This morning on Newstalk’s The Pat Kenny Show, Iona Institute director David Quinn and Amnesty International Ireland director Colm O’Gorman were in studio for a heated debate about same-sex marriage.

The discussion also touched upon the announcement of Health Minister Leo Varadkar that he is a gay man during a radio interview yesterday morning. You can listen back to the debate here: bit.ly/1CrITIK

A debate on a matter as sensitive to this always attracts a lot of attention and generates differing viewpoints. Shane Coleman, sitting in for Pat Kenny this morning, read out a number of texts and tweets, but here are some of the others reflecting how listeners reacted to the points made:

• I'm a married heterosexual man with four children, before I listened to the debate on gay marriage , I was voting for Gay marriage but now I will vote against it. With my four children there are things that my children do with me that they wouldn't do with their mother, e.g football, cutting wood etc. and vice-versa with their mother, they go shopping , cooking etc with their mother. So I do think there is a need in a child's life for A Father And a Mother. From Mick in Mallow.

 

Imagine being able to find an argument against two human beings who love each other getting married - and believe it. Impressive! #ntfm

— Garvan Grant (@garvangrant) January 19, 2015

 

• A great debate on same sex marriage. I'm a parent of two kids, boy and girl. While I strive to be the best dad/parent I can be I acknowledge that my wife provides a different parental function than I can. However, I put that down to her having a different personality to me, not down to her gender. The idea that male and female couples always provide a superior parenting environment is ludicrous. Stuart

 

• the facts are that every single person in the world needs a sperm & an egg to be born,which means every single person since the beginning if time has had a mother & a father.of course not everybody grows up with a mother & a father but to deny a childs natural right to its mother & father is a selfish attack on the childs well being.lucia & William

 

• I am a single father of three beautiful as strong children. I believe I can be both nurturing and fair and give discipline without any need for a partner. The kids are happy and secure and expressive and confident. I completely dismiss any notion that a woman being involved would be better for them. And I am offended to hear David that my family is not as important or as "preferable" to the man and woman scenario. Abuse happens in man and woman relationships everywhere. Every relationship is different and the sex or orientation of the parents is irrelevant. Martin

 

Society doesn't blink if 16-yr-old has 4th child by 4th man, but same-sex parenthood by committed, loving couples is an issue? #marref #ntfm

— Lucy Moylan (@lucymoylan) January 19, 2015

• The great social experiment by progressives is homosexual marriage. Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it. Paul

 

• Nearly switched channels when i heard david quinn would be on. Wish i had. I'm a catholic and a mum and work as a theologian. David's argument badly flawed and based on prejudice. Anne

 

• Mr. O'Gorman and his superiority complex. Seems to think gender is a social construct rather than a natural part of nature and science. Emotions do not overtake nature. Paul

 

• As a foster parent to two children. I can tell you for a fact that flesh and blood links can be poisonous and detrimental. Using blood links as a basis for law creates an awful situation for thousands of kids today who are left in limbo by a state that protects the rights of negligent parents. Capable Gay parents for those kids would be far superior to be ridiculous state that the Iona group supports. Tim in Rush

 

If gender difference was fundamental to parenting, children of same-sex would be non-functional - clearly not the case #ntfm #patkennynt

— Joseph Benkanoun (@jsphbnkn) January 19, 2015

 

• Hi Shane, great discussion really well moderated. Colm has said he doesn't want to go down the Rabbit Hole of talking about the unique value of a child's biological mother and father. That trivialises the uniqueness of your OWN parents and NO adult should be allowed to break that bond from day 1. Brendan Conroy

 

• I am adopted and would love to know my natural parents - but my REAL parents area adoptive parents. Therefore a child in a LBGT family should be a rounded individual within their family - but have the right to know their natural parents. Nothing to do with same sex marriage! Catholic Church muddy in the waters.

 

• Would Colm O Gorman confine marriage to 2 people? If so why such discrimination? Brendan

Good parenting doesn't fall under what gender parents are. Plenty of highly disfunctional heterosexual parents who raise shitty kids. #ntfm

— Vicky McSweeney (@VictoriousssBIG) January 19, 2015