Mc Aleese support for Yes vote

13 Apr 2015

Yes - the kind of future we want for Ireland

Press Release; Yes Equality Campaign

Wednesday April 13: 1700 hours.

The Yes Equality Referendum Campaign today welcomes the statement of former President Mary McAleese that she and her husband, Senator Martin McAleese are supporting a Yes vote for civil marriage equality on May 22 next.

Speaking from Notre Dame in the United States, the former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese said the marriage equality referendum is a “human rights issue,”

Mrs McAleese added;

“It is a debate about children, people have been saying it’s about children – and we believe it to be about Ireland’s gay children and about their future and about the kind of future we want for Ireland. We want, in the words of the proclamation: ‘The children of a nation to be cherished equally’.

“The adult children, the children yet unborn, the gay children yet unborn – we want them to be born into a world where if they fall in love with someone they can express that love fully,” she added.

“I’m hoping very much, my husband and I are both hoping very much, that it will be passed,” she said.

“We believe it to be a human rights issue. We’ve been watching with great interest the debate as it’s been evolving in Ireland and the concerns that people have in and around it.

“We’ve been thinking about it for a very long time, a very, very long time, and contemplating it for a long time.

Mary McAleese and her husband Martin McAleese said that they believe that everyone should be able to “love someone for life” and have that love recognised “at the highest level of Irish society”.

Welcoming the statement, Grainne Healy, Co-Director of Yes Equality said;
“Just like many other fair minded Irish people, Mary McAleese, our former President has come on a journey of support to say Yes to marriage equality. She and her husband Martin have put a great deal of thought into supporting a Yes vote, and we encourage all Irish citizens to do likewise.”

For more information, contact:
Jeanne McDonagh 087 2469855 / Jeanne@yesequality.ie
Yvonne Judge 087 6624775 / Yvonne@yesequality.ie

Listen to Mary McAleese’s support for a Yes vote here.