Together for Yes

1. 1

   66.4% Yes. On May 25, 2018, with 64% turnout, Ireland repealed the Eighth Amendment, which banned abortion.

2. 2

   Three organizations, one brand: Together for Yes spoke to undecided voters in a calm tone, with a message about caring for women's health.

3. 3

   Doctors and women with real stories up front, and every night of canvassing measured to correct course.

4. 4

   Research where voters stand before deciding what to say, choose trusted messengers, and train canvassers as well as TV spokespeople.

Copy summary

If you're new to this, start with the fundamentals, from the vote goal to what the research says. Read the fundamentals

This playbook was put together from what the organizers themselves wrote and said: above all the campaign's official review, commissioned by the three co-directors, with interviews, focus groups and a survey of 351 activists, and the interviews they gave during and after the vote.

• Ailbhe Smyth

  Co-director; founder and convenor of the Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment

  A veteran of the 2015 marriage equality campaign, she brought the lessons of Yes Equality and argued for a respectful tone and an unhurried start.

  Sources

• Orla O'Connor

  Co-director; director of the National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI)

  Led the Every Woman model, which moved the debate away from restrictions and toward women's health needs.

  Sources

• Gráinne Griffin

  Co-director; co-founder of the Abortion Rights Campaign (ARC)

  Built ARC's network of local groups from 2012 onward; renamed, they became the Together for Yes groups across the country.

  Sources

• Deirdre Duffy

  Campaign manager (from March 2018)

  Turned the one-page strategy into team-by-team plans and read the previous night's canvass report every morning.

  Sources

• Annie Hoey

  National canvass coordinator

  A former president of the Union of Students in Ireland, she coordinated local canvass leaders, the super-canvasses and the collection of doorstep results.

  Sources

• Karen Hand

  Research and messaging strategy, Together for Yes

  Was part of the research team that identified the "concerned centre" and the trusted messengers, and later explained the method to the New Economics Foundation.

  Sources

• Erin Darcy

  Artist, creator of the In Her Shoes – Women of the Eighth page

  In January 2018 she opened a Facebook page for anonymous stories from women affected by the Eighth Amendment, aimed at undecided voters.

  Sources

• Gráinne Healy, Brian Sheehan and Noel Whelan

  Yes Equality leadership (2015) and authors of Ireland Says Yes

  Wrote the inside account of the marriage equality campaign, whose method (personal stories, local groups, a positive tone) the 2018 team adapted.

  Sources

What the organizers said about the decisions they made. Paraphrased unless otherwise noted.

• The campaign deliberately held back its pace at the start: in a very long campaign people get tired, and you had to reach the final stretch with your strength intact.

  Ailbhe Smyth, co-director, The Irish Times, How the tide turned against saving the Eighth, May 27, 2018

• At the launch, she promised the campaign would be respectful of everyone's views, whatever they were — the model was Yes Equality in 2015.

  Ailbhe Smyth, co-director, The Irish Times, Repeal campaign seeks to follow marriage equality example, Mar 23, 2018

• You have to start from women's needs and experiences, not from restrictions.

  Orla O'Connor, co-director (NWCI), Learning from the 2018 Together for Yes Campaign (official review), p. 36

• On the launch crowdfunder (a €50,000 target, about half a million in a week): nobody expected so many donations, and it stopped being fundraising and became an outpouring of women's feelings about abortion.

  Orla O'Connor, co-director, The Irish Times, May 27, 2018

In early 2018 the political media doubted the Yes campaign: No had organized earlier, had more money and already had posters up. The Irish Times poll of April 20 showed Yes nine points down on January, with about one voter in five undecided. In 68 days, Together for Yes turned a quiet, conditional majority into a win of almost two to one.

