Image: Yes Campaigners celebrate the Irish abortion referendum result. Rights: Niall Carson/PA Images. All rights reserved.
Ireland made international headlines last weekend as the country voted to permit the legalisation of a woman’s right to choose, overturning decades of religious and moral dogma. Meanwhile in less dramatic terms Scotland’s debate on independence and its future has been shaped by the publication of the governing SNP’s Sustainable Growth Commission. The two have similarities in ways neither is aware of.
Ireland’s trust in its own people
Ireland’s debate was ostensibly about a woman’s right to choose and repealing the Eighth Amendment to the Irish constitution outlawing abortion. But really it was about much more. It was about the legacy of religious intolerance and authoritarianism, choice, respect, citizenship and the prospect of Ireland as a modern country embracing openness and optimism.
