Aengus to say ‘I do’ in Britain

RTÉ newsreader Aengus MacGrianna will jet to the UK to be legally married to his long-time partner Terry Gill — but they will first exchange vows in a humanist ceremony here.

The 49-year-old said the couple opted to wed in Britain because they wanted to be legally married as opposed to having a civil partnership in an Irish registry office.

But he said yesterday on The Ray D’Arcy Show that they will hold a humanist ceremony in Ireland for their family and friends next June.

“Marriage for me is the ultimate. It’s what I want for myself and our relationship,” he said.

“The legal basis will all be done in the UK in terms of marriage but we will have family and friends here — my parents are elderly — so no one will have to travel.”

But he said his British marriage won’t be recognised in Ireland unless the law is changed after the upcoming referendum in 2015.

He also said he believes he is too old to have a family with his partner but believes younger Irish gay couples now fully expect to have marriage and children in their lives.

“In terms of adoption I’m too old. I certainly gave it some thought in my late 30s but then it was not to be.”

He also told how he came out as gay to his family and friends when homosexuality was still criminalised in Ireland.

“[It was] about 1983/84. I was 20. I was quite young and it was a very different Ireland.

“But I decided it was the way I knew it was going to be and the only way was to be honest about it. I didn’t like lying and the feeling of not being myself. I said it at home and I said it quite quickly to my friends and the whole of Raheny knew straight away.”