The leaders of the three groups behind the Yes Equality campaign have been expressing their thanks to the Irish public for turning out and voting Yes in such record numbers in Friday’s Marriage Equality Referendum.
Deepest thanks expressed to Irish public for historic Yes vote. https://t.co/CgAURYA28D pic.twitter.com/6vqsWorX5L
— YesEquality2015 (@YesEquality2015) May 24, 2015
Brian Sheehan and Gráinne Healy, Co-Directors of Yes Equality, say “Today we woke up, smiling, in a changed Ireland. A kinder, gentler, more accepting Ireland. This is thanks to the extraordinary work of Yes Equality groups all across the country who knocked on thousands of doors, had conversations and asked people for their vote. Thanks to this tireless work, Irish people have given a new sense of belonging to their lesbian and gay family members, friends and neighbours."
The figures behind the referendum make for some interesting reading. In total there were:
• 5000 Posters erected across the country
• 500,000 badges (TA and YES Badge)
• 1.3 million household leaflets delivered to 1.1 million homes
• 465,000 lapel stickers
• 1,420,000 flyers
• 6300 T-shirts
• 800 Hi Viz Vests
• 2,300 Tote Bags.
• Over 60 groups established around the country
• 1 Shop at Stephen's Green Shopping Centre manned by volunteers
• 300 businesses large and small formally joined the campaign.
• The Yes bus travelled 11,000 Kilometres to 80 locations across 26 Counties in 29 days
Their Facebook page has 63,000 likes and reached 1.5 million people. There was and average of 2,000 timeline views per day
While on Twitter their account gathered 17,000 followers, there were 155,000 page views in the last month and #MarRef reached 11.1 million people.
150 videos on YouTube have been watched nearly 1,000,000 times
And finally their Instagram account has 7,000 followers.
