Members of the ‘Yes’ Equality campaign celebrate Kerry saying Yes to same-sex marriage at the count centre in Tralee on Saturday.
THE ‘Yes Equality Kerry’ campaign group have thanked the people of Kerry for their support in Friday’s referendum.
In a statement, Lisa Fingleton, the chair of the group, said: “We want to sincerely thank the people of Kerry for your support. We especially want to thank the grandparents who voted in favour of a more loving world for their grandchildren. We want to thank the students who registered en masse and voted for the first time, forever changing the political landscape of Ireland. Neighbours were kind; businessses put up signs and supported events; friends, families and colleagues voted so that everyone has an equal choice to get married and equal protection under the constitution”.
Paula Dennan a member of the group said: “Seeing the joy, the tears and the relief on the faces of so many people at the count centre as the tallies came in and results were announced made all the hard work over the last few weeks even more worthwhile. Love is love and now our constitution recognises that for everyone”.
The group said the campaign in Kerry was entirely run on voluntary effort and people gave weeks of their time and energy for free because they believed in this campaign.
Social media played a very important role with 2,500 ‘likes’ supporting the Kerry campaign alone and by the last few weeks their posts were reaching up to 50,000 people online.
“This is a new beginning for our country and we need to ensure that we move forward in solidarity and leave the legacy of fear and discrimination in the past. Throughout the campaign we were very aware of the lack of supports for the LGBT community in Kerry and we hope that agencies will take this onboard in the future,” said Lisa Fingleton.
