Sharp differences between delegates emerged during the ardfheis debate on the marriage equality referendum. Dublin delegate Peter Soden claimed Fianna Fáil was being dictated to by "global corporations in the IT industry'' and by Twitter.

He said the party was going for the “pink vote’’ to win the next election.

“They believe social conservatives have nowhere to go,’’ he added. “Well, social conservatives, when dissatisfied with a policy like this, will abstain from this party.’’

Opening the debate, party justice spokesman Niall Collins said, for him, it was an issue of equality.

“We are a progressive republican party with a long, proud and progressive track record in promoting equality,’’ he added.

Rash decisions

Mr Collins was followed by other speakers advocating a Yes vote, including former minister

Pat Carey

, who recently revealed he was gay.

Mr Carey said he was not somebody who made rash decisions. “It took me all of 65-and- a-bit years to summon up the courage and the confidence to talk about my own sexuality,’’ he added.

He said the referendum was a marvellous opportunity for Fianna Fáil to proclaim its true republican credentials.

“I am sick, sore and tired of hearing republicanism being about bombs and bullets,’’ Mr Carey added. “It is about liberty, freedom to associate, freedom of speech, equality.’’

Meath delegate Austin O’Driscoll claimed the debate had been “weighted from the top table’’. He believed, he said, a child had a right to a father and mother and to grow up and mature in their presence.

He added very powerful groups were attempting to bring about the social change. He said he wanted compassion and apologised to anybody who suffered from discrimination because of their sexuality.

Mr O’Driscoll said he did not believe in equality between different realities. “The union between two men and two women is not the same as the union between a man and a woman,’’ he added.

Senator Averil Power said the panel of speakers chosen to open the debate were in favour of a Yes vote because delegates had agreed to support marriage equality at a previous ardfheis.

Emma Murphy from Dublin said as a gay person she had observed her father, a typical Dubliner, challenging the views of the No campaign.

He had said, she added, that he had not raised any second- class citizens among his six children, adding that, unlike his other five children, his daughter could not marry.

Canvass

“That is why my father will go out and canvass his friends, colleagues and family,’’ she added.

Fianna Fáil legal adviser Cllr Jim O'Callaghan said he could not see an intellectual argument opposing marriage between people of the same sex.

Dublin delegate Edward Keane said he approached the issue with an open mind. "I find myself in the very uncomfortable position of being at odds with party policy,'' he added.

He said he did not believe that the fallout from a Yes result had been properly teased out.