 Okay, you're very welcome along to the Aurora Leisure Center here in Letter Kenny. We're going live on the radio at 1 o'clock so we want you all to tune in. We're gonna be running through I suppose what the expected outcome of these referenda are right now and I suppose how the campaign was run, what went wrong you could argue from a government perspective. But just to give you a sense of what's going here, actually before I do that I'll just tell you what's coming up on the program from 1 o'clock. We have a panel, John McIntyre editor of the Chicano Tribune will be joining us. Patti Rooney is a political analyst. Mary T. Sweeney is a candidate for Aintu in the local elections and advocated strongly of course for a no-no. And Siobhan Collin chair of the Women's Center, Letter Kenny who advocated a yes-yes. Yesterday people went to the polls not in fantastic numbers it had to be said to vote on to referenda. The family-in-care referenda and the second was the care amendment. Now it does look very much like Donagall is going to return a no-no which doesn't come as any surprise to me. But what does come as something of a surprise to me is the extent of the no-no on a national level. We are joined by Dr Joe Kelly. Good morning to you. Thank you so much for joining us. Good morning Greg. It's good to have you on the show. Why did you turn up here so early? Well look you know I've been on your show and I've been advocating a no-no. I think women, mothers, family are very important to not just me but to the ordinary every day person in Donagall and today's vote has been a strong no. Not just in Donagall, nationwide. And it's no to the agenda that's been promoted by this government and it's no to this government and no means go. I think it's time for them to go. Is it not? This is democracy in action though. Isn't it? This is absolutely. Yeah but I mean in terms of you know something's put to the people and then we decide. Well I would disagree with you and so much that you're saying is democracy in action. No one political party had this on their manifesto. Not one county councillor in Donagall asked for this. This has not come from the people. This has come from an agenda driven government and may I say very clearly a gender driven government by two men, Leo Varadkar and Rodrigo Gorman, who happened to be gay and are happened to push a transgender agenda and it's very clear that Ross Fanigan who is attorney general in his letter, his 10 page detailed letter on the 8th of December to Rodrigo Gorman and to the other leaders of the parties stated clearly that this was their effort to get over the gender issue and he highly warned them to not go in this direction and it would lead to a constitutional challenge and couldn't validate the result had it been yes. But people were not voting on what you're saying there and some would say it's a bit of an overreach and some people might say the language should be more inclusive but they didn't like the wording as it was right so I don't think like I don't think you can really conclude that this is a a rejection of transgenderism. Oh I think it's an issue that we were saying very clearly here I think by the no vote is that mothers family and women are important to the people of Ireland very very clearly and that we're tired of an agenda that is trying to destabilize family women and mothers today the no vote today is it is really a vote where mothers have found their voice where women of Ireland have found their authentic voice and don't be peddling this idea and that this is what they're going to tell us now the government that you know we give the people a choice how many millions were used to promote this referendum just think of all at least three months of dial time was wasted on this agenda at least millions of pounds of taxpayers money was wasted on the legal requirements to go through the referendum and the attorney general when we should have been dealing with the real issues of our country the real issues that affect women the real issues that affect cares the real issues that affect families the things that they were trying to take out of the Constitution was what it should have been working at to look after and then all those months of dial time all those millions of taxpayers money the debate ended up being about Mother's Day you know taking mother out of the Constitution as we approach Mother's Day what have you the arguments were very I don't know there was not an awful lot of conversation between the both sides really it seemed to come down on you know very strict lines I don't think we as a people had a fantastic debate on it but the point I was going to say is is that the the care language was more inclusive to recognize that there are different forms of care I think the pop problem people had was that the the government would strive to support carers right and that it was confined to the family that it wasn't broad enough and and also to it was a bit of a misnomer to say that this was taken women out of the Constitution it was removing the word mother but just being more inclusive to take account of the different families that live in this country now Joe it's a tide that can't be turned look at I live in the real world Greg I'm a teacher and I teach children coming from diverse backgrounds cultures family situations and I don't accept your analogy the word mother is only once in the Constitution and the one time it's in the Constitution this is what they picked on to take out and to try to replace it with something else if the government were sincere and as I said before in my debates on your radio you don't build rights by taking away somebody else's rights we can have a more inclusive Constitution by including people we can have a more inclusive society by including them but it doesn't mean the overadcture and Rodrigo garments and understanding of inclusivity means to exclude my understanding on them and their sexuality no I'm not no no no what I'm pushing what I'm focusing on is how they are willing to sacrifice mothers women and family on to their agenda and what I'm saying is that has to stop Leo your agenda has to stop we the people of Ireland have spoken today and we are keeping our mothers we are keeping women and we are keeping family in our Constitution by all means we can have can have an inclusion but not inclusion by your definition by excluding us we're not letting you exclude us and the next general election will be in it another litmus test to put this government must go but go now you say that but the main opposition party Sinn Fein advocated for a yes-yes yes they also said that if if the country sent back a no yes that they would rejig the word you can go back to the public again and Mary Lou has seemingly restated that this morning let it be very clear Sinn Fein a hundred years ago didn't listen to the people and look at the turmoil it created it created a civil war the people have said no and good luck to them do you think this points to actually and I think as other things are put to the people it is this highlight what many of us really suspected or no or knew that there is a big detachment between the population and politics not part not a particular party or whatever but actually as a whole that they don't really they don't really get the mood of the people I think Greg you've hit the nail in the head the fact today no I would like to think that when I vote that my TD represents me and today I haven't seen one of the Donegal TDs here you know are they saying that they don't want the no voter vote I mean they meant to represent everybody whether they agree or disagree with with us but today has been a no vote and we have seen clearly there is no presence by the yes