66.4%

Yes, 1,429,981 votes, on 64% turnoutofficial

€1.6M

raised in ten weeks, a record for an Irish referendumcampaign figure

43%

of voters cited personal stories in the media as a factor in their decisionstudy

±3%

the margin within which the canvass dashboard predicted the resultcampaign figure

From grief to victory

1. Oct 2012Savita Halappanavar dies in an Irish hospital after being denied an abortion during a miscarriage. Her death galvanizes the movement; the Abortion Rights Campaign, which grew out of the Irish Choice Network (July 2012), formally launches in January 2013.
2. 2013–2014The Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment forms. ARC's local groups begin to multiply outside Dublin.
3. May 22, 2015Marriage equality wins with 62%. Many of the people who would run the 2018 campaign were there.
4. 2016–2017Focus groups commissioned by the Coalition reveal a concerned centre: uneasy with the status quo, afraid of change, trusting doctors and women who had had abortions.
5. Apr–Dec 2017The Citizens' Assembly recommends changing the Constitution. NWCI launches the Every Woman model. Three organizations decide to form a single campaign.
6. Jan 2018The Together for Yes name and the Storylab are born. From January 14, Erin Darcy's In Her Shoes page starts collecting stories.
7. Mar 8–22The government sets the vote for May 25. The campaign launches on March 22; the €50,000 crowdfunder raises about half a million in a week.
8. Apr–MayCanvassing across the country, TV debates, pop-up shops with queues to buy Repeal jumpers. The campaign bus tours the country in the last three weeks.
9. May 18Seven days out, Make a Plan launches, with a text reminder. Videos on how to vote and the emigrants' #HomeToVote gather momentum.
10. May 2566.4% Yes. Only one constituency, Donegal, votes No.

Three layers, one brand

Together for Yes was neither a party nor an NGO: it was an umbrella with a small headquarters and lots of people who didn't report to it.

• HeadquartersThree co-directors, a weekly Executive with two people from each organization, a campaign manager and teams for communications, mobilization, fundraising, politics, evidence and the platform, plus a Strategic Advisory Group of about a dozen experts giving non-binding advice.
• The PlatformAllied organizations (unions, doctors, lawyers, disability and migrant groups) that campaigned in their own voice and under their own name, without losing their independence.
• The networkLocal groups in every county and independent initiatives such as In Her Shoes, Terminations for Medical Reasons and the emigrants' #HomeToVote.

What was specific to Ireland in 2018, and what you need to swap out if your country is different.

Platforms

Door-to-door and street stalls

The heart of the campaign. Local groups knocked doors in the evenings and at weekends, set up stalls on main streets and ran "guerrilla canvasses" with banners on roundabouts and bridges at rush hour.

Facebook

The most-used platform: 86% of activists surveyed called it an indispensable tool. Video was the format that performed best. It's where the In Her Shoes page spread anonymous stories.

Twitter

Used by 65% of activists. Important for reaching journalists and politicians and, in the final stretch, for the #HomeToVote hashtag of emigrants traveling back to vote.

Local radio and regional papers

In Ireland they have big, trusting audiences. Local groups and the campaign bus supplied them with spokespeople from their own area.

WhatsApp and Facebook groups

Volunteer coordination in each county. Headquarters spoke to the country through email and weekly Zoom webinars.

Slack, Meltwater and a custom dashboard

Slack for the central team, Meltwater to monitor the press every morning, and a volunteer-built dashboard that combined canvassing, polls, press, finances and internal alerts.

Reminder texts

The Make a Plan tool, launched seven days out, let voters choose when they'd vote and sent a free text reminder on the morning of the vote.

Local conditions

• An issue stigmatized for decades: the Eighth Amendment entered the Constitution in 1983 with 66.9% of the vote, and the death of Savita Halappanavar in 2012 was the turning point.
• A Citizens' Assembly of 99 randomly selected people recommended change in April 2017, which gave the debate a citizen-led rather than a party origin.
• It's a referendum, not an election: the campaign belonged to civil society, and voters saw politicians as "fence-sitters".
• The public broadcaster must give equal time to both sides in referendums, which exposed the public to extreme No positions.
• Donations are regulated by the Electoral Act and overseen by SIPO (the Standards in Public Office Commission): every donation was checked before being accepted, and some were turned down.
• In-person voting only, with no postal or embassy voting; emigrants lose the right to vote after 18 months abroad. Hence #HomeToVote.
• Right after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook blocked referendum ads paid for from outside Ireland and Google suspended all referendum ads.
• The same generation of activists had won the marriage equality referendum three years earlier and brought ready-made teams, donors and lessons.

