9 Days, 3 Letters - Y.E.S.

Take heart friends, only 9 days to go until May 22nd. Only 9 days left to secure a YES vote, only 9 more days of endless media coverage, only 9 more days of the stench of red herrings, only 9 more days of having our lives dissected and discussed by every member of the country.

I’m not even in the country at the moment and #MarRef is at the forefront of my mind most of the time. The debates are unpleasant to watch (not solely because of the RTE player) and yet I can’t bring myself to switch them off. The arguments are wounding. It is incredibly difficult to listen to someone speak so openly against you and your life. I do not know how the likes of Una Mullally, Colm O’Gorman and myriad other advocates for YES remain so composed in the face of such horror. They are far greater people than I.

I would love nothing more than to go bury my head in the sand for the next 9 days and hope everything goes the right way.

But as a great man once said (and continues to say on an almost daily basis), hope is NOT a strategy. We must be resilient. The final lap is the hardest to run but that is when you win the race and by God I want to win this race.

So turn off the debates, stop compulsively twitter searching #MarRef, stop reading the polls and the articles (after you’ve finished this one), stop trying to take on those staunch no people on Facebook, stop listening to radio debates on surrogacy and adoption. Focus on what you can do. Get involved. Target the people Iona et al are hoping their confusion tactics will work on and speak with them rationally, reassure them, speak with compassion, show them how much this means to you and yours. GO CANVASSING. No one wants to, it is daunting at first but you will meet the most glorious people you can imagine, many of them very attractive and very single and all of them fearless and fierce and fun. The politicians don’t do it for the craic - it works!

Be tough, steel yourself against the negativity, find shelter in friends and loved ones, vent in private. Do not let them under your skin, they do not deserve to be there.

Most of all, do as Sebastian Barry suggests and ‘honour the majesty, radiance and promise’ of our human souls by voting YES. Don’t wake up on May 23rd with regrets. Do everything in your power to ensure this passes.

Please.