It is probably a bad idea to write an analysis of the day’s referendum results having just listened, as your correspondent sadly has, to the commentary on those same results presented to the public by the taxpayer funded national broadcaster.
On RTE, the conventional wisdom, as it always does in Ireland, congealed quickly: The people, the poor unfortunate people, were just confused.
The Government, per Alison O’Connor of the Sunday Times, draped in mourning shade of bright pink, had completely failed to explain the benefits of its referendum proposals to joe soap, and across the country poor hairy baboons coming down from their mountain mud huts had walked into polling booths and cast a “no” vote because of their unenlightened state. Over at Dublin Castle, Miriam O’Callaghan – a “proud feminist” – had encountered a taxi driver this morning who had voted “no/no” because he did not understand what he was being asked. Miriam nodded sympathetically as she imparted this information to Regina Doherty, who nodded sympathetically in return. “We could have done more to make it clear”, she said, in the manner of a teacher worried that little Tommy still wasn’t sure of his six times tables.
It is ever thus with official Ireland: there are only ever two explanations acceptable for political outcomes: Either the public has resoundingly endorsed the views of their betters, or the poor public has been too ignorant to truly appreciate the views of their betters. Were these referendums on some EU treaty, by now we would already have had the calls to hold them again and explain them better. True disagreement with the establishment is never acknowledged – either you’re smart enough to agree and vote yes, or your little pea-brain is too small to understand why you should have voted yes, in which case the blame lies with your betters for not explaining it to you at your intellectual level. Thus we can expect Government Ministers to face a slew of questions about “communication” today.
Who can blame them really? They thought you were smarter than you are, and if there’s blame to be had, it’s just that they overestimated the public’s intelligence. Taxi drivers cannot be expected to understand things the way Miriam O’Callaghan does, after all.
If the establishment in this country wishes to talk about communications, though, then let’s talk about it: This campaign began with a taxpayer funded NGO, the National Women’s Council, publishing an argument for a Yes vote in the country’s flagship newspaper that claimed that the constitution mandates the Government to “oppress” women. That was a lie. A taxpayer-funded lie, told to the public.
It continued with repeated insistences that the phrase “durable relationships” was clear, even as the Government had legal advice from its own attorney general making clear that the phrase was anything but clear. That was a lie, parroted by the entire cabinet at one stage or another.
On RTE the other night, the Tánaiste seemed to suggest that that the referendum on the family could not permit polygamy because “polygamy is illegal”. Even the hairiest baboons in their mountainside mud huts know that he was lying, since the constitution is superior to all legislation.
The real issue with these referendum campaigns, I’d argue, is not that the public did not understand them, but that the Government did not understand them. There was a sense throughout the campaign that Government didn’t really understand itself why it was holding these votes, other than as a box-ticking exercise because liberal Ireland, from its unassailable redoubt in the gender studies department of UCD and its fortress in the NGO sector, told them it must have them. The referendums were favoured by progressive academics, and since everything favoured by progressive academics is good and praiseworthy, Ministers went along with it.
Poor Heather Humphreys was put in charge of the Fine Gael yes campaign – a staunch Presbyterian from the borderlands asked to lead a campaign to downgrade the status of marriage. No wonder she spent the campaign hiding as far from the capital city and the press corps as she could manage. There is nobody in Fine Gael who thinks that these referenda were her cup of tea.
Over on the Fianna Fáil side, Thomas Byrne was put in charge as punishment for whatever he’s done to annoy the Tánaiste this time, and promptly delivered one of the most clueless performances in the recent history of Irish politics in a debate with Peadar Tóibín, seeming not to understand the very basic questions Tóibín was asking him.
Sinn Fein, of course, did what they always do: They sided with the NGOs half-heartedly because the worst thing you can be in Leinster House is suspect in the eyes of Orla O’Connor of the NWCI. Across the country today, it is their voters, in working class areas, who are giving the Government the biggest kicking. Sinn Fein, as it is on so many issues, is completely out of touch with its own support base, even as it ponders why its polling has stalled.
The biggest questions, however, should be reserved for the aforementioned NWCI and its associated panopoly of taxpayer funded lobby groups who were the true driving force behind these referendums being called. The National Women’s Council of Ireland is funded almost entirely by the taxpayer to represent the views and concerns of Irish women. As we have learned today, it does no such thing. Women across the country have rejected its argument. So why, pray tell, does it continue to receive funding?
If you listen to RTE today, and probably to voices across the rest of the so-called “mainstream” media, you will hear repeatedly that the poor voters just didn’t understand what they were being asked. That, like much of the Government’s campaign, is an utter lie. The truth is that it was the politicians who didn’t understand – why they were having these votes, what the point of them was, or why people had the concerns that they did. We were asked to vote on these proposals because they seemed progressive, and that, as ever, was enough for the crowd of ninnies that this country has the misfortune to call a political class.
