Hello! So I haven't journal'd before now, let's hope it goes okay.

So, today Ireland passed a referendum legalising Marriage Equality. This makes it the first country to do so by popular vote.

I have to say, I had my doubts. The debate has raged on for months, and even though the No campaign consisted of ignorant and poorly-formulated arguments over surrogacy, religion, being "shamed" into voting Yes and other such completely unrelated points, our country remains at its core incredibly traditional. Plus, most of the voting population consists of over-50s, a good deal of which are ridiculously Catholic. I half expected No to win, even if only by a couple percent (as Sod's Law decrees), something that would have left me and so many others devastated and disillusioned at the state of our country.

THANK GOD I WAS WRONG.

The Yes side has come to 67% and this referendum has received the highest turnout ever with hundreds of thousands heading #HomeToVote. Ever since the results were unveiled this morning there has been such a tsunami-level outpouring of joy and love that you can almost taste the rainbows. Everyone's so happy that no one has even thought about the repercussions on the Skittle industry.

On a more personal note, I've never had a problem with my sexuality. There wasn't some big head-scratching revelation; realising the nature of my sexuality was like a switch being flicked, as subtle as realising what Netflix show I wanted to binge-watch next. I told my best friend, then other close friends, then my whole friend group, and then when I got to college I literally didn't care who knew. I didn't go around like "DID YOU KNOW I'M BI, WELL I'M BI LOL *aggressive limphand*", but I didn't hide it if asked. Life is too short to keep secrets that don't need to be kept. Most recently I've told both of my parents (I don't know why it took me so long, I think I forgot ^_^'), and they were both cool with it. Most of all, I was cool with it.

That is, I was cool about everything but marriage (*audience gasp*). It was the strangest thing; it's like when I thought about being with someone and loving someone, it was always a guy. But whenever I thought about getting married, it was with a woman. To this day I don't know why, perhaps I was still confused as to where exactly my preference lay. More likely, I've watched so many films, grown up with Disney and all, and been generally conditioned to believing that a traditional man-woman union is the only acceptable kind. Honestly, I have enough confusion in my life without this taking precedence!

Marrying a guy has always seemed terrifying to me, but now that this referendum has passed with such a massive Yes vote I can't help but feel like I, and people like me, have been embraced with open arms, and that the seachange will continue to change mindsets across the country and the world. Now I know without question that I will marry a man one day.

The fact that a referendum over minority rights has succeeded with such support makes my heart happy, and I'm so proud to be of a nation so willing to transform itself into something brighter, secular and more equal. Most of all, I'm proud to be Irish :D Now to go down to the local for a pint of Guinness and a packet of Tayto in celebration.

Guinness and Tayto forever.