It is the first country in the world to do so by direct popular vote and in taking such a courageous and forward-looking step has left the rest of the world — Australia included — looking short-sighted by comparison.

It is not often that Ireland gets the opportunity to set an example as far-reaching as this, but with this tremendously popular Yes vote it has set itself apart.

As one Irish commentator wrote, “the vote might look extraordinary but in fact it’s about the ordinary. Ireland has redefined what it means to be an ordinary human being’’.

Many in Ireland are seeing the vote as one of the greatest days for democracy the country has ever seen.

And they’re right. Who doesn’t gain from equality? No one has lost anything in the vote, in fact the opposite is surely true.

Ireland is now a country that has in a few short decades dragged itself out from under the yoke of oppression imposed on it by a strict Catholic church — which opposed the vote — to a shining, new pluralist democracy where everyone is respected for what they are.

Make no mistake, this is a massive change for Ireland and one that again sends a powerful message to the country’s still-powerful Catholic-Conservative forces that the country wants to move on from its painful past. Homosexuality was illegal until 1993 and, incredibly, divorce until 1996. 

Now, the Emerald Isle has undergone a social revolution of seismic proportions that will give it a new confidence and joy about the possibilities for the future.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Tony Abbott ruled out putting the issue of marriage equality to a referendum, saying it’s a matter for the Federal Parliament 

However, there is wide support for gay marriage in Australia, including throughout the Parliament.

The Irish vote is a wake-up call to all those countries who continue to practice inequality, Australia included.