A wind of social change sweeping over Ireland in recent years has turned into a gale.

With a referendum to relax abortion laws turning into a landslide plebiscite counting more than two 'yes' votes for every 'no', the campaign to liberalise what was one of the strictest abortion regimes in Europe represents a seismic shift in attitude in little over a generation.

"What we see is the culmination of a quiet revolution that has been taking place in Ireland over the last couple of decades," said Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who became Ireland's first openly gay prime minister last year.

The contentious Eighth Amendment that effectively bans terminations - a constitutional provision now destined for the history books - was only voted into the state's legal framework in 1983.

It is remarkable that the winning margin for anti-abortion activists 35 years ago - 67 per cent to 33 per cent - appears to have been turned on its head on Friday, and then some.

READ: Abortion to be introduced in Ireland after landslide vote

The likely result will be delivered three years after the country voted to legalise same-sex marriage - another landmark moment in Ireland's tectonic drift from "social conservatism" to "progressive liberalism".

While the margin in the 2015 same-sex marriage vote was emphatic - 62 per cent to 38 per cent - the Yes vote in 2018 looks like being even larger.

With results declared in just over half of the 40 voting constituencies, 67 per cent backed the proposal. Final results were due later on Saturday.

The expected margin of the vote to repeal the ban was far higher than any opinion poll in the run up to the vote.

Deputy Prime Minister Simon Coveney said he believed a middle ground of around 40 percent of voters had decided en masse to allow women and doctors rather than lawmakers and lawyers to decide whether a termination was justified.

Video: Reuters

Youth lead the charge

The dramatic reversal in opinion seems to have been driven by the younger generations.

People under the age of 53 would not have had the chance to vote in 1983.

In this year's referendum the support of those age groups for reform seems to have been overwhelming.

Almost 90 per cent of voters under 25 appear to have voted Yes.

Those aged 35-49 endorsed repeal by around 73 per cent, the exit polls indicate.

The only age group to vote No was the over-65s, indicating that those who backed the amendment in 1983 largely retain their opposition to abortion - they are now just outnumbered by younger generations committed to reform.

The diminishing role of the Catholic Church in the social fabric of Ireland is undoubtedly a factor in the changes being wrought.

Damaged by a welter of child abuse scandals in recent decades, during the abortion referendum campaign the church was reduced to just one voice among many in the campaign, rather than the all-powerful institution of authority it once was.

As the exit poll data started emerging on Friday, it was little surprise many reached for a famous line of poetry from one of the nation's literary greats, William Butler Yeats: "All changed, changed utterly ..."

'Yes' campaigners hug and weep as the victory is confirmed. Photo: Reuters'Yes' campaigners hug and weep as the victory is confirmed. Photo: Reuters

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