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FINE GAEL SENATOR Eamonn Coghlan has delivered a passionate call for a Yes vote in the same-sex marriage referendum and revealed his own struggle with coming to terms with his son’s sexuality.
The former World Champion runner spoke about the difficulties his son Michael faced as a result of being gay in a speech to a Fine Gael LGBT public information meeting tonight.
“When I discovered my son, Michael was gay I was devastated. I cried for weeks. The hopes and dreams I had for my son were shattered. I felt guilty, almost as if I was to blame for him being gay,” Coghlan told the audience in Portlaoise.
I tried to cover up my disappointment. While I hugged him, told him I loved him, I had to come to terms that, it was not about me but, about him and his life ahead.
He said the breakthrough came when some of Michael’s friends, who are also gay, joined a family holiday in Spain.
But Coghlan said that his son was subjected to abuse and, on two occasions, violent physical attacks in Dublin.
“I got to know them and see how happy he was with his mates. Michael is a grown man now but he suffered awful bullying in school. At the time we didn’t know why this was happening but after he came out it became apparent that it was because he was gay.
“He had also suffered from terrible stomach problems as a teen which we could never get diagnosed. It transcribed that this was all anxiety related because of the struggle he had with knowing he was gay and the bullying he was being subjected to.”
The abuse didn’t stop after he came out. He was subject to two particularly violent physical attacks in Dublin on account of his being gay.
Coghlan delivered a powerful endorsement of the referendum in 22 May, saying: “I was lucky enough to marry the woman of my dreams. Who are we as a nation to deny our sons and daughters the basic right of marrying the person they love?”
He also said:
It is clear to me as a parent of a gay child that the marriage equality Referendum is about voting for real people and their lives. It is not about politics or about voting for a particular party.
It is about equality, removing rejection, removing exclusion, removing the guilt, shame and fear that gay people experience. We have to think of the person, their dignity, their validation, their human freedom to love and to live life to the full.
Michael Coghlan, 27, was not at the meeting tonight and is currently living in California.
The meeting in Portlaoise is part of a series of public information events that Fine Gael LGBT has organised around the country ahead of the referendum.
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According to Irish politicians they must be far right protestors……… actually I take it back. I don’t want to get arrested for hate speech.
@Rees:
Rid yourself of all hate so….relent, repent and digitally detoxify…. burn all remaining copies of the Irish Lite and refrain from Gript, Guttr and Terrorgram etc etc! ;@}
@Rees: Sorry to have to tell you this, but football ultras in Poland are infamously far-right.
@Rees: According to factuality, it will be a large cohort of the far-right. As for hate speech, I hate the far-right and
@Rees: they are….
@Rees: that was shite Rees.
@Stephen McGovern: I’m far right but don’t act like that
@Shane O Mac: fair play to you for being honest and not pretending to be insulted by the characterisation.
Whatever about police and fans being injured, it’s their choice. I hate to read that police horses and dogs were injured.
@Davidoff Wossaname: the police chose to get injured. How u work that out Davidoff. Weird.
@John Flanagan: No, what he means is “as a human” you have some amount of free will. The animals don’t, they are forced into doing the job and have NO choice!
Surely it’s now time to stop saying “X, formerly Twitter”
@Ian McDonald: What will happen if becomes Y?
In all fairness the British supporters really know how to support their teams. Wreck your cities , injury animal and police officers. Beat the daylight out of the opponents supporters. The beautiful game.
Tremendous family sport. Laying down a template for future generations to enjoy and continue in this way. Model citizens of past , present and future. They should be so proud of themselves and their achievements.
Well done guys.
@Max Cooper:
Except they normally get their prolapsed arses handed to them amidst the outdoor furniture and their blow-up spitfires etc, in 2016 at Marseille etc they were hand-balled around by Putin’s ‘firm’ …..and then hid in Poland etc in 2018 and only day-tripped in and out of Russia in terror of being splattered yet again!! ;@)
@Max Cooper: Seriously did you even read the article, or you just immediately attributed the trouble to English supporters. This trouble was purely caused by Legia Warsaw fans, maybe it’s time you realised that it’s not the 1980s anymore, and most football hooliganism these days is caused by European supporters. Funnily enough there was very little mention on this site of the abuse Celtic supporters received from Lazio fans on Tuesday night, calling them dirty fenians, to get over the famine etc., had it been English fans the whole country would have risen up in fake moral outrage.
@The Firestarter: had me aunty got balls and all that
Animals should not be brought into these kind of atmosphere’s.
@David: Nor peaceful humans.
Cmon the villa
There’s no excuse for this sort of carry on but the root cause of the riot need to be determined and properly punished. What provoked them? Most of the away fans probably had nothing to do with it and had their whole trip ruined.
@F2yxfluD: Why assume something or anything provoked them?
@F2yxfluD: Legia fans pulled the same stunt against the Dutch police.
@F2yxfluD: I would spend even 5 minutes just researching polish hooligans, completely different breed
@Martin Mongan: not my field clearly
Can we call the Legia fans S___bags & thugs ???
Or would that be perceived as classist ???
Fans.
Quite evening in Aston so
Football fans, a good bunch of brainless oxygen waster. Just like Gaza.
It’s a well known fact that football hooligans are all Antifa
@michael powell: even the Italian ones?
have your say