Yet another reason to love and respect Mary McAleese. What a fantastic president and person!!

Its wrong. Marriage is between a man and a woman.

If it was termed something else other than marriage, where equal rights are given to all, would you have a problem then?

Troll.

Hardly a troll Michelle, when I use my real name and photo. And the fact that I thought Mary was a great President.

Troll.

Perhaps Michelle wanted to try her hand at trolling and just misunderstood the concept?

Michelle your twitter account is only 15 hours old…. who’s the troll I wonder?

@Conor Buggy

Maybe Michelle is actually a man? and not a woman. But hey, if that’s what ‘Michelle’ wants …. I don’t have a problem with it!! ;)

Anyone else report Michelle for her pointless and non-constructive comments?

One life live it !!! I fully support gay marriage if two people love each other that’s what matters above all else, I am only asking now not judging but very few gay people that I know have any kind of faith ???

She did Mike. She said lots of things that did not make her popular amongst the political & christian elite.

Thank you Mary.
It must be said that both Mary McAleese and Mary Robinson have done much to advance the rights of LGBT people in the republic.
Hopefully President Higgins will have the integrity to continue this trend. Already he has made gestures towards our community and fighting homophobia but the real test is whether or not he is willing to call out his own party on their sluggishness in legislating for marriage equality.

She was president – independent and without political agenda – she represents all of the views of all of the people – that is what a president does. She wasn’t the president of the LGBT club, she was president of Ireland.

@Mike

If she was allowed speak her views properly when she was President, the results of the Presidency could have been very different. The sooner this is sorted the better. Everyone has a right to live their lives, hopefully it will be sorted sooner than later.

While reading comments about equality I read you as being for equal rights. Then you went on to abuse someone about their religion. It blew my mind.
On the topic of gay marriage it’s safe to say not everyone agrees! To look for equality and not practice it won’t change their minds in fact it will probably turn people against you. I take your point about me seeming a hypocrite but I’m not the one preaching about equality.
Truce…..

Damian, no one here has called for religious people to be stripped of any of their rights, or for their families to be place in a situation where they may be broken up, this is not true of the anti-marriage equality lobby.
If someone was threatening to deny your family their rights with no good justification I doubt you’d remain civil.
They have the right to freedom of religion but that does not entitle them to be free of reasoned critism or questions about the purity of their motivations.

I accept the truce :)
However I have not used religion once to back my point of view. The only time I mentioned religion was to reply to someone who seemed to think its okay to be anti gay because he was not a Muslim. The hateful part of that comment was based on that posters many attacks on gay people in this and other topics.
Also, I think David has put into writing what I feel on the subject much better than I ever could.
Just so all my cards are on the table, I’m a straight man with 2 kids. I just feel strongly about equal rights. But that doesn’t mean everybody deserves respect. Some people on here have disgusting views which is why I sometimes get angry.

Apologies you’ve probably just come across it more than me.
I just think that unfortunately to get equality these days you don’t have to show that you’re equal, you have to show you are better.
It’s sad but true…

Just look at the cut of his comments after I stood up for him! But hey, what can you do?

Don’t think she did mike. To make a statement like that she would have had to get permission from the then government.

Agreed Kerry. If you follow some of the arguments she had with politicians & christian leaders you will see that she rubbed a number of them the wrong way.

it was mary robinson who represented norris.

I think one was his barrister and the other his solicitor.

Mary McAleese didn’t represent Norris in the European Courts – she initially worked with him on the Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform, before being replaced by Mary Robinson. McAleese had replaced Robinson as Reid Professor in Trinity, at the time and was working as a journalist for RTE.

Mike I cannot direct you to a media quote but can assure you this lady has done huge amounts behind the scenes with the help of her husband. Most of it without publicity. As an atheist this lady would have completely different & apposing views to my own & I would have no loyalty to her in that manner but this woman has been an exceptional president who worked hard in areas that did not benefit her personally.

Lets call a spade a spade here.
You want to stop good people from living a happy fulfilled life even though it doesn’t effect you in any way.
You may not be muslim, but you are a hateful idiot.

