Gay couples flocked to central Dublin to celebrate a "historic
watershed" on Saturday as a large majority in the traditionally Catholic
country voted to allow same-sex marriage, the culmination of a
four-decade struggle for gay rights.
Waving rainbow flags, embracing and crying, two
thousand people gathered to watch the official results in the courtyard
of Dublin Castle after voters, young and old, accounted for one of the
highest turnouts in a referendum for decades.
"The amount of people who came out to vote is just such
an emotional thing for us," said Fred Schelbaum, 48, standing with his
civil partner Feargal Scott, 43, who he said he intended to marry.
"Up to now a lot of gay people felt they were tolerated in Ireland. Now we know that it's much more than that."
The crowds cheered as gay rights icons appeared on the
square, including David Norris, whose campaign led to the 1993
decriminalisation of gay sex and, and Rory O'Neill, whose Panti Bliss
drag queen character became the face of the campaign.
"The future for young LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Transgender) people in this country is incredible," O'Neill said.
"I'm just glad to be here on the day this Ireland came into being."
Jean Webster, a 54-year-old administrator who came out
as a lesbian eight years ago after separating from her husband, said
that after the birth of her children, this was the happiest day of her
life.
"A lot of my family have voted no in this campaign so
at a personal level it has been very traumatic," she said. "I needed to
wake up this morning to have thousands of people affirm my rights when
certain people in my family weren't."
The emergence of a new generation of young voters was a
"historic watershed" in Irish politics that had the potential to
finally break the link between church and state, she said.
"We woke up today to a new Ireland. The real Irish Republic that I have dreamed of my whole life," she said.
Several high-profile Irish figures who have come out as
gay since the start of the campaign hailed the new atmosphere it had
ushered in the country.
"Ten years ago Ireland was still a very dark place,"
said former minister Pat Carey, who waited until his late 60s to open up
about being gay.
"There was a lot of raw wounds that needed to be
healed. I think the young people of Ireland have grabbed this country by
the neck and it's unrecognisable to what it was 10 years ago."
(Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