The campaign fit on one page: win the majority by going after the "concerned centre", with information, persuasion and calm, and a mobilized base to knock on doors. Everything else was disciplined execution of that page.

Three fronts

Listen before you speak

Start from where people are listening, not from where the campaign is talking. The research showed that the majority wanted change, but calmly, without shouting, and thinking about care rather than choice.

Trusted messengers

Voters trusted doctors and women who had been through an abortion; they distrusted politicians and the Church. So those were the people who spoke, and the leadership took a step back. Doctors for Choice and Midwives for Choice supported doctors and midwives to speak clearly, and the Irish Family Planning Association also joined the campaign.

Measured canvassing

Calm conversations on doorsteps across the country, with each night's results recorded and added up in a dashboard that showed whether the message was landing.

The campaign cycle

The same cycle ran through three phases (inform and engage, 4 weeks; persuade and motivate, 6 weeks; get out the vote, 10 days), with a strategy review a week before the end of each phase.

1. Research Focus groups before and during the campaign to learn what worries people, which words work and whom they trust.
2. Frame The three Cs: care, compassion and change. Talk about health and needs, about "decision" rather than "choice", about empathy rather than judgment.
3. Prepare messengers The Storylab finds, prepares and protects the women and couples who tell their stories; doctors and lawyers get media training and ready answers.
4. Train canvassers Key messages, practice and role-played conversations. Don't argue with people who've already decided No; spend your time with people who have doubts.
5. Talk Door-to-door, stalls, public meetings, local radio, banners on roundabouts. Take up public space with a positive tone.
6. Measure Every night: doors knocked, doors opened, Yes, No, Maybe, strength of opinion and arguments heard. All of it on the dashboard the next morning.
7. Adjust The leadership reads the dashboard every morning and changes what the numbers say to change, whatever the opponent is doing.
8. Get out the vote A voting plan by text, videos on how to vote, visibility canvasses at stations, emigrants coming home.

And again.

What Together for Yes built, laid out for you to copy. It works for a referendum, a bill, a local cause or a candidacy that needs people who haven't decided yet.

What works anywhere and what depended on Ireland in 2018.

Choose your country

Pick the moves that fit your context and add them to your kit. Each one works on its own or combined with moves from other playbooks.

1. Speak to the worried middle

   Research undecided voters before writing your first message and talk to them calmly: care, compassion and change, “decision” rather than “choice”, and messengers they trust. In Ireland, research showed a majority who wanted change without shouting; doctors and women with their own experience did the talking, and Yes won 66.4%.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   It works when there is a conditional, silent majority: uneasy with the status quo but afraid of change and of a shouting campaign.

   Don't use when

   It doesn't convert people who have already decided, and it fails without your own research: trusted messengers differ from country to country.

   1. Week −30 Commission focus groups with undecided voters
   2. Week −26 Find out which words work and whom the audience trusts
   3. Week −20 Write the strategy on one page: audience, tone, message and messengers
   4. Week −12 Give doctors and experts media training and ready answers
   5. Week −10 Launch with trusted messengers, with the leadership one step back
   6. Week −5 Re-test the message in focus groups and on the doorstep, and adjust

   Team

   • Research: focus groups before and during the campaign
   • Evidence and rebuttal: prepare verifiable answers to medical and legal arguments
   • Trusted messengers: doctors and people with lived experience

   What to measure: Maybe voters who say Yes on a second doorstep conversation after hearing the tested message; if they don't move, go back to the focus groups before changing the tone.

   Risks to watch: Message discipline can erase rights language and narrow the range of spokespeople: say so to your base, make room for other voices and never tell voters what they should feel.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

2. Door-knocking, measured every night

   Calm doorstep conversations, with a simple sheet filled in every night (doors opened, Yes, No, Maybe, strength of view and the concern heard) and added up on a dashboard read every morning. In Ireland, the dashboard predicted the result within ±3% and let the campaign react to voters, not to the opponent.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   It works when there are local groups in many areas and a leadership willing to change what the numbers say must change.

   Don't use when

   It fails if nobody enters the sheets or nobody reads the dashboard, or if views are tied to identifiable people: record them in aggregate.

