Referendum proves it is time for next generation to lead

A Different View with Dave O’Connell

Despite popular – and populist – conception, it wasn’t just the youth vote that delivered the Yes verdict in the Marriage Equality Referendum…but it definitely unleashed a new generation of engaged citizen.

And it is crucial now that this new voter – the young voter, the ones who only made it onto the supplementary register this time – does not walk away because one job is done.

Of course this wasn’t about politics – it was a social issue, a human rights campaign, a moral call – but it still took a decision of the electorate to make it happen.

And that was also down to the intervention of many people who were brave enough to go public with their heartbreakingly human stories, exposing their inner most selves for the greater good – so that no one else would have to endure the pain of their secret lives.

People were sufficiently animated to fly from the other side of the globe to cast their vote; tens of thousands of them registered in the run-up to last week’s vote – because they wanted to make a change.

They have seen now what a groundswell can do – and they must bring that same enthusiasm and determination into mainstream politics.

Even those too young to vote this time were engaged and animated by the chance of real change; they didn’t even see a real reason for debate – they just wanted to right what they saw as a terrible wrong.

So they did what you have to do – they got out there and campaigned and debated and spoke and gathered as a force to make that change happen.

And it did – not just because of them but perhaps led by them, with more than a million others following in their wake.

The fear is that they may have seen this as a one-off and that mainstream politics holds no attraction because it’s full of people like their parents, living in a world where the wheel turns slowly if it turns at all.

But it turns all the quicker if people with new energy and enthusiasm are involved in the process.

This isn’t the same old cliché about the next generation being our future – although clearly they are.

It is about the desire across all generations for a different type of politics, one that is driven by issues, and a desire for real change – not the perennial choice between Tweedledum and Tweedledee with Totally Bonkers as the only alternative.

There are many fine politicians within the bowels of Leinster House, many men and women who are in it only for the greater good, driven by the desire to make a change, to create a better Ireland.

But there are even more who are in it to better nobody other than themselves – and given that we return them time after time to Leinster House, it must be assumed we’re somehow satisfied with that.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.