As usual, the immediate reaction took place online, in the great democratic shouting match that is the Irish blogosphere.

Apart from the yells of "Judas" in the Green Party's direction, some interesting alternative viewpoints arose. Damien Mulley (www. mulley. net) wondered aloud what same-sex employee benefits Labour, Fine Gael, Sinn Fein and the Greens have for their staff considering they voted for the Civil Union Bill in February. "Healthcare, pension rights, you know, that kind of thing. Whatever the partner of a married staff member gets, I assume they cater for the samesex partner of a staff member too. I am positive they do, leading by example and all that. Right?"

Coming under the most fire is Green Party TD Ciaran Cuffe, also known as 'Cuffe Daddy', such is his down-wit-da-kidz attitude.

Cuffe was previously a friend of the average Joe Blogger, since he has a blog himself, the sharply titled 'Cuffe Street' (http: //cuffestreet. blogspot. com) where he ignored the issue this week, instead uploading a photo of himself holding a new local newspaper in Sandycove. "I was being photographed at one of my five favourite places in Dun Laoghaire, " he wrote. "To find out the other four, and to see which building I want to plant a bomb under, you'll just have to buy your copy of the next issue!"

Suzy Byrne (www. mamanpoulet. com) led the way in detailing Cuffe's cop-out: "I wonder how the lesbian and gay members of the Green Party are feeling this morning . . . there are quite a few of them, some of very long standing, others quite new, " she blogged on Thursday. "I know how many Green Party voters are feeling . . . their ire is all through lesbian and gay message boards and filling up the inboxes of Green Party TDs."

This time last year, Cuffe posted a nice shiny picture of himself, Eamon Ryan and Trevor Sargent on his blog holding a banner that read 'USI LGBT Campaign' in front of the Dail in an attempt to show his alleged support for the Zappone-Gilligan court action to have their Canadian marriage recognised in Ireland. "It's all about equality, " Cuffe Daddy wrote, outlining that it was his goal to provide legal rights for co-habiting couples, to put in place a register of civil partnership for those who wish to have the state recognise their relationship, and to have the state recognise civil marriage between same-sex couples.

Of course, Cuffe Daddy has his way now, wot wit being in gov`ernment and all, so you can imagine the delight with which around 10% of our population (the gay part) greeted the ascension of his party into office, ready to represent those views he clearly and enthusiastically trumpeted. But then, well, we all know what happened next.

Some call the succession of meek little rollovers the Green Party have clocked up since they joined government "practical politics", arguing that a coalition government is all about "compromise".

Well, there's compromise and then there's reneging on every principal and ideal you ever presented to the public as a core belief. Power has corrupted the Greens to the extent they have become empty vessels for Fianna Fail to fill with whatever "practical" crap they want to.

And while the Green Party attempted to spin what happened this week as some kind of great victory, it's plain to see there hasn't been a bigger sell out since Chumbawamba signed to EMI.

Worst of all (well, for me anyway) is that I voted for Cuffe Daddy. Naively, I believed in what he said, I thought he was, you know, cool. As did the rest of my family in the Dun LaoghaireRathdown constituency. Although I almost can't help but feel sorry for Cuffe Daddy every time he gets accosted by my mother down the town for selling out. Almost.

The real objection to gay marriage can be dressed up in all sorts of banter about the proper legislation and concerns and calls to take things slowly.

Clearly, gay marriage won't be introduced without a referendum. But the actual reason is discomfort. Heterosexual people who aren't entirely cool with two women or two men committing to a lifetime together would prefer to have it banned rather than sacrifice their own personal comfort. This is of course a homophobic reaction.

Homophobia is the apartheid of our time, and the denial of basic rights to a large proportion of our society based on something as personal and unchangeable as sexuality is a symptom of our national homophobia.

The concern for the preservation of 'the family' (although, what is 'the family' in Ireland anymore, with one third of all children born to single parents and divorce and separation rates rising acutely every year? ) is the primary veil with which people clad themselves in a final protest against gay marriage.

If a child is born to two parents of the same sex, we are encouraged to believe such a child will have some hideously different and traumatic life experience.

In reality, the main problems this child will face come not from the structure and make-up of their 'alternative' family, but from how a heterosexual world reacts to that family.

The ignorance and prejudice with which they would be greeted . . . in a country where 'gay' is a playground slag for everything from a dodgy haircut to a naff school bag or a rubbish shot at goal . . . is intensely more damaging than their presumably loving family background could ever be.