One sunny day in late May 2015, Ireland went to the polls to vote on same sex marriage – the first country in the world to do so by public vote. The world was watching our small nation as the future of equality for Ireland’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people was up for debate and ultimately a national decision.
The Story of Yes, a new documentary for RTÉ2 airing exactly a year later, brings us back to this momentous day, and marks another important anniversary in 2016. The story is told through the eyes of those who it mattered to most – the LGBT community and their families. Through powerful and emotional interviews, the programme will transport the viewers back to the lead up to the vote, capturing the highs and lows of the campaign as people took to the streets, their computer screens and the airways to tell their stories and fight for marriage equality.
The Story of Yes features a number of people whose personal lives were thrust into the limelight in the run up to polling day – some seasoned campaigners along with a few accidental activists. They are couples, single people, mothers, fathers and children who speak about their hopes and fears for the day, and why the vote mattered to them.
Through a rich tapestry of archive footage, The Story of Yes creates a picture of not just that memorable weekend in May 2015, but also the wider context of being LGBT in Ireland.
The Interviewees
The Story of Yes opens with young YouTube star Riyadh Khalaf and his parents from Co Wicklow. Riyadh came out on national television in 2010 in the RTE series Growing Up Gay. Although marriage wasn’t imminently on the cards for Riyadh, being in his early twenties, the growing realisation that this opportunity was closed to him urged Riyadh, his mother and his Iraqi father to get involved in campaigning.
Safia O’Gorman is a secondary school student from Co. Wexford and the adopted daughter of Amnesty International director Colm O’ Gorman and his husband Paul Fyffe. She brought the voice of children with LGBT parents to the campaign when her very poignant letter was read live on the Ray D’Arcy radio show. Safia and her father Colm O’Gorman are featured in the documentary talking about their family, and what the referendum meant to them.
The programme also features Drogheda based couple Anthony Kinahan (30s) and Barry Gardiner (30s). In a solid relationship since they were teenagers, Anthony and Barry became very active in the Louth ‘Yes Equality’ campaign. They got engaged live on RTE Radio the day after the referendum and their emotional wedding when they finally got to say ‘I do’ was filmed for the finale of The Story of Yes. It was a day of celebration but also an opportunity to thank everyone who helped make their wedding day a possibility in 2016.
The marriage campaign in many ways played out online, with some key moments happening through social media campaigns which captured the imagination of young people, galvanising them to become engaged with the democratic process. For many it was their first time to register to vote. In London, a young Irish emigrant Joey Kavanagh (29) started the ‘Get The Boat 2 Vote’ campaign to bring Irish people home to vote. Through Joey’s interview, the documentary captures the incredible outpouring of support from overseas, and the return of Irish migrants from around the world to play their part in creating a more equal Ireland.
For seasoned campaigners like Moninne Griffith who was working with ‘Marriage Equality’ and subsequently ‘Yes Equality’, it was one thing to talk of equality and human rights in the abstract but another to put her own personal life on the line. When the time of the referendum came, she decided to put herself, her partner Clodagh Robinson and their beautiful 3-year-old daughter Edie into the public eye, which was not always easy.
Michael Nanci Barron played a big role in mobilising young people to join the Yes campaign through his work with BeLonG To Youth Services. We revisit the lead up to the referendum and the day itself with him and his husband Jamie Nanci Barron and remember the outpouring of support and positivity they experienced when it dawned on them that it was going to be a landslide.
Aoife O’Driscoll and Anna McCarthy Adams were trying to get pregnant through IVF just when the marriage debate kicked off in earnest, and the posters for the ‘no side’ of the campaign started to go up around the country. They recall the lead up to the vote as a very challenging time for them personally, as the discussions on television and radio struck a painful and very personal chord at home. A year later in April 2016, a beautiful baby girl has joined their family, as they embark on life together in a new Ireland.
A year after a momentous day for the Irish LGBT community, The Story of Yes reminds us of the highs and lows of the campaign. It tells a story that wasn’t just about being granted the right to marry, but about the very long journey to acceptance and what it meant to people to be granted equal rights through a popular vote by the people of Ireland.
Directed by Hugh Rodgers and produced by Anna Rodgers and Zlata Filipovic of Invisible Thread Films.