As Ireland’s voters go to the polls to decide whether to change the country’s abortion laws, the hashtag #HomeToVote has continued to trend on social media as people return from abroad to cast their votes.
Across Instagram, Twitter and Facebook users have been documenting their last-minute journeys, and showing themselves arriving at Ireland’s ports and airports or at the polling stations. Some have even headed straight to the airport after sitting exams.
Exam done, heading to the airport and officially on my way #hometovote pic.twitter.com/C0eq5Z8AWU
— Rachel (@RachelDobs) May 25, 2018
Groups such as the London-Irish Abortion Rights Campaign have also been documenting the welcome that voters are receiving when they arrive, and the offers of lifts and support to help get them to the polls.
Many have used social media to express why they feel the journeys have such emotional resonance in the referendum campaigning, with women historically having to travel away from Ireland to receive healthcare overseas due to the existing restrictions on abortion.
I went to Dublin Airport to bear witness to this amazing movement and I could.not.cope.#hometovote pic.twitter.com/NBZQewsfAe
— Jane Horgan-Jones (@horganjonesjane) May 24, 2018
Author Jane Casey tweeted: “All the #hometovote celebrating feels like a response to all the silent, secret journeys that went the other way. Whatever the outcome of the referendum, the silence is broken.”
Heading #hometovote on the Traditional Girl In Trouble Boat, thinking of everyone who made the same journey in the other direction. Air thick with ghosts #repealthe8th pic.twitter.com/OgtF4H8w8A
— Deirdre Ruane (@bluedevi) May 25, 2018
Lynn Enright summed up the movement in an article: “Yesterday, we travelled because we wanted to. Today, we vote for the women who travelled because they were forced to.”
Some voters who had left it to the day of the referendum to return were delayed on Friday morning when a stationary Dublin-bound Ryanair passenger plane at Stansted airport was involved in a minor collision on a taxiway.
In Wales, Stena Line delayed the departure of a ferry across the Irish Sea when it was informed on social media that a party of people heading home to vote had been delayed on a train and were in danger of missing the connection.
But late or not, for everyone returning home and feeling they are about to make Irish history it has been worth it. As one social media user put it, echoing an old Mastercard marketing slogan: “Cost of flights from Hanoi to Dublin: 800 euro. Length of journey: 20 hours. Chance to #repealthe8th: PRICELESS.”
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