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27th May 2018
11:49am BST
As the nation united together yesterday over a landslide vote in favour of repeal, it was bittersweet for the Yes campaigners of Donegal.
Donegal, y'see, was the only county who voted No, with 51.9% of people voting No compared to 48.1% voting Yes.
While some people were quick to express their outrage at the northern county, there were a lot of factors in play regarding their ballot result and one man has summed it up perfectly.
THREAD - Donegal votes No. @ARCDonegal @Together4yes ????????#RepealedTheEighth
— Noel Sharkey (@sharkey_noel) May 26, 2018
1) Donegal is the most deprived county in Ireland, with the highest unemployment rate and not even a train service to connect us with the capital.
— Noel Sharkey (@sharkey_noel) May 26, 2018
2) Donegal people are forced to live and work elsewhere. Many of our Yes voters cast their vote in Dublin, Galway, etc. where they also canvassed and leafleted for @Together4yes
— Noel Sharkey (@sharkey_noel) May 26, 2018
3) Over 2.5k of our Yes votes in South Donegal were added to the Sligo/Leitrim total because of redrawing of constituency boundaries.
— Noel Sharkey (@sharkey_noel) May 26, 2018
4) Donegal women contributed to the national debate, sharing their harrowing personal stories of fatal foetal abnormality and rape, having had to travel some of the longest journeys to access healthcare.
— Noel Sharkey (@sharkey_noel) May 26, 2018
5) Women won today because of brave movements like the Abortion Rights Campaign @ARCDonegal One of its founding members was the powerful Donegal woman - Cathie Shiels. She is a legend.
— Noel Sharkey (@sharkey_noel) May 26, 2018
6) A lot of canvasses involved going up backroads and boreens. The scenery was beautiful but it took hours to get small numbers covered. Despite this, the team never gave up.
— Noel Sharkey (@sharkey_noel) May 26, 2018
7) Rural campaigners across the country were victimised in their workplaces, churches and wider communities. This was very prevalent in Donegal where we didn't have loads of people wearing a Yes/Ta badge giving moral support.
— Noel Sharkey (@sharkey_noel) May 26, 2018
8) Having voted Yes because you support women, you'll surely spare a thought for the Donegal women hurting at this result, which doesn't reflect their sacrifice and hard work during the local campaign.
— Noel Sharkey (@sharkey_noel) May 26, 2018
9) Before sneering please remember that there are more No voters in Dublin than there are in Donegal. Donegal's 1000s of Yes votes are Ireland's Yes votes. We #RepealedTheEighth too!
— Noel Sharkey (@sharkey_noel) May 26, 2018
10) A final thought - you'll all be raving about us when you are on your summer holidays up in the hills of Donegal at some stage. Mock us now and we will spit in your coffee! Well done to everybody @ARCDonegal @Together4yes
— Noel Sharkey (@sharkey_noel) May 26, 2018
Hear, hear!
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