campaign here today you know they seem to think that they can talk down to us tell us what we should do and yet when we give them an alternative that we believe in they just shut us down they ignore us did part of you feel a low turnout would favor yes yes I I think there was a lot of people I spoke to that were uncertain if in doubt vote no but then they weren't necessarily going to bother voting right so I naively perhaps thought that a low turnout would favor yes yes but it turns out a relatively low well that's the no-knows that were yeah well history is shown Greg if you look at Donegal and maybe John McIntyre can clarify this a lot further than I can but I know from my own experience and limited years back in politics knowing understanding polly that a low turnout in Donegal means a no Lisbon niece better me more nationally because funny enough to turn out here is actually relatively high yeah contradicting myself a little bit but nationally you know I just thought I thought yes yes this would be more inclined more inclined more motivated well again I think it's back down to the three words Greg mother women and family and those people that were motivated to keep those word constitutions went out to vote and the other thing is which is very very important Greg and this goes back to what the politicians not listening the fact that people didn't go out to vote shows that this wasn't on their rector scale of importance the real issues and the time that the dial has wasted and Leo Varadka as Tisha has wasted on this non-ass for not in any well it's funny you should say that because yesterday on the program we were discussing really one of the first inroads into a referendum on assisted dying yeah yeah and and and the point I was trying to make and it's funny you should say in relation to this I don't know anyone that's come to me or you know when said we need to have this national conversation I understand why people might be motivated to have it and we're not going to have it next one of the time but it is another question that's going to be put to the people and it is probably not a hot topic a little bit like this one yeah but the thing it's a type of question they're going to put and the manner of the question that are going to put we don't know that absolutely it's a debate that we should have in any modern civilized society and in fact everything should be on a table politically you should not be afraid to talk about anything even if you disagree I think I'm a liberal enough person that I'm willing to entertain other people's views that doesn't mean to say that I have to accept them you see the kind of liberalism we have today is it's only my kind of liberalism my understanding of liberalism should be that you're willing to engage and listen to everybody's side but what we've seen today by the lack of political representative representation here in this center today is that we have a liberal TD's in this county but it's their kind of liberalism and they're more or less saying to everybody that voted no here today we really don't care what they voted well we're not here we're not except but they might turn up later well they may very well but the fact that there's no presence at the moment would seem to say very clearly that they're they're going to have their way and we the people don't have a voice as far as I'm aware ain't who are the only party tallying here seems to be seems to be and again that says a lot I'm campaigning independently I'm delighted to have been in touch with Sharon Kogan who's the senator as well and the great work she has done I know what Michael McDowell has been doing Catherine Connelly these are people that I may not necessarily agree with and all their policies and political ideologies you are becoming one with some of the names that you mentioned and they've been guests on the program and not saying that but you are I'm sort of starting to get a better understanding of your political allegiance here well it's there's no such thing as political allegiance in that sense I have values and I have beliefs and everybody else around me has values and beliefs and I'm willing to argue and fight for my values and as much as somebody else and there are people that totally disagree with me on certain things but would agree with me on other things and I think that I'm open enough and intelligent enough and welcome enough to have an understanding of other people's opinions and today the opinion is very very clear the mothers of Ireland have found their authentic voice they've said no and this government should go I think it's very very clear. Others will frame it differently by the way listen that's why we have an open platform and a democracy thank you very much. Take care yourself Joey might touch base a little later a little later on okay that was just a sample of some of the conversation that's going to be coming up for you that was a digital first so to speak in that we aren't broadcasting on the radio yet we will be live on Highland radio just after the one o'clock news we'll hear from other guests as well but if you want a text or message in the show you can do so right now we can carry those onto the live show the live broadcast show 08 660 25,000 that's the WhatsApp and text 08 660 25,000 give us a call at 07 491 25,000 and for those of you who maybe don't really know what goes on at these type of events here we have I don't know how many a few dozen people and they are counting those tables you see in front of you they're each given a bundle of white and green sheets where each question was asked as it relates to the referenda and it's quite a simple process in this occasion because it's a simple yes or no so they can put yeses in one pile nose in the other they're making great progress here I don't think it's going to be particularly late but as you can see there is not many people on this side of the fence if this was a general election or a local election there'd be people along all of these railings here but there's no one here really very few from from parties very few members of the general public but anyway that's just give you a sense of what's going on here this is live at the moment if you are watching us live just so just to recap one more time we're going live on Highland Radio just after the one o'clock news we're going to be streaming it of course here live from the Orioles Center for those of you on social media we're on X we're on YouTube Highland Radio Ireland just to remind you on YouTube you can cast us so you can watch us on your smart TV or your fire stick just type in Highland Radio on that app and watch us there and we're also on Facebook but if you're leaving the house or you've got business to do you're heading shopping we are on the radio of course just after one o'clock we have joining us on our panel John McAteer editor of the Chicano Tribune newspaper Paddy Rooney a political analyst of course Mary T. Sweeney who's a candidate for Aintu in the local elections she advocated for a no no and also we've got Siobhan Cullen chair of the women's center letter Kenny who also advocated for a yes yes but the headline coming from the Orioles Center here is not a bad turn up we'll give you some facts and figures after one but it's going to be a no no and it's going to be a resounding no no perhaps not as the gap maybe not quite as broad we're still working through the figures nationally it is a no no. Amen Ryan has conceded that and other senior members of the government as well so we're going to find out what went wrong or what went right depending on your point of view but for me Greg Hughes and the team here live at the Orioles Center we're back with you live again just after one o'clock.