IRELAND has become the first country in the world to approve gay marriage via a referendum after 62% of the population voted in favour of same sex marriages in the staunchly Catholic nation yesterday. 

In the first such referendum of its kind anywhere in the world, a total, 1,201,607 people voted in favour of same-sex marriage, while 734,300 voted against it.  Out of 43 constituencies, only the largely rural Roscommon-South Leitrim had a majority of no votes. 

With this overwhelming yes vote, Ireland's government will now amend Article 41 of its constitution, stating that being of the same sex is no longer an impediment to marriage. Ireland's government must now bring in a new law, the Marriage Bill 2015, to give effect to the amendment and it says it hopes to do that by the time the Irish parliament breaks up in the summer. 

This means the first actual marriages are unlikely to take place in Ireland until September. With Ireland approving gay marriages, same-sex marriage is now legal in 20 countries worldwide 

One of Ireland's most senior Catholic clerics has called for the church to take a reality check following the country's overwhelming vote in favour of same-sex marriage. Diarmuid Martin, the archbishop of Dublin, said the Church in Ireland needed to reconnect with young people following the vote. 

Archbishop Martin said: "We the Church have to stop and have a reality check, not move into denial of the realities. We won't begin again with a sense of renewal, with a sense of denial. 

"I appreciate how gay and lesbian men and women feel on this day and that they feel this is something that is enriching the way they live. I think it is a social revolution." 

Ireland has become the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage through a popular vote, and its referendum was held 22 years after homosexual acts were decriminalised in the Republic of Ireland. Among those voicing their approval of the outcome was UK Prime Minister David Cameron who congratulated the Irish. 

In Ireland, the Catholic Church still has much influence and the no vote was strongest in rural areas where church attendance figures tend to be higher. That sharply compared to the cities where the yes campaign never doubted their support. 

However, the Catholic Church is not immune from the influence of an increasingly liberal Ireland. In his appeal for a no vote the church's most senior figure In Ireland specifically recognised the love shared between same sex couples. 

Now that the proposal has been passed, a marriage between two people of the same sex will have the same status under the Irish constitution as a marriage between a man and a woman. They will be recognised as a family and be entitled to the constitutional protection for families. 

Civil partnerships for same-sex couples have been legal in Ireland since 2010, giving couples legal protection which could be changed by the government. The yes campaign enjoyed considerable support from the country's political establishment with Prime Minister Enda Kenny saying that the country could create history and that a yes vote would obliterate prejudice along with irrational fears of difference. 

Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, called it a huge day for equality and Northern Ireland's deputy first minister Martin McGuinness said he hoped the province would take notice of the vote. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that is still to approve of same-sex marriages.