Madam, - Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan said recently that a referendum on gay marriage would be "divisive and unsuccessful". A more honest statement might have been that Fianna Fáil is opposed to such a proposal.
In the current climate of supposedly consensus politics, referendums are often decried as "divisive" by members of the political establishment. They are certainly divisive to the extent that not everyone who casts a vote will agree with the outcome, but this is no different from elections, which we do not curtail because of their divisiveness. On Mr Lenihan's rationale, the very slight margin by which the divorce referendum was carried in 1995 and the heightened feelings produced by it should have prevented the amendment being put to the people.
It is trite, but necessary, to say that democracy is contingent on dialogue and debate. A referendum is a litmus test of public opinion, informed by public debate. In contemporary Ireland, one of the issues on which public opinion should be sought is gay marriage. The ensuing debate could serve to emphasise and develop the concept of civil marriage in a pluralist society, defined by the people rather than by religious interests.
Civil marriage as found in the Constitution should be available to all citizens as a corollary of human equality. The parameters and regulation of religious marriage are a matter for the religions concerned.
It is noteworthy too that in Mr Lenihan we have a latter-day de Valera - a man who need only look into his own heart to know what the people want. - Yours, etc,
MARK COEN, Tubber Road, Gort, Co Galway.