Heretofore, "Ireland's Constitution...[enshrined] that 'The State pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of Marriage, on which the Family is founded, and to protect it against attack’ (Art 43.1.1.)"

• "The Church seeks with others to reaffirm the rational basis for holding that marriage should be reserved for the unique and complementary relationship between a woman and a man from which the generation and upbringing of children is uniquely possible....The Church holds that basic human rights must be afforded to all people. This can and should be done without sacrificing the institution of marriage and family and the fundamental role they play in society....In seeking to reaffirm the unique value to children and society of the mutual and complementary roles of a mother and father, we ask that the principle of equality not be undermined by applying it inappropriately to two fundamentally different types of relationship. Marriage is a unique relationship different from all others for a reason" (Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference).

• "If Ireland votes 'yes' to same-sex marriage, it will have had much to do with the younger generation....90 percent of 18- to 35-year-olds in Ireland support the proposed Constitutional amendment.  Yet quite a lot of these younger voters would, no doubt, identify as Catholic to some degree....The avoidance of significant parts of Catholic doctrine in schools and churches throughout the country is, I am sure, what makes a lot of Irish Catholics comfortable to acknowledge at least a residual belief" (Maeve O'Rourke, NY Times, 5/20/15).

•  "Ireland's Constitution enshrines that 'The State pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of Marriage, on which the Family is founded, and to protect it against attack’ (Art 43.1.1.).  This legal binding pledge is not made on religious grounds but because, ‘The State recognises the Family as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society and as a moral institution possessing inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law (Art 41.1.1)....In Ireland’s great future we cannot forget its past. Marriage between a man and a woman has certainly served us well as a nation throughout our history and it deserves to be protected and maintained" (Dana Rosemary Scallon, 5/21/15).

• "The fate of traditional marriage hangs in the balance as voters go to the polls on Friday, May 22 for a referendum on 'marriage equality'....advocates strategically pushed the same-sex marriage agenda using...a widely-hailed study published by California professors, which has now been retracted due to fake data.....[As per] Pope Francis: 'Jesus teaches us that the masterpiece of society is the family: the man and the woman who love each other'....The Irish have already embraced contraception, abortifacients, divorce, abortion, pornography, secular sex education, and possibly this week, the redefinition of marriage....an online resource, Who Am I to Judge, ...provide[s] key information that is often omitted from discussions" (Human Life International, 5/21/15)

• "Not only has Ireland has [sic] agreed to same-sex marriage, it has done so in a louder voice than many could have imagined, carried on the back of a remarkable turnout and an engagement by younger people not seen in years....this one was largely for the younger generation, which turned out in its droves. Stories of emigrants returning home to vote and huge increases in voter registration offered indications of what was to come but the final results were astonishing" (Fiach Kelly, the Irish Times, 5/23/15). 

•  "It looks extraordinary – little Ireland becoming the first country in the world to support same sex marriage by direct popular vote" (Fintan O'Toole, the Irish Times, 5/23/15).