Republic of Ireland will be the first country [UPDATE]

[EduardVDVliet]

to vote on Marriage Equality via Majority Vote
and it's happening this Friday

we are also voting on
reducing the Presidental Candidate Age from 35 to 21

http://refcom2015.ie/


I felt like mentioning this :>

UPDATE
Same-Sex Marriage is now Legal in the state of the Republic of Ireland, with a majority vote in every constituency but one.

The Referendum on reducing the Presidental Candidate Age failed with 80% of turnouts voting No for it

[Lemon Cheesecake]

Wonder why this isn't news over here. It could eventually affect us here in the West. Can't imagine a 21 year old making decisions for the country as President, I think Kennedy was the youngest President here in the U.S., will have to look up in other countries. I know there have been "boy" Kings but, really, from what I have seen in history, it was their advisers who were ruling and not them.

[Kitalpha Hart]

I wonder how many people are saying that Ireland is now doomed because "gay" marriage will ruin everything (gay in quotes cuz marriage is marriage imo, be it male-female, male-male, female-female or really, human to human)
Meanwhile I'm sitting here shaking my head cuz the fact that a big deal has to be made out of something that never should have been a problem needs it. Wanna marry the one you love? Go right ahead. Always should have been that way ._.

[EduardVDVliet]

UPDATED PEOPLE

[Kitalpha Hart]

Good for Ireland
Now for the rest of the world to catch up

[Lemon Cheesecake]

Please excuse my ignorance, but I found it interesting you refer to your country as the state of the republic of Ireland - I always assumed it was called Ireland. Is that similar to China calling itself the People's republic of China? Yet we call it China? Is there some significance to the republic part? I believed Ireland was part of the United Kingdom but I thought that was like Canada and the U.S. are part of North America.I guess I haven't been good at world history, which is sad because half my lineage is from Ireland from the late 1800's.What do the Irish people prefer to call their country?

[EduardVDVliet]

On the Island of Ireland there are two countries. The Republic of Ireland, a state with it's capital in Dublin while the other is Northern Ireland, a state within the United Kingdom with their capital in Belfast.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

Wow, I am so ignorant of other countries, although I have heard of "the republic of Ireland" being mentioned I never really thought about the title. So, please bear with me in my lack of understanding, if you travel from the Republic to Northern Ireland do you need a passport? Is there actually a border like Canada, US and Mexico you have to cross the border and show a passport to enter the other country.

Have you always lived in your part? I know at one time there was a long civil war, was this the way to end it? Or is there still fighting going on? Sad to think being small in land size, Ireland couldn't be united. Is there a chance for it to become whole again one day? I will have to look up where my descendants were from. I have been told they had a family castle at one time centuries ago, but the ones who immigrated over were affected by the potato famine and left with basically the clothes on their backs...

[EduardVDVliet]

No passport is needed, in some places the road into each part is a bridge, and in certain places it literally goes through some towns.

I've always lived in my part.
There is still unrest to saw the least.
Unrest started when UK got involved with trying to get rid of the catholic relgiion and the Irish language, and we only got our independence in 1923 i believe, while havinga revolution in 1916 know as The Rising. Ireland is one of the main reasons why the UK lost colonial power as the other countries such as Australia, India etc began to realise that if they can't control their closest colony what hopes have they for complete control of India etc
The most recent fighting has been in Northern Ireland, in Belfast because the city is split into two, catholics and protestants. Most recent uproar was in the 80s. Needless to say Ireland will never be unified, mainly cause we don't want them back due to the trouble they've caused, and how much it costs to run it.
So hm, Ireland was at unrest...for about...800 years? and the thing that caused the majority of the fighting was a British Parliamentary act known as the Act of Union, which abolished the Irish Parliament in Dublin so it was ruled directly from Westminister, London UK
Oh yes the Potato Famine of 1845-50, lost 1/2 of the population (around 4million) due to death and going abroad. We are only about 4.75 million right now

[Lemon Cheesecake]

nice history lesson, thank you so much! I think Canada became a dominion in 1867. Seems ridiculous and sad to me that dissension goes on for centuries, but you see it in the history of the older founded countries. Sad also when original languages are lost from oppression, pressure to take on the prominent language, you see it in the original people's of lands that were taken over : aboriginal/native american/first nation people's especially when there was no written language to preserve it .

