A tedious referendum campaign

AS YOU read this, the results of last week’s two referendums will be known. At the time of going to press on Friday, polling was still ongoing so I’m not going to pretend that I predicted the outcome.

Like many of my colleagues in the media, my email inbox has been heaving under the volume of press releases received from both sides of the marriage equality debate, especially in the final few weeks.

Even when you discount the ones filed under

‘nut jobs’, the mountain of correspondence was impossible to get through, let alone digest.

The Yes camp seemed more organised, which is understandable given the broad political consensus in favour of the amendment. There was no shortage of politicians willing to pen opinion pieces on why they were fully behind same-sex marriage.

As part of our coverage, we invited Equality Minister Aodhán � Riordáin to submit an article on his reasons for urging a Yes vote.

In the interest of balance, I left a message for a local No supporter (for the record, it wasn’t John Waters, Rónán Mullen or any member of the Iona Institute) with a view to offering him the opportunity to share his thoughts with our readers. For whatever reason, he didn’t return my call.

In Ireland, any referendum that involves issues of morality runs the risk of bringing out a little bit of madness in normally reasonable people.

For instance, we received complaints about the main photograph on this page when it originally appeared in one of our papers on the basis that it apparently gave undue prominence to the No side (even though there was also a photo of Yes campaigners beside it).

And a minority of individuals advocating a No vote submitted copy that was unnecessarily graphic and simply unfit for publication.

In my view, this referendum campaign became tedious and repetitive. There was near paranoia in RTÃ? in case one side got more coverage than the other, reaching its nadir when a Government minister was asked to remove a pin supporting a Yes vote from his jacket.

This happened on the very television show where known opponents of gay marriage were accused of homophobia last year. Not only did this result in a panicky payout and apology to the complainants by the national broadcaster, it also set an uneasy tone for the debate to come.

In terms of equality, both sides achieved it in that they could be equally irritating at times. Regardless of the outcome of last week’s vote, I, for one, am glad it’s finally over.