DUBLIN — In 1993, Ireland was among the last countries in the Western World to decriminalize homosexuality. Some 22 years later, it could become the first to legalize same-sex marriages by popular vote.

With a rapidity that has astonished even proponents, Ireland, a country that rescinded its Victorian-era law governing homosexuality — the same legislation England used in 1895 to imprison Oscar Wilde — only after it had been dragged before the European Court of Human Rights, will go to the polls on Friday to decide on gay marriage rights.

Ireland becomes the latest place — though perhaps a surprising one — to take up the issue, in a global swing that in just the past few years has seen states, countries and people seriously considering expanding marriage to include gays.

Social, religious, political and legal mores have been falling by the wayside, and laws are being changed through legislatures, courts and, in some local cases, popular vote.