If your opposition to marriage equality is not religiously motivated, then I’d be very interested to hear your reasons for it because I’ve never heard an argument against marriage equality that wasn’t based on religion, the social darwinist “they can’t procreate” argument, hatred for LGBT people or the baseless accusation that it will somehow degrade marriage.
I don’t really expect a reply though, most opponents of marriage equality are in rather short supply of reason when it comes to justifying their position.

You morons would want to grow up. On one hand preaching tolerance of same sex marriage and on the other wrongly attacking someone’s religion based on their name and calling them hateful.
Tossers ……

So I’d take it then Damian that you have the same contempt for religious people who preach hatred against LGBT people but as soon as they’re called on it, they play the victim card and said “we’re being persicuted for our believes” because you can’t ,with integrity, condem the intolerance of one side while condoning the intolerance of the other.
Just out of curiosity Damian, what are your own views on marriage equality?

Yes Damien I would call them hateful. What would you call someone actively trying to stop other people from being happy even though they are hurting nobody else?
Also the double standards you have shown in your post made me laugh.
You really are clueless. I pity your children.

At least he’ll have some! Ooooooohhhh!

If 2 people love each other and want to spend their lives together then the law shouldn’t stop them. We are all people.
Now the problem I have is you idiots preaching equality but hammering anyone with different views/religions etc. Bringing a persons family into it is a different matter entirely.
You truly are an enlightened duo.

It’s not in the spirit in which the constitution was originally written but we have a living constitution and since the establishment of the republic no one has felt the need to state that marriage was only between a man and a woman in the constitution.
The word of the constitution does not state that marriage is only between a man and a woman and the word of the constitution is what matters in constitutional law. I would in fact argue that the state is failing in its constitutional requirement to recognise and protect families by not introducing marriage equality to protect LGBT lead families.
Frankly, the state should legislate for marriage equality now and then later on add constitutional protections to it in a referendum.

Mohammad, keep your ill-informed assumptions to yourself. We’re not bound by the definitions in the Qur’an.

You think LGBT marriage is gonna divide the country?
Wow, we haz teh powerz!

At no point in the constitution does it say that marriage is only between a man and a woman and while you can argue that it is not in the spirit of the constitution, in the supreme court, it is the word of the constitution that matters. The government could legislate for marriage equality tomorrow if they wanted to.
Even if it did come to a vote, most polls have shown the majority of Irish people to be supportive of marriage equality.
And frankly Paddy, if you’re against marriage equality, have the courage of your convictions to say so.

Paddy, as I’ve mentioned in another thread this morning, a Red C poll last January found 73% of voters would like to see same-sex marriage recognised by the constitution.

Valid point Paddy. However there seems to bea confidence that attitudes have changed quiet a bit in regards to this matter. It would show the thinking & mindset of this country in different light. It would demonstrate our openess & scare off people with extreme views.

Paddy. for Ireland to rush into same sex marriage we would need a time machine.

Do you have any any evidence of this Mohammed? You are not becoming a second class citizen by being required to treat LGBT with tolerance and allow our families to be protected by the state.
The gay agenda is the same as the straight agenda, protection for ourselves, protection for our families, protection for our youth.

@Mohammed Yaya

What are you going on about? If it’s a case that two lesbians/gays want to adopt or foster, they’ll bring them up to the best of their ability. They will teach them right from wrong, not to judge, to love, and to work hard, just like most heterosexual couples.

There are many same sex couples bringing up children for years. They grow up to be wonderful people, heterosexual and gay. One example is the couple in Wicklow with two sons. They brought them up, educated them, went to university and are heterosexual. The human race won’t disappear because Governments of the day have passed a law saying that gays can marry. There’s only three ways the human race will disappear. 1. Decease, 2. Meteor and 3. One large rich country with atomic distruction/bombs that will go just too far and will kill us all, eventually. They in another million years we’ll be back, just the way we started before, from the ground.

Mohammed I don’t think you actually addressed any of David’s questions there?

And the most unrealistic sensationalist comment of the day goes to Mohammad! And I thought Grainne Ryan was ludicrous!