Charles Flanagan TD. is a Fine Gael TD from very conservative stock. He’s not very much like his father though. An extract from his speech during the motion to reintroduce the Labour Party’s Civil Union Bill is something worth noting.

I recently attended the funeral of a single man in my constituency. His relatives, brothers and sisters organised the event from start to finish. They engaged in all the work involved, from the removal to the church to the post-funeral refreshments. The removal was not from the house of the deceased, where he died, but from the family home where he had not resided for many years.

It was a sad spectacle to see the long-term friend and partner of the deceased in a seat in the side aisle of the church, relegated to the status of a bystander at the funeral ceremony and last rites for his long-term partner. He cut a lonely figure away from the main event, consigned to the shadows. That is indicative of the shadows to which many persons in the gay community have been consigned by the Government over the years. Had this legislation been law, the man would at least have been accorded the decency and dignity of the status that is currently denied to him.

I’ve been to some funerals like this and myself have had nightmares about being sat in the side aisle. Can’t help thinking that a mere register of domestic partnerships at some agency well tucked away from public view or discourse will probably keep me in the nightmare.

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