Ireland's triumph

The fact that all of Ireland's main political parties supported gay marriage, and a number of opinion polls indicated the likely outcome, it still came as a profoundly moving moment when the Irish people voted for gay marriage and thereby rejected the admonitions of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, a hierarchy which has held sway in that troubled land for hundreds of years.

Perhaps centuries of being buggered by priests and tortured by nuns had something to do with it. I like to think so. The hypocrisy of these authority figures has been so great it has almost beggared belief, yet, it seems, it was all true. And now the ordinary people of Ireland have said no to the hypocrisy, no to the ignorant prejudice and no to the attempts of the catholic leaders to keep Ireland entrenched in the past, when their word was law.

There seems to be no good reason in my eyes why every country in the world where gay marriage (and indeed, homosexuality itself) is unlawful should not have a referendum of its own. I foresee problems, however. In much of central Africa, Uganda being a notable example, homosexuality is a crime attracting the death sentence, while armed gangs roam the streets, beating and murdering anyone they have decided is gay. And what do think IS, and its financial sponsors, Saudi Arabia, feel about the whole LGBT thing?

In India there are large sections of the male population who think it's OK to rape a woman. What happened in Ireland is evidence that, little by little, the world is moving forward to a better place. But let's face it people, it's got an awfully long way to go.