The Irish referendums on marriage equality and abortion

Ireland is among a small group of countries which make increasing use of referendums. The state has an extensive written constitution which can only be changed by a national referendum vote. In its original draft, the constitution contained detailed clauses on the legal and political architecture of the state, social policies informed by conservative Catholic social thinking, a notional claim to the territory of Northern Ireland and an expansive interpretation of sovereignty. As elements of the constitution became outdated, referendums were necessitated to modernise the document; in addition, Ireland's membership of the European Union is especially noteworthy in requiring a large number of referendums since 1973 (see chapters by Svensson, Laffan and Mendez and Mendez elsewhere in this volume). The focus of this chapter is on constitutional referendums dealing with aspects of social policy. It utilises two recent referendums to highlight key issues and implications in the conduct of referendum votes. The marriage referendum introduced marriage equality in 2015 and in 2018 the abortion referendum liberalised the provision of abortion services.