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Well said John. A brilliant analysis. I cannot believe the commentary from RTE. They’ve shut down. They can’t comprehend what’s happened. They have no idea what we the great unwashed think, believe, want or need. Their condescending paternalism is so reminiscent of the Roman Church. Their dishonesty would take your breath away. And they save the best lies for themselves. We must defund the NGO sector of tax payers money urgently to protect the integrity of our democracy. I didn’t vote for these activist ideologues. If they want a say in our democracy then put their name on the ballot paper. And the citizens assembly should go the same way. Defund it. Shame on the political classes. Shame on them.
Very well said Nark.
Mark.
Err…”Mark”? :-))
Well said!
Totally on point!
Thank you Mark.
Well said John, excellent analysis.
Can’t wait for Kevin Myers to entertain us on the topic .
‘Durable Relationship’ – Bought to you by people that can’t figure out what toilet to use, don’t know what a woman is, and think there are 100 different genders. Traitors, every one of them.
Lol. So true.
People on the RTE panel already talking about a rerun. The elites of this country need to be put in their place. The arrogance of them…..
They can F..k right off with a re-run. The people have spoken. The constitution is not a plaything for people with agendas. It is our constitution. It is the people’s constitution.
If it’s a NO, No vote. I’m proud of our people for their good old fashioned common sense.
As a woman, I don’t particularly like the wording referrancing ‘woman’s work in the home’, but it has done me no harm either.
They are so tollerant of views that differ from their own.
Now more than be an ever , the Irish people need to be on their guard . We will be hit with more of these Trojan Horse attacks on our culture and heritage . I am relieved today but still worry for the next generations that follow .
As mentioned above,it’s highly likely the so-called Citizens Assembly will be the source of any proposed re run of the effected proposals. There can be only one citizens representative body in Ireland,and that is a fully elected one in Dail Eireann. This result cannot be allowed to sit simmering on the gas,but needs to be immediately built upon and moved forward in order to reclaim the people’s independence of thought and action.
Nauseating to listen to these incompetents telling me I didn’t understand. These clowns can’t tell me the difference between a man and woman or legal and illegal immigration. It’s frightening that they are anywhere near the levers of power.
The state media will start raining down missiles of vitriol on all of the nationalist political candidates and political parties now . They will be doing their utmost to ensure that this rejection of the establishment parties does not carry over to actual elections .
Watch out for an onslaught of media hit jobs on the better known nationalist faces and parties.
Vitriol…. I love it.
What the government does now to deflect and blame is largely irrelevant as it’s clear the Irish people aren’t listening to them anymore and that they do not represent the views of the people, as this result will show. In truth I think the political class in Ireland is now contemptuous of the ordinary people, and is embarassed by us. Time for them to go. We need political representatives again, not NWO/NGO administrators.
Ah but who? Where are the honest politicians – Glasnevin cemetery?
Independent candidates, Aontua, who spoke out against this amendment as well as Small Nationalist parties.
Build it and they will come. The people of Ireland today have started building the arena for politicians who serve them. There were some encouraging examples on show in this campaign, mostly just a few independents, but it’s clear day to all now that the demand is, and will be, there for more, beginning with the three elections this year. There’s hope.
What a shame it has taken the electorate until now to realise the Irish government’s government’s succession of repeals to fundamental articles of the Irish constitution was a power shift from the ranks of the people to the state. If the changes to introduce divorce marriage reform abortion Nice and Lisbon had been similarly defeated The Irish people would be in far better control of their own country today.
Well done to all who made the effort to turn up and vote. Regardless of how each person voted.
Proud of the turnout for the NO message. And special shout out to the representatives who campaigned for the best interest of their constituents.
I voted at around 5.15 pm yesterday and I was surprised at the amount of people voting. Given the age profile, I suspect it was people like myself coming home from work so once voted, we could settle in for the night.
We need a campaign to rid our country of NGOs. We have elected governments with an established civil service to advise and a diplomatic Corp also acting as advisers.
Credit were credit is due, the diplomatic corp played a blinder even before Brexit and are generally very good at what they do. They do their business quietly and very effectively. Yet, most of us couldn’t name a single ambassador.
Governments taking advice from unelected NGOs is very undemocratic and they need to be smashed.
The power of the NGOs is a corruption of democracy.
RTE is government propaganda. They are a threat to a fair democracy and so need to be abolished.
Mind you the lurking presence of Ms Dee Forbes in RTE’s wings did rather contradict the Government line about women being constitutionally chained to the kitchen sink……?
