There are a few main explanations: 1) long term failure in leadership by the Irish Catholic church, and connected with this, the awful Jansenist culture; 2) Europe — or rather, political interference from European Community institutions; 3) American money; 4) the claim
of the «Yes» campaign that the Referendum was won by «the
stories,» that is, the constant appeal to
emotion and the complete refusal actually to think about the legal consequences
of passing such a
change not merely into law, but also into the Irish Constitution, the foundation
of that law.