   1. Week −12 Design the canvass sheet and the dashboard before you start
   2. Week −10 Open the sign-up that routes each volunteer straight to their local group leader
   3. Week −9 Train in every region with role-play: don't argue with people who've decided No
   4. Week −8 Knock on doors in the evenings and at weekends, always in pairs
   5. Week −8 Collect the sheets every night and have trained volunteers enter them
   6. Week −6 Read the dashboard every morning and adjust the message and the areas
   7. Week −2 Run super-canvasses in the areas where support is weakest

   Team

   • Canvass coordination: links HQ to local leaders and analyses the results
   • Local leader: organizes the shifts and collects the night's sheets
   • Data entry: trained volunteers put the sheets into the database

   What to measure: Doors opened per night and per local group, recorded on the sheet; so you don't fool yourself about Yes, count most Maybes as No, as the Irish dashboard did (80%).

   Risks to watch: Knocking on doors about an intimate subject brings abuse and burnout: go in pairs, have a protocol for abuse, book peer support in advance and keep only aggregate data.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

3. Real stories, prepared and protected

   A lab that finds, prepares and protects people who share their experience, with informed consent, the option of anonymity, media training and follow-up afterwards. In Ireland, 43% of voters cited personal stories in the media as a factor in their decision.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   It works when the issue is stigmatized and the audience trusts people who have lived it more than politicians or institutions.

   Don't use when

   It fails if you expose people without preparation or follow-up, or put pressure on anyone who wants to pull out.

   1. Week −20 Open the story lab and write the protection rules
   2. Week −18 Find people willing to share, with informed consent and the option of anonymity
   3. Week −14 Prepare each person for the media and for hostile reactions
   4. Week −10 Take the stories to local radio, regional papers and public meetings
   5. Week −6 Call each person after every appearance and offer support
   6. 1 week(s) after Thank the storytellers publicly and keep up the follow-up

   Team

   • Storylab: finds, prepares and protects the storytellers
   • Regional media: takes the stories to local radio and regional papers
   • Support: peer and psychological support, booked in advance

   What to measure: Prepared appearances on local radio, in regional papers and at public meetings with the follow-up call made afterwards; the target is to follow up every one, not to multiply stories.

   Risks to watch: Leaning on the hardest cases takes a heavy toll on storytellers and narrows the message: diversify the stories, let people pull out at any time and never publish without consent.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

4. A launch crowdfunder with a public target

   The first big ask for donations, early and with a public target, is also the first show of strength, with every donation checked before it is accepted. In Ireland, the launch crowdfunder asked for €50,000 and raised around half a million in a week; the campaign reached €1.6 million.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   It works when there is a base with pent-up anger and a will to act, and the law on donations is clear.

   Don't use when

   It fails without compliance in place: a single donation from a forbidden source can cost more than it's worth.

   1. Week −14 Set up the finance and compliance structure, with senior people
   2. Week −12 Design a single database for donors and volunteers
   3. Week −10 Open the crowdfunder on launch day, with a modest public target
   4. Week −10 Check every donation before accepting it and refuse those the law forbids
   5. Week −9 Spend the first money on visible posters and materials, and say so
   6. Week −6 Open a shop and events with identity items people want to wear

   Team

   • Fundraising: a strategic area, staffed by senior people
   • Compliance: checks every donation's eligibility
   • Database: keeps donors and volunteers in one place

   What to measure: Donors who also signed up for a canvass shift or an event, as a share of all donors: people who give money can give time.

   Risks to watch: One forbidden donation becomes the story: check before accepting, say who pays for every ad and refuse money from abroad where the law forbids it.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

5. A voting plan with an opt-in reminder

   In the final stretch, voters choose when and how they'll go to vote and get a reminder only if they asked for one; people living away come home to vote or call their family. In Ireland, Make a Plan launched seven days out, with a text on polling-day morning, and #HomeToVote brought emigrants back to vote.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   It works in the last ten days, when support is there and the risk is that people who agree simply don't turn out.

   Don't use when

   It fails with lists gathered without consent, and it doesn't replace door-knocking: the reminder only reaches people who already signed up.

