Irish vote to liberalise divorce laws by wide margin

[Demovictory9]

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-europe-48410903

People in the Republic of Ireland have voted overwhelmingly in favour of liberalising divorce laws, in a referendum held on Friday.

The constitution currently states that spouses must be separated for four of the previous five years to divorce.

But that clause will now be removed, allowing the Oireachtas (Irish parliament) to decide a new separation period before divorce is allowed.

Divorce was legalised in Ireland in 1995.

The country voted in the 1995 referendum by a margin of just 50.3%.

In Friday's poll, with two of 31 constituencies still to declare, voters backed a change to the law by 82.1% to 17.9%, according to results 

[JI7]

1. with a lot of places going backwards in the world it seems like Ireland is one of the countries

that is improving.

[OnDoutside]

4. A bit of it is to stick it to the Catholic Church, as in you're no longer the masters over us.

[Demovictory9]

5. Those horrible revelations have shaken loose the obedience to vatican

The revelations regarding bodies buried at the nunnery and other scandals

[OnDoutside]

6. As horrific as that was, it was the cover up by the Church afterwards that was the killer. It

left people thinking, how could you possibly trust the Church again ? Sunday mass going has gone from 80+% to about 30%. People have voted with their feet.

[Demovictory9]

7. Wow. 80% to 30%

[OnDoutside]

8. Yes and the majority are over 50 years old.

[murielm99]

2. They certainly are!

I remember when contraceptives were illegal there.

[OnDoutside]

3. Yes, and the "Women's Libbers" took the train from Dublin to Belfast to buy contraceptives, openly

challenging the Gardai to arrest them !