I was privileged to be the research director of the Irish Constitutional Convention, which met over an 18-month period from late 2012 through to early 2014. Established in the midst of Ireland’s worst economic crisis, the intention behind the 100-member body was to bring “ordinary citizens” into the heart of debates over important questions of constitutional reform. Conventions of this type have been trialed in other countries, but what made this a world first was the combination of three things: the random selection of 66 citizen members (rather than electing them as had happened in Iceland), including politicians as members (the other 33 members), and giving the Convention quite a wide-ranging agenda. Following up on Ian’s posts last week, this is a brief view from inside the process.

At its launch, the Convention was met with a barrage of criticism, not least from prominent members of the media who derided it variously as a waste of money (the entire operation cost less than €1 million, helped by the fact that all the experts provided their services for free) and a waste of time. In the event, the Convention surpassed everyone’s expectations – indeed, to the extent that many of its critics went public in admitting they had been wrong to dismiss it out of hand.

I can’t pretend it was perfect. Mistakes were made as we went along and lessons learned, from mundane matters such as how best to provide sufficient supplies of coffee without eating into the limited schedule through to weightier questions over how best to design the ballot paper at the end of a weekend (when members voted on their recommendations). Also some topics fitted this format better than others: for example, the discussion of parliamentary reform was the most rancorous not least because our political members held strong views on the matter!

For most of us the major highlight was the weekend-long discussion of marriage equality. The debate throughout was measured and respectful, but also full of emotion with some hair-at-the-back-of-the-neck moments such as when adult children of same-sex couples spoke of their loving family relationships.

Will the Convention make a difference? Well, it has produced 38 specific recommendations for reform that are gradually making their way through the parliament. So far the government has agreed to hold three referendums, and more are expected. I think it is safe to say that but for the Convention we would not be voting on marriage equality or on reducing the voting age to 16 – two reforms that if passed will have huge implications for Irish society and politics.

David Farrell is Professor of Politics at University College Dublin, and a member of the Royal Irish Academy.