Considering all of the scandals the Irish Catholic Church has endured with priest abuses cases and the enslavement of women in convents, one would think that the Church authorities would realize how devalued their "righteous" opinions are to many.

Thankfully, the Church here has more or less lost all credibility with the many, many abuse and hypocrisy scandals that have hit it over the year.

Plus, Irish people are no longer poor, so they don't need to blame anyone for misfortune, thus the Catholic churches demagoguery won't really work.

The church speaks but all I hear is blah blah blah blah blah blah. Nobody expects the Catholic Church to ever, ever endorse same-sex marriage so just shut up already.

A pagan rite, stolen by the church, along with most of it's other rites, Easter bunnies? Yule tide etc.
The church is nothing more than a thief of other peoples ideas and property, most churches being built on top of old pagan sites.
Marriages were only ever held in churches because it was traditional to declare your joining before the community, and due to laws demanding that everybody attend church on pain of a fine, it was the easiest place to do it.
The church, priest and all that mumbo jumbo have been responsible for more death, pain and anguish over the last two thousand years than enough, it time these parasite on society were expunged from our mist.