Mary McAleese says next month's marriage equality referendum is about children - Ireland's gay children.
People against allowing same-sex couples to marry have claimed voting yes could have a negative impact on children in care, and that they will be forced to live with adoptive parents who are gay.
The former President has told Newstalk.com that same sex marriage is a "human rights issue", and she and her husband believe that everyone should be able to "love someone for life".
Mary McAleese says that everyone deserves to have their love recognised "at the highest level of Irish society", and she is "hoping very much, that it will be passed."
Reacting to claims the referendum is about children, the former President said “it is a debate about children, people have been saying it’s about children - and we believe it to be about Ireland’s gay children and about their future and about the kind of future we want for Ireland."
"We want, in the words of the proclamation: ‘The children of a nation to be cherished equally".