One good thing that came out of this government debacle is the discovery of the comedy gold that is Thomas Byrne. That man has a brilliant future ahead of him as a comedian.
Can’t believe Thomas the Tool is still on the radar. A numpty.
I wonder how they can spin the “far right” into this. You would think it would be impossible but these people can turn a man into a woman so nothing is beyond them.
If they could actually give a single actual example of “far right ”
A stupid lazy term.
The sound Irish people who voted NO NO are right not far right. The fact that political classes are so out of touch with the electorate is a disgrace. The Goldmine Leinster House is full of incompetent clowns who do not want to see or hear the voices and views of the people who elected them. The Referendums are a watershed moment in Irish political life, the people are angry at all the political parties regarding the refugee and mass migration madness, Health, cost of living, Housing, Rent, and waste of their taxes in the state apparatus. That 20 million Euro wasted on referendums that the citizens never asked for would have built 60 social houses.
Ireland has avoided the iceberg, for now! Unfortunately there are more bergs out there and the same clueless idiots are in the wheelhouse.
Memo to Varadkar and Martin. Next time don’t try to ban the word mother two days before Mother’s Day.
The Mammies and scorned women that are ignored and vilified, suddenly had had enough and with deadly force destroyed the woke, Liberal agenda. We salute you.
In fairness, many men voted a double NO.
They understood fully and knew dam well what they were doing. The issue was we did too. The ge can’t come quick enough now as we know all the polls are garbage and clearly bias and wrong.
The government going on about carers, families,human rights etc etc whilst hundreds of children lie in unmarked graves,sewers through out the country.The 20 million would have gone along way to putting things right for these kids and their families.
Excellent article John, couldn’t agree with you more. The electorate knew exactly what was at stake (due to Gripts reportage) and rejected both referendums on that basis. Was quietly confident of 50-60% turnout and 80% No/No, already looking like it could even be better. Gavin o Reilly called it at 10 am.
Great analysis – “little bit” of vindication for myself, too – for many years, I’ve been saying, as a lawyer, that EU phraseology like “durable relationship” – which has been “pumped out” by Brussels – is, not to put too fine a word on it, “pure crap”. The Irish need to wake up that there’s, equally, a lot of crap in the EU’s Digital Services Act and other pieces of directly applicable EU law. Unfortunately those pieces of law take precedence over the Constitution – the only way to rid ourselves of such tyranny is to “walk away from the EU”. Charles Haughey said Northern Ireland was a “failed entity” – the same can be said of the EU – with its attempt to transform itself into some sort of “super-State” !
A return to an ‘ economic community’ status should be considered as a good topic for the next referendum ?
Simple question now that the people have made their decision known.
Emphatically!
Will the government take a blind bit of notice.
Or their media appendages?
The radical feminist NGOs costing 6 billion a year must be defunded. The NWC do not represent women, they represent radical feminists only, nobodies with no employable qualifications, only rubbish stuff like diversity, integration, veiled words to wipe out the Irish. They are people of no religious conviction, their version of right and wrong is what they make up themselves. They spun their black lies throughout the campaign and brazenly refused to withdraw them. Their latest villainy is to claim the NO voters are confused. That’s what they’re like, total bitches.
You are absolutely correct. Hopefully more women will wake up to the toxicity of the radical feminist movement.
Don’t the NGOs love the word ‘diversity’, for everyone else except themselves, that it. How many non-Irish people are in national, European or local government? How many non-Irish are in The Irish Times, Independent, Examiner or RTE? And not forgetting of course, the bastion of the free press and self-righteous, the Journal.ie, whose media studies never taught them grammar. Insert a comma, but where oh where!
One thing is for sure, the NGO sector needs smashing. They are an abhorrence to our democracy.
You have a way with words, John Lol.
Of course you could never write with such laser precision and accuracy if you were not self employed.!
Long may you resist the inducements of our Lords & Masters to shut up and accept a seriously remunerative position in the Government Press Office or- horror of horrors- a celebrity job, with your own late late show in RTE. Lol 😂
Government terrified of falling foul to Liberal woke NGO groups. They should be sent packing now ,it’s time to realise these groups and their agendas poison. They make out its normal and urgent to have their issues addressed, the public disagrees and wants leadership and morals
If they were to be honest they would realise that we understood it all perfectly well and were not going to let ourselves be bullied into a yes vote. Some I spoke to said they didnt know what it was about initially but once they realised how hard those in Leinster house were pushing they were spurred on to see why then chose No for both.
A small percentage voted no solely because Leo and Co wanted a yes and nobody trusts or believes a word comes out of their mouths anymore so did the opposite.
