No love lost in run-up to marriage referendum

No love lost in run-up to marriage referendum


Outcome could be a barometer for FG in Mayo

Áine Ryan

AS ‘No’ campaigners convened in Castlebar last night (Monday) to challenge the ‘dictatorial’ attitude of ‘the political elite’, the outcome of Friday’s referendum on same-sex marriage could prove to be a real litmus test of Enda Kenny’s leadership nationally. Crucially, it could also prove a barometer for Fine Gael’s popularity in Mayo, ahead of next year’s General Election. 
Speaking to The Mayo News last night, meeting organiser Mr Liam Sadler said ‘the politics is immaterial’ to him. He explained that last night’s meeting of ‘a network of different groups’ opposed to same-sex marriage, including the group Mothers and Fathers Matter.
“We are a small independent group fighting Fine Gael, Fianna FΡil, Labour and Sinn Féin. We are fighting political elite, none of whom put anything about same-sex marriage in their last general election manifestos,” Mr Sadler said.  
He said the enactment of the Civil Partnership legislation in 2010 was not a problem for the group, because ‘the law is the law’ and it could be challenged.
“However, changing the Constitution means that all Irish people must accept this, no matter what their religion or beliefs are,” Mr Sadler said.  
He criticised the Government’s refusal to include a ‘conscience clause’ in the proposed amendment as being ‘dictatorial’, likening it to the expulsion of former Fine Gael Deputy Lucinda Creighton’s for her moral reservations about the abortion legislation.
 
Politics, religion, reality
WHILE last night’s meeting may not have been concerned with party politics, the outcome of the marriage referendum will – directly and indirectly – say a lot about the current political landscape.
With all the political parties on a General Election footing, nowhere will the mood-music of the people be more closely watched than in County Mayo, the home turf of Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
He has nailed his colours to the mast on this subject, further confirming a Church-State split that even ten years ago could not have been envisaged as part of Fine Gael’s ideology.  
“By voting ‘Yes’, we will ensure that all couples can share the benefits of civil marriage, regardless of their gender. We will ensure that people will be treated equally, no matter who they love. We will acknowledge that same-sex couples, like other couples deserve the equal right to commit to each other with the words, ‘I do’,” says Enda Kenny in an opinion piece in today’s Mayo News (page 28).   
However, for the religious leader of the diocese, Archbishop Michael Neary, the Catholic Church’s ‘No’ position on the marriage referendum is neither ‘conservative’ or ‘inhibiting genuine progress’. Rather, it is ‘entirely positive’.
“We are not being mean-spirited towards those who have same-sex attractions. On the contrary, we regard marriage as the central and crucial social relationship, which is of natural law and plays an indispensable part in human life. This is seen nowhere more than in pro-creation and the parenting of children,” Dr Neary said at Masses throughout the diocese, earlier this month.
And then there are those citizens who will be directly affected by this outcome. For one gay Newport man, Francis Chambers, the right to marry his longterm partner, is a fundamental one. Civil partnership is not enough, he says.
“That day (the civil partnership ceremony) was very special to us, and it was a day of love and celebration, but there are a lot of rights and protections from marriage that we do not have under civil partnership,” Mr Chambers tells The Mayo News.

The ‘other referendum’  
IT may have been lost in translation and been sidelined by the passion of the debate on same-sex marriage, but on Friday next, citizens will also be asked whether they want the eligibility age for the office of President to be reduced from 35 to 21. The lowering of the eligibility age  was among a large number of recommendations made by the Convention on the Constitution, which was set up to review Bunreacht na hÉireann.
The principal argument advanced was that 35 was too high an age for eligibility, given that the voting age is 18 and the age at which a person becomes eligible to become a TD or senator is 21. The Irish people are being asked to vote on a simple change to the wording of Article 12.4.1: “Every citizen who has reached the age of twenty-one years is eligible for election to the office of President.”
Currently, citizens in the European countries of Croatia, Finland, France and Slovenia are entitled to elect an 18-year-old president.

Click here for our six-page marriage referendum special