Ireland has become the first country in the world to legalise gay marriage by popular mandate – in what the nation's only openly gay minister has described as a "social revolution".
With the first firm result declaring around lunchtime on Saturday that more than 70% of voters in Dublin North West had said yes to same sex marriage, all the trends are pointing to at least a 2-1 majority in favour.
The expected huge yes vote from the republic's electorate will mark another major milestone in Ireland's journey from a Catholic church-dominated state to a more liberal, secular society. Gay rights campaigners said the pro-same sex marriage message from Ireland will also bolster their struggle for LGBT equality across the world.
With tallies suggesting massive majorities for the pro-gay marriage side the cities of Dublin and Cork, the overall result is all the more astonishing given that the Irish state only de-criminalised homosexuality 22 years ago.
In the 1980s there was no divorce, all abortion was illegal and condoms could only be obtained with the permission of a GP. The 2015 referendum marks the highest point yet in the liberalisation of Irish society.
Official confirmation of the scale of the victory is not expected until late afternoon but estimates are pointing to a clear two to one majority in favour of extending the right to marry to same-sex couples. The first official results from the constituencies of Waterford and Sligo North Leitrim have returned a majority of 57% in favour.
As the first confirmed result was announced, the veteran Irish gay rights campaigner David Norris arrived at Dublin Castle, where he was mobbed as a hero by a younger generation of gay activists.
To cheers and applause from the crowd gathered in the courtyard, and with tears in his eyes the academic-turned-politician – whose legal battle went all the way to the European court of human rights and forced the Irish government to decriminalise homosexuality in 1993 – said the vote would inspire others across the planet.
Norris said earlier on Saturday that a yes victory would be a wonderful result.
"I believe that by the end of today gay people will be equal in this country. I think it's wonderful," he said. "It's a little bit late for me. As I said the other day, I've spent so much time pushing the boat out that I forgot to jump on and now it's out beyond the harbour on the high seas, but it's very nice to look at."
Confident of securing a yes vote across the republic on Saturday, Ireland's prime minister, Enda Kenny, declared that the result was sending a "message of pioneering leadership" from the Irish people.
Just after the taoiseach's remarks, it emerged that out of almost three-quarters of the ballot boxes opened in his own Mayo constituency – an area of western Ireland normally regarded as conservative and religiously devout – there was a 55% vote in favour of gay marriage.,
His cabinet and Fine Gael colleague Leo Vradkar, Ireland's first openly gay minister, said
: "We're the first country in the world to enshrine marriage equality in our constitution and do so by popular mandate. That makes us a beacon, a light to the rest of the world of liberty and equality. It's a very proud day to be Irish."
Aodhán Ó Ríordáine, the quality minister, earlier told Reuters: "I think it's won. I've seen bellwether boxes open, middle-of-the road areas who wouldn't necessarily be liberal and they are resoundingly voting yes."
Opponents of gay marriage had also conceded by mid morning that the yes campaign had triumphed.
Dave Quinn, director of the religious-traditionalist Iona Institute, tweeted: "Congratulations to the yes side. Well done."
On the sunlit cobblestones of Dublin Castle, the former seat of British power in Ireland and the location for the overall national result, 27-year-old Emily Glen held up a picture of her parents wearing "vote yes" badges.
"I wanted to show people that parents in Ireland love their children whether they are gay or straight. My dad even put a yes sticker on the back of his wheelchair when he and mum went into the polling station yesterday to demonstrate his support for our cause."
Glen added: "I've been meeting up with older gay people who have told me about what life was like in the dark days of the 70s and 80s in Ireland. I want this yes vote to be for them as much for my generation. It's their day and they deserve it."
A pro-gay Irish Christian campaign group urged the leaders of the main churches in Ireland to embrace the change. Dr Richard O'Leary, an Anglican member of Changing Attitude Ireland, also appealed to the churches' hierarchies to support gay marriage in Northern Ireland – the only part of these islands were same sex couples still cannot get married.
O'Leary said: "We hope that the Catholic bishops and Protestant church leaders in Northern Ireland will notice how so many ordinary people of faith in the Republic of Ireland have voted yes and that they too might be encouraged to support the extension of civil marriage equality to same sex couples in Northern Ireland."
The proposition drawn up by the Fine Gael-Labour government asked Irish voters to amend their 78-year-old constitution, which originally defined marriage as purely between a man and a woman.
Voters were offered the chance to amend that constitution to: "Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex."
A yes result would provide fresh evidence of waning church influence in a country that, in the 1980s, voted forcefully in referendums to outlaw abortion and reject divorce.
Currently 17 countries, including the UK, Spain, France, Argentina and Denmark, along with several states in the US, allow same-sex couples to marry.
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