Irish premier says ‘create history' by voting for gay marriage

Kenny said voters’ approval of a constitutional amendment to legalize gay marriage would represent an Irish civil rights breakthrough “that for generations gay people could never imagine.”

“The ‘yes’ will obliterate, publicly, the remaining barriers of prejudice or the irrational fear of the ‘them’ and ‘us’ in this regard,” said Kenny, a devout Catholic who nonetheless during his four years in power has pushed to reduce the church’s influence on policy and state services.

Catholic leaders and conservative pressure groups are arguing that legalization could produce surprising repercussions in Irish courts that could undermine traditional marriages.

Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, the Catholic Church’s most experienced diplomat in Ireland, said the government could not guarantee the legal or social consequences of a “yes” vote.

Kenny attended the “yes” campaign’s final event at midday Thursday, where officials carried YES in big cardboard letters through the shopping heart of the capital.

Officials counseled activists to keep leafleting train stations and busy intersections that evening and outside polling stations day and night Friday.