South Africa’s highest court today ruled it is unconstitutional to prevent gay people from marrying, paving the way for the country to become the first to legalise same-sex unions on a continent where homosexuality remains largely taboo.

KATE O’REGAN, like many on the no side, confuses the issue being addressed by this referendum (Irish Examiner Letters, June 7).

In the 1970s and ’80s, Irish people were fleeing this country in their droves to seek a better standard of living abroad.