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Prepare to sob at these moving stories of people travelling home for Ireland's abortion vote

Inspiring efforts to make it #hometovote.

Rachel Thompson

on May 24, 2018

There's only one hashtag you should search through on Twitter today: #hometovote. The Irish diaspora is mobilising by travelling thousands of miles to return to Ireland to vote in the abortion referendum. And they are tweeting about their journeys using the hashtag.

The tweets make for very moving reading indeed. Prepare yourself: you might just shed the odd tear while reading these people's inspiring efforts to make it home in time to vote.

On 25 May, people in Ireland will cast their votes to decide whether the 8th amendment of the country's constitution—which currently makes abortion illegal in almost all cases— will be repealed.

Twitter user Lauryn Canny wrote that she was travelling more than 5,000 miles from Los Angeles to Dublin in order to vote on 25 May. Canny wrote that she was "thinking of every Irish woman who has had to travel to access health care that should be available in their own country."

It's estimated that more than 150,000 women in Ireland have had to make journeys overseas to gain access to abortion services since the 8th amendment went into effect in 1983.

Another Twitter user tweeted a photo at Hanoi airport in Vietnam holding up a "repeal" sign as she waited to board her 20-hour flight home. She wrote that the flight cost her €800 (£700, $937).

When she got off the plane from Hanoi, her parents were there to greet her with a 'Repeal' sweater.

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Another woman shared that she had travelled from Queensland, Australia, to Dublin in order to vote.

Others tweeted about the sights they witnessed at airports around the world. Becky Ann Leeman said she spotted around 35 young women waiting in the baggage reclaim area at Dublin Airport after travelling from Sydney, Australia.

Author Louise O'Neill tweeted that she had sponsored another woman's flight back so she could vote in the referendum.

Steve Wilson said he'd travelled for a total of 27.5 hours to make it back in time to cast his yes vote in the hope of repealing the 8th amendment.

Ciaran Gaffney travelled 13 hours from Buenos Aires to London before flying across the pond to Dublin. "No one here knows why I'm travelling. If this feels isolating for me, can't imagine how lonely it must be 4 her, travelling 2 the UK," wrote Gaffney, referring to women who travel to England to have abortions.

Parents of grownup children flying home to Ireland to cast their votes tweeted with pride at the great efforts their kids had gone to.

Noeleen McHugh posted a moving tweet about her eldest son, who was granted the right to get married in 2015 when Ireland legalised same sex marriage. "On Friday he'll return the favour and vote to give women the right to make decisions about their own bodies," wrote McHugh.

Twitter user Colette Kelleher tweeted that her son, who's a student, used his birthday money to buy a ticket home to Ireland.

Chris Coyle tweeted that his daughter was making a transatlantic journey and taking time off work without pay in oder to cast her yes vote.

Kudos to these incredibly inspiring people.

Topics Activism Health

Rachel Thompson

Features Editor

Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.

A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.

Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.