Mary McAleese: We must back marriage equality poll

Former president Mary McAleese has said Ireland owes it to people who were “pushed into the shadows” or died by suicide because of outdated views on homosexuality to back next month’s marriage equality referendum.

She made the remarks in a interview where she insisted the country must vote in favour of the May 22 vote if it wants to finally live up to its constitutional promise to cherish all children equally.

Her comments comes six weeks ahead of polling day, with the yes side showing a small lead in a number of recent national polls.

Speaking on Newstalk programme The Right Hook from Notre Dame University in Indiana, USA, where she is a visiting scholar on children’s rights, Ms McAleese, who was Irish president from 1997 to 2011, said it is time to allow all people to express their love openly regardless of their sexual preferences.

She said previous comments from former pope Benedict XVI that gay people were “intrinsically disordered” were made “in ignorance”, and that the best way for Ireland to pay its “great debt” to people who have suffered due to the views is to vote in favour of marriage equality.

“Many people have been forced into the shadows,” she said. “It’s a terrible thing for a young person who has grown up in the Church and been told they are loved absolutely, to be told at 15, 16, or 17 that all the language they have heard, particularly the homosexual language, applies to them.

“We have in Ireland a very serious problem of youth suicide, particularly of male suicide, and we know one of the most at-risk groups is the young male homosexual.

“I think we owe those children a huge debt as adults who have opportunities to make choices that impact their lives, choices that will allow their lives to grow organically, safely and give them the joy of being full citizens in their own country,” she said.

Married for almost 40 years, Ms McAleese said she and husband Martin believe everyone has the right to their love being recognised “at the highest level of Irish society”. She said this means the only involvement of children in the debate was “Ireland’s gay children and their future”.

Describing the Church’s attitude to homosexuality as “not so much the elephant in the room but a herd of elephants”, she said: “The sheer weight of medical evidence, psychiatric evidence now is challenging views formed, you could say, in ignorance, and I think they will change over time.”

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