Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

When I picked up my post last week, it included an A4 brown envelope which had a black harp on the top of it. I opened it up wondering what legislation would be there for me to peruse and there it was, the Marriage Bill 2015. I was really delighted and could not even explain how I felt when I saw it. I was thrilled that it had come so quickly before Members and I commend the Minister, the Department and everyone involved on not delaying and on bringing it before Members today. It is a tremendous honour and a privilege to be present today to debate the Bill and to talk about one's experiences and one's hopes.

This was one of the most emotional campaigns in which I ever have been involved and the secret of the campaign's success was that so many people so bravely threw away their anonymity. As public representatives, it is one thing one loses and one does not really appreciate it until one has lost it. However, many people, in the interests of trying to achieve understanding, were prepared to leave to one side their anonymity and to come out and share their stories. This was a fundamental key to the success of the campaign. I was honoured and privileged to be involved in this and one of my most memorable days was when I put out the call for canvassers. We had such a mix of ages that it was fantastic. Three of the oldest canvassers were three men over 70 - I will not say what ages they are - but my daughter said to me that if anyone saw us, they would think we were the "No" campaign. However, it was wonderful to see those men out there standing side-by-side with teenagers and with people of my age. We were all at one purpose, which was to share what we all could have with everybody else, that is, access to full civil marriage. I also was reflecting on those who have gone before us, that is, people who were obliged to leave families, to go away and to leave the people and country they loved to try to forge lives for themselves elsewhere, where they could truly be themselves. It is with great sadness that one thinks back to a time, not that long ago, when people left their loving homes to try to build lives for themselves elsewhere where they felt they could be anonymous, where they could be who they are amid strangers. To me, that was the most tragic thing of all, that they could not be who they are with those who loved them and who they loved. They were obliged to go to strangers where they found a more welcoming embrace. That was tragic but now that is ended and in Ireland, people can be who they are.

However, I sincerely believe we still have a job of work to do in Ireland in terms of accepting people. I look back on people who still are experiencing homophobic attacks. Moreover, if one looks back not too long ago, that is, to the 1980s and 1990s, people were being murdered. I came across the case of a man, Charlie Self, who was a set designer in RTE and who was murdered in 1982 in his own apartment in a homophobic attack. No one has ever been brought to justice for his murder. Again, Declan Flynn was murdered in 1983 simply because he was gay and in 1999, an American writer, Robert Drake, was left with brain damage, having been assaulted in a homophobic attack. To this day, there are many people who are well known on television screens but who, when out and about, have experienced horrendous homophobic attacks. We must talk to our young people and, in particular, I think, our young men because one thing I noticed in the campaign was a lot of the negativity came from men. They need to think about themselves and why it should be that they perceive there to be a threat in people being different. I am only on the outside looking in but I listened carefully to my colleague, Deputy Buttimer, and to the heartwarming speeches that he made over the course of the campaign, as well as to Deputies Nolan and Lyons and all the people who shared their hearts with us all. We can try to be more compassionate as a society and try to get young people to see that we are all different.

That is wonderful because it is what makes us all so interesting. We are also all the same in a lot of ways. There is a generation for whom being gay is not a big deal. As far as young people are concerned, particularly those whom I know, being gay is not what distinguishes people. However, a core of negativity remains, in respect of which we must be always on our guard.

I want to acknowledge everybody who was involved in the campaign, including my own colleagues, members of the Fine Gael LGBT group. I acknowledge also the foresightedness of the Yes Equality campaign, including GLEN, Marriage Equality and ICCL, in coming together and figuring out that if they worked together on this they would succeed. In terms of the cross-society support for this campaign it is important to reference the other members of it, including BeLonGTo, Doctors for Yes, EPIC, Face-to-Face, Faith in Marriage Equality, GAZE LGBT Film Festival, GCN, Stand Together Congress, IMPACT, the INMO, Lawyers for Yes, Librarians for Yes, Mayors for Yes, Men's Development Network, National LGBT Federation, the Irish Immigrant Support Network, the Women's Council of Ireland, TCD Students Union, UCD Students Union, Teachers for Marriage Equality, USI, Yes Equality 2015, VoteWithUs and the Outmost. All of those organisations, people across the country and all of the political parties came together to achieve what many of us take for granted. It has been one of the most enriching experiences of my life in politics and I have been in politics a long time.

I sincerely hope that this will be a catalyst for a more understanding and inclusive society because, as others referenced earlier, there are other people in our society that we now must look to support, including, for example, the people involved in Transgender Equality Network Ireland, TENI and what it is trying to achieve in terms of their taking place in society as equal citizens.

I am delighted that we are debating this Bill. I am so proud to have met many marvellous people who worked together. There was no grandstanding and nobody was being vainglorious about this. It was about achieving something spectacular for our society which, I believe, we achieved on 22 May.

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