Ireland’s far-left government is holding a referendum on changing the Irish constitution, seeking to remove amendments granting primacy to the traditional family and the importance of motherhood.
Currently, Ireland’s constitution notes that “the State recognises that by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved,” and that “[t]he State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home.”
Irish voters will be asked to delete this language from their constitution entirely amidst claims it reinforces “patriarchal” ideas around women’s place “in the home.” Its defenders argue it merely recognizes the value of stay-at-home mothers and obliges the government to ensure mothers who enter the workforce do so only as a matter of choice.
Voters will also be asked to change an amendment that “recognises the Family as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society, and as a moral institution possessing inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law.”
This amendment also obliges the government “to guard with special care the institution of Marriage, on which the Family is founded, and to protect it against attack.”
Voters are being asked to change this language to state that families are “founded on marriage or on other durable relationships,” such as homosexual unions.
Senior lawmakers have warned the change could be used to increase chain migration by strengthening the right of migrants to import relatives through so-called “family reunification.”
Since its ratification in 1937, when Catholic, socially conservative values ran strong in Ireland, the Irish constitution has seen significant changes, departing from principles rooted in the Catholic Church to embrace abortion, gay marriage, and other progressive priorities.
Senator Michael McDowell, Ireland's former Attorney General, says he "rejects completely" the idea that the family referendum won't impact immigration law, and says it will be "in the interest" of "economic migrants" to mount legal challenges regarding family re-unification. pic.twitter.com/eyOjYNFDgG
— gript (@griptmedia) February 15, 2024