(LifeSiteNews) — Numerous Miraculous Medals were found among ballots across Ireland during vote counting for the double referendum on the Irish Constitution over the weekend, pictures posted online show.
Nine Miraculous Medals were found in ballot boxes at Dublin West, the home constituency of Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar.
READ: Ireland votes to protect motherhood and the family in resounding double referendum result
In Donegal, where four-fifths of voters rebelled against government proposals to redefine the family and remove motherhood from the Constitution, many Miraculous Medals were found in ballot boxes.
A local news outlet, Donegal Daily, asked the question: “Did ‘miraculous medals’ help swing the vote in Donegal?” During counting in the town of Letterkenny, staff found “medals, wrapped in sealed bags” containing “Novena Prayers.”
In Dublin West, constituency home for liberal Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman, nine Miraculous Medals and two St. Benedict Medals were placed in ballot boxes during the referenda.
At the Dublin West constituency count staff have just broken for lunch as all 111 boxes have been opened. Below are the 11 miraculous medals that were found among the ballots this morning pic.twitter.com/FYlywTHrHJ
— Eithne Dodd (@EithneDodd) March 9, 2024
Irish state broadcaster RTÈ reported, “The medals, at this count, included 8 silver, two gold and one that is a jade-green color.” Counting staff at Dublin West said that “some medals also found their way into ballot boxes during the Repeal the 8th (legalization of abortion) vote in 2018.”
Elsewhere in Ireland, three Miraculous Medals were discovered at a polling station in County Limerick during the count on March 9.
Miraculous medals were also found in boxes in Limerick. https://t.co/XwGgqfL0Th
— Charles Mount (@cmount1) March 10, 2024
The Miraculous Medal dates to November 1830 in France, when the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Catherine Labouré, a member of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, and asked her to ensure the images she saw were placed onto medallions for believers to wear.
The Blessed Virgin Mary told St. Catherine: “Have a medal struck upon this model. Those who wear it will receive great graces, especially if they wear it around their neck.”
The Irish government received double crushing defeats in the mother and family referenda held on March 8.
Voters rejected the Family Referendum, which proposed to revise the definition of a family to include the nebulous term “durable” extra-marital relationships, by 67.7 percent and the Care Referendum, which proposed to delete all references of motherhood in the nation’s Constitution, by 73.9 percent.
Pro-family group Family Solidarity reacted to the landslide referenda victory saying: “This vote stands as a critical moment in Irish history, marking the end of an era dominated by liberal conformity. This decision by the Irish electorate sends a powerful message about the importance of preserving foundational values in the face of sweeping societal changes.”
The group added: “This victory is not just a rejection of a specific referendum proposal; it is a declaration by the people of Ireland that the core unit of society – the family based on marriage – must remain protected and cherished. It underscores a collective desire to maintain the integrity of societal values that have long been the bedrock of our nation.”
During the build-up to the dual referenda vote, the Irish government displayed anti-Catholic sentiments during campaigning.
Minister of state in the Department of Agriculture, Green Party Senator Pippa Hackett, said a no vote would “send strong signal across Ireland that the country remains in the rigid and conservative mindset of Archbishop John Charles McQuaid from 1937 when he co-authored Bunreacht na hÉireann, the Constitution of Ireland.”
Varadkar also took aim at the Founding Fathers of the Irish Constitution by saying, “It was written in 1937, mostly by men born in the 1800s and the wording about women’s life in the home and mother’s duties in the home is out of date.”