   1. Week −4 Prepare the voting-plan tool and the opt-in text reminder
   2. Week −1 Launch the voting plan seven days out, on every channel
   3. Week −1 Publish short videos on how and where to vote
   4. Week −1 Run visibility canvasses at stations and roundabouts during rush hour
   5. Week −1 Mobilize people living away: come home to vote or call family back home
   6. D-day week Send the reminder on polling-day morning only to those who signed up

   Team

   • Mobilization: launches the voting plan and runs the visibility canvasses
   • List and SMS: holds the consents and sends the reminder
   • People living away: organize coming home to vote or calls home

   What to measure: People who made a voting plan (time and how) and later confirmed they voted, as a share of plans made.

   Risks to watch: Messaging people who didn't ask breaks data protection law and burns the campaign: remind only those who signed up, say how to leave the list and check voting information against the official source.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

The Together for Yes sequence, from months before to the day itself, as a checklist. Your progress is saved in this browser.

The campaign's strength was its credibility. Every rule below protects it.

Protect the people who tell their stories

Informed consent, the option of anonymity, media preparation and follow-up afterward. People can pull out at any time.

Donations in the open

Check each donation's eligibility before accepting it and turn down those the law prohibits. In Ireland, the campaign was in regular contact with SIPO.

Labeled advertising

Say who pays for each ad. In the European Union, Regulation (EU) 2024/900 requires every paid political ad to carry a label saying who sponsors it and a transparency notice, and allows targeting only with explicit consent and without sensitive data; elsewhere, your local election law applies. See the “Law and platforms in the European Union” section in Fundamentals.

Canvass data

Record opinions in aggregate or anonymously, as Canvass Together did. Opinions on health and politics are sensitive data under the GDPR and the LGPD.

Real people only

No fake accounts, mass reviews or coordinated reporting. In Her Shoes was hit with waves of negative reviews and mass reports. Don't do it to anyone.

Facts with sources

Answers to medical and legal arguments prepared by experts and verifiable. No exaggeration, no innuendo.

Respect on the doorstep

People who say No get a thank-you. Nobody pushes, nobody shouts.

Canvasser safety

Go in pairs, have a contact person and a protocol for abuse. In 2015 and 2018 volunteers faced verbal abuse.

Look after the team

Peer support and counseling. The 2018 review lists abuse, misogyny and burnout among the main challenges.

Local law

Voter registration deadlines, poster rules and spending and donation limits differ from country to country. Check with a lawyer before you start.

It doesn't convert people who've already decided

75% of voters said they had always known how they would vote. The method is for winning the conditional slice and for mobilizing; it doesn't change firm convictions in ten weeks.

You can't improvise it in 68 days

Behind the win were six years of local groups, research since 2016, a Citizens' Assembly and the experience of the 2015 referendum.

It has an internal cost

Message discipline sidelined the language of rights, put heavy weight on so-called hard cases (about half of the Storylab's stories) and limited the diversity of spokespeople.

Winning the vote isn't winning access

The law that followed kept, for example, a three-day waiting period that Gráinne Griffin criticizes as a barrier to access.

Headquarters can't reach everywhere

Rural groups went weeks without posters or replies. The review concludes there weren't enough full-time staff for events, regional media and relations with the groups.

Canvassing takes a toll on canvassers

Talking to strangers about an intimate, stigmatized issue brought abuse and misogyny. Without support, people burn out.

Five questions to lock in the essentials. Each answer comes with an explanation.

Free materials from organizations that train organizers, linked to this case.

• Public Narrative

  Course · Resistance School · EN

  Marshall Ganz's 15 video lessons on public narrative (story of self, us and now), with a worked example and coaching techniques. Use it to train spokespeople and volunteers.

• Mobilizing stories into action: The power of public narrative

  Webinar · European Center for Digital Action · 2026-05 · EN · Registration required

  Webinar on turning personal stories into a call to action. Useful when preparing narrative workshops for your team; free account required.

• Steps in a One-on-One Organizing Conversation

  Guide · Training for Change · EN

  Step-by-step outline of the one-on-one organizing conversation: inviting someone in, uncovering motivations and making a concrete ask. Use it to train volunteers.

Library

This playbook was built mainly from the official review commissioned by the Together for Yes co-directors, interviews with the organizers, official data and RTÉ's exit poll, and reporting published between March 2018 and 2023. All pages were accessed on October 26, 2026.

Updated 26 October 2026