A third of the Irish who voted aren't necessarily under the influence of the Catholic Church (or of the Protestant fundamentalist churches which were campaigning against the referendum and were said to have 300,000 people signed up to vote No).

More likely they were worried about the implications - they may have been unclear about the question of surrogacy, which is not legally available for heterosexuals or homosexuals in Ireland; or they may have wished to maintain the traditional meaning of marriage in Ireland and felt that the civil partnership already available to gay people in Ireland was enough.

I don't agree with them, but that doesn't mean they're not perfectly entitled to their beliefs and to vote according to them.

The legislation should be through by autumn, and the first weddings are expected by Christmas. I'm hoping that this will very much normalise the position of gay people in Ireland.

As for Poland, the number of Polish emigrants in Ireland is such that Polish is now the second most commonly spoken language here; the landslide vote here may well resound in Poland and change attitudes there.