Ireland’s gay marriage referendum draws high turnout of voters

DUBLIN – Voters determined to have their voice heard on gay marriage turned out in strength Friday for Ireland’s most hard-fought referendum in decades, a contest that pitted the liberal forces of social change against the nation’s conservative Catholic foundation.

Polls closed at 10 p.m. after 15 hours of voting that featured long-distance trips by Irish citizens, including thousands of emigrants who returned by aircraft or ferry to take part in the world’s first national vote on gay marriage.

Backers of gay marriage had hoped for high turnout, reflecting strong participation by young and first-time voters. Electoral officials said this appeared to have happened, particularly in Ireland’s major urban centers of Dublin and Cork, where many arriving at polling stations declared it was their first time voting.

Polling station officials said Ireland could top 60 percent turnout nationally for the first time since the country narrowly voted to legalize divorce in 1995, but was unlikely to reach the 68 percent achieved when the Irish voted to ease access to foreign abortions in 1992. Results will be announced today.

“This is really a turning point in our country, and I fully believe we’re going to have a ‘yes’ vote,” said Aodhan O Riordain, the government’s equality minister, speaking after he cast his own ballot to amend the description of marriage in Ireland’s 1937 constitution to a contract between “two persons without distinction as to their sex.” O Riordain, 38, called it the most important vote of his generation.

Ireland has no system for mail-in voting, so Irish expatriates in London, New York, Bangkok and Nairobi planned weekend trips home. Many documented their journeys on Twitter. One posted a picture on a London-to-Wales train with travelers decked out in rainbow colors and balloons of the gay rights movement.

Voters questioned by the Associated Press as they left several Dublin polling stations demonstrated a clear generational gap. Those under 40 were solidly “yes,” with older voters much more likely to have voted “no.”

A second proposed amendment to lower the minimum age of presidential candidates from 35 to 21 was not expected to pass.