On May 22nd the country marches to vote in a referendum. And like other referendums before it, the side not sponsored by the state is savaged, demonized and the public urged and urged with threats of mean names and disapproving finger waving if they do not vote as the state wishes.
And make no mistake, the yes vote is the vote almost every party in the republic implicitely supports, if not explicitely such as the more socialist parties.
I, being the cynic I am, am wary of the millions of dollars from American trusts poured into Ireland promoting numerous 'progressive' causes, and knowing of the apathy of the Irish populace and the utter catastrophe that is our moral and civic backbone, know full well I am preaching into a hurricane. The propaganda will likely win out, the beleagured Irish once again bullied into going the way of so many other fish in the river instead of swimming upstream like the fish of wisdom, the undecided will have the decision made for them and those who dared to vote no will be found and, one way or another, pay for their defiance in subtle, small ways that nonetheless cut deep.
But I have been wrong before, this is the electorate, after all, that did that most rare of things and exercised the proper duty of caution a democratic citizen is supposed to do when presented with an urgent vote. And for their temerity they were shamed and brow beaten and forced to vote again. But this same electorate saw the shamefulness of those who would grasp for the throne of the presidency and elected the quiet man in a brisk and surprising bout of mass wisdom to choose the humble and well spoken over the brash and the boorish, the likes of which will probably be never seen again. But this is the same electorate that voted for Divorce too. And when they vote for gay marriage which I have little practical reason to doubt, they will, in due course, vote for their rights to adoption and then, because everything else has been thrown out, Ireland will at last be an abortion on demand country, because at that point, why not?
At least, that is where reason would take me. But like I said, I've been wrong before, and miracles do indeed happen. But even if it is defeated we cannot rest easy, St.Patrick's work has been undone, and the snakes have come home to rest between the blades of grass in our fields.