[EduardVDVliet]

Five years of state examination history :>
Yeah, Luckily for us we have several pieces of writing in Old Irish, and even in Ogham ( a case of writing a name using horizontal and vertical lines on a tall pillar)
There's just one bad side to the rsult of the revolution in my country, during it, heck during the 1916 Rising (which took place over Easter Weekend) the Rebels set fire to a building called Custom House, which held every citizen record since records began (around 400+) from before 1835. So ya it's nearly impossible to trace my ancestors back past 1800

[Lemon Cheesecake]

that just breaks my heart - I don't understand why some people don't see the irreplaceable value of preserving history and can deliberately destroy it.I am excited to hear of Ogham - I've seen pictures of some artifacts that look like writing to me but are described as markings so it makes me wonder now.... I am going to research Ogham. I love your history lessons!

Come to think of it, my family mentioned they had difficulty trying to trace our Irish lineage - fortunately we had some history written and passed down in family bibles and were able to trace some marriages/births preserved in small community archives. All said, we "guess" at the rest. But I suppose does it really matter? Not like we are "royal" lineage or can inherit anything, except an understanding of what our ancestors may have faced and how that could have affected the character of those before us. Now with DNA testing and genetic coding I am sure we can one day trace how we are related that way. I find it intriguing that neanderthal DNA has been found in human coding, makes me wonder what else is in there....

http://www.ancientscripts.com/ogham.html - looked up Ogham and this shows you images which is pretty cool

[EduardVDVliet]

There was a very Anti-British mind at the time so they disliked everything British (when our National Television Broadcaster launched in the 60s, we had one of our founding 'fathers' of the state as our President at the time. He disliked it a hell lot. His thought was that Television is British and therefore bad. (the President, Éamon de Valera - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89amon_de_Valera he was a rather idiotic person in setting up the country for too many arrogant reasons, for instance not wanting to set up talks with British Prime Minister, instead sent one of the most famous people in Irish Indepence, Michael Collins )

Yah :C
Dublin is also known (infamously) for destroying a Viking Settlement in the city centre during the 70s
for a tower of office space

you'll have to go back ALONG TIME to find Royal lineage in Ireland >W>

Oh Ogham. every student learns about it here ...we even make our names out of it in our copybooks
Ogham lasted til like 6th Century, then the latin Irish alphabet took over

(Do you know this is our alphabet a á b c d e é f g h i í l m n o ó p r s t u ú
V is only introduced to create a word from a Foregin Word.
(for example, Switzerland, or Helvetia, is Gaelicised as An Eilvéis; Azerbaijan, in contrast, is written An Asarbaiseáin rather than *An Azarbaijáin, as Z is replaced by an S)
The letters j, q, w, x, y and z are used primarily in scientific terminology or direct, unaltered borrowings from English and other languages

[Lemon Cheesecake]

when I was looking up Ogham it said words are written as they are pronounced - which looks like it still may be. Funny how even though languages have similarities they can be so drastically different. I think in English lit class, when we were trying to read Beowulf in original text and getting no where, the Teacher mentioned that it would be difficult for us to go back in a time machine to that period and be understood.

How sad the viking settlement was destroyed! I hope somewhere someone got photos archived and at least some artifacts!! Have you been watching the viking series? This past season the Vikings had gone to Ireland and England and we were wondering if there had been any remnants left.

[EduardVDVliet]

Alot of towns and cities here are written as they're pronouced, for example ;
Cork (city) , the Irish is Corcaigh / Corcai , the irish came first
Dublin (city) , The Irish is Bhaile Átha Cliath (which means Dublin Town) but the name comes from the Viking name Dubh Linn which means Blackpool
Belfast (city of northern ireland) the Irish name is a direct Gaelicised version of the English name, Béal Feiste

Ohhh I haven't watched it, they were doing cast callings for that show here in April