Eamonn dum dum Ryan saying the people have spoken and they have to listen, well they have been turning a deaf ear for far too long now when people have been screaming about mass immigration and non vetted males in our country so this is a first
Hey RTPee lets move on and talk about more important issues like Burnley Utd v Torquay Rovers ?? or what dress Lady Gaga or Panti Piss is wearing tonight ?? or what about showing Magdalen Laundries AGAIN…………?? DON’T worry about the elephant in ogorman’s room !!!
Maybe they’d like to do an expose of English Public Schools which make Ireland’s industrial schools look like holiday camps. The memoir ‘A Very Private School’ by Charles Spencer is disturbing and shocking. But I don’t think RTE will be interested unless they were Catholic schools. Having said that, I know a few great people working at RTE, one in particular, a good Catholic, but he doesn’t work in News.
According to Newstalk our Taoiseach has commented on the referendum:
“It was our responsibility to convince the majority of people and we failed to do so.”
“We struggled to convince of the necessity or need of the referendum at all, let alone the details and the wording.”
I understand this in plain English to mean:
We are right but failed to convince the ignorant public.
Is it so hard to admit that they may be wrong and the plebs right?
‘Our propaganda wasn’t good enough.’
Now we need a referendum on the right to free speech.
Not a hope of that happening unless we get rid of SFFFFG.
“Poor Heather Humphreys was put in charge of the Fine Gael yes campaign – a staunch Presbyterian from the borderlands asked to lead a campaign to downgrade the status of marriage.” (My emphasis)
Staunch Presbyterians hold marriage in high regard, following the teaching of Christ and the Scriptures and summed up in their Westminster Confession. It is sad when anyone thinks it is progress to deviate from two thousand years of orthodox Christian teaching.
Even on Radio na Gaeltachta, “the woke” excuse was trotted out. “The people were confused” we were told. What a load of nonsense. The people actually knew exactly what they were doing despite the government and opposition parties (excluding Aontu) trying to confuse them.
Very good analysis. The arrogance of those in power is breathtaking. Hopefully this will be a wake up call for the people and they will finally see the contempt in which they are held by the political establishment, which also includes Sinn Féin.
Great and highly enjoyable piece John.
I too am enjoying somewhat the flexing of Irish mot muscle over this issue. However, if the hairy mudhut mountain brigade think that this outcome wasn’t workshopped by both NGO’s and political types months before this, then they may as well hop back up to their cave dwellings and bash on their outsized qwerty’s from there as that will be just as about as much use as them coming down in the first place. Only a Neaderthal would be capable of so instantaneously concluding that this staged political theatric was a resounding defeat of the ecletic governing Regency. This ‘defeat’ , is of course, only stage one of the process to genderize our Glorious constitution by Vardcreep strategys and slip it into a more streamlined euro-constitution where anything Human 2.0 goes.
Specifically, they well gamed in a result such as this, and in all probability expected it on the advise (phonetically, add-vise) of those who have sold their souls to the euro and have lost faith in our nations uncorruptible heritage, uncorruptible because it is so by Gods very own design. “In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity…”. They aren’t to be condemned, but to be pitied and actually prayed for because they remain our less morally fortunate brothers.
The next stage of this wonderous theatric shall be thee faux conceedence that they “missed the pulse of the nation” regarding how passionate we are about our millions of mothers over the generations, and them that are – having hedged their bets that we may feel actionabley guilty about such traditional assertions in a climate of gender disphoria – then proceed with stage two of the process which will look via msm abit like this:
Look, you got your way about your Human 1.0 type generational model, its high time now that you conceeded in fairness to allow the inclusion of at least some Human 2.0 modifications in that constitution of yours that is so at odds with the new libertarian paradigm of the Euro-enlightened, and therfore include rights to models that are different from the cultural deffinition of family and gender that you lot cling to. Fair is fair after all. Type thing.
I myself simply wonder if the cave dwelling qwerty thumpers have the intellectual capacity to realize that it is going to take alot more risk and personal sacrafice to achieve anything effective in securing our borders against, by historic antropological deffinitions, such aggressive foreign theosophys. As far as theosophys go, it shouldn’t require anything extreme, simply a recognition of how dependant we are upon thee un-euroed supernatural for a peaceful and lastingly fruitful life. In short, a bit of real humility, a bit of bow ‘n scrape from us all before the almighty, that perhaps the genuine Ukrainian refugee may understand abit more readily.
You must be a descendant of the witty Jonathan Swift.
The Constitution is in the way of those who know what’s best for the hairy baboons. As for the National Women’s Council of Ireland, put the words ‘woman’ and ‘home’ in the same sentence and they suffer a severe allergic reaction. Most mothers want to be at home with their small children! Tell them that and they could suffer anaphylaxis, for which their antidote is to go on TV or Radio and talk about how oppressed women were under de Valera, with many soothing afffirmations from the Presenter.