Repealing the Eight biggest recent news story

The repeal of the Eighth Amendment from the Irish Constitution is the single most important news story in recent Irish history, findings from the monthly Cultural Index by Core Research indicate. The index examines awareness among the general public of the top news stories making headlines and the importance of such stories for Irish society and culture.

Since January, engagement with the Eighth Amendment campaign has seen 86 per cent of people saying the issue was important to them, rising to 89 per cent for women. Having analysed 570 different news stories between 2015 and 2018, these are the highest figures ever achieved for a story, meaning it is the most important story of Ireland recent social history.

While the Marriage Equality campaign in 2015 and the Eighth Amendment campaign had high awareness levels, the Eight mattered to more people, with 81 per cent of respondents saying the issue was important to them, compared to 73 per cent for Marriage Equality. It produced a higher Cultural Index and lead to more people turning out to vote.

The first six of the ten most important, high engagement stories featured in the Core study last month all related to women’s issues. The full top 10 stories of most importance were: