Bride-to-be Makes Sure to Vote Before Tying the Knot
By Onaleigh Earls
Wedding mornings are usually filled with the smell of flowers, hair to be pinned, giddy faces and maybe even the traditional Irish breakfast. For this Galway bride there was one thing added to her wedding morning agenda before she walked down the aisle: a trip to the polling station.
While many of us find it difficult to incorporate voting into our busy schedules on polling day, or finding ourselves promising we will do it later, Clara Murphy made voting in the Presidential Election a priority on the most important day of her life.
“There was a fight for women to get the right to vote in Ireland, so we are extremely lucky and privileged to have that right why not use it? Especially now when the world is so negative we should use our right to have our voices heard,” she said.
When she heard the election fell on the same day as her wedding, she realised it would make voting harder for people, especially those travelling to Galway from Limerick for the occasion.
“Obviously because you have to be in your local area to vote, those who travelled the night before couldn’t vote. The option of the postal vote was there if they had the opportunity to sort that out in advance,” she explained.
Clara explained that “if it was something people prioritised it made it more complicated for them to cast their vote,” resulting in an extra early start for those driving to Galway the morning of the wedding.
Rather than using her wedding as an excuse not to vote Clara made voting part of her day. She decided to make it a moment before she walked down the aisle, so before she said “I do” she already had her voice heard.
“I wanted to make sure I could also vote so I decided to stop into my polling station with my dad as we made our way to the church.”
She shared that while “we all think it’s just one person voting it doesn’t matter, it actually does. It can be disappointing hearing the polling figures and how many people chose not to turn out but I think we should all have our fair say in who represents our nation.”
In a world where we say we’re too busy Clara is a strong reminder that even on life’s biggest occasions there’s always time to make your voice count if it’s something you value.
