Only 47 votes separate two camps on northside

The majority of voters in Cork city and county backed the referendum — but there were just 47 votes between the yes and no sides on Cork’s northside.

The amendment was barely passed in Cork North Central with 50.09% voting yes and an enormous 49.91% voting no. Turnout stood at 33.41%.

Labour junior minister and director of elections for her party, Kathleen Lynch played down the result, saying there “is always a big anti-government vote” in Cork North Central.

“There’s no doubt that the Supreme Court decision muddied the waters and then there is the 10% who were fundamentally opposed to this referendum and who all got out to vote. When turnout is low, their vote becomes much more significant.

“Then there’s those who, how no matter what the Government proposed, will object.”

Her constituency colleague, Sinn Féin TD Jonathan O’Brien, said he believed “people and the political parties were disengaged from the campaign” and that this was reflected in the poor turnout.

“There was also a lot of misinformation in our constituency, leaflets saying that your children would be taken off you if you didn’t vaccinate them and the like. Politicians probably should have done more to counter this and to engage people,” he said.

On Cork City’s southside, there was wider support for the amendment, with 59.52% backing the proposed changes. A total of 40.48% of those who voted were against the amendment. Turnout stood at 32.23%

In the county, Cork South West voted yes by 56.58% to 43.42%. Turnout was just 35.07%. There were 11,778 votes in support of the referendum compared to 9,038 against.

Cork North West also backed the referendum; 57.4% voted yes, 42.56% voted no. Turnout was 35.1% with 12,354 voting in support and 9,152 against.

In Cork East, 56.11% of voters voted in favour while 43.89% voted against the referendum. Turnout stood at 33.72%.

In Kerry, the leader of the no campaign said he was not surprised at the high vote they received in the county, 46.4% in Kerry North-West Limerick constituency and 43% in Kerry South.

Denis O’Connor said the reaction they had been getting on the canvass was that people knew very little about the issues involved and the literature issued by the Government was not in the least bit helpful.

“People also saw this as an anti-family referendum and the Supreme Court judgment also influenced people against it. I hope there will be now a legal challenge to this referendum,” he said.

Mr O’Connor and two others from the no campaign were the only people doing tallies at the count in Tralee.