Same sex marriage is a civil right

THERE was a time when I would have been shocked if not disgusted at the thought of same sex marriage. It would never have entered my head that two men – or two women – could live together in a romantic relationship.

 

I think most Irish people would have felt the same. But we have come a long way since those dark days. I now believe same sex marriage is a civil right. I now believe a man is as much entitled to love another man as he is entitled to love the woman of his choice and to cement that love in marriage.  I also believe the majority of Irish people believe the same. A recent survey showed that 73% are in agreement that same sex marriage should be allowed in the Irish Constitution.
Last week, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore gave public support to gay marriage and he said the time had come for society to recognise “the civil right issue of this generation”.

Gay marriage is, of course, one of the main issues to be discussed by the Constitutional Convention to be set up shortly. This convention will examine if our Constitution is to be changed in relation to a number of specific matters.

On Monday night of this week, Cork City Council unanimously, and without debate, passed a motion calling for the introduction of same sex marriage. All sides of the political divide voted in favour of the motion. This followed a similar motion in support of gay marriage passed by Belfast City Council last week.

So we can take it there is general political support throughout Ireland for same sex marriage. It should be noted, however, that before the vote was taken in Belfast City Council, the Unionist members walked out.  So we can take it, I suppose, that in spite of great progress in other areas, the Unionists, if not still saying No, are saying “Perhaps Not”.

US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron have already come out in favour of gay marriage.

So, apart from the Unionists, is there anybody in authority in this country opposed to two people of the same sex getting married? Yes, there is. The Catholic Church believes homosexuality is “a moral evil”. And the vast majority of the Irish people are members of the Catholic Church.

As recently as last Sunday, the leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, warned the Scottish Government it would face an “unprecedented backlash” from the Catholic Church if it went ahead with plans to legalise same sex marriage, claiming “marriage is under threat and politicians need to know the Catholic Church will bear any burden and meet any cost in its defence”.

So there you have it. I would expect a similar backlash from the Catholic Church in Ireland if any attempt was made to introduce same sex marriage into this State or into any part of the country. Of course, no attempt will be made to introduce same sex marriage here before first putting the matter to the people in a referendum.

The Catholic Church no longer, however, carries the same authority that it once did. The Catholic Church also opposed the introduction of divorce here but the sky did not fall after we passed the referendum allowing for divorce.

The Catholic Church is also opposed to artificial methods of birth control. However, a study published this week in the British medical journal The Lancet showed the lives of hundreds of thousands of women and babies are saved in the Developing World each year through using contraceptives.

So the Catholic Church is very slow to change, especially in the area of civil and human rights and will only accept change when forced to do so. The Church still does not allow women to be ordained priests.

In spite of the Church, times change. I remember when Catholics in some dioceses, including Killaloe, could not dance on a Saturday night. But it was alright to dance on a Sunday night. Dancers in East Clare got over the Saturday night ban by driving into Limerick where there was no ban and they could dance the night away. That was until they put out the story that the devil with his cloven foot appeared one Saturday night at the Stella ballroom in Limerick. That put the frighteners on some poor souls.

Now people can dance any night of the week and the Church has no say in the matter. There was also a time when the referee and the team captains had to bend the knee and kiss the ring on the finger of the Archbishop of Cashel before he threw in the ball to start the All-Ireland in Croke Park.

In those days the Catholic Church in Ireland ruled with an iron fist and politicians feared the belt of a crozier if they said or did anything that the bishops might not agree with. That was accepted then and we all went along with it. When Eamon de Valera was framing the new Constitution in the mid-1930s, he had to consult with the Archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid to get his final approval before he put it to the people. That is the same constitution we have today and which the proposed convention will examine to see what changes should be made to it. 
I do not expect Enda Kenny will put any new constitution before the present Archbishop of Dublin

Diarmuid Martin for final approval before putting it before the Irish people.
That is how far we have come. Still, there is no guarantee a referendum to allow for gay marriage would be passed.

While a majority might be in favour of such a proposal now, there is no telling how people might react following a very heated campaign against gay marriage led by the Catholic Church.

Perhaps Enda Kenny might feel he has more important problems to solve than the issue of gay
marriage.