Voters in Sandymount queued outside their polling station in order to be first to vote yesterday. Elsewhere in Dublin, polling officers said many people were voting much earlier than usual. "Everyone seemed very anxious to vote on the [Belfast] agreement," concluded one officer in a city centre station, "but some were confused by the Amsterdam Treaty."
At St Aine's School in Raheny they were recording a 35 per cent turnout at 4.30 p.m. "It's really busy. Much better than the general election," said an officer. The Amsterdam issue appeared to have been eclipsed by the amendments to Articles 2 and 3. "When we gave them the two slips some people came back and thought we had given them one too many," she said.
In the social centre in Whitehall there was yet more confusion for voters. Their polling cards said the referendums were taking place in the nearby old folks' centre. "Some people were turning up at the other place and then coming here. But it's lovely weather and I don't think it stopped people going to vote," said one officer.
All over the city gardai could be seen standing in the sunshine outside church halls, schools and community centres. Garda Dave McColkey sat on a table outside a polling station and said that although it was a long day he wasn't bored. "It could be worse. You get to talk to people and watch them going in and out."
In Booterstown there was a tale of two polling stations. The Booterstown community centre on Grotto Place reported a "mixed to middling" stream of voters. A hundred yards down the same road St Mary's national school was reporting "a bit of confusion".
"The two polling stations are so close together, but in different constituencies, so some people are going to the wrong one," said an officer.
Robert Murphy, an 18-year-old, first-time voter from Blackrock, had found the right one. He was waiting in St Mary's to find out if he had been included in the supplementary register. "I'm voting No and No because I don't agree with giving up the territorial claim and I don't agree with the defence area of the Amsterdam Treaty," he said. All over the city, polling stations were expected to become busier towards 10 p.m. as voters combined that duty with a night on the town.