although only a fifth of constituencies have returned their official results thus far, the referendum looks set to pass by an overwhelming margin. according to<u+00a0>the guardian, current estimates suggest that close to 65 percent of voters voted to legalize same-sex marriage.









opposition leader david quinn, the director of the iona institute, has already conceded the vote,<u+00a0>tweeting, "congratulations to the yes side. well done." the iona institute also issued a statement congratulating the yes supporters on their win.









turnout was bolstered by the<u+00a0>#hometovote campaign, which encouraged irish citizens living abroad to return home to cast their ballots in the referendum.









as it became increasingly clear that the referendum was going to pass, jubilant irish people took to twitter to celebrate. pictures purporting to show actual rainbows over irish cities as the vote went on were particularly popular:









but people also had all sorts of other ways of celebrating. like this one, from ireland's minister of state for equality:
ireland's historic vote for marriage equality prompts amazing twitter celebration
noauthor