal is passed, whether it would be open to the legislature to privilege an opposite-sex couple over a same-sex couple, would be, according to the Referendum Commission “Not impossible, but difficult to imagine”. (Mr. Justice Kevin Cross, The Irish Times, May 15th, 2015)
http://ionainstitute.ie/index.php?id=3938#.VVYTA-Lv9pg.twitter
Lasair – how is heterosexual parenting working out for you today?
http://www.thejournal.ie/courts/news/
Lasair a constitutional right to procreate does not exist. For any of us. Some can procreate some can’t, but nobody has a right to procreate protected in the constitution. Stop spreading false information please.
Paul
Your point? Interesting you ignore the points made in favour of equating 1 article in the far-leftist journal with heterosexual parenting. But to allay your bias
“Fathers reduce behavioral problems in boys and psychological problems in girls.
According to decades of research, the ideal family structure for children is a two-parent, mother-father family. That research consistently shows that children raised in such families are more likely to thrive—psychologically, mentally, and physically—than children reared in any other kind of family configuration.
Extensive research also reveals that not only mothers, but also fathers, are critical to the healthy development of children. Swedish researchers reviewed the best longitudinal studies from around the world that assessed the effects of fathers on children’s development. Their review spanned 20 years of studies and included over 22,000 children, and found that fathers reduce behavioral problems in boys and psychological problems in girls, enhance cognitive development, and decrease delinquency.”
Same-Sex Marriage Is Harmful to Children – Trayce Hansen licensed psychologist
Demise
The potential to procreate does not exist for homosexuals. Only heterosexuals can procreate and this is what marriage protects and what the state holds as the highest best interest in the child, that each and every child should have a mother and father where possible, when we depart from that we put the needs of all children in jeopardy. Either you want the right to marry in a partnership scenario we term something separate (as homosexuals ARE different to heterosexuals) and we call it “gay marriage” then you get all the entitlements of marriage without the presumption of creating a child, therefore if you oppose this, you are really exposing that you don’t give a fig about children and being included in the hetero term marriage is for you all about your own personal wishlist rather than the needs of children. You are in effect like the woman in the Solomon story who preferred to have the child cut in 2 in order to feel equality rather than the real mother who preferred the child go to the interloper rather than see her child harmed.
Let’s try that with a different noun now.
“Let us design a freedom for gays that is called by a different name, it will not be known as freedom as we have it now in the constitution…”
There is only one form of equality. It’s not a scale. You’re equal or you’re not. You’re respected or you’re not. You’re treated as a human being and a citizen or you’re not.
You don’t get to define what equality is just as you don’t get to skew a referendum that has nothing to do with children to be about children because the change that true justice requires terrifies you to the core of your being.
Address the issues, do the right thing.
@Lasair
1. Again, the referendum this Friday has nothing to with children.
2. Nobody has a right to procreate.
3. You don’t want children separated from their biological parents, assuming adoption doesn’t sit well with you?
Yes Paul by your warped reasoning, every straight marriage is to be watched.
Those stories are horrible, but its not a true reflection on straight marriage.
this is an evil man and I cannot say anything good about his wife.
what is this like compared to previous times
It will be interesting to see if attitudes have changed in anyway across the country:
Looking at the figures from the divorce referendum back in 1995, if the vote was by County, there would currently be no divorce! The picture is quite grim!
The only regions that divorce actually passed in where:
Cork South Central
Dublin Central
Dublin North
Dublin North Central
Dublin North East
Dublin North West
Dublin South
Dublin South Central
Dublin South East
Dublin South West
Dublin West
Dun Laoghaire
Kildare
Limerick East
Louth
Almost every county voted No! – which is quite startling!
It will be very interesting to see if things have changed in Holy Catholic Ireland…..
Gave a change of address over a month ago but im not on the register, what gives.
That happened to my partner. They tried to tell us our area didn’t exist, which is odd because we live here..
We filled out that form, got it stamped and sent it off 2 months ago, but was worried we hadn’t received any correspondence. So I called Wicklow Co.Co, to the number for voter-registration, verified my address and name, and she said the cards were on their way out. So give your Co.Co. a call, they have you sorted already, but better to check.
Check the register site is updated once a year, so contact your local county council to confirm
Vote no and protect the children of this country. A yes result amends article 41 of our constitution which deals with child protection laws,why.equality comes under article 40 and it is not being touched.
Can you explain how two people of the same sex getting married has to do with child protection?
Same sex marraige will be enshrined in the constituion. It will be recognised and afforded the same protection as hetreosexual marraige. If the government wanted to introduce surrogacy or adoption laws that give preference to hetreosexual rather than gay couples then a gay couple could challenge these laws saying they are unconstitutional.
All laws passed must be compatible with the constitution which supercedes all Oireachtas laws.
Numbers listed here for every local authority in the State, except Cork City.
@lasair, sounds like they need to “change” your medication given your ranting about Obama in a piece about voter registration. Also if marriage is about procreation, then surely there should be a ban on infertile couples and those too old to procreate getting married because, according to your logic, since they cannot procreate their marriage has no meaning. Must be a great view from up there in your Ivory tower. People like you have done one very great thing for the gay community the last few months. Something that we could never really manage to do for ourselves. You have shattered our complacency, the illusion that attitudes such as yours were relegated to the past. You have woken the younger generation of gay men and women out there, that have never really come up against your brand of bigotry before, to the fact that the fight really isn’t won yet. It looked like it since decriminalisation which was before most of them were born and they never had to march and protest before for to the right be who they are. Hopefully the venom with which the no side have pursued their cause has fired this new generation up ready for the next battle. And, even if we don’t win this time, they will be the generation that will go on to make it happen. So thank you!!!
have your say