Irish Gay Marriage Vote Stirs A Storm

After the Belfact City Council voted for same-sex marriage last Monday evening, with 38 councillors for, 13 against and two abstentions, there has been an eruption of sorts everywhere. The Alliance councilor, Emmet McDonough-Brown, voted for it, according to bbc.

Catholic primate Archbishop Eamon Martin has said the Catholic Church felt a sense of "bereavement" following the result of the same-sex marriage referendum. The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, called the result of the Irish same-sex marriage equality referendum a "defeat for humanity", according to irishtimes.

Even in the rest of the world, there has been some backlash. "Now I love the Irish, the parliament is full of Irish men but these are people who can't grow potatoes, they've got a mutant lawn weed as their national symbol and they can't verbalise the difference between tree and the number three. But, and then all of a sudden, Australia has to follow suit," said Grahame Morris, former chief of staff for Liberal Party politician. He added that Australians were not ready for the referendum and it would be a divisive issue, according to irishtimes.

Earlier in May, the Republic of Ireland had voted overwhelmingly in favour of same-sex marriage. But it was in April that the Northern Ireland Assembly rejected a proposal that called for a gay marriage, after it debated the issue four times.

Totally, 96 MLAs were part of the vote, while 49 voted against the Sinn Féin motion calling for civil marriage equality for all, while 47 were in favour.

The religious right-wing Irish are deeply disturbed, slamming it as irreligious, unnatural and immoral. The herald-review said that "there is no possible way for same-sex unions to perpetuate human existence."