Some 43 years ago, the killing of Declan Flynn shocked Ireland. There were thousands who marched through Dublin afterwards to refuse to accept violence against gay people. I speak today as a gay man and I am proud of the history and of the rights the gay and lesbian community has won over those years. That violence did not end in 1982. In 2022, Aidan Moffitt and Michael Snee were tragically murdered in County Sligo, because they were gay men. Their deaths are proof that hatred towards this community is not a thing of history but is indeed something of present tense. I raise this not for sympathy but for honesty about this movement and what it was built to fight. That is exactly why I will say what many gay, lesbian and bisexual men and women say privately and that many in this House are too afraid to say plainly, that is, this movement has been hijacked. It no longer speaks for the people who built it or the people who are still at risk. We are told to make room and redefine same-sex attraction to fold into the ever-expanding list of letters that has grown so broad it has become meaningless. Does anyone in this House know at this stage what the plus even means or stands for any more? That is not progress. To my mind, that is erasure dressed up as inclusion. I want to be direct about the flying of flags. I truly believe that one flag should belong to all our State buildings and local authority buildings in this country and should be flown for 365 days per year. That is the Tricolour. It belongs to every citizen regardless of their sexuality, religion or political belief. State buildings should be there to unite the citizens. They should not be there to divide for competitive identity groups, each waiting for its day, week, month or turn. I remind this House that men and women died for that flag; they died in 1916. They died afterwards fighting for the right to fly that flag for a free Ireland, the flag that draped the coffins of Irish patriots and servicemen in the Defence Forces alike. They did not die so that a sitting Member of the Upper House of the Oireachtas could stand up generations later and call it a source of terror. That is not just an insult to me; it is an insult to every Member and every family who buried someone under that flag and called it a price worth paying. I will name the hypocrisy plainly. Senator Eileen Flynn told Seanad Éireann she feels terrified at the sight of the Tricolour. She is a public representative, paid for by this State and she said it in a State building that flies the flag every day. That is not principle; it is an insult to every citizen who has ever stood under that flag, and I will not pretend otherwise to keep the peace. The people who marched for Declan Flynn did not march so that gay men and women could become a Government photo opportunity once a year. They marched for freedom to live without fear, not for the right to be paraded out as proof of what seems to be a progressive country, as it claims to be. We must not let their courage be reduced to press releases or photo opportunities. Their courage was not given so it could be borrowed by other people with other agendas. Lesbians, gays and bisexuals are citizens of this Republic, not props for other political uses. They marched once and, let me remind the House, they did not march so their fight could be handed over to others who shout the loudest.

Sentiment score: -0.07