It's something we hear again and again - that the country is generally split with an urban rural divide on social issues.
But the referendum on the Eighth Amendment has shown this myth is exactly that.
Exit polls published on Friday showed that the urban rural divide was not there.
Official counting in #carlowkilkenny #CarKK18 #cwkk after final tallies put the yes side at 63% #8thRef pic.twitter.com/L5xucwOkZq
— Paul Quinn (@pdquinn7) May 26, 2018
The first poll from the Irish Times showed the majority in favour of repeal in rural Ireland was smaller than in urban Ireland, but not by much.
Some 60% of rural voters polled were in favour od repeal, while that number climbed to 71% for urban voters.
Image via @IpsosMRBI on Twitter
All five Dublin city constituencies are closing in on voting three-to-one in favour of repeal.
Cork North Central is 64% Yes, with Cork South-Central 68% in favour of repeal.
Here is what #RepealThe8th looks like. #Yes on the right, #No on the left. pic.twitter.com/dgzy8MkImw
— Jonathan Healy (@jonathanhealy) May 26, 2018
Laois looks like it will go 58% to 42% in favour of Yes, while Roscommon also now looks like there will be a strong Yes vote.
With all boxes counted it stands at 57% Yes with a 42% No.
With around two-third of the boxes tallied in Limerick, 65.9% said Yes in the city and 58.54% said Yes in the county.
An early tally from Wicklow, with 21% boxes open show a Yes vote of 73.5% and No of 26.5%.
Ballot boxes are opened in the Dublin Count Centre at the RDS | Image: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie
Speaking earlier in his Wicklow constituency count centre, Health Minister Simon Harris said: "There were efforts during the course of this campaign to suggest there was a rural Ireland and an urban Ireland - but what we're now seeing is that there's a compassionate campaign in both rural and urban Ireland."
"I'm just so grateful to the Irish people for voting in the way they have."
Tanaiste Simon Coveney says Ireland has made a "powerful decision" for change and there's been a strong Yes vote in urban and rural areas #8thRef pic.twitter.com/TR9g8gBdvs
— Stephen Murphy (@Stephen_Murphy5) May 26, 2018
The Tánaiste Simon Coveney said Ireland has made a "powerful decision" for change - with a strong Yes vote in urban and rural areas.
"For the first time, Ireland is going to able to legislate to protect women in their own country - and we are not going to see thousands of women travelling to cities like Birmingham and Manchewster on their own - lonely, vulberbale - any longer.
"And that makes me very proud as an Irish person that our people, rural and urban, have voted in such huge numbers to allow us to make approopriate change whcih is copmpassionate - and which in my view with get the strong endorsement of the Oireachtas in a few month's time."
