Former president Dr Mary McAleese has said Ireland is very fortunate to have a written constitution, which she described as an overarching formal agreed code between the State and its citizens.
Dr McAleese said she would be calling for a yes vote in both the family and care referendums.
She said that citizens of Ireland were not homogenous and were “a very complex bunch”.
The upcoming referendums were not a destination, she added.
Dr McAleese said when civil partnerships were introduced, some people who were strongly in favour of same sex marriage expressed concern that that would not be achieved. This had not been the case, she said.
Commenting on stories she heard at an event called ‘We are Family’, which heard from different groups and individuals representing lone parents, co-habiting couples and carers, she said: “They succeed in being family to each other, but they’re not based on marriage.
“They are now going to see in our revised constitution, the respect they have always deserved, the recognition they have always deserved.”
Speaking at the same event, Sinéad Gibney, a single parent and former Chair of One Family, an organisation for one-parent families, said the fight would not be over on 8 March.
The event also heard a call for a Yes vote from John O’Meara who recently won the Supreme Court case for cohabiting couples rights and from Deirdre Walsh a former teen parent and current family carer and kinship carer.
Read more: Electoral Commission chair answers referendum questions
