 Just before we finish. Yes, I'd like you to go home with something. Thank you So and this is a book. It might seem a little bit strange, but We had a television journalist well known television journalist here in Ireland by the name of Charlie Byrd for a Old-style kind of hard-hitting journalist and who we asked to get involved with the marriage equality campaign And he did and the one thing we asked him to do was would he do this particular project around the country called? I'm voting yes asked me why Which is where we kind of organized public meetings around the country where people slept and said well The reason why I'm voting the way I'm voting is X and it didn't matter whether you were voting a favor or against Everybody was welcome But in the experience of going around the country and hearing people's stories about why they were voting yes and the experiences They had is either Lesbian-gave bisexual transgender people or family members or partner whatever he It lit something inside him and he became he couldn't believe the stories he had heard that people told So he decided after the campaign to go around the country and gather as many of the stories as he possibly could and he brought He put together this book. It's called a day in May and it's all these individual stories of people from Ireland About what it was like for them. There's newly who great inspirations great inspiration to me new award from Galway and Brilliant look working in a very conservative part of Ireland and very traditional part of Ireland and not easy to be out there at all And she first since since the early 90s has been really dynamic in that part of Ireland and doing things I just want to give you this to take back to America and it's our stories and they They'll make you laugh. They'll make you cry But they're very inspirational. So thank you very much. Thank you We have time for some questions. Oh if anyone would like to Feel welcome Thank you very much I've always intrigued the campaign for gay marriage Which was, you know, very I mean, I think it created a storm all over the world Do you attribute its success to the campaign run up at the time or the gradual expansion you've explained of You know people gay pride and so forth. Do you think it was a vision of a snowmilder or do you think People a general widening of people's experience. I Think it was a gradual thing and so Some people think that the whole marriage equality thing happened in the space of about two years In actual fact, if you ask one organization called marriage equality They'll tell you it took them eight years to get to the point of having their referendum And those will tell you it took 30 years to get to that point We've in terms of our approach to bringing about change in Ireland for the LGBT community We've always taken it on this step-by-step basis So what you do is first of all We the first thing we had to establish was that being criminalized under the law was a huge barrier We had to get that removed Once that was removed we could then start looking at well then how do we make it possible for The lesbian and gay community in particular at that time and because trans issues hadn't really come up and bisexual stuff wasn't The sounds unfair, but it wasn't particularly on the agenda as such at the time and so how do we make society more accepting and open of Lesbian and gay people and then so the next step was to introduce the equality legislation But as a community as activists the decision was taken that it shouldn't just be about sexual orientation That we are weren't the only people in society who were discriminated against in terms of access to services and employment And so we should pull together a coalition and so our equality legislation actually addresses nine separate areas in terms of discrimination And so that that was it another step forward and then in On the road to the okay So I'm gonna bring up what was a little bit of trouble first in the community because there were two camps in the gay community in Ireland About which way we should go in terms of marriage There were those who said we go the civil partnership route first and then over time bill towards Marriage equality and then there was the other camp who said no we go straight for marriage No, no accepting halfway house or anything like that We had a unique situation in that our Constitution has written and interpreted by our Supreme Court all the legal expertise that we got Well, I wouldn't say all because there were some people different But majority of what we got was that it would only happen if we couldn't do it through legislation as happened in other countries like in Britain, I'm assuming you're from Britain So Parliament introduced it in Britain. We couldn't do it that way because the Supreme Court would say it was against the Constitution It had to be a constitutional referendum But we got civil partnership in 2010 and by the time we got around to starting the campaign around civil marriage equality for the referendum in 2015 We had already got people used to the idea of saying they were going to a gay wedding So it was civil partnership legally it was civil partnership But nobody was saying we're going off to see to the civil partnership the statement place They're saying we're going off to the wedding So it became part of the normal speak for people to say it's gay wedding. It's gay wedding So when we came around and we're saying we want gay weddings We want gay marriage people were what you don't already have it, but I thought what what was I asked and so People had already made that mental adjustment to the point of saying yes, let's do it now Was I on board with the whole marriage equality issue from day one? No and I Would have thought that there was a whole other kind of List of things shopping list of things that we needed to do in order before we could get to the point of dealing with marriage equality if we had civil partnership it addressed 95% of the issues that were faced by same-sex couples in terms of taxation Inheritance, you know all these kind of things It wasn't perfect, but it got us most of the way and it solved most of the problems that people had Of course, I don't have a family with children So for same-sex couples who had children there were other issues which were important that had to be addressed to the marriage question But I wasn't on board from the beginning when the bus took off and I completely Misjudged us because I didn't think that it would be it would become the big issue It became in our community and then suddenly the bus was leaving and it's one of those situations that you say to yourself Well, I got to stand here and watch the bus go off into the distance and wave it off and wish it all the best Or I can jump on board and be part of the journey that it's taken and maybe influence to