Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I think we would all agree that 23 May last was a truly historic day for our country. The declaration by the people of Ireland that day was the first such popular vote anywhere in the world for marriage equality. It was a clear statement heard by the world that Ireland has progressed from a closed, judgmental and socially-regressive place to an open, accepting and progressive society. Minority groups living in Ireland saw this as a hugely positive act by the people of our country and it gave them great hope for the future that all sections of society and minority groups living in Ireland would be given an opportunity to play an equal and inclusive role in a new, modern and bright Ireland. I welcome this Bill, commend Senator Nash and his colleagues on bringing it forward. I also welcome the fact that the Minister of State has indicated Government support and that the House will not be divided - as I read - it at this stage.

Unfortunately, we must be upfront and truthful about the many wrongs that were carried out by this State against vulnerable and minority groups in the past. I could think of the women in Magdalen laundries, the women in Bethany Homes, children in industrial schools and people with disabilities. The list could go on and on. A group of our citizens that was treated disgracefully in the past is the group at which this Bill is aimed, namely, our homosexual and LGBT community. The Bill will strengthen and reinforce the abolition of previous apparent sexual offences such as buggery and offences against the persons, but we know today that these were never criminal acts. We know the offences outlined were discriminatory, contrary to human dignity and designedly alien to people's human rights. This treatment was wrong. It destroyed peoples' lives and was quite frankly abhorrent.

In 1895, one of Ireland's most celebrated wordsmiths, Oscar Wilde, was sentenced to two years' hard labour in England for the so-called crime of being a homosexual - for loving another man. It feels appropriate during this debate on this important Bill to read a few lines from Oscar Wilde's great poem and rebuke to the society that imprisoned him and criminalised him. I refer, of course, to "The Ballad of Reading Gaol". He stated in that incredible poem:

I know not whether Laws be right,

Or whether Laws be wrong;

All that we know who lie in gaol

Is that the wall is strong;

And that each day is like a year,

A year whose days are long.

But this I know, that every Law

That men have made for Man,

Since first Man took his brother's life,

And the sad world began,

But straws the wheat and saves the chaff

With a most evil fan.

This too I know—and wise it were

If each could know the same—

That every prison that men build

Is built with bricks of shame,

And bound with bars lest Christ should see

How men their brothers maim.

That poem still rings true today. It raises the hairs on the back of my neck. That was his incredible response in those dark days to the international global society, not just in Britain, that criminalised and condemned human beings because they loved another human of the same sex. The Bill deals with that legacy and seeks to ensure not one single Irish citizen will continue to carry a burden on his or her shoulders because of what happened in those dark days with the criminalisation by the State of the homosexual LGBT community, the only future for the vast majority of whose members was emigration. I presume the numbers of Irish citizens who were forced to move abroad or who suffered from mental health issues and died by suicide as a result of these laws are incalculable, but we must never allow a situation such as this to develop again.

What should happen now? A heartfelt State apology is an immediate necessity. We must also recognise that on a part of the island marriage equality is still not allowed. That is wrong and further proof of the need to push for a united Ireland. Citizens of the Six Counties are equally as deserving of the human right to marriage equality. All parties should support a demand for marriage equality in the North in the same way that the campaign was conducted here. It was an incredibly vibrant and positive campaign that was grassroots-led and lifted all of our hearts. I will never forget that incredible day in Dublin Castle.

Let me finish with a thought on which everybody should reflect. The ethnicity of Travellers has not been recognised, while refugees languish in direct provision centres with little hope of a change to the system. I spoke about learning lessons. I plead with the Government to ensure history is not repeated in the case of Travellers and refugees. In time the country will be judged on how we treated minorities and protected the most vulnerable. We need to deliver on the ideals of the Proclamation. We need to deliver a thirty-two county republic in which all citizens will be looked after equally.