Parenthood key issue when considering gay marriage

Shaun Connolly (Jul 7) berates Enda Kenny quite rightly for fudging on such a key question as gay marriage.

However, he goes on to assume that the stance of Eamonn Gilmore that “gay marriage is the civil rights issue of our day” has support close to consensus and that polls show 75% of the people of this country supporting it. He implies that the jury is in on the issue and that the deliberations and recommendations of the Constitutional Convention whom he disparages as “66 randomly selected citizens and 33 politicians” is really neither necessary nor helpful.

As a campaigner for the cause of gay marriage, of course, he would prefer to rush through the necessary legislation on a stream of emotive rhetoric without allowing the full reality of what is being proposed to be either debated or held to critical scrutiny.