some degree What route it takes along the way and so that's what I decided to do So I got involved in the campaign and I played a very I had a very small role in in In terms of I I work in video production. I provided the service to the campaign So we were making campaign videos on a regular basis covering events putting them out in social media Just to keep feeding social media and things like that. So that was my involvement in it There was people who went literally no door-to-door knocking saying I'm asking you to vote to give me the rights To get married and that's a totally different thing to sitting in an awful somewhere behind a computer screen editing You know, it's it's not so easy to go up to people who you don't know Complete strangers who you don't know how they're going to accept you or whatever And if you heard some of the stories that people fed back to us about their experiences of going out canvassing door-to-door People who came out and had holy water thrown on them and People brought into the house and shown the cross and told you know Jesus won't like you for doing this and all this kind of thing So there was all these kind of experiences that were going on and actually one experience I had when we did a public event in a part of Ireland called Waterford Where a heckler came out and got extremely vicious towards some of the young people we had there handing out leaflets and being absolutely Bulled over by one of our volunteers a woman in her Mid-70s who went over and stood between the heckler and our volunteers and would not give ground to him He was open to her face and she would not give ground to him at all It was just quite incredible to see how she had got to the point in her life Where I am not going to be a second-class citizen anymore I have hid my sexuality for most of my life And I'm not gonna let this person think that they can do it to me again And that was incredible to see that happening as well So that's kind of and in our case, that's how we went That's the route we took and how we went about doing is in that situation Home to vote was incredible. I mean So let me just explain to people who don't know what that's all about and So we we had the ref so a lot of Irish people live abroad As far away as Australia's parts of the States It was just quite incredible to see it, but so they were motivated because Because under our system if you're an Irish citizen You have an automatic right to vote in a referendum if you leave the country if you emigrate You have up to one year after you leave the country to still be able to vote in the referendum So we had Irish people who'd gone off for all sorts of reasons economic reasons whatever To live in other places who wanted to come home and registered their vote And they organized themselves in groups to travel home in all sorts of ways Whether to be flying home whether be on ferries from the United Kingdom or from from Europe to France And they were posting as they were making their journey coming home There were posting videos and social media showing the Celebrations that they were having go on YouTube and look for home to vote. It's incredible. And we We were sitting in the campaign headquarters So the vote took place on the Friday and we were sitting in campaign head office on the Thursday night and We're monitoring everything we get the feedback from the canvases who are out around the country knocking on doors And we were watching social media and we saw this thing begin to happen on social media And we saw the trending of the hashtag home to vote and it took over Twitter That that particular night and we were sitting there and we looked at each other and we said we've done it Because because we knew from all the polls and studies that had been done that the majority of people who we've put Spondered said that they were in favor of changing the law But we all know when it the vote is the vote. That's what counts not what the polls say. It's what the vote says so we weren't letting ourselves believe that it was going to happen, but when we saw that when we saw and I have to admit we were very emotional in the office because it was incredible to see the way that people did it and those Who could not get home to vote sent messages back to Ireland asking people To please go and vote on their behalf and to make sure that they voted in favor of this And so we ended up in a situation where in holy Catholic Ireland 62.2% of those who went out to vote on the referendum voted in favor of change It was just incredible You know and for for those of us who've lived through all the changes that have happened in Ireland You know going from so we currently have the whole abortion issue that's going on That's up for debate again again. We still haven't resolved that one and divorce only came into existence in Ireland in 1995 To see all those changes happen It's quite incredible to live through that, you know and and it's it's only having lived through it I think that you realize the significance and the impact of it So so it is quite incredible and and that was amazing And I do would say to anybody just if you want to like it if you're like a good tearjerker Go on to YouTube and do look up home to vote because it would it would move you when you see the way the people wear about us Embrace social media and I do Twitter and maybe I shouldn't do Twitter and I Try to be in control of myself when I'm doing it and I try to use it as a platform to be Progressive and to be positive and you know all this kind of thing and try and promote issues that I think are important around LGBT rights Equalities human rights things like that, but occasionally I come in contact with a Trump supporter And then all bets are off and I can be as abusive with those people as as they can be back But social media for me and that's the only thing I use is Twitter That's the only one that I'll allow myself to use because because you know if you're a keyboard warrior You're only ever behind the keyboard and I much prefer to be out with real people in the real world It's I think it's much more fulfilling and so while I do use Twitter Wherever I can wherever I can in this controlled way as I possibly can and I do much prefer to be out there and meeting with people and you know People might say once you you don't ever get to meet the same people in the circle that you hang around Well, here am I today and there's people from Belgium and from the UK and from London from London. Oh, okay from London But there's people from you know outside of Ireland here, and I'm getting to meet them if I was sitting on Twitter You know, there's no the possibility. I wouldn't get to meet any of you guys and talk to any of you guys So, you know, that's that's the benefit of getting out there and meeting real people Thank you everyone and thank you double an eye