World News for Students of English

02-06-2015 07:00

It was the culmination of a long and sometimes challenging campaign for supporters of same-sex marriage in Ireland. Soon after the ballot boxes were open this morning, it became clear that Ireland had backed the changed.

“I think we’re looking at two-to-one yes vote. I think that a couple of months ago, we would have taken that very small yes vote, a very small margin of victory, but now it looks like there’s been a resounding ‘yes’ across the country.

I’m just so proud to be Irish today. It’s been an emotional journey for many people that have been campaigning on this. A huge amount of personal stories have been told in rooms and halls around the country and on the airwaves, and I don’t think Ireland’s ever going to go back after this. We’ve made a resounding statement about what we believe in.”

Irish voters rejected another proposal to lower the minimum age of presidential candidates from 35 to 21. But that result is likely to be forgotten with time, as Ireland goes down in history as the first country in the world to introduce same-sex marriage by popular vote.

Difficult words: culmination (the end of something complicated), ballot box (a space where you vote), back (to support), small margin (a very little bit), resounding (strong), huge (big), airwaves (over TV or radio), reject (to say no to something), proposal (to offer to do something), popular vote (when many people vote for something).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com