Former President Mary McAleese last night called for a yes vote in the upcoming Same Sex Marriage Referendum, calling it a "human rights issue".

In an exclusive interview with the Right Hook, Mrs McAleese said the referendum is about the future of Ireland's children.

She told George Hook same-sex marriage is a "human rights issue", and she and her husband, Martin, believe that everyone should be able to "love someone for life" and have that love recognised "at the highest level of Irish society".

"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’.

Breda O'Brien, patron of the Iona Institute and Irish Times Columnist, spoke to Newstalk Breakfast about the Marriage Referendum.

She said: "There is no human right to same-sex marriage. Countries can decide to vote it in but it has been established by the European Court of Human Rights that there is no human right to it.

"I don't see it as a human right, I don't see the right of people... I do think that there are huge important human rights here, I think there is the right to gay people to respect for their relationships, I think there is the right of gay people to stand up in front of the friends and neighbours and say I do, as they do already in civil partnerships."

She also called on former President Mary McAleese to clarify her comments yesterday: "People have the right to vote... and they have a right to do that in freedom and in respect for their views.

"Mary McAleese has departed from the precedence set by Mary Robinson and President Hillary by intervening directly in matters of Irish policy, I presume she has a very good reason for doing so but I would like to call on her to clarify exactly what she meant in the implication that people who vote no are part of the architecture of homophobia.

Presenter Chris Donoghue said: "She didn't say that.

Breda responded: "What I am asking her is to withdraw the implication which is hanging there that in somehow if you vote no that you are part of the architecture of homophobia."

Chris Donoghue replied: "She didn't say that, you have taken that implication. She did not say those words."

Ms O'Brien: "I would like to ask her to clarify that that is not what she meant. I think that's reasonable given she's Iar-Uachtaráin na hÉireann, the former President of Ireland.

"I accept that she did not say directly that people who vote no are part of the architecture of homophobia, I would like to remove any implication that that is the case."

You can listen to the full interview here: