Ireland votes overwhelmingly in favor of same-sex marriage
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Same-sex couples will soon be able to walk down the aisle in the Emerald Isle.
Voters in Ireland overwhelmingly chose to change their nation’s constitution Friday, becoming the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage through popular vote.
The official results were announced Saturday at a Dublin Castle press conference: 1,201,607 voted in favor of the landmark referendum, while 734,300 voted against it, said Ríona Ní Fhlanghaile, an elections official.
Voter turnout in the majority Catholic nation was more than 60%, according to Fhlanghaile.
Despite speculation in the run-up that opposition to the measure might have been understated because people were too shy to tell pollsters that they planned to vote “no” — the outcome was lopsided, with the measure passing by just over 61% of the total vote cast.
Once the votes began to be tallied, the result was never in doubt.
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