OH Ireland, we love you. Just three years after being the first country to bring in same-sex marriage via popular vote, it had the courage to wrestle with another big social taboo and its people have done the right thing yet again.

The sight of thousands of women in Dublin celebrating the emphatic 66 per cent vote in favour of abortion, of being given freedom over their own bodies, was moving and joyous in equal part.

For one woman, however, the vote and all the joy that accompanied it possibly represents nothing more than an almighty political headache.

Other than noting her previous support for cutting the upper time limit from 24 weeks to 20, I have no idea where Theresa May stands on abortion. In the weeks to come, however, the Prime Minister will likely have to ask herself some searching questions around equality, morality and political expedience as pressure mounts on her to address the situation in Northern Ireland.

The vote in the Republic means Northern Ireland is now the only remaining place in the western world where women do not have access to abortion, not even if they have been raped or where the foetus has fatal abnormalities. In other words there are women in the UK, a country which supposedly prides itself on freedom and social progress, that are forced to continue with unwanted, sometimes risky pregnancies, denied basic choices over their own health. As has been the case in the Republic up until now, in Northern Ireland those who wish to end their pregnancies must make what one can only imagine to be an awful journey to the UK, often in secret.

Following the Ireland vote, this barbaric situation cannot be allowed to go unchallenged any longer; the task now is to find a way to make change possible. And though I believe strongly that women in Northern Ireland deserve the same freedoms over their bodies as those elsewhere in the UK, I can also see how the current political chaos in Belfast and London – Stormont suspended, Mrs May’s minority government propped up by the ultra-conservative DUP, which is staunchly opposed to abortion - makes progress difficult.

A number of MPs, including many from Mrs May’s own party, are already talking up the prospect of a free vote at Westminster on the issue. The case for such a move is strong. After all, why should a dysfunctional political situation stand in the way of equality and women’s rights, of ensuring citizens in one part of the UK get access to a health service when they need it? And why should one small political party (and arguably the main stumbling block to the resumption of the assembly at Stormont) be allowed to represent the wishes of Northern Ireland?

The DUP’s leader Arlene Fraser talks constantly about how there should be no differences at all between Northern Ireland and Britain when it comes to Brexit. If this really is the case, then she must surely accept what that means for equality and social issues as well as borders. Lest we forget Northern Ireland is also the only art of the UK where same-sex marriage is not allowed. Such blatant hypocrisy should not be entertained any longer.

With no prospect of power returning to Belfast any time soon, is it now time for Westminster to legislate for change? I suspect Mrs May will discover a new-found enthusiasm for devolution as she seeks to avoid confrontation with her DUP masters. It would also be interesting to see how SNP MPs, who are locked in a battle with the UK Government over devolving powers to Holyrood - would vote on this one.

But I can also see how imposing something like this on Northern Ireland could be viewed as yet another example of arrogant Westminster worsening an already precarious situation in the six counties, especially as the perfect storm of the Brexit border fiasco, the implosion of Stormont and the Tory/DUP deal closes in.

With this in mind, it would perhaps be better if Westminster legislated for a referendum in Northern Ireland to decide.

The inherent risk in this strategy, of course, is that it fails to produce the vote for equality women there deserve. After all, where many in the Republic have dramatically severed ties with the Church over the last 20 years, change in the north has been much slower, held back by the entrenched sectarian divide.

But I suspect when you scratch the staunchly religious and socially conservative surface in Northern Ireland, you find rather more pragmatism and empathy than you may imagine. I am confident, or at least hopeful, that the result in the south will be the catalyst needed. People in Northern Ireland are like people everywhere else - they value being able to make choices about their own lives. A referendum would allow them to be the drivers of their own change. And, as we in Scotland know only too well, psychologically and intellectually, that matters.

What also matters is whether Mrs May has the political courage to let them answer the question for themselves.