Stars come out with Gabriel to call for Yes vote on gay marriage
HOLLYWOOD actor Gabriel Byrne joined a coterie of stars yesterday at an event to call for a Yes vote in the same-sex marriage referendum.
The Quirke star was accompanied by an array of celebrities including comedian Oliver Callan at the Abbey Theatre for the Noble Call For Marriage Equality event.
Newlywed Byrne spoke of the importance of the upcoming referendum, taking place on May 22, and said he would be ‘massively disappointed if it doesn’t pass’.
The Dubliner, who splits his time
‘Beaten to death because he was gay’
between New York and Los Angeles, said human beings deserved the right to happiness in love and described the argument that children should have parents of both sexes as ‘a complete diversion’.
‘I would be massively disappointed if it doesn’t pass,’ he told the Irish Daily Mail. ‘Not only would it send a terrible message to everyone working here today but it would send a terrible message to every other minority group in Ireland.
‘I don’t think we should be jumping up and down and patting ourselves on the back [if the Yes vote passes] for what is a human right, but I hope it would lead to the consideration of other minorities.’
Byrne, 65, said that the death of Declan Flynn in 1982 had struck a chord with him.
‘Just before I left Ireland in 1982 there was a killing in Fairview Park. A man called Declan Flynn was beaten to death and choked on his own blood and it was a homophobic attack. The people who committed the crime were brought to trial but the judge said in the circumstances it could not be perceived as murder and imposed suspended sentences for manslaughter.
‘That had a huge impact on me – the only reason that man was beaten to death was because he was a homosexual. It’s hard to believe homosexuality was only decriminalised in 1993. That means you were a criminal because of how you felt and who you loved.’
RTÉ star Callan, meanwhile, who came out as gay on Brendan O’Connor’s Saturday Night Show in 2011, is publicly campaigning for a Yes vote despite RTÉ’s neutrality guidelines.
‘Technically I’m not allowed to do this, but I’m not allowed to do a lot of things and I continue to do them anyway in spite of my job with RTÉ,’ he said. ‘RTÉ were good enough to give me a platform to come out, so I don’t think it will be raising many eyebrows.
‘We’re off the air for the actual referendum day, so we’ve taken the gamble that because I’m off for those couple of weeks I’m technically not in RTÉ for that period.’
Other speakers at the Abbey Theatre event included author Roddy Doyle, former Fianna Fáil politician Pat Carey and Love/Hate stars Peter Coonan and Susan Loughnane.