• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
A woman arrives with children at a polling station in Dublin March 8, 2024, to vote on a referendum to redefine family and delete wording on stay-at-home mothers in the Irish Constitution. (OSV News photo/Reuters, Clodagh Kilcoyne)

Irish voters resoundingly reject proposals to redefine family, undermine motherhood

March 11, 2024
By Michael Kelly
OSV News
Filed Under: Marriage & Family Life, News, World News

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

DUBLIN (OSV News) — The Irish prime minister, known as the Taoiseach, has conceded that his government was defeated “comprehensively” when voters rejected amendments to the constitution that the country’s bishops warned would have weakened supports for marriage and undermined motherhood.

Despite opinion polls showing a clear majority in favor of the government plan to widen the definition of the family to include other “durable relationships” as well as marriage, when votes were counted March 9, 67.7 percent of citizens rejected the amendment, while 32.3 percent supported it.

A second amendment proposed removing a provision from the 1937 document that said women should not be forced by economic necessity to take a job “to the neglect of their duties in the home.”

Ireland Prime Minister Leo Varadkar heads to cast his vote at Scoil Treasa Naofa in Dublin in a March 8, 2024, referendum to redefine family and delete wording on stay-at-home mothers in the Irish Constitution. (OSV News photo/Reuters, Clodagh Kilcoyne)

Again, polls showed it was likely to pass, but this proposal was rejected by an even wider margin, 73.9 percent to 26.1 percent. It is the highest-ever “no” vote in Irish referendum history.

The amendments had been supported by all political parties except the small Aontú party, which only has one member in the national parliament, known as the Oireachtas.

Speaking at the national count center in Dublin Castle March 9, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said he was disappointed by the results. However, he stated, “The people were asked questions, the debates happened, the arguments were heard.

“The public comprehensively took the view they did not want to make changes to the constitution that we proposed. We accept that, we respect that and we take responsibilities for the results,” he said.

The referendums were held March 8, designed to coincide with International Women’s Day, and the results were announced March 9, just a day before Ireland traditionally celebrates Mother’s Day.

David Quinn, director of the pro-marriage think-tank the Iona Institute, told OSV News that the rejection of both proposals were “the best possible present ahead of Mother’s Day.”
He said that “the government asked voters to remove the word ‘mother’ from the constitution and they answered with a resounding ‘no.’ They also rejected by a huge margin the attempt to foist the extremely nebulous term ‘durable relationships’ on the constitution.”

Maria Steen, a Catholic lawyer who campaigned against both proposals, described the result as “a great victory for common sense.”

She said it is also a “rejection of a government that seems more concerned with social media plaudits than actually getting on with the business of governing the country.”

Steen described the results as “expression by the Irish people of gratitude and of love — gratitude to women for the work that they do in their homes, that is often unseen and unsung.”

“Gratitude to mothers for the unique and irreplaceable role that they play in their children’s lives, and in the lives of their families, and a recognition of the special place that marriage has in our constitution and that they want to retain there,” she said, speaking to OSV News at the count center.

Brandon Scott, a representative for the only political party to oppose the proposals, Aontú, said the lack of political opposition to the referendum in light of the public rejection is “a damning indictment of how politics has become inaccessible for so many.”

“I’m delighted that the voters have correctly understood that this was a campaign marked by government virtue signaling that was not going to make a difference to the bread-and-butter issues affecting ordinary struggling citizens,” he told OSV News.

The government spent nearly $22 million running the referendum. Ahead of the poll, in a pastoral letter, the country’s Catholic bishops had warned that the amendments could weaken the incentive for young people to get married.

The bishops stopped short of call for a “no” vote on either proposal, but in a statement read at Masses the weekend before the vote, they said the family is the foundational cell of society and is essential to the common good because it is based on “the exclusive, lifelong and life-giving public commitment of marriage.”

The prelates had warned that the second amendment would have had “the effect of abolishing all reference to motherhood in the Constitution” and left “the particular and incalculable societal contribution” that mothers in the home have made, and continue to make, in Ireland unacknowledged.

Adopted in 1937, Ireland’s Constitution has been subject to proposed amendments 40 times, 20 of those proposed amendments in its first 63 years, and 20 more since the year 2000.

In 2015, Ireland became the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage by way of a popular vote when the constitution was amended by 62 percent in favor of it to 37 percent opposed. In 2018, voters opted to remove the right to life of unborn children from the constitution legalizing abortion by a margin of 68 percent to 33 percent.

Read More Marriage & Family Life

Practice the ‘BeDADitudes’

Reach out to families; let them know God loves them, pope says

A family’s love grounded in Christ is sign of peace for world, pope says

Leaders in foster care, adoption look at post-Roe landscape for their ministries

Pope names new chancellor of institute for marriage, family sciences

Called to foster: Families welcome children with love

Copyright © 2024 OSV News

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Michael Kelly

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Hunt Valley parishioner recalls her former student – a future pope

  • superman Movie Review: ‘Superman’

  • Deacon Gary Elliott Dumer Jr., active in men’s ministry, dies

  • Loyola University Maryland graduate ordained Jesuit priest

  • Father Robert Wojsław dies at 52

| Latest Local News |

Lay associates journey with the Oblate Sisters of Providence

Father Robert Wojsław dies at 52

Scopes Monkey Trial ignited century-long debate on evolution and belief 

Deacon Gary Elliott Dumer Jr., active in men’s ministry, dies

Radio Interview: The music and ministry of Seph Schlueter

| Latest World News |

Filled with hope, Christians know cries of the innocent will be heard, pope says

Pope calls for ceasefire, dialogue, peace after church hit in Gaza

School club gives students chance to benefit veterans, fosters Gospel value of serving others

Two dead, Holy Family Gaza pastor injured after mid-morning Israeli attack

Top Republican appears to walk back probe of Catholic entities amid charged committee hearing

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Filled with hope, Christians know cries of the innocent will be heard, pope says
  • Pope calls for ceasefire, dialogue, peace after church hit in Gaza
  • School club gives students chance to benefit veterans, fosters Gospel value of serving others
  • Two dead, Holy Family Gaza pastor injured after mid-morning Israeli attack
  • Top Republican appears to walk back probe of Catholic entities amid charged committee hearing
  • Mahmoud v. Taylor: A Supreme Court victory for parents, freedom
  • Church leaders, faithful in procession to Detroit ICE office call for just immigration policies
  • Study: Devotion to Mary has significant impact on discerning, sustaining vocations
  • How and why to laugh like a saint

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en